THE PROSPECTIVE OF GOLD. The London Times, of a late date, furnishes the following speculations touching the "future of gold," "The question as to the probable effects of an abundance of gold is again in agitation. California has thus far realized more than was expected by the most sanguine, the product at the end of each year having exceeded the highest estimate at the commencement, and there are now indications of a similar promise from the new regions in Australia. A disposition, however, still prevails to believe that no extraordinary changes in the relations of money are impending. When the California mines were first discovered, it was admitted that if any thing like eight or ten millions should annually be produced for a scries of years, there could be no doubt strange effects would be witnessed. But it was contended that instead of this continued yield, there would be a gradual decline after the first year or two. That idea being now effectually set aside, a new argument is adopted. The exports of gold from California for twelve months ending the 31st December, 1850, were equal, it is supposed, to £12,000,000, while for the present year, judging from the first nine months, they may be estimated at £15,000,000. In the face of this supply there has been no very observable disturbance in the measure of value. It is therefore assumed that the augmented quantity has been met by an augmented demand, and that with the increasing traffic of the world, a like annual addition will henceforth easily be absorbed. "This inference, although it is urged by some able economical writers, appears altogether unsupported. The only tests of the result of the increased supply would be an alteration in the relative value of gold and silver, or a general and unaccountable rise in the prices of all articles. But the extensive displacement of silver which has occurred in France, and which was plainly foreseen, has prevented the first of these from being available, except to a very limited extent, while, with regard to the second, the changes in our commercial system have been such as to produce a rapid fall in all commodities far more than sufficient to neutralize any moderate influences of an opposite kind. Apart from free-trade, moreover, there is quite enough to account for the increased influx having thus far produced no palpable manifestations. The Bank of France at this moment holds £8,000,000 sterling in excess of what she possessed in 1849; the extent to which hoarding, both of gold and silver, has been carried on all over the Continent during the past three years, and especially in Italy and throughout the Austrian empire, has perhaps been unprecedented; a drain no less remarkable has been caused by the Irish emigration, which has carried large totals to western America, where much of it will long remain; and finally, there has been the return to India of a great portion of that specie which was suddenly drawn to England after the panic of 1847. Exceptional circumstances exist, therefore, sufficient to render it unnecessary to assume that an increase in the demand for gold has suddenly sprung up to an extent such as steadily to absorb fifteen millions per annum. The tendency of civilization is to render needless the use of the precious metals for the purposes of barter, and although new colonies and settlements for a time create fresh demands, there is no reason to suppose that they more than counteract the economical influences elsewhere in progress. Even California herself is not believed to have absorbed, in the shape of circulation, more than two or three millions, while on the other hand we have to bear in mind the effects of extended banking accommodations, and the use of money orders, postage stamps, and other similar contrivances, which are more or less being imitated in every part of the world. "Hence we may still infer that previous to the discovery of California the production of gold, increased as it had been by the large supply from Russia, was equal most probably to the annual demand; that its value is consequently liable to be reduced nearly to the extent of the exports from California, and that such reduction will of course be measured by the proportion which the new supply may bear to the existing stock. What the amount of that stock may be is wholly unknown, but there can be little question that fifteen millions per annum is not relatively an insignificant addition to it. Some investigators have surmised that 400 millions is about the total in circulation throughout the world. If that can be taken as in any degree correct, it will easily be understood that the California supplies must soon make themselves seriously felt whenever the condition of Europe shall cause the quantities now eagerly secreted to return to active pursuits. "But it is, after all, not a question of an addition of fifteen