The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH. 23, 1E69

THY Fl YE-TWENTY BONDS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
thD Times' correspondent at Philadelphia
simply recanted all he had written last year, to
prove th. at the United States would pay the Five-
Twenty Bonds in greenbarAs, he might be permitted
toslide .out of his false I,osition, however awkwardly,
but he :es the recantation by a false
states vent of co
tmt pe a
circumstances. He says :---
ae
D aring rjac months past there has been a great change
of sentiment in the United States on the subject of paying
the debt. Last autumn, repudiation was openly advo-
cate d by many leading public men of both parties, and
the greenback payment theory seemed to have taken
Jtaplete possession of the Western States. The taxa-
tion of the bonds found a majority to support it
in the House at the close of the last session ; and
in order to hold their own in the West, against tho
Democrats who claimed to be the special champions
of repudiation, the Republicans throughout the Mississippi
Valley either kept silence or had to advocate the green-
back theory. Now, however, all has changed. The sen-
timent of the country is unmistakeably in favour of an
. .

honest payment of the debt. One of the leading advo-
cates of Reputliation last year, General LOGAN, of Illinois,
has publicly recanted, end come over to the honest ride.
The same House that in July voted by a majority in
favour of taxing tho bonds declared almost unanimously
against it in February. The Congress that could not be
brought to declare in favour of honesty before, has, under
the pressure of public opinion, passed General SCHENCK'S
Bill by large majorities in both Houses. Senator SHER-
MAN, of Ohio, who last spring reported that the bonds
might under the law be payable in greenbacks, and that
this ought to held as a rod over the bondholders to compel
them to reduce the interest, is now the author of the
amendment of the Senate which makes the bill even a

,ronger declaration of honesty than when it passed the
Hcuse. The country is evidently determined to honestly
pay all its debts and all the interest, and, to do this, is de-
termined to begin an era of economy, so that the world
may see there is a surplus revenue sufficient to redeem
some millions of debt every year. The new President is
one of the strongest advocates of honesty in the country,
and he intends to use all his energy, ability, and power to
repress abuses, promote economy, and stifle Repudiation,
so that the good opinion the world is forming of American
credit may be maintained and strengthened."
If be did not, be ought to have known that the
sentiment of the country is not changed, that the
intention always was, honestly, and in the most
liberal construction of the contract, to meet every
liability. There was much discussion, and a strong
effort made by unscrupulous politicians to gain
votes by raising the question. Unfortunately for
the bondholders, and for the credit of the United
States, the great Democratic party incorporated
Repudiation as a plank of their platform, and
it was this appeal to rascaldom that gave the
Fubject a vitality the Republicans feared so
much that they were compelled to shuffle and
manoeuvre. We have all along asserted that the
sentiment of the country never favoured it, but
the tactics of politicians, the best proof being that
the subject came up with the elections the more
prominently as the party strife approached a climax.
There may have been men deluded into the belief
that more of their fellow-citizens were dishonest

!ools than honourable men of sense, and perhaps

even the dweller in the " Cit•y of Brotherly Love"
might have enrolled himself among the number.
Tey miscalculated, however, as they are• now com-
pelled to acknowledge, for the discussion of the
question brought out so completely the strength of
the bondholders' position, and that an attack on it by
the people would be but an attem pt to destroy their own
strong fort, that common sense alone, independently
of honesty, was sufficient to deter them. The sen-
timent of the country, then, never did favour repu-
diation; and had the Democratic writers for the
London press not been actuated by ulterior motives
they would not so grossly have misrepresented it.
Those motives we have before alluded to, but it is
as well here more distinctly to point them out ; and

in this we are aided by the Philadelphia corre-
spondent, whose letter appeared last Wednesday
in the Times. Alluding to the rise in the Bonds
and the fall in gold in New York he says :

