New-York daily tribune., 1858-07-10

TIE Washington Union is of opinion that oil our
existing financial disasters and the parsyss OF In
dustry with which the country il effi!ete1 are
directly traceable to the California gold. We had
obtained, according 10 that journal, In the Sub
Treasury Law of l546, complete and perpetual
preyen.ive, as matters then stood, against the re-
currence Of commercial reyulsions like that expe-
renced in Is37-4o. The specie in the country at
that period being about hundred millions Of dol
lars, ard the operations Of the National Treasury
about thirty seven millions year. with reserve OF
five millions in the Treasury complete control"
was thereby established, according TO The Ua'on
over the bank issues Of the 1ntry, whereby they
were kept within perfectly safe limits, and the dan
ger Of apy undue Initiation of the currency, and coz
.eouent commercial crisis Md collapse, efectually
prevented. The collapse under which We are now
suffering The Union ascribes to the fact that, iu
consequence of the California gold discoveries the
specie in the country was increased to two hua-
dred and sixty millions, thereby, according
TO that journal, greatly diminishing the con-
troll of the Sub Treasury over the amount
Of bapk issues. Though the competency
"of the system to prevent inHstons Of bank issues
"aDd paper credits was perfect while the amount
"of metallic currency was one hundred million, Of
"doIars, it Of course became only part al when
"that amount had swollen to the enormous figure
"of two hundred and sixty millions" But in this
attempted apology The Union quite overlooks the
fact tina. if the metallic currency Of the county hsd
augmented, 30 the revenues Of the country and the
surplus kept on hand had increased in very nearly
equal proportion. If system dealing in some
forty millions, revenue and surplus included could
operate with "absolute control" upon basis OF
specie in the county amounting to hundred mil
lions, we do not perceive why system dealing 10
some ninety millions, income and surplus included,
should have proved utterly destitute of control over
ba.is Of specie in the country amounting to two
hundred and sixty millions.
Recent experience has indeed abund. .nty proved
that the Sub-Treasury system, however usefdl it
may have been, or may be- check upon the banks,
cannot be in the slightest degree relied upon asa
preventive Of commercial fluctuations, and that in
this respect it is just as Inefficient as Sir Robert
Pees famous Bank Restriction act, from which
similar result was expected.
SureIy, ii IL IL in Ine power vi tne ouD' AIcnsu'J
to put matters right, the plea of failure of pro-
portion between the money transactions Of the
national Treasury and the total currency of the
country can DO longer be set up. The currency
at least that part of it consisting in bank notes.
has undergone, in the last nine months, a very
great contraction. No corresponding contraction
has taken place in the moneyed operations of
the Government. While everything else has con-
tracted, our expenses have been kept up to the
most eAtr~~.sant rates of past times. Whether
this eItravsgant expenditure was intended to re-
establish that proportion which The Union thnksso
very important, between the moneyed transactions
of the Government and the total currency OF the
coustry, we do not know; but whether Intended or
not, the effect ought by this time to begin to be
produced.