The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-30 00:00:00

I F,eptable anit instructive Iniscell4ny fur little
I people.

The J.:etters of a Betrothed. Longman.
This litt'ie volume consists of a series of letters
supposed t o be written by a young lady during the
period of her engagement to and separation from
her,fiancer. They are written with simplicity anu
feeling, anal in a manner that reflects ci edit on tie
heart and head of the writer, whether they are
real or fictitious. A visit to Paris is pleasantly
chronicled, and the volume shows many traces of
good taste and right feeling.

ZIIL REWMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS

IN AMERICA.

(From, the Amy York Herald.)

This week, if Providence endows our bankers
and merchants with common prudence, will inau-
gurate the revival of American trade from the re-
vulsion of 1857. Our city banks, the other State
bank,-, the Boston and Newhaven banks, and ge-
nerally all the banks which suspended specie pay-
ments, with the exception of the Pennsylvania
banks and a few others, have now returned to their
old system of paying all their liabilities in specie,
when required to do so. The 250,000,000 of specie
wt,ich are in the country amply suffice for the basis
of a sound currency; indeed it may be as well to re-
peat, as we are taking leave of the subject, that our
bank suspension was a mere ephemeral accident, un-
warranted by any radical unsoundness in the banks,
uncalled for by any radical decline in our com-
merce, and simply caused by a monetary outburst
of panic occasioned by a breakdown in the railway
system and stimulated by au unusually sudden and
severe contraction on the part of the banks. It is
well also to place on record once more, for the
guidance of the future student of history that
during the whole GO days that the suspension has
lasted specie has never been at 1 per cent.
premium, nor our city notes at 1 per cent. dis
count. In the every-day traffic of life no incon-
venience whatever has been caused to the public
by the suspension.
So much for the past ; now for the future. We
are beginning business with an unusual plethora of
specie in the banks ; those of this city, for instance,
holding twice their usual quota. Under ordinary
circumstances, as the cotton crop is coming for-
ward, our city banks would count on holding from
18,000,000 to 20,000,000 from this date to May
next ; but, perhaps, the demand for money in
Europe may falsify this calculation. Still, as trade
is being generally curtailed, it is not likely that any
want of specie can possibly be felt in this city for
months to come. Ten millions of gold, in decently
prosperous and quiet times, are quite enough for
our banks to hold. It will require very powerful
effort to reduce the average during the next six
months below 15. _ _

The country as a whole is richer than it has ever
been before. The cotton crop is large, and prices,
though declining, are highly remunerative. The
crop of breadstuffs is universally bountiful. Of
our two great staples, breadstuffs and cotton, we
hold more than we perhaps ever did before
at the corresponding date. A calculation pub-
lished in Saturday's Herald went to show that
there had been sent forward for shipment this
year over 30,000,000 less cotton and breadstuffs
than were sent forward up to the same date last
year ; in other words, that th• planters and farmers
held 30,000,000 more of their produce than they
held in the middle of December, 1856. We should
regard this calculation as extremely moderate.
The amount of cotton and breadstuffs held back
by the producers is in all probability larger than
this, considering the great difficulties which the
revulsion has thrown in the way of transmitting
produce. It would not be surprising if it was found
that farmers and planters held 50,000,000 more of
their produce at this time than they did 12 months
ago. By so much, then, is the country richer. In
a day or two the last of the shipments of bread-
stuffs from the interior, which have been
unusually bountiful during the past few days,
will cease, leaving a nest egg for the farmer
to send on in the spring. So of the cotton.
The movements of the cotton market in Europe
and the disorganisation of the exchanges have
induced a number of planters to hold back their crop,
which will come ou in the spring, and create a re-
source which the country has seldom had befcre.
Nor has the general disruption of all business of
a speculative character been less conducive to the
general wealth. Within the past three or four
months no man has emba' ked in a rash enterprise ;
no money has been locked up in new schemes of
any kind ; all undertakings of a speculative charac-
ter, including many unprofitable manufactures,
mines, and other enterprises which our great con-
sumers of wealth in good times carried on, have
been suspended, and the money that would have
been appropriated to them has been saved. Busi-
ness generally is in process of liquidation.
Here are most assuredly substantial reasons
for anticipating a revival of solid prosperity.
We may add to these that the bulk of the losses
which have been occasioned by the revulsion will
fall, not on us, but upon the manufacturers of
England and France and the capitalists of Europe.
When our people fail it is the foreigners who surfer;
we keep the goods, they lose their money. It is
not a very flattering reflection to one's national
pride ; but it is a fact, and deserves mention of the
commercial prospects.
We begin business, then, with an unusual amount
of gold in the banks, with an unusual accumulation
of produce in the country, with less entanglements
in the way of speculative enterprises than we ever
had before, and with fewer insolvent concerns and
deeply indebted houses than we perhaps ever
had to carry along. It rests in a great
measure, with the banks of this city to decide
whether these seeds of prosperity shall bring forth
good fruit or no. Eight months ago we warned the
the city banks that they were nursing a day of
wrath for themselves and for the public by sending
their means to foster the insane and miserable
gambling in railway stocks which was prevalent
in Wall-street. The fulfilment of the prophecy is
not likely to be readily forgiven. But the error
may be repeated, and if it is the same result will
unerringly follow. However safe the operation
of lending on railway stocks may appear, it is
a practice pregnant with panics and ruin
to circles far beyond its immediate range ; if
our city banks begin again to lend right and
left on these speculative securities the panic
of October will prove the first of a series.
It is likewise in the power of the banks to
effect much towards solidifying the commerce of
the country by discouraging long paper. Four
months ought to be the longest date known for mer-
cantile paper ; three are ample in most cases. The
fatal liberty convoyed to the borrower, under a
system of six or eight months paper, is enough of
itself to account for periodical revulsions. A sound
discretion will naturally be exercised by the banks
in the selection of paper for discount ; on this head
it may simply be observed that, however gratifying
the general commercial prospect may be, the pri-
vate condition of the old commercial houses is by no
means reassuring, and will not be till March is
passed. We have ninety days of anxiety before
us ; and till they are passed young houses which
have come into lite since the crash of October will
prove the safest concerns in the country.