"These movements result from but one thing—the in-
creased confidence that is felt abroad in the credit and
honest intentions of the United States, for American
prices always follow and are ruled by the quotations of
Five-Twenty Bonds in London."
Now, admitting this, what was their object during
the crisis of the late political struggle in America
in depreciating to the utmostthe price of the Bondsin
London? The attempt was made byDemocratic writers
of a marked stripe, and they were successful, for they
commanded the Times, the Standard, and other
sgtrreeaett Lr
eofinednotus nt
ew s irtipneersi.n
LI
of n tdhnen prn cei
n fli elnVcainllg-
this market they influenced all. The Democrats were
pledged to the doctrine of
Repudiation, and what
told most in their favour was the disgust created in the
American mind by the low value set in every Bourse
on the " promises to pay" of his country. That a nation
continental in extent ; the greatest exporter of the
chief staples grown; with railroads
equalling in length
those of Europe ; with telegraphs exceeding those of
the world ; with a population considerably greater
thanthat of the United Kingdom and all her colonies •
with a debt not so large, but a growingTt b a II y to pay
infinitely larger, should have its Bonds on a par with
bankrupt, dishonest, or c t •
on emptible Governments,
was gall and wormwood. The world's belief in
American dishonesty wasthus outspoken ;that is, the
creditor allowed the debtor who could at pleasure
escape the liability, to feel that he was held to be a
dishonest scamp. Predictions of repudiation tend to
their own fulfilment; and nothing is more an in-
centive to throw off a burden than that the person
for whom it is carried should count it as worthless.
When Six per Cent. Bonds were quoted in the Lon-
don market at between 60 and 70 they were ap-
praised at a greenback redemption rate, and it
strengthened the argument of the Democrats to
point to a fact proving that this was the opinion
everywhere held by the dealers. Each fall on this
side was an extra inducement to repudiate on the
other ; but, on the contrary, if there had been such
a rise as the Bonds have experienced in Europe
since the commencement of the year, repudiation
theories would have been annihilated, and with
them every Democratic argument and chance.
For this reason it was essential in the party advo-
cates to throw down the price in Europe, more
especially on the London Stock Exchange—and
hence their persistent efforts. Happily there is
more sense in th© United States than they gave the
people credit for, and their endeavours egregiously
failed. It is very well now for the Philadelphia
man to say that the feeling in the country has
changed, consigning into oblivion the elaborate
calculation by which he sifted Congress and as-
signed to the Representatives of each State their
places on his Repudiation ticket. Nations and
Legislatures do not change with such marvel-
lous rapidity ; and it must be remembered that
the members whom he thus analysed had been elected
on party questions, prominent among which was
greenback redemption. Upon what ground, except
one of his careful surveys, can he assert that the
change he alleged has taken place? There has been no
election to show the feeling of the country since, but
it was, as shown by an election, that he then de-
clared it. It may now suit his purpose to shuffle
out of his false teaching as it can no longer aid his
party, and to attribute to the fickleness of the people
the fact that they refused to follow the dishonest
lead he had predicted with such certainty. We
leave the dweller in the " City of Brotherly Love"
on the horns of his own dilemma, to explain to his
countrymen as best he may that the majority in
the United States were not rascals, only, because
they are so fickle.

GEN. GRANT'S HEALTH AND HABITS.--Walk-
log down Pennsylvania-avenue this morning I met Gen.
Grant on his black horse, trotting quietly towards his
headquarters. He was never looking bettor in his life,
a,nd the sight of him reminded me to state a fact about
him in this letter, which I have known for some
time. The general's physical condition is bettor than it
has been for twenty years. His eye is clear, his hand
firm, and ho has every appearance of robust health. Some
time ago ho came to the decisi,n that ho would not use
intoxicating liquors at public dinners which ho is com-
pelled occasionally. to accept. NVhat his habits are
lv when at s own table with his wife and children I
do not know, nor is it any business of mine or the
public's; but everybody who has seen him at a dinner
within six months gives the same report—•. Gen. Grant
doesn't drink a drop." At the last sot dinner which
he attended, as is the custom, half a dozen glasses were
each plate. In a short time the general's wore
not tasting a drop, till, becoming annoyed by
taahlrlerafnuyulelinbhbeeyr, or because they were in his way, he asked
the servant to be kind enough to remove them. This I
have from a gentleman who sat near him at the table.—
Washington Car Detroit Tribune.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

been itz.. the most part a Siam: fight, and that Mir.
Bright's speech was the first to give it a loftier and
worthier tonel and was sustained by the eloquence of
political conviction inspired by moral and religious
feeling. Whatever may be the opinion as to the
merits of the measure under discussion, there can be
no doubt as to which of these two speeches more
conveyed the idea of sincerity. Mr. Disraeli was
witty and brilliant, and covered what was virtually a
surrender under a fine display of elocutionary fire-
works. Mr. Bright spoke with all the feeling and the
force of one who finds himself at last in a position
to give effect to the convictions of a lifetime.