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The currency question.

The two House of Congress, yesterday terminated their protracted labors on the currency question, and in the lower House the injunction of secrecy was removed from the bill. The bill is entitled an act to fund, tax and limit the currency. Its main features will be found annexed:

The holders of all treasury notes above the denomination of five dollars, not bearing interest, shall be allowed until the 1st day of April, 1864, east, and until the 1st day of July 1864, west of the Mississippi River, to fund the same in registered sounds, payable 20 years after their date, bearing interest at the rate of four per cent.

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to issue bonds for the funding provided for, and until the bonds can be prepared, he may issue certificates to answer the purpose. Such bonds and certificates shall be receivable without interest in payment of all government dues payable in the year 1864, except export and import duties.

All treasury notes of the denomination of one hundred dollars not bearing latest, which are not presented for funding in the time specified, and under the provisions above cited, shall cease to be receivable in payment of public dues, and shall, in addition to the tax of thirty-three and one-third cents imposed in the 4th section, be subject to a tax of ten per cent per month, which taxes shall attach to such notes wherever in circulation.

The 4th section provides that on all Treasury soles not founded or used in payment of taxes at the dates and places prescribed above, there shall be levied a tax of thirty three and one-third cents for every dollar promised on the face of said notes; and these notes are to be fundable in bonds as above provided, until the first day of January, 1865, at the rate of sixty six and two third cents on the dollar. And it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury at any time between the 1st April east, and the 1st July, 1864, west of the Mississippi river, and the 1st January, 1865, to substitute and exchange new Treasury notes for the same, at the rate of sixty-six and two third cents on the dollar, provided that notes of the denomination of one hundred dollars shall not be entitled to the privilege of said exchange; provided further, that the right to fund any of said Treasury notes after 1st day of January, 1865, is hereby taken away; and provided further, that upon all such Treasury notes which may remain outstanding on the 1st January, 1865, and which may not be exchanged for new Treasury notes as herein provided, a tax of one hundred per cent. is hereby imposed.

5. That after the first day of April next all authority heretofore given to the Secretary of the Treasury to issue Treasury notes shall be and is hereby revoked; provided, the Secretary of the Treasury may after that time new Treasury notes, in such forms as he may prescribe, payable two years after the ratification of a treaty of peace with the United States, said new issues to be receivable in payment of all public dues except exhort and import duties, and to be issued in exchange for old notes at the rate of two dollars of the new for three dollars of the old issues, whether said old notes be surrendered for exchange by the holders thereof, or be received into the Treasury under the provisions of this act; and the holders of the new notes or of the old notes, except those of the denomination of one hundred dollars, after they are reduced to sixty-six and two-third cents on the dollar, by the tax aforesaid, may convert the same into call certificates, bearing interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum, and payable two years after the ratification of a treaty of peace with the United States, unless sooner converted into new notes.

To pay the expenses of the Government, not otherwise provided for, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to issue six per cent. bonds to au amount not exceeding five hundred millions of dollars, the principal and interest whereof shall be free from taxation, the interest to be paid by export and import duties, the entire receipts from which are specially pledged for the purpose; such duties to be paid in specie, foreign exchange, or in the coupons of said bonds. These bonds are to be in sums of one hundred dollars or some multiple thereof. The interest is payable semi-annually on the 1st of January and July in each year; the principality be payable not less than thirty years from their date. As the wants of the Treasury may require it, the Secretary is authorized to sell or hypothecate said bonds for Treasury notes upon the best terms he can.

Call certificates shall be fundable and shall be taxed in all respects as is provided for the treasury notes into which they are convertible. After the first of April they will bear interest upon only sixty-six and two third cents for every dollar promised on their faces, and no call certificates shall be is sued after the first of April.

The 10th section provides that if any bank shall give its depositors the four per cent. bonds authorized by the first section of the act, in exchange for their deposits, and specify the same on the bond by some distinctive mark or taken to be agreed upon with the Secretary of the Treasury, then the said depositor shall be entitled to receive the mount of said bonds in treasury notes bearing no interest and outstanding at the passage of this act; provided, the said bonds are presented before the privilege of funding said notes at par shall cease, as above prescribed.

Treasury notes of the denomination of five dollars shall continue to be payable at par until the 1st of July, 1864, east, and until the 1st of October, west of the Mississippi, after which they are to be subject to the tax of thirty-three and and a third per cent.

Any State holding treasury notes, received before the times herein fixed for taxing said notes, shall be allowed until the 1st day of January, 1865, to fund the same in 6 per cent bonds of the Confederate States, payable twenty years after date, and the interest payable semi-annually.

The 7.30 treasury notes heretofore Issued shall no longer be receivable in payment of public dues, but shall be deemed and considered bonds of the Confederate States, payable two years after a ratification of a treaty of peace, bearing the rate of interest specified on their face, payable on the first of January in each and every year.

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized, in case the exigencies of the Government require it, to pay the demand of any public creditor whose debt may be contracted after the passage of this act, willing to receive the same, in a certificate of in debtednes in such form as the Secretary may deem proper, payable two years after a ratification of a treaty of peace.

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