millions per annum. If any reliance can be placed on ordinary evidence, the production from California alone is only likely to be limited by the amount of population able to reach the State and the rapidity of the arrangements for obtaining machinery. It is impossible to name any other reason why the fifteen millions should not be increased to thirty or sixty. No word of failing supplies has yet reached us. On the contrary, the miners seem disposed to welcome as many fellow laborers as may seem fit to join them, and every one asserts that the whole country is rich, and that as far as the present generation are concerned, it may be pronounced inexhaustible. The old impression that gold is never found in large or continuous quantities is wholly dispelled, and scarcely any news could now arrive from California, Bolivia, Peru, or Australia, that could take the public greatly by surprise. "In the face of these circumstances it must be injurious to encourage the tendency, always too strong in the majority of minds, to believe that the old routine of things is to go on as it has always gone. It can do no harm to keep the possibilities of the case constantly in view, so that people may learn gradually and quietly to adapt their interests to whatever may occur." THE EXPLANATIONS OF BANKRUPTS. The pressure in the money market has caused, or, at any rate, it has been made the pretext of several remarkable and unexpected failures. A man in Salem has failed, who is reported to be worth two millions of dollars over and above his liabilities. He intends, it is said, to discharge what he calls his direct engagements, but to postpone as long as possible his contracts as endorser, if not to escape them altogether. Other failures of a like character have taken place in New York and elsewhere, where a large excess of assets over indebtedness is confidently asserted to exist. The reason assigned for these failures is the determination of the parties to violate their contracts and stop payment, rather than submit to any considerable sacrifice for the sake of maintaining their good faith by fulfilling their engagements. This reason for failing is sometimes assigned without truth, for the sake of saving the pride of the bankrupt, when his assets are, in reality, enormously deficient. But as it is undoubtedly the true reason in other cases, we have a remark or two to make about it. We will take the Salem failure for an example. A man with $2,000,000 of assets, at a fair estimate, and with $1,000,000 of debt, finds himself pinched for cash to pay his notes, when money is scarce. Three alternatives are presented to him. He can raise sufficient money to meet his engagements by paying the market rate of interest for it, as poorer men do, and which may be one or two per cent a month. Or he can raise money by selling a part of his property, obtaining, of course, much less than it would bring in easy times. By taking either of these courses, he may make what he considers a sacrifice of $200,000, and after he has made it, he will still have a princely fortune of $800,000 left. But his grasping avarice may lead him to prefer the third alternative-namely, bankruptcy. By taking such a course, a man of wealth (if he be such) sets a most pernicious example in any country. In the case which we have supposed for the sake of illustration, the failure is not as much a matter of stern necessity as of sordid convenience and dishonest gain. He postpones payments of small amounts to much poorer men than himself, who are greatly injured by such postponement. He shuffles off the burden of "hard times" (which it belongs to him to bear more manfully than others) upon a host of creditors, not one of whom may possess a tithe of his real ability to pay. He may be a man who has always insisted upon the last farthing of pay, and the uttermost punctuality from his debtors. He may have availed himself of the bright side of speculation to amass his wealth, and consequently have no excuse for shirking the dark side when the turn of the die has brought it uppermost. He may be one who, if a much poorer man desired to stop the payment of a note due to him, on the ground that it would cost some considerable sacrifice to raise the money now, and that it would be much handier to pay it in about four years-would treat such a pretext with unlimited scorn. If the rich man postpones his notes and debts and payments three or four years, in such a time as the present, he compels his smaller creditors to submit to a loss of from 20 to 40 per cent, according to their needs and the high rate which they are compelled to pay for money. This loss is certain, even if ultimate payment at a distant day is secured; for all that he expects to allow them is six per cent interest, while they are obliged to pay far higher rates. The rich bankrupt may and often does use the funds