President Cleveland has summoned Congress for the middle of September,
and will, it is believed, then submit to the Houses a project for the total repeal of the Sherman Act, under which 4,500,000 oz. of silver must be purchased every month. It is believed, on a careful " census " of the Senators and Representatives, that both will agree to repeal the law ; but the latter may insist upon some compromise. Mr. Carlisle, the new Secretary of the Treasury, is strongly of Mr. Cleveland's opinions; and has circulated a paper showing that, in the last eleven months, the Treasury has purchased £9,998,000 worth of silver, paying Treasury notes for the metal, and that of these notes all but £453,000 have been exchanged for gold. The Treasury, therefore, is buying with gold silver which it can neither spend nor sell nor lend, at the rate of £10,000,000 a year. If that goes on, it must borrow gold in Europe ; and Mr. Carlisle's anxiety is to make the country under- stand that if the Treasury is driven to borrow gold, the -cause will be the silver purchases. His argument will be all the more popular, because the currency difficulty has already brought down a perfect shoal of small Western Banks. Every- body is demanding gold ; and the Banks which are not strong either succumb to the runs, or, receiving aid from New York or Chicago, come down unexpectedly on their debtors. The alarm is spreading fast ; and there is little doubt now that Mr. Cleveland will have his way, to the further depreciation of the white metal.
