ice to which he was
limited.

The President, who had been on his way from Pittsburg to Long Branch
on Saturday, was, in company with the Secretary of the Treasury, at
the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Sunday, the 21st, and gave audience to a
large number of leading merchants and bankers, who urged upon him the
necessity of immediate action on the part of the Treasury to save
the country from further disaster, the issue of the "reserve" of
forty-four millions of greenbacks as a loan to, or deposit with, the
banks being the remedy generally suggested. The President, however,
was firmly opposed to this, and suggested that a week of Sundays would
probably afford more relief than anything else, but promised to do
whatever seemed advisable within the limits of the law. On the next
morning the assistant treasurer gave notice that he would continue
the purchase of bonds, paying for them at the average prices of the
Saturday previous. This he did until Thursday morning, when he ceased
buying, twelve millions in all having been bought up to that time, and
the available currency balance in the Treasury, without encroaching on
the forty-four millions of unissued greenbacks, being exhausted.

On Monday there was a run on most of the city savings banks, which was
met by an agreement among their officers to avail themselves of
their legal privilege to require thirty or sixty days' notice of
the intended withdrawal of deposits; and this being announced by the
respective institutions, the run, as a natural consequence, ceased,
and, fortunately, without the slightest popular disturbance. On
the 22d the Security Trust Company and a private banking-house in
Pittsburg, Pa., suspended, as also a banking-firm at Wilmington, Del.
The failure of Henry Clews & Co. on the afternoon of Tuesday, the
23d, followed by that of Clews, Habicht & Co., London, caused fresh
uneasiness. This house, being the financial agent of the Burlington
and Cedar Rapids Railway, a new line, had been run upon for some days
previously, and it showed much strength in holding out so long. The
news was almost simultaneously received that the Baltimore banks had
agreed upon the issue of six per cent. certificates in the manner
adopted by the New York association, and that five National banks in
Petersburg, Va., had closed their doors. On the morning of the
24th Howes & Macy, known to be a very strong and conservative
banking-house, suspended, and this added fuel to the flame of
e