President Grant's annual Message to Congress was delivered on the
7th init. According to a very imperfect summary for- warded by cable, the President is hostile to Spain, stating that the
" offences " of that country in the matters of the 4Virginius ' and of Cuba cannot long continue unsettled, that the Government cannot put down the ,insurrection, and that other nations in conjunction with the Union must bring it to a close. He will, however, submit to Congress a special Message upon this subject. He strongly advocates a return to specie payments, wants the legal-tender clause of the Currency Act repealed, and says that with the return of specie payments" banking will be free,"—which would seem to mean that he would advise the con- cession of the right to issue notes to everybody. He, however, adds that Congress will regulate the organisation of the free banks, which makes his view unintelligible till the text has arrived. He still believes in reform in the Civil Service, but holds it impossible to go on unless supported by Congress. It is affirmed by the latest accounts that the old House of Representa- tives, which has still three months of life, is so paralysed by the recent elections that it will not touch the financial question or any other, and suggested that the President knows this well enough, and is bidding for popularity. It is very doubtful, however, whether "hard money" is popular in the West.
