The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-16 00:00:00

went were justified in issuing any possible amount
of paper whiel the necessities of the State might
have required or will yet require, for the re, on that
the money in gold and silver accessary to carry on
the war for the "life of the nation" co d not have
been borrowed if the civilised world d been ran-
sacked for the purpose. " That Congress judged
wisely," he adds, (l the astonishing success that has
attended the issues:of this money fully proves. All
loyal citizens have prospered immensely by the Act
of Congress which declared greenbacks a legal ten-
der. Such a thing as pecuniary distress in the loyal
States on account of the war, or by reason of the
financial measures of the Government, has not been
heard of. If the national life were to be preserved,
•
more money was required than had ever been coined
at the national Mint, and at the time the Act was
passed, four times greater in amount than all the gold
and silver coin in the country. The money had to be
borrowed, and it was borrowed from the American
admonished of the frightful
people. We have been
,
consequences in the future to result from an irredeem-
;ble paper currency, based
on the credit of the nit,
inlv figments of the imagination, weiv
!lilt if all the evils so strongly pictured, and
twiohniCh are
to occur, how ,:teignificant they would all be in corn
parion
withnifin
struction of our Government. If
this magnificent
verni -ental structure of ours falls,
e e
it will matter little that in effort to save it, not thet gdo
only disorder, but ruin, were brought on the com-
mercial and monetary interests of the cotaltry." The
Judge may be a patriot, but he is certainly not a
financier, or a political economist. Any common
Jones or R.Thinson,issuing his irredeemable promises
to pay and renewing his bills ad infinitum, might
support his system by the same arguments. It is
necessary to him, Jones or Robinson, that his life
be preserved ; his life cannot be preserved without
money; the coin that he can borrow will not meet
his wants by three-fourths; therefore he will pay
his way with paper. lie will not only be prosper-
ous himself while his paper circulates, but every-
body who takes it and passes it to his neighbour
will be prosperous also—while confidence lasts.
Mats apres? Jones will shrug his shoulders if you
ask him ; Robinson will do the same, and so also
will the Federal Government and Judge Wright.
The system is beautiful while it lasts, and if confi-
dence could only be made permanent would be beau-
tiful for ever. Unluckily, however, the day of
reckoning comes. The holders of greenbacks will
sometime or other expect coin for them ; and as,
according to the showing of the judge, there will
not be coin enough in the country or to be got out •
of the civilised world to effect the liquidation—even
within 75 per cent. of the nominal value—there will
be a commercial crash such as the world has seldom
seen. But the Judge thinks such a result a mere
trifle. Perhaps, if at the day of reckoning he has
100,000 in greenbacks, and no other property, real
or personal, he may awaken to the melancholy con-
viction that irredeemable paper is not quite such a
blessing as he now considers it.