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Show EESUMPTIOM OF SPECIE PAYMENT Kx-Secri'tary uf the Treasury Btut-well Btut-well delivered a lecture in New York, rrecntly, on " Finance; the Panic and iLs remedies," wnich ie find re-pjrttd re-pjrttd at considerable length in the U'nf't. Mr. Hon t well considered the que.-tion of a rcsmnition of specie payment, advancing some very cogent . reasons, why it was not practical for j the banks of the country to ru-umc such payments, hut admitting that the government could; and taking 1 the position that a currency redeemable redeema-ble in coin at par in coin was all that i w:, required. The gentleman has, perhaps, brlter opportunities of knowing know-ing the capability of the government in this direction than any other man, except hi? successor, Secretary Richardson, Rich-ardson, and the chiyf clerks of the Treasury Department, ami showed his continued possession of a correct knowledge of the financial affairs of j the country by correcting, in the leo-; leo-; ture referred to, the chairman of the ! meeting before which it was delivered : - -fudge Edwards Picrpont who had said that under Mr. Iioutweil's administration ad-ministration six hundred millions of the public debt had been paid; the lecturer remarking that the amount paid was "less by hundreds of millions' ' than had been asserted, i Leaving the question, however, of bow much of the public debt was "paid by President Grant," if any, during the years Mr. Boutwell held the portfolio of the Treasury, we may accept his statement that the Govcrnmentisablc to resume specie payment. In other words, it is in a condition, instead of peddling gold in the Xew York market. mark-et. and thus making fortunes for speculators, spec-ulators, to redeem any amount of currency, cur-rency, with coin, which tho ordinary demands of business might present to it. With this fact before the country, tho question might be pertinently put Why is not specie payment resumed at once? Mr. Boutwell seems to labor under the impression that the general resumption of specie payment means the calling in of all the legal tenders, and the transaction of all business by coin payments alone. 'Lett ere of credit, cred-it, drafts, checks and bills of exchange arc no more than a medium of paper currency, and a government issue of notes redeemable in coin is just as much a means of specie payments as the actual handing over the counter ' of gold eagles. California lias its gold ! notes, and while these notes arc incir-! incir-! dilation they answer all the purposes of coin, being nt thesametimea hundred-fold easier handled and carried. It'is not necessary that a bank should have in its vaults at one time all the gold represented by these notes, nor that government should have stored away in the Treasury vaults the hundreds hund-reds of millions of coin of which its notes issued would be the representative. representa-tive. It is only necessary that there should be the percentage which experience ex-perience and tho laws of trade declare : sufficient to meet any ordinary do-j do-j maud. Let government resume payments pay-ments in specie, and gold gambling I would cease, for as soon as the coun-I coun-I try T.tiidoi-ciood lU:it a. Jolliir grocii-; grocii-; back would be redeemed at the Trea-sury Trea-sury for a dollar in gold, men would ! refuse to part with it, for any lees than its face value. Within the past i few months, according to tho telc-, telc-, graphic rt ports furnished fromWash-j fromWash-j ington, the coin balance in the Trca-1 Trca-1 sury, including coin certificates, has been over seventy millions; and this has been doled out at a million or two weekly, and sold to the highest bid- i der in Xew Y'ork, the government buying in its own notes at a heavy discount, and publishing jts own shame to the civilized world, in that : it has issued promises to pay and buys them back at less than their par value. Another thing might be done, by Congress, that would aid in this matter. mat-ter. If u:o are not mistaken- the maximum of silver that can bo legally legal-ly tendered in payment is five dollar. Let this be increased to ten times the amount, or even more, by amending j the statute restricting the amount, and silver dollars, half dollars, quarters quar-ters and dimes will quickly take the ! place of the like denominations of I paper currency, being so much more , desirable. ! If the government seeks an illustration illustra-tion of a country that pays in specie '. on demand, yet has a large amount of paper currency in circulation, a 1 single glance across the Atlantic to ! Great Britain will furnish it, a fact ' which cannot have escaped Mr, Bout well's observation, though his , manner of expressing himself would : almost lead one to imagine that it |