The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-26

notes by compelling holders to fund their notes in 4 per cent bonds, or exchange
 them at the rate of 8 in old for g in new notes. To carry out the plan, the necessary bonds and notes were author ized and duly issued. A new bond issue was provided which was to turn 5000 0o0,- OOO Of per cent bonds to the support of the government. Apparently the amount or notes refunded in bonds was $250 00O, ,000
 The effect was not as popularly expected. mere was a scarcity of currency, and the prices of commodities continued to rise, which surprised and exasperated the people. Gold, which had been $23 in pa- per when the act was passed, fell to $17 in four months, and then rose to $40 be- fore the end of 1864. The new and old notes were after time equally discred- lted and continued to depreciate togeth- er The attempt to float the $500, ,O0O, 900 of 5 per cent bonds met with little success
 Tn short, the famous act of February r, lSo4' wrecked the Confederate govern ment finances beyond the ope of saving them from final ruin, Memminger blamed Congress for not more closely following nls instructions, but the people blamed M Mgenmlnger alone. So did Congress, and resigned on June 15. 1864 and was Suc- ceeded by George A. Trenholm, an abler man or larger financial experience which was brought too late to the service of the Contederacy to avert the doom to which 1t had been committed by the policy cul- minating in the Funding Act.
 And the author concludes this central theme or his history which we have slenderiy summarized by saving:
 ''Among the agencies which weakened
 the power of the South to resist the North, we put first. the Federal block ade. and the Confederate financial policy. Memmtnger cannot escape the responsi- biifty of the latter. It was framed large ly upon lines suggested by him, and it's development and final cuImination in ut- ter government bankruptcy were not se- hNF
 cier of like talent to that of the Southern military leaders would doubtless have conducted the affairs of the treasury with more success"
 The Funding Act had been an onen aVowal of government bankruptcy. and very naturally the finances of the Con- federacy were expressed in small figures thereafter. But Professor Schwab, in thls caretul history of the fiscal and in- dustrial career of the Confederate States presents many chapters into which the line followed by tho reviewer has moi led He takes up in one chapter the Southern banks in another, the manufacturing and other industries; the military des- potism of the government; the Confed- crate currency; speculation and trade; pricGs; State and local taxation etc. The general effect produced upon the reader Is one Of wonder, heaped upon the old time wonder that the Confederacy could have endured as long as it did The , mingling of reminder and of new reveIa- tion as to the exigencies of Confederate finance leads to acquiescence in the au- thOr's conclusion that the Southerner'H sacrifices far exceeded those of the revo lutionary patriots" though the reader may not agree with him that "somethlng miglE have been saved from the wreck' not make it clear that wiser measures If conceived. could. under the circumstances have been executed.
 The iamn-post standa in ifa a1wrr Il~,A