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Qceqbeib % 18gS. J T- H ® I* -3% A D CE ...
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EHJtiTOTtt—fc *be arttete on " {the Nati...
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NOTICES TO COBBJESPONIXENTS. No notice c...
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(SIR %£
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SATURDAY, OCTOBEB 6, 1855.
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Ifahlir Maim
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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AN EUROPEAN COUP D'ETAT. The Soeiete de ...
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" movable" property of the Kind. It inay...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Qceqbeib % 18gs. J T- H ® I* -3% A D Ce ...
Qceqbeib % 18 gS . J T- H ® I * -3 % A D CE B , 959 i
Ehjtitottt—Fc *Be Arttete On " {The Nati...
EHJtiTOTtt—fc * be arttete on " { the National Thank ® - riv ^^ last ^ eekTan e rror of atatement occurred . Mr . § oSteid * wM ^ tt > rts ehted as *&& advocate , Mr . Vely aa aSX of- compulsory cLur 6 h-rates . Mr . Cou * - taul < rmevidenee , in 700 ounces of frosted , silver , to the contrary .
Notices To Cobbjesponixents. No Notice C...
NOTICES TO COBBJESPONIXENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the " name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , bufras a guarantee of his good faith . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the diffi ^ culty of finding space for them . . . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication .
(Sir %£
( SIR %£
Saturday, Octobeb 6, 1855.
SATURDAY , OCTOBEB 6 , 1855 .
Ifahlir Maim
Ifahlir Maim
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to Keep things fixed when all the world is "by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Arnold .
An European Coup D'Etat. The Soeiete De ...
AN EUROPEAN COUP D'ETAT . The Soeiete de Gridit Mobilier has consented to adopt the recommendation of the French Government , and abstains from issuing the obligations of -which it had given notice , to the extent of 240 , 0001 . This fact is stated , in the French papers , and repeated in the English , as an isolated event ; but the political public in Paris has not told the kind of authority which this pressure on the part of Government indicates . Still less is the English public enabled to appreciate the grasp which it proves the French Government to possess , not only over the particular society , but over the whole commercial transactions of France . Explanations of the working of the society have been given in . various newspapers , but they speak of it as if it were simply a vast mercantile institution , without seeming to be conscious how extensively it is designed to concentrate a control over the economy of the country ; still less how it has succeeded in establishing that comprehensive jurisdiction . ^ We this country have no institution that resembles the society . From remarks which havu been made , it might be supposed that it resembles our Stock Exchange , in which stock and shares can be bought or sold ; but the Stock Exchange acts collectivel y in nothing more than giving a certain sanction and enforcing certain rulos , the regular observance of which gives great convenience and influence to tho members of the Stock Exchange . . " We have amongst us joint-stock companies for conducting a variety of business , and soino of tho insurance oflices present examples of societies that combino several purposes—of granting individual guarantees , lending money , possibly on securities , and thus to a great extent it may bo said , of dealing in securities . Still these societies are isolated ; and whatovor combinations they may have with oach other , they can exercise no general control . An amalgamation of railway companies presents , in some limited respects , an example of what combination can ollect iu this country ; but in comparison with tho French model the example fails for its diminutive proportions . Tho Soci 6 t 6 de Or 6 dit Mol ) ilior possesses a capital paid up of 2 , 400 , 000 ? . ; it has authority to lend money on auy kind of public securities , shares , billa of exchange , or othor
" Movable" Property Of The Kind. It Inay...
