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is completely settled, and the Treasurer, who is responsible for the payment or the proper return to Washington of the evidence of payment, receives his warrant of reimbursement or other form of acknowledgment releasing him and cancelling the charge of the general Treasury against the office at which payment was made. When gold certificates in process of cancellation, which have been presented at the New York office, and the gold drawn for export, are either temporarily held by that office, or transmitted to Washington for complete cancellation, they are held as gold, and reported among the gold payments when sent.

Being in every respect, so far as the accounts of the office are concerned, the equivalents of gold, they are not distinguished from, but always included in the gold account, and of course form a part of the gold balance.

The "gold balance" at New York has varied little for a long time; it stands at from forty-four to forty-seven millions generally. On January 25 last, it was reported as $47,143,529, and the aggregate of all the sub-treasury and mint balances footed up a total, as officially reported, of $73,584,346 on that day. But in this aggregate, and chiefly at New York, there were the following items, merely held to be accounted for :

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Again, on February 24, the amounts of the various "coin" items

of this character were reported as follows:

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There is an omission evident here to report the gold certificates on hand, which amount, if taken at the same as on January 25, would make up $27,468,801, or nearly the same sum as that represented on January 25th.

The first step in correcting the gold statement is, therefore, to to eliminate what now stands at an average of twenty-seven millions, which is not gold in fact, but merely a form of keeping the accounts

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of the subordinate office with the central office at Washington. one of these items is either debt or credit in the account of the Treasury with the people. The coupons paid and bonds redeemed, and coin certificates cancelled, are all merely paid bills—the gold certificates are gold checks signed ready for issue.

The next feature of the statement is the account of gold debts due and unpaid, all of which constitute a demand charge against the gold in the Treasury. By the official statement of February 24, these items are as follows:

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But on March 1st the monthly debt statement' gives these items as

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The discrepancy in this case is not easy to explain, since the several calls of bonds for the syndicate and sinking fund matured on or before February 15th. The difference is evidently in the account of called bonds for the syndicate, which were not included, as they should have been, in the statement of February 24. It appears that of the several calls for the syndicate a large amount was still unpaid on March 1st, though interest had ceased from February 15th-perhaps fifteen millions in all; and this sum, with a large amount of gold interest then due, will throw heavy demands on the Treasury for many days. And in addition to these items a further sum of $4,864,157 of interest had fully matured on March 1st. The result is that the immediate gold liabilities are, or were on March 1st:

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Of this sum, however, the Treasury can carry thirty to thirty-five

N. Y. Journal of Commerce, March 3d.

millions by renewed issues of gold certificates, but it cannot protect the reserve of actual gold by their issue. The Treasury has resumed specie payments, so far as these are concerned, and it must meet any sum of them that may be presented to draw gold for export with the coin itself. They will pay interest and called bonds at home, but for payments on accounts of foreign holders the coin must go, if exchange in some other form cannot be obtained. It is clear that the large amount of these certificates out, now over thirty-five millions, would render the keeping of a gold balance impossible, if the revenues are deficient and no new bonds are going out. The debt may be necessarily increased as the only alternative to save the coin.

In the several statements of coin balance reported as for the general treasury, the silver coin and bullion owned by the government appear at full value. This amount, a little more than fifteen millions, is however wholly unavailable as gold or the equivalent of gold. No form of bonds or of interest payable can be met by the use of silver in any form. The amount snould therefore be subtracted from the coin balance, and put with the fractional currency, where it belongs. From the total of "coin balance," say of March 1st, the deductions therefore are:

66

Coin balance" March 1st................................. ·

Less silver........

..$70,035,772

.$15,349,191

Less amt, of immediate demand for int, and called bonds 34,028,253
Less outstanding certificates......

Deficit........

