The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-08 00:00:00

A DISCOVERY IN JERUSALEM.

Mr. Grove, the honorary secretary of the Palestine
Exploration Fund, has addressed a letter tothe Times,
stating that a very important discovery has recently
been made respecting the exact position of the
Temple, by Lieutenant Warren, of the Royal Engi-
neers. Mr.. Grove reminds us that the discovery of
the site of the Temple is a point of great import-
ance in the successful exploration of the Holy Land.
Everything, he thinks, will come right if that is
found out, so that he regards Mr. Warren's disco-
very as highly important. Mr. Warren, accord-
ing to his own account furnished to Mr.
Grove made his discovery in consequence of
the displacement of the ground by heavy rains.
He has ascertained that the north wall of the plat-
form of the Mosque of Omar is built on the
edge of a perpendicular scarped rock. If the present
flooring of the Haran Area were removed, a sudden
artificial gap, running from east to west, would be
visible in the surface of the rock. Mr. Warren
succeeded in examining this gap for some distance,
when he found a subterranean arcade about thirty-
five feet in width, which apparently runs the whole
length of the platform, no feet. It supports the
flooring of the Haran Area, and has no appearance
of being constructed for a tank ; there is not a sign
of plaster about it, and the rock seems to have been
scarped for view. The arches appear to be Saracenic,while
the masonry in the walls is of a very miscellaneous
characler. This discovery will probably affect the
plan of future operations, as it does not tally with
previous conjectures. The great difficulty about the
matter is the unwillingness of the Turkish authorities
to concede permission to explore inside the Haran.
Mr. Warren says that he has been for several months
waiting an opportunity to examine the ground on
the northern side of the mosque, as he is convinced
there are vaults there, and he now thinks it likely
the souterrain extends all along the northern edge of
the Mosque platform. It is to be hoped he will soon
be able to follow up his discovery.

Twenty-six Chinamen attended the Bible class of
a Methodist church at Santa Clara, California, and are re-
ported to be interested and learn rapidly.

FADVERTISEMENT.I-llolloway's Ointment and Pills,—
A large and important class of society suffers year after
year, and has life robbed of half its pleasures through sub-
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by Holloway's treatment. his wonderful productions havo
now become so appreciated in every part of the world that
they form a complete household treasure. The worst
cases of ulcers, wounds, and every variety of skin diseases,
for which so many remedies have been tried without
effect, readily succumb to theirower. They act so mira-
culously on the system as to be considered a complete
phenomenon in the healing art. For this reason they are
advocated by many modern practitioners, after everything
case has proved successful.

THE PUBLIC DEBT OF AMERICA

The interest of the Public Debt, when the
whole debt shall be funded at an average rate
of interest of five per cent., will amount to
$125,000,000, which will be reduced with the an-
nual reduction of the principal. When the Internal
Revenue and Tariff laws shall be revised so as to be
made to harmonise with each other, it is supposed
that $300,000,000 can annually be realized from
these sources without burdensome taxation. How
much shall be raised from each can be determined
when the whole subject of Revenue shall be tho-
roughly investigated by Congress with the light
shed upon it by Commissioner Wells in his exhaus-
tive Report of the present year. The Secretary
does not doubt, however, that the best interests of
the country will be subserved by a reduction of the
Tariff and an increase of Excise duties. Accord-
ing to this estimate the account would stand as fol-
lows :
Receipts from Customs and In-

ternal Revenues ...
Expenditures for the Civil Ser-
vice ... $40,000,000
Expenditures by tbs. War Do-

$300,000,000

partment ... 35,000,000
Expenditures by the Navy De-
partment .
Expenditures for Pensions and
Indians 30,000,000
Expenditures for Interest on
the Public Debt

