State Convention—Agricultural Rag-Baby. 
193 
transactions which have occurred between our government and 
Great Britain. The first was when our bonds had been sold in Lon¬ 
don, and the proceeds to the extent of $21,000,000 had accumu¬ 
lated in the Bank of Eugland, that institution gave notice to the 
officials of the Treasury Department of the United States, that 
their whole power would be used against us if it was demanded 
in coin, and demanded that the coin should not be removed, but that 
the whole amount should be reinvested in our bonds, as they should 
be offered in the markets of London. So, also, when the claim for 
the $15,500,000 awarded us at Geneva was maturing, the banking 
and commercial classes of Great Britain induced the government to 
interpose, and by diplomatic arrangements through the State De¬ 
partment here, operating upon the Treasury Department, secured 
the transfer of securities, and thus avoided the transfer of coin. 
The withdrawal of either of these sums in bullion would have pro¬ 
duced not only a pertubation throughout British and continental 
markets, but a panic that would probably have caused the Bank of 
England to suspend specie payments. 
But there is a more recent illustration. When Germany received 
her indemnity in gold from France, she was too wise to take it 
home, but invested some $20,000,000 in United States bonds and 
cunningly deposited about as much more in the Bank of Eugland 
and elsewhere, and when there was an intimation given out of a 
“ call ” for this deposit, being meditated by Germany, it caused a rise 
of 1 per cent, in the rate of interest by the bank. Crafty Bismarck 
has the British Lion virtually by the throat, by thus confiding a 
few millions of gold to the care of the British banks. 
But, returning to our country, a few cases will be given to illus¬ 
trate what a specie basis actually is in operation. Extract from 
u Our National Currency,” by Amasa Walker, International Review, 
page 214-216. u The proportion of specie to circulation and deposits 
in 1860, was 
In Louisiana. 
In Indiana. 
In New York. 
In Connecticut. 
In Vermont. 
In Illinois. 
Average in the United States was 19.1 per cent. 
13- A 
38.6 per cent 
22.2 per cent 
15.6 per cent. 
7.5 per cent. 
. 4.2 per cent. 
2.3 per cent. 
