Oils region.
--The Montreal Pilot has advices from the
Red River settlement, on the
Hudson Bay coast, to August 10, from which we learn that as long ago as the 10th of August the ice had already set in, and that as far as the eye could reach the coast was covered with it. Hudson's Bay runs up from latitude 41 to 61 degrees, and is free from ice but a few months in the year.
How the Planters are to Obtain Relief.
The New Orlean
Crescent, in its issue of the 22d, publishes the following communication from a gentleman of financial skill and one of the largest planters in the Southern Confederacy, and one of the most experienced men of the age:
‘
Your banks might afford great relief to both sugar and cotton planters, by loaning to cotton planters ten dollars a bale on cotton.-- This would enable them to purchase sugar and molasses as a substitute for pork, and thus relieve the sugar planters.
It might, I think be safely done in some such form as this.
Let the planter make his note, say thus:
I promise to pay on demand to the
President, Directors, etc., of the Bank of -- with interest at 8 per cent. per annum from date, and payable out of the proceeds of the first sales of my cotton crop.
And let the commission merchant annex:
I, or we, pledge ourselves to pay the above note out of the proceeds of the first sales of the cotton crop of -- consigned to us.
This war is not likely to end in one year, and there cannot be a doubt that another one hundred millions of treasury notes, and perhaps several hundred millions, will be issued.
The banks must be crowded with them, and certainly a good planter's note is as good as a treasury note, more especially if the one bears 8 per cent interest, and the other no interest at all.
Some such scheme will have to be adopted to enable the planter to keep the people from starving, and to assist the government in the collection of her taxes, for without these collections the war cannot be prosecuted.
Thus far much has been done in furnishing supplies to the soldiers by private donations; but there must soon be an end of this, for those who had cash funds, have now nearly expended them, and little now can be expected from private bounty.
The banks must come to the relief of the people and the
Government, or the war must cease.
The guarantee of the commission merchant might be varied, so as to pledge himself, or themselves only.
For the application of the first sales of the crops to the payment of the rate, let the form be thus:
I, or we, promise to pay to the
President, Directors, etc., of the Bank of -- ten thousand dollars, with interest from date, at 8 per cent. per annum, payable out of the proceeds of the first sales of my crop of the growth of 1861.
And the guarantee of the commission merchant thus:
"I, or we, guarantee the faithful application of the net proceeds of the sales of the crop of A B that may be consigned to me (or us) to the liquidation of the principal and interest of the above note.
I think your banks must fear that the
Confederate States are to be flooded with the Confederate Treasury notes, and that all debts will be collected in that currency.
To prevent its too great circulation in the banks, they should be glad to pay it out for good paper.
If the Treasury notes are good, the planter's paper must be good.
If the planter's paper be not good, the Treasury notes must be worthless.
’