gained by staving off his debts, in secretly buy ing them up at 30 or 40 per cent discount, and makes a capital but dishonest speculation out of his own failure. These things have happened, and may happen again, and in these remarks we are not describing any individual in particular, but a class of bankrupts. The effect of such failures is doubly disastrous-bad by the wide-spread and special loss which they occasion, and still worse by the evil of their example. The cry goes abroad-if millionaires are to be exempted from facing financial pressures, how can poorer men be expected to do so? If the rich are privileged to sneak under the cov er of bankruptcy, and postpone their payments for years, by what principle of morality or equal justice can it be incumbent upon ordinary debtors to make sacrifices of property to meet their contracts? As one consequence of such examples, a merchant informed us that the business men of a neighboring town had talked seriously about "suspending" in a body till a "more convenient season," thinking, shrewdly enough, that there would not be much harm or disgrace about such a step, after what had happened elsewhere. It is to be hoped, however, that the Salem platform in bankruptcy will not be extensively followed in honest communities. ROTHSCHILD, THE BANKER, IN TROUBLE. The Paris correspondence of the Courier des Etats Unis contains the following anecdote of Baron Rothschild : The splendid New Year's fetes which were to have been celebrated at the Hotel Rothschild have been put aside, on account of a family sorrow, a very young child, a grandson of Baron Rothschild, having recently died. The Baron was so much affected by this affliction, that for some time he gave up the care of his affairs, and neglected his vast enterprises. 66 A few days since a friend came to offer him his condolence; the Baron recalled, with a melancholy tenderness, the winning ways of the poor little child. They brought him in to me every morning," said he; "here is my cabinet, and I think I see him now, on my table, overturning all my papers." At this period an agent from the exchange came in. It was the hour when he came to take the orders of the prince of finance, and render him an account of the movement in the funds, and the aspect affairs had taken on the Bourse since the day above. Interrupted in the overflowings of his memories and regrets, M. de Rothschild fell into a melancholy revery, while the agent launched bravely into the subject of his habitual visit, and continued, with the most minute detail, his expose of the state of financial matters, without being disconcerted by the silence of his auditor, which he attributed to continued and deep calculation. After having finished his report on the state of all the stocks negotiated on 'Change the agent added:— "A new advance in the public funds is expected-do you believe in it, M. le Baron ?" M. de Rothschild, aroused from his revery, raised his head, and replied, with an accent full of sadness and gravity "I, sir? I believe only in God.” HOARDING OF GOLD. The immense additions made to our circulating medium, since the discovery of California, says the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, can scarcely be realized, except by those who refer to statistics on the subject. Nevertheless it is evident, even to the most cursory observer, that the amount of gold in circulation is far greater than it was twenty, or even ten years ago. We can distinctly remember when an American gold coin was something of a curiosity. However, less gold is in circulation than there should be, considering the large quantity sent out from the mint. The practice of hoarding gold, in part, explains this. All through the rural districts, gold is hoarded to a very great extent; and even in cities, though to a less degree. Thousands of persons who would never think of hoarding a bank note, hoard gold, for the latter can never lose its value, which the former may. A few dollars laid by here, and a few dollars there, produce, in the aggregate, a large sum. It is impossible to tell to what extent this hoarding is carried on, but there is good reason to believe it prevails to a very great extent; and, in consequence, quite considerable sums are being thus annually withdrawn from circulation. It is not only the merchants of England, that drain our gold currency-it is the provident of our own country, who save and hoard it. UNITED STATES TREASURER'S STATEMENT, NOVEMBER 28, 1851. TREASURER'S STATEMENT, SHOWING THE AMOUNT AT HIS CREDIT IN THE TREASURY, WITH ASSISTANT TREASURERS AND DESIGNATED DEPOSITARIES, AND IN THE MINT AND BRANCHES, BY RETURNS RECEIVED TO MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1851, THE AMOUNT For which drAFTS HAVE BEEN ISSUED BUT WERE THEN UNPAID, AND THE AMOUNT THEN REMAINING SUBJECT TO DRAFT. SHOWING, ALSO, THE AMOUNT OF FUTURE