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SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. morning, we learn that the By a dispatch received this (Wednesday) York city and Boston have all suspended specie payments. Of course, and necessarily, this example will be followed at once by the country lieved. banks, and the pressure will be re-
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Business Prospects East. The New York Tribune, of the 17th últ., referring to the resumption by the banks there of specie payments, says: The rapid accumulation of specie in the vaults of the banks, particularly those of this city, by which the present suspension of specie payments was immediately followed, the maintenance at nearly specie value of the bank note circulation, and the speedy and voluntary action on the part of the banks, by which specie payments have been resumed, would seem to argue, after all that has been said, a degree of soundness and vitality in our currency, and a power of recuperation, vastly beyond that which exlisted at either of the former occasions, to which we naturally refer for comparison.They afford ground, too, for expecting that we may now escape the after-claps which then proved even more disastrous than the first break-down."
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diseased parts in which the late revulsion de- stroyed all vitality, and yet which cling tena- ciously to the sound surroundings. In other words, the law is required to effect a settlement, once and forever, of the unsettled debts which are now bringing the country merchants to the city in search of renewals; to set free say five thousand of the ten thousand merchants who are said to have failed last year, and to put their creditors out of their pain. It is likewise needed in order to guard against future revul- sions of the same character as that of last year. Had the banks of this city been liable to be wound up by the action of courts which were not State courts and not liable to be controlled by powers in the State, they would never have expanded as unwisely as they did last summer, and they would not, as a necessary consequence, have required to suspend in the fall. Had the merchants throughout the country had the vision of a Bankrupt law before them they would have bought more moderately, and would have been able to pay when their notes came due; and, in the same way, private citizens would have lived and spent their time in a more modest and suitable manner. The want of a Bankrupt law precipitated the crisis. Its enactment now would largely help to heal existing sores, and to prevent the likelihood of revulsions hereafter. # The Position of Mexico-Our Duty to that Republic. We publish to-day a most clear and concise view of the Mexican republic and its history. which in the present state of affairs in that country presents many points of interest to our readers. Mexico is rapidly fulfilling her destiny. Her people, wearied and worn out with the multitu- dinous civil conflicts and struggles for power that have characterized her, leaders, are ready to throw themselves into the arms of a native despotism or a liberal foreign rule. The or- ganized band of clergy that has so long batten- ed upon the life blood of the republic is now engaged in a life struggle with the liberals of Mexico, in behalf of their vicious temporal or- ganization. A numerous and penniless corps of army officers, without other means of subsia- tence, are ready to sell their mercenary services to whichever party can give them gold in re- turn. Corrupt administrations have for years temporized with every party and plundered all, cheating alike their own treasury and foreign claimants, and keeping faith with none. Com- merce has been nearly annihilated, the springs of industry dried up, and the laborer every- where torn from his wealth producing toil to fight the battles of mercenary leaders, who, each in turn, uses him with like scorn. Such is a true picture of the native elements at work now in the bosom of the Mexican republic. While this is going on within her territories, a corresponding series of events is taking place beyond her frontiers. On one side we see the untamed savage, driven from his old haunts by the westward march of a more energetic civili- zation, bearing down upon the strife-worn com- munities of the Northern States, and turning their already half-abandoned fields into wild hunting grounds. Elsewhere we see the long outthrown filaments of American industry fastening upon the favored spots of Mexican territory. Tehuantepec is in the possession of an American company; American lines of steamers run, or are about to run, along her Pacific and Gulf shores; American engineers are surveying her roads and laying down new lines for her domestic travel; American specu- lators are plotting her public lands and se- curing titles thereto; American traders are percolating through her, Northern States and Territories with wares that have paid no reve- nue to the republic; American speculators are planning a Pacific Railroad through her terri- tory; and everywhere American intellect is quickened, and American enterprise is watch- ing, to catch hold of any and everything that may present the slightest hope of profit, not now, but in the coming future, when the des- tiny of Mexico shall have been fulfilled. Behind all these elements of coming change new forces are germinating within our own Union that will soon give a great impulse to their developement. The law of migration is one of the involuntary and immutable princi- ples of our existence as a people. Under its mandates we have gone on building up State after State, and empire after empire, until the West and the Northwest present no more availa- ble fields, and the Pacific slope of the Rocky Mountains is occupied. The great American desert, which, beginning at about the hundredth parallel of longitude west from Greenwich, extends to the eastern summits of the mountains, offers no inducements to the American settler. The valleys around Salt Lake, isolated as they are by savage mountains and vast tracts of un- inhabitable plains from the rest of the world, could be populated only by a set of fanatics like the followers of Joe Smith and Brigham Young. The narrow gorges and high snowy peaks of New Mexico have no elements of empire in them. Yet the impulsive march of our population still must go on, still must find new homes for em- pire, and sites for new States, counties, capitals and towns, with all their attendant land specu- lations and rapidly-made fortunes. Where shall the scene of this new develope- ment be? The question is already answered. Arizona is clamoring for a Territorial govern- ment, and will soon be demanding admission to the Union as a sovereign State. At El Paso, on its southern verge, the narrow valley which
