The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-30

We are in the season when the temptations to
moralize are almost irresistible. The lapsing days
and months speed by unheeded and uncounted,
till we approach the point when another unit
must be added to the sum of the centuries-when
every event must bear another date, and every
heart the weight and the memories of another
year. AT the pause-when the recording angel
is tracing new figure on the dial-plate Of Time
none but brute, or man incapable equally of
provision and Renaissance, escapes the conscious
ness of unwonted emotions. In the enforced re-
Prospect the mind will scarcely stop within the
limits of the closing year-but winging the whole
flight of memory will call up, in long array,
events which stamp their indelible impress even
on the humblest lives How shapes and shades
of the past throng around to fright to shame, to
grieve, to warn-to guide us How fondly re-
called the lost ones from home and hearth-dead
in the earth--parted in sorrow-forever buried in
arrangement Little ones of our beartS-dear
brothers and sisterS-revered parents-boSom
frends-are ye now indeed, nought but shrinking
dust and fading memories Yet the moment
may not be all one of sadness The consciousness
of deeds well done-of parts well performed-and
the eternal spring of hope which all the remem-
bered disappontments Of long years in no wise
cloud check, will be present in many
a bosom at this time-deeds done and parts
chiefly performed in the midst of trouble-for
the year of 1858, to the mass has been one of
much trial and most sore distress.
In business it has been the assignee of the bank
ruptcy of 1851. Its successes have been negative.
1t has been happy, happy at all, in discovering
that things are not so bad as they seemed 1t
has collected some debts, deemed desperate, and
seen some ships, given up by the insurance offices,
come into port. 1t has been gathering up the
scattered spoils and oblieratng the traces of the
tempest-knitting the bones-healing the wounds,
and restoring the paralyzed muscle of the living,
and burying the dead out of sight 1t has at last
learned to smile at some of the terrors which
lately made 'mens hearts to fail them with
fear" Never was tropical hurricane, or earth
quake, or other CONFUSION of nature, so sudden,
So Unexpected, so unprepared for. Yet now the
causes are weighed, and the consequences esti-
mated, and we know that the danger is past, and
that a better time is at hand.
Comparing the crisis of 1851 with that of 1887
we see at once so many and startling points of
distinction as to leave no ground for supposing
that our recovery, now, will be the slow and
painful state of valetudinarianism, which we then
passed through. The most essential difference
between the two is that one was the inevitable
collapse of a mere speculation, infamed and car
ried to the point of explosion by currency
almost as redundant and worthless as the assign
ats of the French Revolution-while the other
was the failure of enterprises, real if they were
gigantic, and beyond our present strength, and
which still remain essential and imperishabe
parts of the wealth of the country.
The speculations preceding the disastrous season
of 1887, were ''baseess as the fabric of vision"
Their failure showed the country in state OF pow
erty and paralyss-which required long years OF
patien toll to remove. The hand of government
had been in the matter. The Bank of the UNITED
STATES was in the field, a formidable, unsubdued,
and debauching monster. Lavish as were her IA
yors, still more lavish were those OF
the rival deposit banks, The industry OF