The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-02 00:00:00

energy. We have voluntarily ad :opted the potato currency,
and by its persistent use, are in ; s fair way to be driven to
the potato diet also. Fluctuatio as in the measure of value
are obviously just as inconveni. alt and injurious as vari-
ableness in the measures of bulk or length would be. If

a man contracts to sell his wheat at one dollar per bushel,
the result to him is precisely the !Arne whether the bushel
is doubled in size or the dollar is i reduced one-half in value.
Suppose a maker should furnish t measures which would
swell and shrink with changes i :n the weather, sometimes
holding 3or 4 quarts more, at otb .ers 3or 4 less than half a
bushel. .Without having lea) med to calculate those
changes, those who love the excitement of gambling,
and those who seek gain from th e mere mutations of trade
would favour these variable tsures. But there would
soon be a class who, having mad it their business to in-
vestigate, would prefer thorn, ar gamblers, in the secret,
prefer certain makes of cards, for the reason that they
know them by ingenious device a on the back as readily as
by the spots on the face. The case of the farmers in re-
lation to the currency is eve n worse than this. For
reasons before stated, it is as though they were using
measures which, of themselv( s, would swell whenever
they were selling, and shrink when they were buying."
We have bad our views as t what should bo done in
the present state of finances, a! el have from time to time
given ilieni in our American ci. cular. We are now having
them put in a separate sheet, a ad although p,Thaps of no
particular value to any here, v,e..) shall be pleased to for-
ward it to any one who may desere on application. We
still hope that nothing like repudiaN ion notes will be coun-
tenanced. The Journal of Coinnu rce perpetrates this :
The letter of a ' A Constant Baader' sets forth exactly
the nature of the proposition IT ade to the bondholders by
the offer of a legal-tender note in discharge of the public
debt. He asks if it is the note that states on its back ' and
is exchangeable for United Sta tes Six per Cent. Twenty
Year Bonds,' &c., which it is prop used to give in payment?
This would be too rich a joke even for Mr. Sherman to
commit. There are plenty of such greenbacks in circulation,
and any one of our readers blessed with a roll of legal-
tenders may find a number of F, =pies now in his pockets.
Of course the note is not thus exchangeable, although
fiction on its back so declares. But why not issue it in the
payment of the bonds, and let the currency holders accord-
ing to the promise fund it all back into the bonds if they
wish ? The reason would be obvious. Those who claim
for the immediate payment of the Five-twenties in green-
backs do not wish to pay the) n at all, but only to stop the
interest. They simply prop .ise to take away from the
bondholder the security, bee zing G per cent. interest in
coin, and to give in its place a paper promise which bears
no interest in coin, and which has no date fixed for its
redemption. If this is desirable, we can see no object in
the useless expense of making the exchange. Let Con-
gress order the interest to co ase on the day of the next
semi-annual payment, and ma'ae the bonds a legal tender
for their face. This accomplishes precisely the same ob-
ject without any circumlocution. To take away the bond
and give in its place a legal-tender promise is simply to
stop the interest on the evidence of debt, and make it a
paper currency. This may as well be done without printing
any new pictures, and its true character would then fully
appear.'