20,000,000

125,000,000-250,000,000

Leaving, as an excess of receipts ... $50,000,000
to be applied to the payment of the principal of the
debt. If the growth of the country should make
an increase of expenditures necessary, this increase
will by the same cause be provided for by increased
receipts under the same rate of taxation ; and as it
is to be hoped that the regular increase of the reve-
venues without taxation resulting from the advance
of the country in wealth and population—will be
greater than the necessary increase of expenses, there
will be a constantly increasing amount in addition
to that arising from a decrease of interest to be
annually applied to the payment of the debt. If
large additional expenditures should be unavoidable
they should at once be provided for by additional
taxes. What is required, -then, at the present time
is a positive limitation of the annual outlays to
$300,000,000, including $50,000,000 to be applied
to the payment of the principal of the debt, and
such modifications of the revenue laws as will secure
this amount without unwise restrictions upon com-
merce, and with the least possible oppression and
inconvenience to the tax-payers. In the foregoing
estimates of resources, miscellaneus receipts and
receipts from sales of public lands are omitted. The
miscellaneous receipts heretofore have been derived
from sales of gold and of property purchased by the
War and Navy Departments during the war and
no longer needed. On a return to specie payments
there will be no premiums on coin, very little Go-
vernment property will hereafter be sold, and under
the Homestead law and with liberal donations of
the public domain, which are likely to be made as
heretofore, no considerable amount can be expected
from lands. Whatever may be received from these
sources will doubtless be covered by miscellaneous
expenses, of which no estimate can be made. The
Act of March 31, 1868, exempting from taxes nearly
all the manufactures of the country other than dis-
tilled spirits, fermented liquors, and tobacco was
sudden and unexpected. It not only deprived the
Treasury of an immense revenue, but the reduction
was so great as to leave an impression on the pub-
lic mind that it would be only temporary, and that
a tax in some degree equivalent to that which was
removed would of necessity soon be resorted to. It
is; perhaps, for this reason that this measure has
failed to give relief to the public by a diminution of
prices and has benefited manufacturers rather than
consumers. The frequent and important changes
which have been made in the Internal Revenue
laws, the ease with which exemptions from taxa-
tion have been obtained and the suddenness
with which taxes have been greatly augmented or
reduced, having constituted one of the greatest evils
of the system. Sudden changes in the revenue laws
are not only destructive dal' business calculations,
but they excite, not unreasonably, a feeling of dis-
content and a sense of injustice among the people
most unfavourable to au efficient collection of taxes.
While it is admitted that in a new and growing
country like ours modifications of the taxes will be
frequently necessary, some definite policy should at
once be inaugurated in regard to our internal re-
venu,!s, the general principles of which should be
regarded as finally established. Assuming that the
receipts from customs will be reduced by a reduc-
tion of duties, or by the effects of a return to specie
payments upon importations under the present ta-
riff, and that consequently there must be an in-
crease of internal taxes, there are three svurces of
revue
Feinr
st wAhni cihn
earreea lsiek eolfy t taox
ebseucpoonns i d
d re .
distiller.
spirits.
The idea of deriving the bulk of the revenue from
this article is a very popular one,aarint.lldeven our un-
fortunate experience has only
perhaps, p
taxthe
on
pubdilisctiolfleidtsspitinriptoss,insibtielnitdye. The late exorbitant
not merely d
as a revenue measure, but as an
encouragement to
temperance, proved to be the most demoralizing tax
conviconvinced
ever imposed by Congress, corrupting both the ma-
innugf at chteu
pr eerosp
wd
itthh es rt
ue
pv ee nn ud eo ou Ms
violations
ieor
Isa, t
iaonnds
The restoration of it, or any considerablfoeafmitnhicleiraleraaiwsze:
forfa tuhde s
which present
ieh h taavxe,
brought r' would lead a
the
internal repetitionrevenue
of h i
nt t
oe
such utter disgrace.

Second. A restoration of the taxon manufactures
abolished in March last. The objections to the re-
storation of this tax are, that it would indicate
vacillation on the part of_ Congress, and that this
tax, principally on account of numerous exemptions;
was partial and unjust. It is also apparent that if
restored it would fail to be permanent by reason of
the persistent and united hostility of a class of citi-
zens influential and powerful, and whose influence
and power are rapidly increasing.
Third. An increased and uniform tax on sales ;
and this the Secretary respectfully recommends.
Under the present law wholesale and retail dealers
in goods, wares, and merchandise, of foreign or
domestic production, wholesale and retail dealers
in liquors and dealers in tobacco, are subject to a
similar but unequal tax upon sales. This inequality
should be removed and a tax levied upon all sales
sufficient with the revenues from other sources to
meet the wants of the Government. The reasons
in favour of a tax upon sales are that it could be
levied generally throughout the country, and would
not beliable to the imputation of class legislation.
That it would be so equally distributed as not to
bear so oppressively as other taxes upon individuals
or sections, and that no depression of one branch of
industry which did not injuriously affect the busi-
ness of the entire country could greatly lessen its
productiveness. As has been already stated the
receipts from Customs for the fiscal year ending
June 30,1866, were $179,046,651 58 ; for the year
ending June 30, 1867, $176,417,810 88 ; and for
the last fiscal year, $164,464,599 56, These figures
show that the tariff has produced large revenues,

