The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY .EVENING, DECEMBER 23,

ncreasing wealth in the facts that railroads and steam- I
boats are crowded with passengers, and hotels with
guests ; that cities are full to overflowing, and rents and
the prices of the necessaries of life, as well as luxuries, are
are daily advancing. All these things prove that a foreign
debt is being created, that the number of non-producers is
increasing, and that productive industry is being dimi-
nished. There is no fact more manifest than that the
plethora of paper money is not only undermining the
morals of the people by encouraging waste and extrava-
gance, but in striking at the root of our material prosperity
by diminishing labor. The evil is not at present beyond
the control of legislation, but it is daily increasing, and, if
not speedily checked, will, at no distant day, culminate in
wide-spread disaster. The remedy, and the only remedy
within the control of Congress, is, in the opinion of the
Secretary, to be found in the reduction of the currency.

the public debt, and leave the handsome balance of
$111,682,818.12 to be applied toward the payment of the

debt itself.

PROPOSAL TO PAY THE DEBT IN THIRTY YEARS.
After careful reflection, the Secretary concludes that no
act of Congress (except for raising the necessary revenue)
would be more acceptable to the people, or better calcu-
lated to strengthen the national credit, than one which
should provide that two hundred millions of dollars, com-
mencing with the next fiscal year, shall be annually ap-
plied to the payment of the interest and principal of the
national debt. The estimates for the next fiscal year in-

dicath that a very much larger amount could be so applied
without an increase of taxes.

FIVE-TWENTY BONDS.
Before concluding his remarks upon the national debt,
the Secretary would suggest that the credit of the Five-
twenty Bonds under the acts of February 25, 1862, and
June 30, 1864, would be improved in Europe, and, conse-
quently, their market value advaiced at home, if Congress
should declare that the principal as well as the interest of
those bonds is to be paid in coin. The policy of the Go-
vernment in regard to its funded debt is well understood
in the United States, but the absence of a provision in
these acts that the principal of the bonds issued under
them should be paid in coin, while such a provision is
contained in the act under which the Ten-forties were
issued, has created some apprehension in Europe that the
Five-twenty Bonds might bo called in at the expiration of
five years, and paid in United States notes. Although it
is not desirable that our securities should be held out of
the United States, it is desirable that they should be of
good credit in foreign markets al account of the influence
which these markets exert upon our own. It is, therefore,

important that all misapprehensions on these points should
be removed by an explicit declaration of Congress that
these bonds are to be paid in co:n.

places designated for sales—including 38,319 bales obtained
at Savannah, 4,151 bales at Charleston, and 2,331 at Mobile
—about eighty thousand bales.
The general rule under which agents have been acting
since the surrender of the forces which had been waging
war against the Government of the United States, is to
collect and forward, as captured property,- all cotton de-
scribed upon the books and list of the pretended Confede-
rate Government, or which there was sufficient reason to
believe was owned or controlled by it, and that which
belonged to companies formed for the purpose of running
the blockade, in support of, if not in direct co-operation
with, the league which had been formed to overthrow the
Government of the United States, leaving individual
claimants of the property to their recourse before the Court
of Claims, as provided by the third section of the act ap-
proved March 12, 1863. In the performance of their
duties, the agents have had great difficulties to encounter,
from the unwillingness of the planters to surrender the
captured property in their possession, from extensive de-
predations upon it after it was collected, and from power-
ful combinations formed to prevent, under various pre-
texts, the property fairly captured from coming into the
possession of the United States. In spite of all these
obstacles, however, it is estimated •from the accounts
already received, and from data furnished by the agents,
there will be secured to the Government not loss than one
hundred and twenty-five thousand bales of cotton, includ-
ing the eighty thousand bales already referred to. What
part of the proceeds of this property will ultimately be re-
tained by the Covernment will depend upon the success of

he claimants before Congress and the courts. In collect-

ing this cotton there have been doubtless some instances
of injustice to individals who may be entitled to the con-
sideration of the Government, but the Secretary believes
that the cotton which has been taken by the agents was
rightfully seized, and that no equitable claims for the return
of any considerable portion of it or the proceeds thereof
can be presented.