The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-15 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 15, 1869

MISCELLANEOUS IVEIVS.

far as their original plans are concernea, ana the
former is chosen for ali ',her building altogether.
Of this Mr. Barry writes again to complain. He de-
clares that the Government, in order to procure
designs, promised one thing; having obtained them,
they have done another. He states that much of the
correspondence batween him and the Government
has been omitted in the published returns, and
appeals to Mr. Bentinck to see him righted.

THE FRENCH ATLANTIC CABLE.
The cable which is to be laid between France and i
America is off ; and whether the Attorney-General
of the United States will allow it to be landed or not,
the attempt to join the two countries together will
be made. The Great Eastern left Sheerness on
Saturday morning with her heavy freight to carry
part—one end of the great rope—across the Atlantic,
and to lay the rope itself in the sea.. The steamer is
said to have behaved admirably so far. Nobody can
help hoping that her work will be done without
accident.

for the payment of the debt, as on the time arriv-
ing (the Ist July, 1862) when the Secretary was to
make the purchases, all his efforts were directed
towards obtaining the funds requisite for car-
rying on the war. Two systems have been pro-
ceeded on for dealing with the Treasury surplus,
though many others have been proposed ; the one
was to return to specie payment through the grad-
ual retirement of the Legal-Tender currency, stren-
uously advocated by Secretary M'CuiLoott ; the
other is the absorption of the bonds, as now prac-
tised by Secretary BOUTWELL. His predecessor
obtained from Congress authority to contract !he
circulation four millions of greenbacks monthly, but
its effect in aiding the sttingency of the market pro-
voked such an outcry that Congress withdrew the
permission, and the policy was abandoned of at-
tempting, by contraction, to equaliz:. greenbacks
with gold, and thus enable the country to return to
specie payment. No subject since then has so much
engrossel the attention of financiers. Senator
MORTON, in an able speech, proposed his measure ;
Senator SHERMAN had brought in a bill of his OWD,
and there were numerous projects in the other
'House, but those before the Senate excited most
interest. Congress, however, adjourned without
laying down any definite policy, and left Secretary
BOUTWELL with the law of 1862, which he now
follows as his guide. A. rule of GRANT'S Admi-
nistration is to act on the law ; for if it be a bad
one, the best chance of getting it repealed is by
stringently enforcing it ; and if it be a good law, the
sooner and fuller it is brought into effect the better.
Hence the PRESIDENT argues that it is the business
of the Executive to act as the law directs where its
course can be regulated by legislative enactment.
This relieves the Secretaries both from trouble and
from responsibility, and turns aside the wrath of
those who suffer, from the Executive against Con-
gress. Secretary 13OUTWELL need not, then, defend
his action in buying bonds with the surplus gold ;
he has but to point to the law and assert his course
to be in accordance with the intentions of Congress.
Gold increased in the Treasury at the following
rate :—May 3, $81,000,000; May 7, $85,000,000;
May 10, $86,000,000; May 17, $88,000,000; May
20, $89,000,000. Since the inauguration of the
PRESIDENT it is calculated that the Treasury has
gained $5.000,000 over the same period last year
through the honest collection of the revenue. The
Internal Revenue receipts for the single day, May
24, were $1,600,000, a sum much exceeding tbat re
ceived on any preceding day for months, while
the expenses of the Departments, Army and Navy,
and general disbursements of the Government have
been materially curtailed; hence the balance at
the Secretary's disposal daily grows larger, and this
may in one shape or another be relied on to con-
tinue. These facts gave Mr. BOUTWELL confidence
to take advantage of the sudden rise in gold, and
be directed the Assistant Treasurer at New York
to sell $2,000,000 of gold weekly until other-
' wi,e ordered instead of $1,000,000, as heretofore,
whereon Mr. VAN DYCK announced that on every
Monday and Thursday tenders for one million dol
lars will be accepted. On Wednesday, May 26,
the third purchase of bonds was made, the pro-
posals from JAY COOK and Co. being accepted
for the whole million as follows:—$100,000 at 115
31, 1862, reg. ; $lOO,OOO at 115 32, 1862, reg. ;
$lOO,OOO at 115 33, 1862, reg.; $lOO,OOO at 115
34, 1862, reg. ; $lOO,OOO ,at 115 35, 1862, reg. ;
$lOO,OOO at 115 36, 1862, reg.: $35,000 at 115 37,
1862, reg. ; $40,000 at 115 38, 1864, reg. ; $lOO,OOO
at 115 39, 1865, reg. ; $225,000 at 115 46, 1865,
con. It should, however, be borne in mind that
the accrued interest on these securities is indepen-
dent of the price, the Government paying what
is due to the seller as a separate transaction. It
is evident the Secretary intends to adhere to this po-
licy; indeed it was said in New York that Mr. BOUT-
WELL would, if necessary, exhaust the Treasury in his
effort to bring down thepremiurn on gold at least to the
poiptat which it was when he took over the portfolio;
so it may be accepted as his system to reduce the
premium on gold and to raise the value of the bonds.
Time only can show whether this will be the result;
the greatest difference of opinion exists both in
New York and Washington, and strenuous efforts
have been made to induce him to change the plan,
many of the leading New York business men hav-
ing waited on him at Washington with this object.
among them Mr. G EORGE OPDYIKE, and others of
his party. All they could extract from the Secre-
tary:was that he would consider a proposal to re-
deem the Three per Cent. Loan Certificates instead
of buying bonds, a doubtful improvement, as
the purchase of the bonds has a beneficial in-
fluence on the United States credit abroad. To
hatever the reason may be attributable, the fact

