The Silver Question, as it is called, like the Land Question and the Labour Question, is really a group of several complex and difficult problems, and it would be absurd to attempt to give in an address of a popular kind an adequate account even of the main issues in the controversy. I have used the term popular with some trepidation, for after many attempts I doubt if it is possible—at any rate for me—to give even the semblance of popularity to the intricacies of the currency. In the whole subject there is, I believe, only one recognised joke, namely, that any considerable attention given to it is sure to end in lunacy, and a good many people imagine that this is not a joke at all, but a very solemn warning. Again, there is no scope for quoting little bits of poetry which are often so effective in popular discourses. The only lines I ever felt inclined to quote are those of the well-worn couplet—He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still.

There is no one so stubborn in opinion as the budding lunatic of currency. It is obvious that a problem which in some parts can be most clearly explained by the use of algebraic symbols will not readily lend itself to eloquence, and the statistics of foreign countries are not likely to arouse enthusiasm in the insular mind. In fact, a careful survey of the different devices for making an address popular leads to the conclusion that in currency only one is available. Being the only one, it has naturally been very widely adopted.