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pEBlSyI860j The Leader mid Saturday Anal...
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AUSTHUN WAR MOVEMENTS. rpHAT Austria is ...
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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.
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English Freemen And Spanish Bonds. A Man...
thinks , perhaps the largest lot . Everybody was delighted at this arrangement—that is , ever j one wlvo did not hold Spanish paper :- — the possessors of the over-due coupons \ yere , however , m spirits considerably " below par . " In tlie words of a Spanish advocate * perhaps a paid one , V Spain was not attempting to pay oft all her creditors in full , which the state of her finances would not have allowed ; but she remijiec /^ aiymeui oHlie interest on that portion ot lior public debt on Avhich the coupons had remained unpaid , on what was considered the most favourable terms that her resources would permit ; and in order to apply to the purpose not only the means then at her disposal , but also the increasmg resources ot the country , the principle was adopted of paying interest by a gradually increasing scale , first at one per cent ., and eventually ( after adding a quarter pea- cent , every two years ) , at the end ot eighteen years ' at the current rate of her consolidated fund , which
is three per cent . " With regard to the interest which had accrued during the before mentioned period , when it had remained so long unsettled , the Spanish Government , proposed that it should , be capitalised , and exchanged for the new " deferred stock " at one half of its nominal value . In other words , a coupon , which Avas wortlvon the Stock Exchange at that time ( see -Time * , July 1 st , 1 So . 1 ) 8 £ per cent , of its nominal value , was to be exchanged for an inscription of the-new stock ,, worth nominally fifty , and saleable at that time for about twenty , and now for ' -thirty-three and a half of its nominal value . "
This " arrangement , " however , tliat our Lame Duck thinks so lavishly generous , was , in the London Stork Exchange , at once branded and " posted" as rank repudiation . The City holders said , This is disgraceful , anduriAVorthy an honest nation . We 2 ,-ave our money ; we got no interest for eleven years we Avere prevented putting it out where it might have hatched other gold ; we will declare commercial war against Spain . " Bodikins ! * wo will be revenged ; war to the knife with repudiation . " IVEeetings at this time ( July ' 3 , 1851 ) of coupon holders were held , in which a few accepted / but the majority rejected , tlie proposal . A few weeks later , however , the law of . Bravo Murtllo passed the Cortes , without waiting for English consent / offering payment ¦
of lialf the arrears , and . cancelling the other half . Three months later .- ( t ) ec . .--. 3 )" a meeting of London holders protested against the settlement being considered , final ; taking , however , inscriptions in the new deferred stock as a stop-gap , but reserving their right to demand future payment . Now black discord stirred up the Stock Exchange , as boys do anthills with . a pliant switch . War was " actually proclaimed . Transactions in any Spanish securities issued since the date of this law Were prohibited on the Stock Exchanges of London and Amsterdam ; an edict that drove like a bursting broadside , and almost dispersed the small armadas of commercial Spain . The angry bondholders , also , assuming that one half of the debt had been liquidated , issued certificates to represent " the parties " entitled to the other half whenever the liquidation should be made .
The answer of Spain was an ignorant ; and unprincipled quibble , such as might have been expected from a proud yet needy , nation . They were as indignant as your pickpocket' is when P . C . 365 * says he ( Sykes ) has been throe tinies ^ " lagged , " " whereas it were ony tAvico your Mudship ; " they declared that half the creditors ' accepting the proposal implied , tlie whole accepting it ; and they dented the right of creditors to accept the interest , yet reserve a rig-lit to some future settlement . . When u Spanish minister owned the nation's error , and in 1 $ 53 proposed to repeal , the repudiating law of 1 . S 51 , he was at once , hooted from Ids scat Avith all hia gang of plausible hirelings .
In vain commercial men , appealing to tlie gross but plastic passion of selfishness , which works the largest heartstrings of so mnny of ns , represented that the settlement of this question —• not more than J £ l ,, 00 () , 00 ( , )—would send up the Spanish funds ten per cent ., a rise which would be worth £ 15 , 000 , 000 to the fallen country , besides rostoring her commercial credit all over Europe , and ' make her dollars worth more than they had been sineo the time that Philti » sailed Jb . r England , or Oh milks V . sailed for Africa . The Avar with the Mcors has nov given Spain- courage to pay her debts . Her boat victory has boon over herself . ' Her arum's
have inarched from Oouta to Totunu , and will soon march back again . You cannot Avound air . Tho Moors prnctiso tho Parthian trick , and Avhcel round and Avuteh their cumbrous antagonist aa an ayilo bull-fighter docs a bull . Tho Spaniards will return from Africa , having losli some ton thousand men , Avilh a gamo bag of so many shaven licuda and sonic burnt huts . Th , c Moots will flood bncli- on Tel nan mid Tangicrs , and great finporturbablo Nature , with tho ' voice of thunder , Avill shout her ]) aradc order to African things in general , " As you wore 1 " Quo good result , however , at least tho war has led to , ami that is , tho payment ' of Spain ' s tlubt to England . Hut let ua
not flatter ourselves , for the old Peninsular debt of gratitude will never be ' repaid ' -. while Gibraltar remains ours ; and let us be assured that wo owe this tardy and angry casting down oi repudiated . cash not to the honesty / ' of Spain , but to lici PlUDE . .
