General Walker delivered last night the fourth lecture of his series on Bimetallism. His subject for the evening was: "France and the United States from the Close of the Eighteenth Century to the Gold Discoveries of 1848-1851." The lecturer first outlined the history of the relative changes in the value of gold and silver in France, showing that the act of 1808, which provided for the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 15.5 to 1, was successful in maintaining a stable monetary basis in Europe.

In America bimetallism has never had a fair trial, partly because of the small amount of specie in existence. The act of 1789, in making the ratio 15 to 1 enabled us to get cheap silver from Mexico and the Indies, but threw gold aside. It was underbidding the ratio which should have been upheld. Again the act of 1834, the "Gold Bill," as it was called, making the ratio 16 to 1, went to the other extreme and drove all the silver out of the country. The United States acting merely for itself, instead of joining forces with France, made it impossible to institute a sound international bimetallism.