tep in an exigency like the present. The British Government and
the Bank of England remained under suspension from 1797 to 1821-
22, a period of twenty-five years. During this time England
successfully resisted the power of the Emperor Napoleon, and
preserved her own imperiled existence. As a measure of necessity,
she made the Bank of England notes virtually a legal-tender by
suspending the specie restriction. Throughout this period the
people of Great Britain advanced in wealth, population, and
resources." Mr. Spaulding maintained that "gold is not as valuable
as the production of the farmer and the mechanic, for it is not as
indispensable as are food and raiment. Our army and navy must have
what is far more valuable to them than gold or silver. They must
have food, clothing, and the material of war. Treasury notes,
issued by the government on the faith of the whole people, will
purchase these indispensable articles."

MR. CHASE FAVORS LEGAL-TENDER.

When the bill was taken up for consideration on the 29th of January,
the objections which had been raised in the public press were elaborated
in the Committee of the Whole. Mr. Pendleton of Ohio was the first
in opposition. In beginning a long argument, he insisted that "the
feature of this bill which first strikes every thinking man, even
in these days of novelties, is the proposition that these notes
shall be made a legal-tender in discharge of all pecuniary obligations,
as well those which have accrued in virtue of contracts already
made as those which are yet to accrue in pursuance of contracts
which shall hereafter be made. Do gentlemen appreciate the full
import and meaning of that clause? Do they realize the full extent
to which it will carry them? Every contract for the purchase of
money is in legal contemplation a contract for the payment of gold
and silver coin. Every promissory note, every bill of exchange,
every lease reserving rent, every loan of money reserving interest,
every bond issued by this government, is a contract to which the
faith of the obligor is pledged, that the amount, whether rent,
interest, or principal, shall be paid in the gold and silver coin
of the country." Mr. Pendleton deemed it a very serious matter
that "the provisions of this bill contemplate impairing the obligation
of every contract of that kind, and disturbing the basis upon which
every judgment and decree and verdict