In the House of Lords on Monday, Lord Northbrook called
attention to the hardship done by the closing of the Mints to those inhabitants of India who happened to own uncoined silver.
On June 25th, any man in India who owed his neighbour fifty vupees could at once, at a small cost, change his silver into rupees and pay his debt. On June 27th, however, after the Act was passed, the holder of raw silver of the weight of fifty rupees could not get fifty rupees for it, but could only obtain the price which it would fetch in the market." It had been .calculated by Mr. Balfour that in this way a loss of £200,000,000 had been incurred by the people of India. Lord Northbrook also pointed out the injury done to the Indian silver-trade by our barbarous regulations in regard to hall- marking. He wanted fair-play for silver. Lord Kimberley admitted the loss sustained by the holders of uncoined silver, and agreed that it was desirable that all obstacles to the free use of silver in other ways should be removed. " He shrank from expressing any decided opinion on so abstruse a question, but he had never been able to see any good or sound argument why voluntary hall-marking should not be substituted for the present system." That is common-sense.
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