certain that from the moment Mr. BOUTIVELL'S

termination was known to take advantage of
every rise in the price of gold to sell largely, and
to meet the upward jump to 144 by doubling the
weekly million previously announced for sale, the fall
was rapid. Many dispute this as the cause, denying
the Secretary's power to do more than temporarily
to influence the market. But £400,000 sterling
cannot he thrown for sale into the gold room every
week without producing a sensible effect. So also
with the bonds, for he weekly removes from the
Wall-street market those purchasable for a sum little
short of £200,000. If he brought down the price of
gold without aiding the upward tendency of the
bonds the effect would be to send the precious metal
to Europe. But, as we observed last week, if his
action tends to enhance the value of the 5-2 I's in
Europe the equilibrium will be maintained, and
America will directly benefit by the rise. His policy
therefore, if it can only be continued, is calculated
to benefit the nation ; but many assert that it cannot
be maintained, as the money with which he purchases
bonds is simply the surplus hoarded by his predeces-
sor, which must soon come to an end, and. may
do so disastrously, leaving the Treasury empty in
the face of a crisis. 1 his we are inclined to consi-
der an error, believing that Secretary Bo UTWELL can
purchase bonds weekly to the extent of $1,000,000
without touching on the nation's hoard. What the
gains are through GRANT'S retrenchments we have
no means of ascertaining, but judging from the de-
creased cost, amounting to $lOO,OOO per month of
the Departments alone since March 4, they must be
large. Yet, large as they are, the increased effi-
ciency in collecting the Revenue is the source of
still greater gain ; and the two combined will in
themselves go no small way in providing the Secretary
with the million a week. Two events may occur, either
of which might seriously disturb the Secretary's ar-
rangements; the oue is an Indian War, the other is a
commercial crisis. Such a calamity as a war with
a first-class power we put aside as the advent of
chaos, when anything might happen from the repu-
diation of the whole debt to levies at the point of
the bayonet. Either of the othcr events, or even both,
are sufficiently probable to enter into the Secretary's
calculations, and the derangement then sassed would
compel him to keep a heavy balance in the Trea-
sury, to tide over the difficulty. On the other
band, the Secretary has a right to calculate on such
a revival of Production that the imports may more
nearly be balanced by the exports, while a circum-
stance is silently at work which may leave the result
really in favour of the United States, although the
figures are not shown in statistical returns. We
allude to the enormous immigration, coupled with
the well-known fact that each corner brings with
him a considerable amount of coin. If what is thus
carried into the country be contrasted with the
expenditure of American tourists and travellers in
Europe on business, the balance in favour of the
immigrants will be found to go far towards making
up the loss in the difference between the exports
and the imports, perhaps exceeding it, while c )ver-
ing the outlay of American pleasure-seekers in fo-
reign countries ; which is no small sum. It may not
be out of place here to allude to a statement of the
limes. It says that the late stringency which in-
duced the Bank of England to raise its rate of dis•
count was caused by borrowers at the low rates,
investing their loans in such securities as 5-20's,
whereby they secured for themselves the margin
of difference in the interest, but the rise in the
di count, and the prospect of a still higher rate
quickly brought the money back to the capitalists,
causing the American securities of weak holders
1
and borrowers to be thrown on the market. If
q), this must for a period tell against the policy of
the American Finance Minister, and retard for a
time its laeueldal Wiliam on this gds.