The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-07 00:00:00

body in the land better than a merchant who was
poor yesterday, is rich to-day, and may be poor
again to morrow. Tnere is nothing, in I.ct, that
can be pulled down that cannot easily be set up
again, and if national bankruptcy is to ensue, let it
come. The Americans owe their in(:ney to one
another, and their debts and repudiations are a
family affair which it is scarcely the world's busi-
ness even to criticise. Such is the line of argument
adopted to rob repudiation of its terrors, and to re-
concile the minds of the people to a convulsion that
whatever evils it may bring in its train, will relieve
the next generation of the load of taxation which
it might otherwise have to bear in expiation of the
crimes and follies of the present. The men who
hold Government stocks, or have claims against the
State, do not use this language, but were their
stock sold and their claims paid, they would use it
as readily as others. American social and financial
life is at this moment a scramble. No one cares
who is ruined, so it be not himself. " Good angels
for the foremost ; the devil for the hindmost,"
is the maxim and the practice. No one who is now
making money thinks that he will be the victim
when the day of bankruptcy comes, and whoever
else may be the sufferer in not matter for his consi-
deration.
Yet the time of reckoning draws near. The irre-
pressible " piper" has to be paid, whatevermavyiebiet
the shifts and devices by which his unwelcome
mayle in-
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managed to propitiate him with great perseverance
ver, admitted mi. t t ecl the
pubverylic
success.
largelye hianst hisnot
th
o secrets.we
exceed-
ingly difficult for the most assiduous students
out
ts
atof
any
this
branch of contemporary history to make
time the true condition of the Treasury, its assets
or its liabilities. No financial Minister ever before
in any country wielded such power as Mr. Chase,
or was so little trammelled in its exercise by any-
thing but his own discretion. And it must be said
in his favour that, authorised as he has been by Con-
gress to issue almost fabulous amounts of paper
money, based upon nothing but a national taxation
not yet collected, the inevitable result of which was
to raise the premium on gold to a hundred or even
two hundred per cent., he has so manipulated his
issues as to keep the premium at' a moderate point.
Rather than flood the market with paper, though
fully empowered to do so, he has kept the army
without pay for six or eight months at a time, pre-
ferring to run the risk of exciting the value of the
paper dollar to 40 or 50 cent. On the Ist of this
month the sum of 100,000,000 dols. became due to the
military and naval service, bat it has not been paid
for the reason that such an amount of paper thrown
upon the market would send up the premium on gold
to a rate which might imperil other fiscal opera-
tions of the Government, or be otherwise injurious
to its credit. The great study of Mr. Chase is to
keep down the premium, and for this purpose he
has bethought himself of every imaginable expedi-
ent. He has crushed out the smaller fry
of speculators, he has surrounded transactions in
gold with every possible difficulty, and has, more-
over, contrived to keep a sufficient amount of the
metal in his own custody to revolutionise the
market at any moment, by means of his secret
agents, offering to sell in large amounts. He has
hitherto played his game with success. Unaided
by Federal victories he managed between the end
of February and the beginning of June to reduce
the premium from 76 to 45 ; and aided by the Fe-
deral victories of the last three weeks he has brought
it down to 25. It may even reach a still lower
point, if Charleston be taken ; but that he cannot
retain it at any minimum which his wishes may
prompt, is evident to any one who carefully studies
the present financial condition, as far as it is known,
or who calculates the liabilities that will fall due
within the next few months, and which he has no
means of meeting except by loans or large issues of
paper. The following official statement, published
yesterday, is Mr. Chase's own account of his posi-
tiOn up to the Ist instant :

INTEREST-BEARING DEBT.
Dols. Dols.
Four per Cent. Temporary Loan, coin 6,036,037
Pow per Cent. Temporary Loan.... 23,023,Z-8

28,069,295
Five per Cent. Temporary Loan.... 70,808,188
Five per Cent. Temporary Loan, coin 6,450
Five per Cent. Bonds, due 1865.... 3,461,000
Five per Cent. Bonds, due 1871.... 7,022,000
Five per Cent. Conds, due 1874.... 20,000,000
- 101,297,638
Six per Cent. Bonds, due 1868 ....18,323,591
Six per Cent. Bonds, due 1881 .... 69,547,800
Six per Cent. Bonds, due 1882....185,684,141
Si* per Cent. Treasury Notes .... 717,100
Sit per Cent, Certificates of Indebt-
edness 157,092,241
- 431,275,874
per Cent. Bonds, due Aug. 19,
1864
7.30 per Cent. Bonds, due Oct, 1, 1864 86,989,500
139,920,500

DEBT NOT BEARING INTEREST.
Dols.
Trleasury Notes past due .. 39,100
Dols.
Uuited States Notes 387,646,589
Less amount in Trea-
sury .. 22,157,088
376,498,500
Fractional currency

396,721,056

Total Debt, July 1, 1863, as exhibited by the
books of the Treasury Department
Total Debt, July 1, 1863, as estimated by the
Secretary in report of December, 1862

Actual Debt less than the estimated Debt by 25,023,037

RECAPITULATION.
Aggregate Debt at 4 per cent. interest
Aggregate Debt at 5 per cent. interest 101,297,638
Aggregate Debt at 6 pkr cent, interest 431,275,874
Aggregate Debt at 7.30 per cent. interest 139,920,500
Aggregate Debt without interest

Total Debt, July 1, 1863, as exhibited by the
books of the Treasury Department ..
Total Debt, July 1, 1863, as estimated by the
Secretary in report of December, 1862

Aotual Debt less than the estimated Debt .. 25,023,037
An investigation of this document shows the in-
terest-bearing debt to amount to upwards of
700,000,000 dols.—at rates varying between 4 and
7 3-10ths per cent.—or a permanent annual charge
upon the resources of the country of about 40,000,000
dols. to be met by taxation. The debt not bearing
interest is the paper money already issued, popu-
larly known as " greenbacks," together with the
postage currency for fractional parts of a dollar,
commencing at 5 and ending at 50 cents; both
amounting, in round numbers, to 397,000,000 dols.
On the Ist of July last year less than
150,000,000 dollars of greenbacks were in cir-
culation, so that Mr. Chase's necessities in the
interval have compelled him to more than double
the amount of his issues of irredeemable paper. In
this respect he has not overstepped the powers con-
ferred upon him by Congress, but has fallen consi-
derably short of them, as the following tabular
statement of the sums authorised by the several
Acts of the Legislature, to which the dates are ap-
pended, will show :
Dols.
By Act of February, 1862
„ July, 1862
~ January, 1863
~ February, 1863
March, 1863 ..
» March, 1863 (fractional o.; 50,000,000
postage currency)
March, 1863—Legal tender
notes of 150,000,000
),
50,000,000
10 dole. (bearing int.) 400,000,000

stied 397 1,050,000,000
From this it appears that Mr, Chase, having is-
)1300•000 dots., has it in his power to issue,
whenever he
paper money.
653,000,000 dolsPle*ases, an additional sum of
Thatll greenbacks or other form of
either to resort to this
he will speedily be compelled
loans is evident. Thelaameasure or to contract new
fiscal year commences on the
Ist of July, and as Mr,
all his accounts to that datea-se has not squared up
ahludastauch as 100,000,000
dots. are due to the army
and possibly as
clads ships and
much more to contractors forniarvY,
heyear, it may be
is actu-
for army subsistence for the pellit-
assumed that the debt, which
25,000,000 dole. less than he anticipateditsaerts to be
175,000,000 dole. more than he calculate d y
remains to consider what are his ' 't prospects for
the year commencing on the let instant. The
Congress which expired on the 4th of. March
last was: mindful of his necessities during the