nue consisting so largely of imposts and tonnage ebbs
and flows to an extraordinary extent, with all the fluctuations incident
to the general commerce of the world. It is within our recollection that
even in the compass of the same last ten years the receipts of the
Treasury were not adequate to the expenditures of the year, and that in
two successive years it was found necessary to resort to loans to meet
the engagements of the nation. The returning tides of the succeeding
years replenished the public coffers until they have again begun to feel
the vicissitude of a decline. To produce these alternations of fullness
and exhaustion the relative operation of abundant or unfruitful seasons,
the regulations of foreign governments, political revolutions, the
prosperous or decaying condition of manufactures, commercial
speculations, and many other causes, not always to be traced, variously
combine. We have found the alternate swells and diminutions embracing
periods of from two to three years. The last period of depression to us
was from 1819 to 1822. The corresponding revival was from 1823 to the
commencement of the present year. Still, we have no cause to apprehend a
depression comparable to that of the former period, or even to
anticipate a deficiency which will intrench upon the ability to apply
the annual ten millions to the reduction of the debt. It is well for us,
however, to be admonished of the necessity of abiding by the maxims of
the most vigilant economy, and of resorting to all honorable and useful
expedients for pursuing with steady and inflexible perseverance the
total discharge of the debt.

Besides the seven millions of the loans of 1813 which will have been
discharged in the course of the present year, there are nine millions
which by the terms of the contracts would have been and are now
redeemable. Thirteen millions more of the loan of 1814 will become
redeemable from and after the expiration of the present month, and nine
other millions from and after the close of the ensuing year. They
constitute a mass of $31,000,000, all bearing an interest of 6 per cent,
more than twenty millions of which will be immediately redeemable, and
the rest within little more than a year. Leaving of this amount fifteen
millions to continue at the interest of 6 per cent, but to be paid off
as far as shall be found practicable in the years 1827 and 1828, there
is scarcely a doubt that the remaining sixteen millions might within