32,925,000

-$82,302,444

.$12,266,672

In the above calculation no account is taken of the several sums accounted for as gold merely through book-keeping forms, or as responsibilities on the part of the subordinate offices to the central office at Washington, or credits held by them against that office. It is scarcely possible that the statements of February 24, of "bonds redeemed and interest thereon, $13,832,553.65," should constitute a part of the "coin balance" while on March 1st there should have been an additional amount of "called bonds, $17,321,400," due and unpaid. If so, however, the whole of the book keeping sort of gold appearing as by the statement before made, derived from the official report of January 25th, at the sum of $27,176,781, would be added. to the gold deficit. It is probable that at least a part of the $17,636,710 of called bonds and interest reported as "called bonds" on March 1st, had then been paid at the New York office, and were

held as being coin to that office, though no more than cancelled paper to the general treasury. Excluding this item altogether there would still be, to be further taken from the coin balance of $70,035,772, any amount of coupons paid and gold certificates which might be held by that office after being redeemed but not cancelled, and any amount of gold certificates unissued, to be added to this deficit, or rather to be first taken from the sum of seventy millions before the other deductions are made. The result is the same, however, to add to the deficit just calculated the sum of the items number 1, 2 and 4 of the statement first given in this paper:

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If to this be added one half of the sum of $13,832,553, before stated as in doubt, the entire deficit reaches nearly $35,000,000. Against this we have as assets, the unavailable (as gold) $15,349,191 of silver coin and bullion, and whatever resources the issue of thirty-five millions of gold certificates may afford. But these avail nothing to protect the actual gold, as we have shown.

Next are the slowly accruing gold receipts. Of the receipts from customs about one-twentieth only is gold in fact; nineteen-twentieths are gold certificates. At New York, from January 1 to March 10th, 1876, the receipts for duties accruing at that port were:

Gold certificates.......

Gold in fact.......

Total........

..$19,877,216 1,035,000 $20,912,216

At other ports a larger proportion of gold is received, but the transfers of actual gold from other ports to New York would not reach five millions in the two and a half months as from custom receipts. The New York customs do not yield gold in any great amount. Half a million a month, or six millions a year is all. Their yield of certificates is abundant enough to pay interest and bonds redeemed or held by American owners; but not if the proceeds of such demands must go abroad.

The banks of New York held on March 11, $23,139,800 in "specie," of which about one million only was gold-the balance being gold certificates. Clearly the banks are not in condition to supply a drain for gold, and as the certificates are not payable by

them, their reserve of "coin" is immovable. The withdrawal of gold for export is from the United States Treasury at New York exclusively, and it is effected by the presentation of certificates, which in that case must be redeemed in actual gold coin.

W. B.

H

THE ART OF ENGLISH COMPOSITION.—II.'

AVING examined in a former paper the course of instruction in English pursued in the preparatory school, we turn now to the college-course, to see whether the last four years of training differ in this respect from the earlier period. If they do not, we need wonder but little that the gross defects which have been noticed in our young men of education, should exist to the degree alleged; if they do, we shall still find but little difficulty in comprehending why the results achieved by the more worthy course should be so meagre, since the more solid and substantial the later course is made, the more impossible is it for a weak foundation to support it.

The curriculum at college embraces generally Rhetoric, Logic," Philology, and the History of English Literature, with exercises in both Composition and Declamation. The character of the instruction varies, of course, in accordance with the learning of the professor, his capacity to impart knowledge, and the range of the topics which he selects for presentation to the class. But, at its worst, this

The Art of Discourse, H. N. Day, N. Y., 1874.

The Philology of the Human Tongue, John Earle, M. A., (2d edition), Oxford, 1873. (1st edition, 1871)

The English of Shakespeare, George L. Craik, London, 1864. (1st edition, 1859.)

Shakespeare's Comedy of the Merchant of Venice, with notes by William J. Rolfe, A. M., N. Y. 1872. (Other plays edited by Mr. Rolfe are The Tempest, Henry VIII., etc.

I consider Formal Logic a part of the course in. Composition, if only because thought is an essential element of discourse. I do not suppose, however, that it is necessarily the duty of the professor of English to teach Logic. On the contrary, the subject is much more properly treated as a part of Metaphysics, and may, therefore, be assumed in the English course, unless not taught in the other department.

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