New-York daily tribune., 1858-02-02

We could wish those VINO from Qay 10 uhy give
forth oraeular and exulting assurances that "the
panic " is o5er-tbat prosperity is about 10 Do
restored, and, if possible increased-woud tell Us
exactly what they mean. We should then be able
to assent or demur-to rejoice or forebode-but
their present utterances are too vague and nythlc
TO subserye any practical purpose.
Ne contend that the country Is now doing well,
and preparing for more manifest prosperity, In
that it is reducing its Foreign Debt. Now, paying
debts is never delightful, exhilarating process:
on the contrary, it implies frugal habits, lenten en-
tertainments, low prices and busy sherifs. Incur
ring debt is far pleasanter r-incomparaoly 80
While it is rapidly progressing, times are glorous'
prices generous property steadily increasing IN
nominal value, and everybody Gin imagnation)
getting rapidly rich. Of course, every one is eager
to buy on credit and give notes, mortgages, &c,
confidently presumiDg that the enhanced and en-
hauciDg value Of the property thus acquired will
pay everything and leave a handsome surplus.
Under such circumstances, an addition OF One
Hundred Millionsto our Foreign Debt is regarded
as of little consequence or perhaps not regarded
all. Paying off that same Hundred Millions is quit
different affair, exposing all manner of ugly AMI
jagged rocks over which our bark foated bravey
on the high tide of imitation and expanding debt.
This country is doing better to-day than it wa
a year ago, in that it is now paying debt which it
was then incurring. 1t is selling it's Produce at low
rates, but its Exports largely oyerbalance it's I'm
ports. True, its Manufactures are pPostrate and
stagnant, and a large portion of its Industry 10
paralyzed, its Labor empOyed-deplorable cir
Gun stances, which a wisely adjusted Protective
Tariff would reverse in month. But no such
Tariff can now be obtained, and, in its absence, We
are digging out from under our mountain of Debt as
welias We can. Haggard misery, resulting from want
of work, still throngs the streets of our cities not
only but of our manufacturing villages as well tens
of thousands who eagerly, despairingly seek-work
still ssfer and famish for want fit; but their num-
Der is less now than it was month ago. and will be
less month or two hence than it is now. Bad as
things are, there is an undeniabe tendency toward
improvement in almost every department. Weare
buying lightly of foreign fripperies we are, as a
people, saving our pence, improving our time, and
paying at least some Of our debts. Let things go
on as at present and we shall be many Millions
nearer out Of debt next New Years than we were
last.
But when we read exultations over subsiding
Panic and reviying Trade, we are impelled to ask
their authors, What would you have What do you
mean2 Do You hope to see the infatuatiOns of
1856 and the earlier half of 1857 revived! Would
you rejoice over q return to the days wherein our
Imports exceeded our Exports by Millions per
week?-wherein everybody eagerly bought every
thing on credit and sold If at an advance still longer
or weaker credit ?-wherein We exported Railroad
Bonds by the ream and peddled them out at any
rate for Silks and Metals Crockery and DOZENS
If you would, we very decidedly would not. On
the contrary We rejoice that those fast times are
over and do not desire their return. We rather
hope and labor to render their return impossible.
We surely ought, as a community, to realize by
this time that the seeming prosperity which is
based on universal and everincreasing Indebtedness
is delusion and snare-that tits dOwnhi career,
ending in gulf of bankruptcy-and that the shock
which arrests it, though rude and painful, is in the
larger view, wholesome and necessary.
Reader. when you hear any one predicting or
exultng over the revival of Trade, the return of
Prosperity, ask him to state definitely what he
means, and especially if he contemplates revival
of the facility of living without useful work and
plunging headlong into unfathOmable debt.
Ys - % uConoressional intervention" TO add little