although it is in no just sense a revenue tariff. In
this respect it has exceeded the expectations of its
friends, if, indeed, it has not disappointed them. It
has not checked importations, and the complaint is
made that it has not given the anticipated protec-

tion to home manufactures, not because it was not

skilfully framed to this end, but because it inflated

currency, the effect of which upon importations was

not fulliconiprehended, and has in a measure de-
feated its object. It has advanced the prices

of dutiable articles, and by adding to the cost

of living has been oppressive to consumers, with-
out being of decided benefit to those industries
in•which interest it is regarded as having been

prepared. In his last report the Secretary recom-
mended the extension of specific duties, but did not

recommend a complete revision of the tariff, on the

ground that this work could not be intelligently
done as long as business was subject to constant

derangement by an irredeemable currency. The
same difficulty still exists, but as decided action
upon the subject of the currency ought not to be

longer postroned, the present may not be an un-
favourable time for a thorough examination of the
tariff. It is obvious that a revision of it is required,

not only to relieve it of incongruities and absurdity,
•

and to harmonise it with excise taxes and with our

agricultural and commercial interests, but also to
adapt it to the very decided change which must take
place in the business of the country upon the re-
storation of the specie standard. Large revenues
are now derived from customs, because a redundant
currency produces extravagance, which stimulates
importations. If the currency were convertible
and business were regular and healthy the tariff
would be severely protective, if not in many instances
prohibitory. Indeed, of some valuable articles, it
is prohibitory already. There will be in the future,
as there have been in the past, widely different
opinions upon this long vexed and very important
subject, but the indications are decided that the
more enlightened sentiment of the country de-
mands that the tariff shall hereafter be a tariff
for revenue and not for protection, and that the
revenues to be derived from it shall be no larger
than in connection with those derived from other
sources will be required for the economical ad-
ministration of the Government, the mainte-
nance of the public faith, and the gradual extin-
guishinect of the public debt. While the country
is not at present, and may not be for many years
to come, prepared for the abrogation of all restric-
tions upon foreign commerce, it is unquestionably
prepared for a revenue tariff. The public debt is
an incumbrance upon the property of the nation,
and the taxes the necessity fur which it creates, by
whatever mode, and from whatever sources collected,
are at last a charge upon the consumers. Taxes
should not therefore be increased, nor will the tax-
payers permit them to be permanently increased for
the benefit of any interest or section. Fortunately,
or unfortunately, as the question may be regarded
from different stand-points, the necessities of the Go-
vernment will be such for many years that large
revenues must be derived from customs, so that a
strictly revenue tariff must incidentally benefit our
home manufactures. According to the estimate
made by the Secretary, an annual revenue of
$300,000,000 will be required to meet the necessary
demands upon the Treasury, and for a satisfactory
reduction of the public debt. How much of this
amount shall be derived from customs it will be for
Corgress to determine. In examining this difficult
question, the magnitude of our foreign debt, and
the necessity not only of preventing its increase, but
of rapidly reducing it, must be kept steadily in view.
It may be necessary that a large portion of our
bonds now held in Europe be taken up with bonds
bearing a lower rate of interest, payable in some
European city, in order that they may be less likely
to be returned to the United States at unpropitious
times. Whether this is accomplished or not, it is
of the last importance that our tax laws, and espe-
cially the tariff, should be so framed as to encou-
rage exports and enlarge our commerce with fo-
reign nations, so that the balances may be in our
favour, and the interest, and in due time the
principal, of our foreign debt may be paid by our
surplus productions. Many of the investigations of
the Revenue Commission have been made with the
view of furnishing Congress with the data necessary
for a thorough examination and a wise determina-
tion of this most important question, and it is for-
tunate that the subsidence of political excitement
removes many of the difficulties heretofore in the
%ay of any impartial consideration of it. The debt
between the Ist day of November, 1867, and the
Ist day of November, 1868, increased $35,625,102
