The Major General commanding has received information of a proposed repudiation of checks issued by the New Orleans City Railroad Company, which have been used for many months, without restriction, by all classes of people as currency. In the ordinary transactions of business these checks have been received by officers and soldiers of the army, and by the laboring and poorer classes of the community. They represent nearly the entire possession of the latter class. It is impossible that they can have been thus generally circulated without the knowledge of the parties authorizing their issue, and every consideration of justice and public interest requires their redemption. If counterfeits have been imposed upon the community the responsibility of the suppression and detection of the offenders must rest upon the original parties in interest, and not upon the community.

No analogy can be properly drawn from the practice of banking institutions in similar cases. Their privileges and responsibilities are established and limited by law. These checks are without law, and those who issue them must accept the risks with the advantages attending their acts. The Commanding General, in consideration of all the facts, advises their immediate redemption. The most ample protection will be furnished the parties hereafter, either to prevent their circulation as currency, if desired, or by inflicting such summary punishment on counterfeiters as will make the issue of spurious checks impossible.

BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL BANKS:

RICHARD B. IRWIN,

Lieutenant Colonel, Assistant Adjutant General.

No. 1.

New Orleans, January 1, 1863.

In obedience to instructions from the Government of the United States, the Commanding General gives notice, that from and after this date, no person, not in the civil, military or naval service of a foreign government, will be permitted to depart from the city of New Orleans, on board of any foreign ship of war, without the written permission of the commander of the military forces in New Orleans; and that no foreign vessel of war will receive on board or carry from this city any such person, who shall not have received written permission to depart on board of such vessel from the commander of the military forces in this city.