TRANSFERS TO AND FROM DEPOSITA RIES, AS ORDERED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Transfers ordered to Treasury of the United States, Washington. Transfers ordered to Depositary at Cincinnati, Ohio. 2,536 74 $13,436,529 74 1,176,610 00 $12,259,919 74 $200,000 00 825,000 00 100,000 00 170,000 00 1,380 00 2,390 00 1,380 00 $1,300,150 00 Transfers ordered from Assistant Treasurer, New York....... $100,000 00 23,540 00 $123,540 00 ANCIENT COINS IN THE UNITED STATES MINT. The ancient coins in the Mint, in Philadelphia, are displayed in eight cases, mitered in pairs, and placed erect against the walls in the wide doorways and the middle room. The modern coins are variously arranged; part (including all those of the United States) being in a nearly level case, and part being in upright cases, disposed along the walls of the middle and west rooms. The ores, minerals, and metallic alloys are placed in the west room; in the eastern are shown the national and other medals, and the fine beams used for the adjustment of weights. The middle room also contains portraits of the directors of the mint, beginning with Rittenhouse, the first director. A great majority of the coins-almost all of those not over three hundred years old -have been culled from deposits, and consequently have cost us no more than their bullion value. They are, moreover, the choicest of their kind; and, perhaps, there are few cabinets where so large a proportion of the pieces are in so fine preservation, as well the ancient as the modern. At the present time the aggregate of specimens is about 650 in gold, 2,100 in silver, 1,200 in bullion, brass, copper, &c; in all, 3,950. Of these the ancient Greek and Roman number 82 in gold, 503 in silver, and 480 in other metals; in all, 1,065. There are a number of scarce English and Colonial coins, also some very rare ancient Persian coins from the East India Company, and some very curious antiques from Middle Asia. IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT IN RHODE ISLAND. The Senate of Rhode Island has passed a bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt, and it only remains for the house to endorse it to become a law. It is somewhat curious that one of the most enlightened commonwealths of the Union has not before adopted this reform. William Beach Lawrence, the Lieutenant-Governor, has made a report on the subject which narrates several cases of great hardship under the old law. Of six persons, confined in a single cell in Providence, five were for debts under five dollars; and they had been immured from two weeks to four months. A poor cripple was lately arrested in the same city, for a debt of three dollars and twelve cents, just as he was about to go on board an oyster boat, where, by means of his remaining limbs, he hoped to be able to earn a scanty livelihood. The worst use a debtor can be put to is to confine him in jail, unless, indeed, he is fraudulent; and for persons of this description provision is made in all acts abolishing imprisonment for debt. To permit arrests for debt, under ordinary circumstances, is equally useless and cruel. In the States where the abolition has taken place the best results have followed. If there is a commonwealth left in the Union where imprisonment for debt is allowed, the barbarous law cannot be struck from the statute book too soon. AN EMERALD MINE IN EGYPT. The Overland Chronicle contains the following interesting account of an emerald mine in Egypt:-"It appears that the existence of an emerald mine on Mount Zabarah, situate on an isle in the Red Sea, has long been known. It had been worked by the Pacha of Egypt, but the operations had been stopped in the latter years of the reign of Mehemet Ali. A short time ago an English company obtained permission to carry on the digging, which promised to yield them immense wealth. Recently their engineer, Mr. R. Allan, discovered, at a great depth, traces of a great gallery, bearing about it evidence of extreme antiquity. Here he found ancient instruments and utensils, and a stone with a hieroglyphic inscription on it in a great measure destroyed. It appears that in his time, Belzoni, to whom the world is so much indebted for its knowledge of the wonders of Egypt, had given it as his opinion that this mine had been worked by the ancient Egyptians, and this discovery establishes the soundness of his remark. The configuration of the gallery, and the nature and shape of the tools found in it, it is said, exhibit great skill in the art of engineering. From the inscription on the stone, so far as it can be read, it is believed that the laboring in the mine of Zabarah had commenced in the reign of the great Sesostris, (living about 1650 before Christ,) whom antiquity describes as combining the character of a conqueror with that of a prince of vast enterprise in the arts of peace. |