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[From the New York Post.] # CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY-Money, Politics and the Crops The news from Pennsylvania is not the only subject for congratulation to-day with the American people. Just one year ago the banks of this city suspended specie payment, having in their vaults less than $6,000,000. Property of every description was depreciated to the standard of a previous generation; the soundest securities were selling at from twenty to forty per cent. below their usual current value; bank stocks, commonly regarded as the safest and most reliable of all investments, were by many supposed to be worthless; money commanded from three to four per cent. a month on the best securities, and every where commercial and financial disaster were hurrying the most prominent merchants of the country into bankruptcy. To-day, how changed the scene! money worth per annum what then it cost per month; sound securities at their full value, or rapidly advancing to it; the banks groaning with more specie than they ever contained before, with a corresponding abundance at all the great centres of trade in the Old World, while the business of the country is gradually returning to its old channels, and moving forward upon a sure and safe basis. We say sure and safe, for what we regard as very conclusive reasons. In the first place, the importations this year have been some seventy-five millions of dollars less than the year previous, and the liquidation of foreign indebtedness has been steadily going on. While the wheat crop has been in most parts of the country a serious failure, a large quantity of old wheat remains in the farmers' hands, and the corn crop oromises, through its quality, to equal in value any crop of the past few years, though probably measuring less than the crop of last year. The cotton crop of the present season now promises to be a very large one, and in consequence of the favorable financial condition of Europe, and the opening of the Chinese empire to more unrestricted trade, it will probably produce the largest sum ever realized from the crop of any season. The steady pooduction of gold in California, and the new discoveries of that precious metal at Fraser River, will also have their effect in giving a new and healthy impulse to all the industrial, commercial and financial energies of the country. Doubtless many are yet suffering from the pinch of last year; but putting their losses at the highest, the country has gained more than it lost by the revulsion. It has taught merchants a lesson about speculating in railroads and wild lands with their business capital; it has opened the eyes of multitudes to the folly as well as sin of stock-gambling; it has created a healthy suspicion of all corporate property not inanaged by men of probity and character; it has relieved the country of a mountain of debt which was rising higher and higher, and which was rapidly destroying legitimate business, by placing fictitious prices upon all marketable commodities; in fact it has brought the country to a condition of good sense and prosperity, which should be the subject of universal congratulation. Indeed, Gov. King might, with great propriety, have selected to-day for the annual thanksgiving of the State. • The report to.day shows $19,000,000 in the city banks.
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e From the Evening Post. THE ANNIVERSARY OF OCTOBER 13, 1857. Just one year ago day the banks of this city suspended specie payment, bayS ing in their vaults less than $6,000,000 Property of every description was depreciated to the standard of a previous , generation; the soundest securities were selling at from twenty to forty per cent. below their usual current value; bank d stocks, commonly regarded as the safest and most reliable of all investments, were by many supposed to be worthless; money commanded from three to four cent. a month on the best securities, and every where commercial and financial disaster were burrying the most prominent merchants in the country into bankruptcy. To-day, how changed theseene! money worth per annum what then it cost per month; sound securities at their full value, or rapidly advancing to i; the banks groaning with more specie than they ever contained before," with a cor. responding abundance at all the great centres of trade in the Old World, while the business of the country is gradually returning to its old channels. and moving forward upou a sure and safe basis. We say sure and safe, for what we regard as very conclusive reasons. In the first place, the importations this year have been some seventy five millions of dollars less than the year previous, and the liquidation of foreign indebtedness has been steadily going on. While the wheat crop has been in most parts of the country a serious failure, a large quantity of the old wheat remains in the farmers' hands, and the corn crop promises, through its quality, to equal in value any crop of the past few years, though probably measuring less than the crop of the last year. The cot ton crop of the present season now promises to be a very large one, and in consequence of the favorable financial condition of Europe, and the opening of the Chinese empire to more unrestricted trade, it will probably produce the lär. gest sum ever realized from the crop of any season. The steady production of gold in California, and the new discove. ries of this precious metal at Frazer River, will also have their effect in giving a new and healthy impulse to all the industrial, commercial and financial energies of the country. Doubtless many are yet suffering from the pinch of last year; but putting their losses at the highest, the country has gained more than it lost by the revulsion. It has taught merchants a lesson about speculating in railroads and wild lands with their business capital; it has opened the eyes of multitudes to the folly as well as sin of stock gambling; it has created a healthy suspicion of all corporate property not managed by men of probity and character; it has relieved the country of a mountain of debt which was rising higher and higher, and which was rapidly destroying legitimate business, by placing fictitious prices upon all marketable commodities; in fact it has brought the country to a condition of good sense and prosperity, which should be the subject of universal cougratulation. Indeed, Gov. King might with great propriety, have selected to day for the annual thanksgiving of the State.