The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-16 00:00:00

,

AMERICA.

(Prom a Correspondent of the Times.)
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 1.

Last week the Secretary of the Treasury
_made
up his mind to negotiate an additional loan of
$50,000,000, and so informed his loan agents. The
report, of course, go out and into the newspapers,
and as there was no law authorising any such loan,
quite a discussion was caused by it, the consequence
of which has been that the secretary has recalled his
instructions, and very probably will not negotiate
the loan. A proposition that was made to issue
$50,000,000 more certificates of indebtedness being
also unauthorised met a similar fate, and the im-
pression daily gains ground that the Secretary will
not resort to any illegal loans, but will endeavour
to get along with the resources he has until Con-
gress meets. The Treasury printing-presses are now
busily engagedin printing $40,000,000 of compound
interest notes, which will provide for the demands
of two or three weeks, and as the public debt is just
now in quite an anomalous condition, it has been
given out that no statement of its amount will be
given on Sept. 1; that we must wait until Oct. 1 to.
hear how much the Government owes. The an-
nouncement of the proposed new loan of
$50,000,000 having turned the attention of finan-
ciers to the subject, a great many projects
are now being broached for getting rid of
the debt. Some people wish each class of the
debt renewed on the present terms as soon as it
becomes due ; others wish all the greenbacks
funded in a six per cent. loan ; while a third party
desires that the entire debt be funded as fast as it
becomes due into a long loan at four or five per
cent. Of course, these things are mere suggestions,
the Secretary of the Treasury having nothing to do
with them, and it being highly probable that he has
not yet seriously considered the subject. The dis-
cussions have been considerably mixed up by a de-
cision just promnlgated by the Court of Appeals of
Kentucky, the highest Court in the State, declaring
legal tender notes to be unconstitutional. This is the
fifth American Court that has given such an opinion,
but it will go for nought, as the rulers of the caul-
try do not now care, and have not for the last four
years cared, a fig for the judiciary.

Some very interesting financial exhibits have re-
cently been published. On August 26, there were
1,538 national banks authorised, with a capital of
$392,616,338, and a circulation of $175,256,690.
The utmost limits of the law is almost reached, and
very few more banks can be authorised until Con-
gress gives additional. power. An estimate of the
amount of petroleum that will be produced in 1865
places it at 3,500,000 barrels of crude, worth
$24,000,000 at the wells, and $60,000,000 after
being refined. The amount of internal revenue col-
lected in New York city during the year ending the
30th of June last was $27,068,572, the cost of col-
lection being $258,840.
Business prospects in the North are looking up,
and preparations are being made for a very brisk .
fall trade. Cotton is quite brisk, nearly ;all the
New England millo wners being in the market to
purchase. Large amounts of cotton are being ex-
ported to Europe, and a direct trade between the
South and Europe is springing up. The week before
last 6,439 cotton bales went from New Orleans, and
nearly 3,000 from Mobile direct to Liverpool; six
vessels are now loading at Richmond for various
European ports, and the sugar and tobacco mer-
chants are receiving large orders from foreign
dealers. The President having by proclamation re-
moved all restrictions on contraband trade with the
South after to-day, the Southern trade with Europe
will no doubt soon be stimulated to a high degree.
Southern planters still complain of the restrictions
on the cotton traffic, and a delegation from Alabama
called on the President on August 29 to protest
against the new restrictions placed by the military
officers on the export of cotton. The President at
once revoked the orders, telling the delegation they
were issued without his sanction, and at the same
time stating to them, what was no doubt intended
for the people of the entire South,' that in case the
military stepped aside from their duty to interfere
with trade prompt complaint should at once be made
to him. From Texas sad complaints of these mili-
tary restrictions come to us. The condition of affairs
is this—a farinar hauls his cotton to a county-seat
and sells it to a merchant, but as soon as the mer-
chant attemp to.send it to a seaport, he is stopped
by a man who claims to be a special Treasury agent,
who declares he must hold possession of the cotton
until proof is given that it never belonged to the
Confederate authorities. After great trouble and
expense the merchant gives the proof, his cotton is
released, and itreaches the seaport. There it is again
seized by another Treasury agent, and when the certi-
ficates are produced on which the cotton was pre-
viously released they are pronounced informal and
insufficient, and new proof is demanded. The diffi-
culty of obtaining it is great, and the people who
raised the cotton have to be brought from their
homes, sometimes hundreds of miles away, for
their personal testimony only will satisfy the
agent. The difficulties of the cotton trade in the
abnormal condition of the South are onerous
enough, without having the obstacles created by
Treasury agents added to them, and the pressure
brought to bear upon the President must soon result
in the abolition of every restriction on the trade.
The Republican Convention of Pennsylvania
having demanded additional " protection ;" the iron
and steel men of this State have recently met and
demanded an additional duty on imported metal,
and the repeal of the internal duty on its manufac-
ture. Although the present duty on imported iron
is enormous they say they cannot get along with-
out an additional tax, and as a proof publish an ex-
hibit, by which it appears that three-fourths of the
Pennsylvania blast furnaces are idle, and many of
the others are going out of blast. They will scarcely
get their additional protection, for the people are
already taxed too heavily, and the free-trade ques-
tion is being toQ angrily discussed for men of all
parties to any longer unite in increasing the duties
on imposts. A strong free-trade feeling is spring-
ing up in the West, and is earnestly advocated in
many quarters on the Atlantic seaboard.
The religious war in Missouri between the State
Government and the clergy continues unabated, and
the Presbyterian clergymen have resolved not to
take the test oath prescribed by the new Constitu-
tion. The Governor is as determined as ever, and
says no clergymen shall preach unless he qualifies,
and as nearly every religious denomination, clergy
and laity, is now drawn up in opposition to the
Governor there will be serious trouble. " It is stated
that the military commander at St. Louis has ten-
dered the Governor of the State the use of the
troops to enforce the oath-taking, or to close up the
churches if it- be not taken. The movements
throughout the country looking to a reunion of the
divided churches, North and South,ishop onof thtienue
Georgia; aud
during next week B
Episcopal Church, to whom all the Southern dio-
ceses have confided the decision of the question of
reunion, will be in New York to confer with the
leading Episcopalians upon ',the subject. Nothing
has transpired since I last wrote with reference to
the movements in the Episcopal Church ; but the
Presbyterians are having a hot time of it. Some of
the Northern Presbyteries have talked of reunion,
and the Presbytery of Lexington, Virginia, the only
Southern one that has yet assembled, discussed the
question, and came to the conclusion, " That it was
the duty of the Presbytery to keep itself aloof as far
as possible from the corrupted religion of the North."
The Presbyterians of Central Virginia certainly do
not wish to have any close relation with their
brethren in the Northern States. The Southern
Methodists, too, have published an address, in which
they treat the Northern Church unmercifully.
The Democrats of New Jersey held their Conven-
tion on August 30, and nominated General Runyon
for governor. Having taken up a soldier as their
candidate, while the Republicans nominated a
civilian, and General Runyon having already chal-
lenged his opponent to a discussion of political
principles, there will no doubt be quite a lively can-
vass in New Jersey, although the Democrats are,
sure of electing their candidate. The New Jersey
resolutions are similar to those adopted in Maim
and Pennsylvania, supporting Johnson's policy and
opposing negro suffrage. The political eanvass
throughout the country does not yet exhibit. very