" movable" property of the Kind . It inay also purchase stock and . shares , and receive or pay moneys on behalf of the companies with which it is connected . It is likewise
empowered to issue bonds in the exact ratio of the money that it ha ^ advanced . Thu s it gives credit on the one side , and takes credit on the other ; the shares , bonds , or other securities of its borrowers standing , as securities for its lenders . It is empowered to issue obligations to the extent of ten times its capital , 24 , 000 , 000 / . ; its own paid-up capital constituting a guarantee fund equivalent to ten per cent , on the capital in which it may deal . The company may also receive sums
on account current . Now let us consider for a moment the nature of this machinery . The society becomes at once the partner and the agent for all joint-stock associations connected with it , receiving money for them , paying their dividends , holding their shares and their securities , advancing them capital , and , in short , establishing a very close and complicated amalgamation between the central society and a great number of other joint-stock associations . The aggregate capital in which the company is empowered to deal consists of its paid-up 2 , 400 , 0002 ., and its credit of 24 , 000 , 000 / . —26 , 400 , 000 / . in all . But , that is in reality a very small proportion of the capital which , upon realising the whole project , it could , control with a concentrated authority . The obligations which it issues and which would go into the trade of the country have an equivalent in the sums advanced to the several companies , and thus we realise 48 , 000 , 000 / . exclusively of the paid-up capital , or more than 50 ^ , 000 / . But to find the mass of floating property influenced by
the society , we must add the unknown quantity consisting of all the capitals of all the companies with which it is connected . These companies are probably amongst the most active associations in the different parts of the country , and thus we say , the society operates as an agency which consolidates the commercial joint-stock interests of the provincial centres , while it places all those bodies under the direct control of a Government which shall say to the central body , " So far shall you issue bonds and no further . " Nor does the society stand alone . There is also the society which was its model , the Credit Foncier , to deal in real or fixed property much in the same fashion ; and another society , the " Society Generale du Credit Maritime , " exercising similar functions with regard to merchandise in the foreign trade of France . Supposing that landowners , the proprietors of fixed property , have availed themselves of the one , and that foreign merchants have accepted the advances of the other , it follows that wo have central agencies wielding a large capital , and influencing a still more enormous capital , and exercising a paramount control over the real property , tho nioveable property , and the merchandise of tho country . When tho Emperor JNTapoiiykox avub a prisoner at Ham ho wrote his treatise on the extinction of pauperism . In that treatise will bo found lurking tho idea that tho State should provide employment for the iudustrious classes by promoting tho cultivation of tho laud and industrial occupations , and that it should do ho moro by directing tho energy of tho people than by subventions . Louis Napoleon confessedly borrowed this idea from { Socialist writers . There is , iudeod , a fundamental economical truth at the basis of all Socialist arguments worth oxamining , tho nature of which has been several times explained in these pages . As Adam : Smith said that the true increment of wealth lay in the division of labour ; aa Ejdwakjo
Gtbbon "WakeeieIiD corrected : that statement by showing that in order to the effect intended there must be combination 1 of 1 labour and division of employment ; so the Socialist economists have proved that there cannot be the maximum increment of wealth without the combined labour and divided employment be carried on in concert ; and the ablest political economists of our day , such , as Edward Gibbon "Wakejfiei , d and Johw Sxttabt Miiiii , have recognised the substantial elements in the co-operative idea . Xiouis Napoleon , at all events , saw its capacity for bringing industry into combination , and still more decidedly its power to concentrate industry to be governed by the highest authority . It is evident from the character of the man , if we grant him whatever sincerity he can claim as desiring for obvious reasons to improve the economical condition of his countrymen , that a full half of his thought is given to the concentration of power which the Imperator can thus acquire . It has been supposed that the Napoleonian idea of the extinction of pauperism had been abandoned when it had been used , and Louis Napoleon , by the coup d ' etat , had acceded to the possession of arbitrary power . The facts do not confirm this supposition , but rather show that the Empjerou is proceeding in a long formed design , the lines of which are only now beginning to unfold themselves to our view in their enormous proportions . The suggester of these societies , dealing by joint-stock in the capital of a number of outlying joint-stocks , is M . Pebeibe , a member of the St . Simonian order—that mystical sect of Socialists who adopted the idea of community of property , and some other things , upon apostolic
grounds , and who -established a transcendental authority iu their chief . -The last chief of their order , Enjfantin , is now living in Egypt , where he has made a fortune ; as several of his countrymen have who went to Egypt when the order was broken up . They are at the bottom of the plan for establishing the Suez Canal ; they are to a great extent , iu conjunction with other French coadjutors , the effective administration of Egypt . Here is another fact which shows how the association of the Napoleonic idea is ramified . IiOtris Napoleon had no sooner acquired the stipremc authority as President , than he began to exercise the soldiers of his army in exercise calculated to make them peculiarly efficient . Like his uncle , he identified himself with tho soldiers—devoted himself to increasing their comforts—made the officers feel that his notice was their best prospect of promotion , and rendered them immediately dependent upon himself for approval and advancement . Having acquired a complete military control of Franco through its metropolis , by a sudden blow concerted with , base agonta in tho dark ho applied that concentrated power to a conversion of his republican headship into his Emperorship . His patronage of tho clergy indicates a dojsign to identify himself in a similar manner with tho religious institutions of France and of Italy . Tliia part of his scheme , howevor , has been aw yet less dovoloped . Wo are now in a position , from tlna analysis , to understand tho Napoleonic r 1 * J 1 MM policy . It consists apparently iu tins . . J- " Empjsuor sees that material interest aro dividod , and that each suction oL' society is intont upon its own dovoiopiitonl . Jo sots himself to create a machinery whicn shall subserve all those separata ill ™ l' ° * l f [> z ^ 7 ^ $ ^ : ^ £ ^¦^ . t ^^ iSSKr for all tho outlying and apparently moo-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 6, 1855, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06101855/page/11/
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