New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-15

| from during that came quarter were Ser'nf"n MI
| Ions. In other words, the Government for that
quarter collected funds at the rate of 1nentyelght
Millions per annum and expended them at the rate
Of SiJtp-eieht Millions thus making leewsy at the
rate of Forty Millions per snnum. In all the past
history of our Government, even when We were IN
VOWED in desperate war with Great Britain and
our ports nearly closed by her cruisers the Treasury
never before ran behindhsnd so rapidly as this.
We presume the details of the Treasurer's state
ment will somewhat enliven this picture, by show
ing that somewhere between Two and Four Millions
Of the outgoes were devoted to the redemption Of
outstaDdmg Public Debt. 80 that the actual leeway
was only about Thirty instead Of Forty Millions per
snnum. But even this, in time Of profound peace
with all the world outside of our own boundaries,
il appalling And the excess Of Receipts by Tx
yenditures though somewhat diminished, still con-
tinues Each succeeding week sees the Federal
Government Aounderrg uuder still heavier load
of debt.
One of the worst features of the case is the pal
pable incapacity Of our rulers to comprehend the
nature and gravity of the crisis. While the Business
and Industry of the country we're rushing rapidly
TO collapse aud stagnation the Treasury continued
redeeng five per cent stocks at fifteen to eighteen
per cent. premium as the prosperity of the coun-
try had received no check and the plethora of the
Treasury we're never to know abatement. And,
after the bolt had fallen ard the whole fabric of in-
ordinate Trade and Inflated Prices had been shiyered
to dust, President Buchanan in his Annual Mes
sage coolly treated the matter as affair Of Bank
Encouragement and Bank collapse merely, assuming
that resumption of Specie Payments by the Banks
would cure all. Now, the fact is well known among
men of competent knowledge of finance that the
suspension of Specie Payments, though undoubtedly
an evidence and a consequence of general CONNER
cial distress and Insolvency, was in itself measure
Of relief to business and industry, and was felt to
be such by every merchant, every manufacturer,
throughout the land. We deplored the necessity of
Suspension; We struggled against that necessity to
the last; We insisted on Resumption at the earliest
poss bic day; but we never doubted, and have not
Low shadow of doubt, that the receipts of the
Treasury since last October have been decidedly
heavier, the aggregate nngs of Labor more con-
siderable, and the number of the unemployed and
suffering far less, than if Suspension had taken
place. 1t was very proper mat Tie Danhs oh~-iI
resume Specie Pa, ment when they did; the cond-
ton and prospects both OF the Treasury and OF
the Nations Industry are better than If the
Banks were still neOlvent; but, other things re-
mail ing the same. there will be no more Work, no
more Wages, and no more Revenue, III 1905, thau
there would have been had the Suspens on continued
till next January.
Mr.. Secretary Cobb Of course thinks differently,
since be officially estimates the Imports OF the next
fiscal year (Juy IS to July, 59) at Three Hundred
and Seventy Millions worth Ofcourse, they may be
so much, or even Five Hundred Millions worth,
since no man can absolutely foresee the future, and
unforeseen influences may work immense changes;
yet our decided conviction is that except through
the influence of some new Californian or Australian
discovery, some South Sea or Mississppi-sc scheme
imitation, the Imports of the next fiscal year (shoud
no material change in our Tariff be eiected) VIII
not reach Three Hundred Millions. Lei time decide
who is nearest right on this point.
We hear from every side calculations like this:
Commercial Ievusions are inevitably temporary In
their influence, and the wealth of our country and
Of the civilized world is now so great the facilities
for Traffic so vastly increased, that the effects OF
this one must vanish rapidly than those OF any
among its predecessors. Consumption is now 60
il on almost as rapidly as ever, while the produc-
ton and sale from first hands of all but articles OF
prime necessity is greatly contracted; hence Trade
must soon revive under the pressure OF increasing
aud wide spread wants and it must necessarily be
intensified by the past stagnatioD, as the frOsts OF
Winter are succeeded by the floods of Spring. or
course, there is some Truth in this views but not
half so much as those who are busly dlffusng 1t
believe. The graver overruling truth is, that the
Trade of several past years was Fictitious and
bloated-that too many were engaged in and SUBJ
sisted by it-that tens of thousands have bought
furniture, built houses, worn silks, driven fast
horses, and drank champagne, on the strength not
Of their positive means but of their ability to con-
tract debts, or perhaps of the debts of others to
them, based Oh land and other specuations, which
debts will never be paid. We hold, therefore, that
the Imports of this country for several years prior
to last Fall were thirty to fifty per cent. larger
than they should have been and that the return of
genuine prosperity will leave our Foreign Com
merce, and consequently the Federal Revenue, far
below the aggregates Of several past years
If we are correct in these views, the present
policy of our National rulers is little short OF mad
ness. Living from hand to mouth BY means of
most eIceptionable issue Of shnplaster promises to
pay, which are below par in market, and only
accepted as payment because the public creditors
are glad to get paid any how-seeing the National
Debt increase in time of peace at the rate Of Mil
hons per month-we hear not word from those
rulers OF the necessity of increasing the Revenue