e call. This notice gave an
additional spur to the market for four per cent. bonds. Copies of
it were sent to Mr. Conant and to all parties interested in pending
operations, and due notice was given to all persons and corporations
engaged in the sale of bonds that all existing contracts would
terminate when the 5-20 bonds were covered by subscriptions.

At this time there was a good deal of anxiety as to the effect of
the large sale of four per cent. bonds. If these could be exchanged,
par for par for six per cent. bonds, the operation would be easy,
but many holders of called bonds would not accept the lower rate
of interest and invested the principal of their bonds in other
securities. General Hillhouse, on the 8th of March, expressed the
common feeling as follows:

"There is a good deal of speculation in the papers, as well as in
business circles, as to the probable effect on the money market of
the settlements to be made in April, during which month, if I am
not mistaken, about $150,000,000 of calls will mature. It is now
seen, however, that investment demand for the fours is much larger
than was anticipated by many; and the subscribing banks will be,
therefore, likely to find themselves loaded with large amounts which
they cannot dispose of. It would not be strange, in the closing
of such vast transactions, if there should be some stringency, but
with the favorable indications, that the public are taking the
bonds freely, and with the power of the secretary in various ways
to facilitate the settlements, it can hardly be more than
temporary."

Mr. Conant wrote me, on March 8, from London:

"I have called on all the members of the syndicate several times
within the past few days, and have urged them very strongly to push
the sales of the bonds here. I have persistently tried to persuade
them that they ought to conduct the business with far more energy,
and I have said to them that, at the time the contract was entered
into, representations were made to you that $50,000,000 of the four
per cent. consols could be disposed of on this side of the Atlantic,
and that as they had undertaken the business they should not
disappoint you. I have represented to them the importance of
preventing the shipments of gold from New York, and that you supposed
that the sales of bonds which you expected they would make would
prevent such shipments. . . .

"The feeling which I alluded to in my last letter, that when the
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