a bill recommended by the President authorizing a 3-per-cent. gold loan, the only remedy was a resort to the authority conferred by the act of 1862, which provided for the direct purchase of gold. Immediately upon signing the contract the Bond Syndicate arranged for the importation of gold from Europe. At the same time a subsyndicate was formed, embracing the principal foreign bankers, several of the New York city banks, and a few institutions in the interior, for the purpose of facilitating the operations of the Bond Syndicate. The bonds were sold in Europe at £227 per $1,000 bond, carrying a coupon of 38. 5d. payable Aug. 1; and in America at 1121, bearing interest from Feb. 1. The contract was fulfilled June 24, but, after a large part of the gold, about $15,500,000, had been received from abroad, the Secretary of the Treasury, in order to prevent disturbances in rates for foreign exchange at a critical period and avoid a condition which would have forced gold exports, and consequent withdrawals from the Treasury, acquiesced in a departure from the literal terms of the contract, that one half of the coin should be procured abroad, and accepted deposits of gold then held in this country to complete the delivery. After the fulfillment of the contract the Bond Syndicate continued to make deposits for the protection of the Treasury, and between June 24 and Sept. 11 they deposited $16,127,432.94. They had paid into the Treasury Feb. 21 $32,558,122.31, representing the amount due on the American half of the bonds. After full payment had been accepted for all the bonds the net gold in the Treasury stood, June 28, at $107,550,976, and on July 9 it was reported at $107,571,230. Gradually it was reduced by withdrawals of gold for export, and on Sept. 5 it stood at $99,127,568. After the Bond Syndicate ceased to make deposits for the protection of the Treasury the reduction in the net gold continued, and at the end of the year the amount was reported at $63,875,948. In his annual message to Congress President Cleveland called attention to the necessity for legislation for the relief of the Treasury, suggesting the retirement of the legal tenders. But this course was generally opposed, and on Dec. 28 a bill was passed by the House. providing for the issue of $50,000,000 3-per-cent. certificates of indebtedness, to meet a deficiency in the revenue, and $50,000,000 coin bonds to maintain the gold reserve. The bill was promptly sent to the Senate, but the measure

mainder at the option of the Government, said gold to be paid for by the issue of about $202,000,000 4-per-cent. thirty-year bonds. There was much opposition manifested by members of Congress and by some bankers to this plan of the President, and on Jan. 6, 1896, the Secretary of the Treasury issued a circular inviting proposals for $100,000,000 4-per-cent. thirty-year bonds, in denominations of $50 and multiples of that sum, to be dated Feb. 1, 1895, said proposals to be received until Feb. 5; payment for the bonds to be made at any of the subtreasuries, 20 per cent. on notice of acceptance of the bids and 20 per cent. at the end of each ten days thereafter. It was understood that a syndicate would take all of the bonds not subscribed for under this circular.

The financial situation was severely strained immediately after the Venezuelan message of President Cleveland, by reason of a war scare, during which Europeans freely sold American securities; and later there was more or less selling by foreigners, because of apprehensions of a financial crisis in this country, resulting from the opposition of Congress to the financial plans of the President.

The following tabular survey of the economical conditions and results of 1895, contrasted with those of the preceding year, is from the "Commercial and Financial Chronicle":

$12 to $14 50 $28 00 661 84

88 75 to 89 25

The Crops. With the exception of winter wheat and cotton the crops were abundant, and there was an unprecedented yield of corn and oats, estimates of the Department of Agriculture showing a yield of 2,151,138,580 bushels of the former and of 824,443,537 of the latter. Conse