Peblsyi860j The Leader Mid Saturday Anal...
pEBlSyI 860 j The Leader mid Saturday Analyst . 153
Austhun War Movements. Rphat Austria Is ...
AUSTHUN WAR MOVEMENTS . rpHAT Austria is preparing for another conflict in Italy is JL scarcely open to doubt , although it may admit of question whether her * plans are dictated . under the delirium tremens of absolutist intoxication , or are founded ¦ upon a conviction that success must attend the Jesuit conspiracy against the liberties of Italy , and the Empire of France . - When the Hungarians saw the inovenicnt of troops and cannon towards Italy , and the military
brutality and -terrorism ., under which Yenetia was ruled , ^ they Avere led to expect that the Emperor would endeavour to wind up his quarrels Avith their Protestant churches , in order that he might devote all his energies to the impending- struggle , by which his for tunes will be retrieved or shattered to pieces , as the issue may decide . Accordingly , after some demur , the proposals of Baron Vat received favour * at" "V ienna-: from Count Rechbeti g and his Imperial master , and might have been carried into effect if the Protestant Churches had not . Aviselv determined not to abandon
their legal and constitutional stand-point . The Protestants are in possession of eight endoAved colleges , four Lutheran and fpur Calvinistic , and corresponding with these are eight ecclesiastical districts , divided into seignories , numbering in each district from eiijh-t' to fourteen . Their superinteTKlents , or bishops , arc independent of the . Government , as also the lay inspectors ; and AA'hen the Synod—which , like our Convocation , can only - ' assemble when ; summoned by the Crown , —Avas brought together , it afforded a real representatioii of the interests comniittcd to its care . The object of Count Thun was to destroy this independence , to make the bishops the creatures of the Court and break up air free local action by -dividing the eight
districts into twelve . There Avere other portions of the scheme , which would iiave made holiest votiiig a dangerous course , and the Protestants saAy Avith alarm and indignation an attempt to place their venerable institutions ' under : ¦ the virtual command of the Jesuit priests . Baron Vay recomnaended a diplomatic solution of the difficulty ; Count TiiUN and the Emperor were to have the satisfaction of retaining their arbitrary twelve-divisions , bnt the . elections were to take place in the Seiguories , whose boundaries i Avere not to be changed . This would have , been acceded to , had not the Protestant leaders demanded its legalisation through the sanction of the Synod , convoked in the old way , had
and elected by the eight districts winch the Government overthrown . This very " rational and prudent proposal Avas highly unpalatable to a despotism- Avhich hates legal restraints , and it is noAV expected that no compromise "will be effected , and that the quarrel AA'jll grow wider until it assumes revolutionary proportions . Those Hungarians who . do not care for it as a Church question , regard it as an important defence of constitutional right against Havstvukg usurpation ; smd if Pkaxots Joseph should be so infaluated as to go to wur again , he wijl labour under the dis" < lvautago of an incipient . robelUon > which may easily travel from Pcstli to Vienna , after another Solferino has rcduood him to despair .
But , although Hungary jis not to be pacified by any concession of religious liberty , an attempt avill bo lruvdu to remove tho financial difficulties of her landowners , most of whoin are under licavy ¦ mortgages , and a provisional consent is said to have bcon ' given to a scheme for a Ordd ' d ' l'b / jo /< fr , Avhioh Baroii'MoiUT / 11 a u is it is . expected to take up . At present—thanks to the influence of nusgov-onunont—money caanot be borrowed upon land in Hungary except at ruinous rates . ; and it is proposed that the C ' l'dtlit Fun < : iei ' ' s \\ i \\ l advance notes or bonds bearing five pov
cent , interest upon the security of laud , and that , the mortgagors shall pay for this iicx'oniinodat ' ion five pm' cent , interest and two per cent ' , amortisation . Tho only capitul required for tho soluunc Avouh . 1 be a guarantee fund , large enough to make the n ' otua marketable commodities . It is dilHoult , however , to sec that It could do nmoh good , m tlie policy of tho Governnicnt would bo unchanged , and the now puper could only b » ouahod at a ( lepr « oifttion proportionod to thu alann whiol-i the ( louduct of the hmporor oxeitca .
Thuro is also a sclicmu ailout to adjust tho fJovoriuncnt finances by a lottery of about , leu million * sterling , intended to imilcu what oonatitiitiouul lawyorrt call nn illogal saluof the CroU-Ji ostnU . 'S in Hungary . It ia poaaiblo tluit the fclou-th OormauH < tnd \ l . > iitch , AVho tiro dcoply involVod in Austrian scciiritio-s , may Jail into this trap , in tho hopu of ataviny off tho bankruptcy o , l their creditors , ami occasioning a riao . in Austrian stock through tho resumption oi o « ah . payiuenta , wlik-li , I'm u thii <" , » " « I » " P might on «! l ) lu tho Uunk to undertake . Tho v » U \ U > h ... qiR-allou
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18021860/page/5/
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