82, of this increase $24,152,000 is chargeable to the
Pacific Railroad, and $7,200,000 to the purchase of
Russian America. Within the same period there
was paid for bounties $1,406,051, and at least
$4,000,000 for interest on compound 7 3-10 notes,
which had accrued prior to the Ist of November,
1867. If these extraordinary advances and pay-
ments had not been made the receipts would have
exceeded the expenditures $13,787,412 18. Consi-
dering the heavy reduction of internal taxes made
at the last session of Congress, and the large expen-
ditures which have attended the military Operations
against the Indians on the frontiers, and the main-
tenance of large forces at expensive points in the
Southern States, this statement of the amount of
the debt cannot be regarded as an unsatisfactory
one. The bounties will, it is expected, be entirely
paid within the next three months, and very little
interest except that which accrues upon the funded
debt is hereafter to be provided for. Should there be
henceforth no extraordinary expenditures, and no
further donations of public moneys in the form of
bounties, or of additional subsidies to railroad compa-
nies, with proper economy in the administration of
the general Government, and with judicious amend-
ments of the revenue laws and proper enforcement
thereof, the public debt without oppressive taxa-
tion can be rapidly diminished and easily ex-
tinguished within the period heretofore named by
the Secretary. The ability of the United States to
maintain their integrity against insurrection as well
as against a foreign enemy can no longer be doubted.
I'he question of their ability, under Democratic in-
stitutions, to sustain a large national debt, is still
to be decided. That this question should be affirma-
tively settled, it is, in the opinion of the Secretary,
of the highest importance that the tax-paying voters
should be encouraged by the fact that the debt is
in the progress of rapid extinguishment and is not
to be a permanent burden upon them and their
posterity. If it be understood that this debt is to
be a perpetual incumbrance upon the property and
industry of the nation it is certainly to be feared
that the collection of taxes necessary to pay the in-
terest upon it may require the exercise of power by
the Central Government inconsistent with Republi-
canism and dangerous to the liberties of the people.
The debt must be paid. Direct repudiation is an
impossibility. Indirect repudiation, by further
issues of legal-tender notes, would be madness. To
insure its payment without a change the essential
character of the Government every year should wit-
ness a reduction of its amount and a diminution of
its burdens. The Secretary is confident that he
expressed the sentiments of the intelligent tax-
payers of the country in his report of 1865. Iu his
last report the Secretary referred to the condition
of the Treasury at the close of the war and at some
subsequent periods, alluding especially to the
emergency in the Spring of 1865, arising from
the very large requisitions which were waiting for
payment, and the still larger requisitions that were
to be provided for to enable the War Department to
pay arrearages due to the army and othe'r expenses
which had already been incurred in the suppression
of the rebellion. In briefly reviewing the adminis-
tration of the Treasury from April, 1865, he did
not think it necessary to state how much of the
large revenue receipts had been expended in the
payment of debts incurred during the war, and lie
would not undertake to do it now did not misap-
prehension exist in the public mind in regard to the
expenditures of the Government, since the conclu-
sion of hostilities, prejudicial to both the law-mak-
ing and law-executing branches of the Government.
The war was virtually closed in April, 1865. On
the first day of that month the public debt
amounted, according to the books and accounts of
the Department, to $2,366,955,077 34. On the
first day of September following it amounted to
$2,757,689,751 43, having increased in the four
months, $390,734,494 09. From that period it
continued to decline until Nov. 1, 1867, when it
had fallen to $2,491,504,450. On the first day of
November last it had risen $2,527,129,552 82. By
this statement it appears that, between the first day
of April, 1865, and the first day of September of
the same year, the debt increased $390,734,491 09,
and that between the first day of September, 1865,
and the first day of November, 1868, it decreased
$230,560,018 61, and on the List day mentioned
it was $160,174,475 48 larger than it was on the
first day of April, 1865. Since then the Treasu-
rer's receipts from all sources of revenue have been
as follows :

For April, May, and June, 1865 583,519,164 13
For the year eliding June 30, 1866
For the year ending June 30, 1867 490,634,010 27
For the year ending June 30, 1868
June 30 to Nov. 1, 1868

