New-York daily tribune., 1857-10-20

the first time seriou,ly involved in the great fna
struggle between France and England for the pos
session Of North America, that led in 1755 to her
first issue of psper.
The issues of psper money BY Pennsylvania,
commenced in 1922, and BY Maryland in 1873, did
not have their origin in treasury necessities. They
were, rather, purely mercantile eIpedients, based
on scheme frat adopted in South Carolina in
1712, introduced into Massachusetts, in liza, into
Rhode Island in 172l, into Connecticut in l733 and
into New-Yor in 1871. The paper money issued
on this scheme was not employed, like the former
class Of is,ues, to pay government debts in anticl-
patton Of taxes, by which is was to be redeemed
| 1t was distributed among the counties, to be
lent out on mortgages, a. capital for trade and
business, and to be paid back by instaIlments with
interest The installmepts as they csme in were
to redeem the issues. The annual interest went
into the public treasury aud was the compensation
TO the colony for lending ts name and credit to the
transaction. The plan was advocated s creating
a moreyed capital (similar to that now created BY
bark notes. and also as furnishing circulating
medium. The paper issues Of the sort first de-
,crbed being made chiefly during war, were liable
to be paid in and Cancelled after the restoration Of
peace. twas to supply the vacuum in the cur
rency thu created and to prevent the appreciation
of the currency called scarcity Of money, that the
| loan issues were resorted to.
The great difficulty with this paper money,
whatever the occasion Of its issue, was its liability
to violent fluctuations in value. There was 90
check on its issue except the discretion of the Colo
NAL Assemblies, and in some Of the colonies its de-
| probation was at times a. much as ten or twenty
| for One The English merchants raised loud out
cries against q currency BY which the debts due
| them in America were liable to be deprecated to
| an unlimited extent. Finally the English Govern
mtnt interposed by the issue of instructions to the
| Colonial Governors not 10 consent to any such
Issues. 1t was attempted TO get round this pro-
bibiton by intrustiDg the power to issue paper to
| private companies or bankers, but this operation
| was cut short by the interference OF Parliament
In .pte, however, of the instructions 70 the Gov
eInors, means were found to get their consent to
paper oney issues and upon the breaking out of
q war, these instructions were always relaxed.
In America, in spite Of all the abuses attendant
upon the issue of this paper money, it was during
the whole colonial period always popular. 1t
favored or seemed to favor the interest of debtors
always the most numerous party. But the total
breakdown of the Revolutionary paper ssues,
made on much larger scale than ever before, and
attended by corresponding depreciation, brought
this species of currency into dscredit aud led to
that provision in the Federal Constitutions re-
- - o1 ha; ;rpn al
them by the mother country, the cOlOnists had
| strenuously resisted-by which the States were
prohibited from issuing bills Of credit, or making
anything but gold and silver a tender for the pay
ment of debts. The effect, however, Of these pro
visions has been, not to abolish paper money, but
eIely to aler its source of issue and its terms Of
redemption. They have but made way for the
thhd era in the history Of our currency-that of
bank paper, which for the last sixty or seventy
years has formed our medium of traffic. This
paper differs from the old fashioned paper money
still in use, by the way in the black Empire of
Hayti-in two essential particulars. 1t is issued
not on the credit of the Government, but of
private individuals or of limited copartner-
ships, generally Incorporated companies and
it processes to be payable not at some future time,
but on demand. This quality, however, of being
pay able on demand, Il does not invariably maintain.
In addition to suspensions, resulting fre
queDy in large losses 10 the holders Cf the notes of
particular backs, the present is the fourth general
suspension of specie payments in which our banks,
either all or large portion Of them, have been in
volved OF the two former suspensions, the frat,
that Of 1914, was charged, and truly, to the COM
plication of the banks with the Government. They
had lent 50 largely 10 the Government, to enable it
to carry on the~war with Great Britain as to have
become unable from the depreciation of Govern
ment stocks, to meet their own obligations. The
second suspension that Of 1881, to which that of
lS41 wa. supplement, was charged, in part at
least, and no doubt partially due, to the Gov.
erI Iment deposits to large amount in the vaults OF
the banks, leading to losDs, rather political than
mercantile, which loans the passage OF the
distribution act made it necessary to realize
much more suddenly than it was possible Tor
the borrowers to respond. Since that time, the
General Government has repudiated the Use OF bank
paper, and the present stoPpaee must be set down
ss q purely mercantile operation, due to an ex
OAR sion Of credits beyond the limit of prudence or
s,fety Much, however, as the occurrence Is to be
lamented, and ruinous as it may prove to indi
viduals, it is not ibely to impose any perma-
ment obstacle to the onward progress OF the
country. Past experience shows that the United
States are able to bear up under the burden of
much more doubtful and fuctuating currency than
that which we now have.
Birds in their little nests agree, and It's shane.
ful sight when children of family fall out, ana