New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-10-16
PUBLIC FINANCES.


The New York Evening Post thinks that
it sees the way clear to an early return
to specie payments by the government,
and, consequently, by the banks. The
Posts view is that this result is to be ac-
complished not simply by reducing the value
of the legal tender circulation, and still leav-
ing it irredeemable, but by laying up in the
treasury gold reserve equal to the amount
| of legal tender notes in circulation. More
over, under the present regulations, it is i'm
practicable to withdraw the whole of the legal
tender circulation, because the banks require
a hundred million as a reserve. If, without
distress or confusion, the quantity of notes
could be reduced to an amount Just sufficient
to supply the banks, this would not bring
back specie payments; for as long as there is
enough Of it in existence to supply the banks
with what the law requires them to hold
as reserve, this cheap paper money will
Econtinue to be used, and being irredeemable,
it will be below gold.
The secretary of the treasury is now saving
all of his gold receipts-seven or eight mil
lions per month-and within year he will
have laid up a hundred and fifty millions.
When this point is reached-such is the
argument of the Postal of the legal tender
notes held by the banks will be as good as
gold to them, and every bank will be as well
able to pay specie as now to pay legal ten
ders. Not only this but as all the banks
hold under the requirements of the law, a
| certain amount of government stocks, and
most of them hold by choice an additional
quantity of government securities, the re-
sumption of specie payments by the treasury
| will, the Post contends, be a matter of added
strength and of profit to the banks; for when
the government pays specie on all its obiga-
tions, its six per cent. bonds will be no longer
selling, as now, at seventy-fve cents on the
dollar, but will be worth at least par in gold
No interest in the country should more earn
estly desire that the treasury shall continue its
present sure, smooth and rapid progress to
specie payments than the banks.
The ROBERT E. LEE.-The steamboats,
which ply upon the Mississippi, between this
and the ports above, have long been celebrated
for their proportions and the magnificent
scale upon which they are gotten up. There
are many astonishing wonders TO the back
woodsman in visiting this city, but the
greatest and most enduring is that of these
mammoth floating palaces. He never ceases
to dilate upon them to his untraveled friends
at home even after all other sources of in
terest have failed.
For this class, and indeed for almost every
other, the Mississippi has now another marvel. |
The Robert E. Lee has completed her trial
trip, and her reputation for beauty, strength
and size is alluring an ever increasing crowd
upon her decks. She is the seventh boat
launched by Captain Cannon, and is in no
respect unworthy of the name she bears, She
has cabin accommodations for two hundred
and twenty persons and can almost carry off
a whole crop of ootton-six thousand bales of
it at any rate. She is, in comfort and con-
venience, one of the most commodious boats
ever built, and in most respects great i'm
pro7ement upon any that has ever preceded
her
Attracted by her fame, which had already
preceded her, we went on board with a throng
of curious visitors and witnessed for ourseIf
thls realization OF Oriental magnifcence |
Carpets of Wilton velvet extend unbroken for
more than two hundred feet in length; f11rni- |
ture of rosewood, cushions and seats Of heavy
crimson satin, new and original designs; daz-
zling chandeliers; arched and fretted ceilings
imitation Egyptian marble sills, are some of
the sights that confront the gaze of the spec
tator. And then her machinery cranks of
six thousand pounds; pistons, whose weight
is eighteen thousand pounds, and cylinders
whose diameter is forty inches, convey a faint
idea of what it is all like, and fully justify us
in the statement that in elegance, strength
and grandeur, the Robert E. Lee has never
been equaled upon these or any other waters
We wish Capt Cannon the same success that
has hitherto attended him in his enterprises
upon the New Orleans, yicksburg and Bend
packet route, and venture to predict that the
public will not show itself ungrateful for the |
efforts he has made to add to their comfort
and happiness while under his care.
The Chicago Republican says; The Evening
Star was built as the sister ship of the Morning
Star, by Roosevelt, Joyce & Co., for the New |
York Mail Sfaannchin Honnonv How Gr,+ ,,,o,--...