I pass now to the substitute of the Committee for the second and third sections of the original bill. Here again the amount is changed from $500,000,000 to $400,000,000. I am not aware of any reason for this change; nor is there, indeed, any peculiar reason, as in the case of the Five-Twenties of 1862, for the amount of $500,000,000. The question between the two amounts may properly be determined by considerations of expediency, among which will be that of uniformity with outstanding loans. A more important change is in the time the bonds are to run, which is Fifteen-Thirty years for the bonds at four and a half per cent., and Twenty-Forty years for the bonds at four per cent. Here occurs again the argument with regard to the inferiority of Ten-Twenties, as compared with Ten-Forties. By the same reason the Fifteen-Thirties will be inferior to the Fifteen-Fifties, and the Twenty-Forties will be inferior to the Twenty-Sixties, of the original bill. The prolongation of the bond is in the nature of compensation for the reduction of interest. Already we have established the ratio of compensation for such reduction,--already for a loan at six per cent. we have offered Five-Twenties, but for a loan at five per cent. we have offered Ten-Forties,--and I see no reason why by a tentative process we should so materially change this standard as is now proposed. The experiment can do no good, while it may do harm. It is in the nature of a restriction on our discretion, and a limitation of the duration of the bond, which, I apprehend, must interfere essentially with its marketable character. While the prolongation of time enlarges the option of the nation, it increases the value of the bond in the market. That which is most favorable to the nation is most favorable to the market value of the bond; and that which is unfavorable to the nation is unfavorable also to the market value of the bond, rendering its negotiation and sale more difficult and protracted. Thus at every turn are we brought back to the original proposition.