Total receipts..., $1,662,476,062 20
To which should be added the increase of the debt be-
tween the first day of April, 1865, and the first day of
November, 1868-8160,174,475 48—51,822,650,537 68.
This exhibit shows that the large sum of
$1,822,650,537 68 was expended in the payment
of the interest and of other demands upon the
Treasury in three years and seven months, being
an average annual expenditure of $508,646,661

e 68. If the statement of the public debt on the
Ist day of April, 1865, had included all debts do'
at that time, and $1,822,650,537 68 had realt
been expended in payment of the interest of the
public debt and the current expenses of the Go.
vernment between that day and the Ist day d
November last, there would hare been a profligg
and a recklessness in the expenditures of the publl
moneys discreditable to the Government and dig'
heartening to tax-payers. Fortunately this is of
the fact. That statement (as it is true of all 006
monthly statements of the Treasury) exhibited 011
the adjusted debt according to the books of the
Treasury, and did not, and could not, include the
large sums due to the soldiers of the great 1:711i°11
army, numbering at that time little less than
million men, for pay and for bounties, or on clairo
of various kinds, which must of necessity 110
been unsettled. For the purpose of putting the
matter right, the S.2cretary has endeavoured. to 0
certain from the War and Navy Departments bof
much of their respective disbursements, since the
close of the war, has been in payment of debt
properly chargeable to the expense of the war'
The following is the result of his inquiries :—I3I
the War Department, $595,431,125 90 ; by the
Navy Department, $35,000,000. It has been iov
possible to obtain an exact statement of the
amount of such debts paid by the Ns
Department, but sufficient information has beee
received to justify the Secretary in estimating 11
in round numbers at $35.,000,000, which is pro'
bably an under rather than an over estivaate.
The expenditures of the War Department have
been furnished in detail, and are believed to be
substantially correct. These figures show that the
money expended by the War and Navy Depart'
ments between the first day of April, 1865, and the
first day of November, 1868, on claims instil
chargeable to the expenses of the war, amounted to
$630,431,125 90, to which should be added amod
advanced to the Pacific roads, $42,194,000 ; amouvt
paid for Alaska, $7,200,000. Total, $679,825,126
90. Deducting this sum from the amount of the
revenues, $1,662,476,062 20, and $160,174,475 43'
the increase of the public debt, the remainder
$1,142,825,411 78, or an average of $318,928,0
89 per annum, is the amount actually expended ill
the payment of current expenses and interest.

COINAGE OF TIIE UNITED STATES.

Dr. Linderman, the director of the Mint, repot
the operations of that institution for the fiscal year
ending the 30th of June last. The total deposit°
of gold and silver, less re-deposits, were $24,591,326'
The value of the coinage, including nickel-copper
and bronze, was $27,447,606 ; pieces strueltf
49,735,840. Operations were suspended for three
months for repairs, reducing the time of coinages;
the lower coins to nine months. The Mint is rc
ported in the most efficient condition, and 1
is proved by experience that coinage can b°
executed at the principal Mint at less eV
pense than in any other part of the country'
As the means of safe transportation have lately ia.
creased, there is, no reason for reviving coinage ope'
rations at either of the three branch Mints formerif
in operation in the Southern States, and he there'
fore recommends that those establishments be dig'
posed of. The machinery for the new branch Ml°'
in Nevada will be put up during the present winter'
and a new building is to be erected at San Francis°,
on a scale commensurate with the bullion interest'
of that region. This branch and the Mint at P 13114;
delphia the Director thinks sufficient for the proolP
execution of the coinage of the country. --
recommends tho repeal of the Act of CO
gress which conflicts with contracts for separat'
ing and refining bullion with outside partil
and that they be authorized whenever they belle°,
the public interest, the saving thereby being about
3 cents per ounce. An important recommendatton
is the renewal made in the last annual report of
the suggestion providing for the reduction and re;
demption of inferior coins, by creating a fund out
of the profits of such coinage, and making it the
duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to receive 501
offered in specified amounts, and to pay for they
out of the fund created from the profits. The nee
profits from the minor coinage and paid into Oa,
Treasury are large, amounting during the last fise
year to $1,300,000. The discontinuance of the
coinage of bronze two cent pieces is recommended'
Copper-nickel cents to the amount of $260,482 Wal
purchased during the last fiscal year, and, being
paid for in three and five cent nickel cuing'
netted a small profit to the United States, while
reducing the redundancy of cent coins. The pre;
priety and policy of charging for the coinage ()
bullion is discussed, the conclusion being a reconr
mendation to lower the present charge of half Per,
cent. to one-quarter per cent. The tendency °
this change would be to turn gold bars into coin+
and so prepare for a gold currency. The change
in the small silver coins of France and Germany 19•
explained, the international coinage question clIS'
cussed, and interesting information given of the
attempt of the Chinese to furnish a silver Or'
rency, in which the 3 followed the American ten'
tesitnal notation, issuing pieces of the denomination
of ten, five, and one. The report is valuable, bell
full of statistical information, and interesting a°
important matter.