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Mwsm21^ 1855.] WWW LEAIK^IU 375
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THE NON-NATIONAL LOAN. We are astonished...
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MIDDLE CLASS STATESMEN AND THE-i ARMY. T...
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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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.
Whax Of Austria? To All Appearances * Th...
self to an issue of life or death . Besides * in taking up arms for a British policy , Austria would reverse her traditions . AUong the Danube her diplomacy has played a partrall but identical -with , that of Russia , Her diplomatic action , her guarantees , her navigation privileges , have given lessons to her great neighbour . Indeed , her present attitude , half-neutral , has been of material advantage ' both to herself and to Russia . She lias interposed a military line between the Turks
and their invaders , who , thus relieved from guarding the Danubian frontier , have been available for the defence of the Crimea ,. She has also gained a footing in the Principalities such a footing as her statesmen have striven for during the better part of a century . If , in this way , according to her mode of viewing it , she gains in peace all she could hope from war , is it not clear that her Government has reasonable grounds for avoidin *? as lonff as practicable , the unknown
dan-, gers of a collision with Russia ? It is true that Austria may - " . drif t" into the war exactly as we drifted into it ; and this unforeseen compulsion may multiply the political dangers of her situation . Yet , if she be to blame for this , our Government and that of prance are to blame equally , since both were hurried into action by influences which they sought with desperate tenacity to control . Perhaps it is the destiny of the Russian war to involve all Europe , without preparing any government for the perils which await it . Of this , at least , we may be sure ,
that the first Austrian musket fired disperses every doubt . iNTo one , fortunately , can be neutral in arms , and we shall then know the value of the alliance , if it be gained ; still naore , perhaps , if it be lost . Probably , however , one of the German Powers , in the event of a universal war in Europe , would range with Great Britain and Prance . The divisions of Germany—illustrated by the armaments of 1849—scarcely allow of an Austrian and Prussian alliance
for objects of war . It may be , as some suggest , that the Protestant element in Prussia has more natural affinity with us than the Catholicism of Austria ; Wt the dynastic ties between the houses of Romanoff and HoHENiiiNDENare -superior , in ^ this instance , to national tendencies , and France , it must be remembered , is officially Catholic . Other things being settled , the subjects of Francis Joseph might fight , without a violent anomaly , by tho side of those who are governed by the Pope ' s protector .
Mwsm21^ 1855.] Www Leaik^Iu 375
Mwsm 21 ^ 1855 . ] WWW LEAIK ^ IU 375
The Non-National Loan. We Are Astonished...
THE NON-NATIONAL LOAN . We are astonished to hear that persons who might usually he expected to be informed on such subjects , " do not understand" tho exact nature of the Government proposal on the subject of the loan . The confusion appears to bo suggestod by tho use of the name " Terminable annuities , " applied to tho peculiar kind of premium which tho Chancellor of tho Exchequer offers to tho
subscribers . It is a proposal , we believe , without an exact precedent . In the Budget of 1794 , Mr . Pitt " proposed to raiso a loan of 11 . 000 , 000 ? ., in which for every 100 J . money tho loaders were to receive 100 / . stock in Three per Cent . Consols , 257 . stock Four por Cents ., and 11 / . 5 s . Long Annuities : a complicated arrangement intended to attract custom . Tho present plan , ih not quito so entangled . For every 100 / . paid down , tlio londora are to receive 100 / . stock in Throo
per Cont . Consols , and a terminable ) annuity , now determinod by tho bidding of those who contract for tho loan to bo 14 a . Gil . per 100 / : This annuity would last for thirty years . In othor words , Government aBkcd tho lender
what amount of annuity spread'over thirty years would induce them ; to . advance 100 Z . for 100 / . of Three per Cent ; stock , instead of taking their gains out of the discpunt-} which purchasers of stock claim , when they purchase in the usual way . We cannot perceive any difficulties in understanding this plan . To understand it and to approve of it are totally different things . "While we can understand the Government plan , it forces us to doubt whether the Government
understands the country with which it is dealing . It is proposing that which is not a City scheme , and not a popular scheme . It has neither thrown itself upon the Stock Exchange nor upon the country . From the opinions that have been expressed , even in the great building in Cornhill , it is apparent that Government might have raided at least a portion of the money in Terminable Annuities—that is , for a comparatively slight increase of the interests paid at present ; they would have contracted a debt , not to last for ever , but absolutely determined , say a * the end of thirty , or forty , or fifty years . It has been calculated that if Mr . Pitt had
so arranged his debts , we might hare been free at the present moment from the burdens that he bequeathed to us . Ministers , indeed , have endeavoured to avoid one of his faults . He did not hesitate to accept any terms which were offered in the market ; and the effect was , that while during the eight years of the first war terminating in 1801 he contracted a debt of 336 , 000 , 000 / ., besides that which he found in existence , he
received for that debt only 223 , 000 , 000 / . m money . He has found a well-informed apologist in Mr . "William Uewmaech , who contends that Pitt eould not have done better ; and to prove it , he cites the difficulties of the time , the war , the dearness of bread , and the depressed . quotations in the money market . But it is obvious that the quotations in the money market were influenced by two circumstances , originating with Mr . Pitt himself . One was a firm belief that the
French were continually about to approach the end of their resources , and that to play high was to terminate the game promptly . " So , " he said in December , 1794 , nearly five years before the termination of the first war , "Ihave even-the authority-of Tallies . for saying that the French cannot maintain their assignats without contracting their expenses and diminishing their forces ; and it should be recollected that this is their only resource . Is it then too much to say , that their resources are nearly afc an end ?"
The other circumstance was , that when Pitt set going this lavish system of creating debt , he gave the first impulses to that tremendous depreciation that afterwards hampered him in the course of his finance . This it was , oven more than the ill-managed bargain of any particular year , which constituted Mr . Pitt a bad Finance Minister . He recklessly threw burdens upon posterity , but ho also allowed the financial speculators to see that ho was in a panic , and was bitten with the mania for reckless gambling .
No wonder , then , that , like tho Loir of an entailed estate in a gaming house , with Jews at his back , lie ran up a tremendous score of debt , and called upon us to bo responsible for 133 , 000 , 000 / . without a penny over received by tho country ; besides further burdens aftonvnrdH incurred in tho same manner . This fault tho present Government has avoided .
But it has full on short oven of Mr . Pitt in tho confidence which it has displayed in tho public . If Pitt was rockloss , at least ho tried to fiud out wliat tho City wcro prepared to do . Now it is ovidont that the City wore prepared to advance money upon annuities
\ vhich , by terminating ^ wouldseenret & e extinction of ; the debfcat a fixed period ; PetTj we venture to think , would have seized' upon that proposal ; ISbwis has . passed it by- in indifference , or did not know its existence . To what are we to ascribe this ; financial blindness ? Is it that the accomplished- gentleman who has been called from one avoca * tion to edit the Budget is more familiar with books than with money matters ? Is it ? that he can read Mr . Newmabch in the
closetcan consult the precedent of the debt , and * perhaps , try to suck the brains of- some stray financier , but does not really know so much of the honest patriotism and genuine frank liberality that really do reside in the great building on Cornhill ? The Finance Minister of despotic Austria and the French usurper threw themselves on the body of the people , seeking the loan , not by contract , but by the subscriptions of the people ; and both succeeded beyond expectation— beyond all necessity . But as
Ministers have , failed "to throw themselves on the people in regard to the defence of the country , —as they prefer a kind of protracted militia , raised from , a very limited class to a national militia , —so they neglect to throw themselves on the country when they are in want of means . They would rather screw it out of the people by compulsory taxes , and give the benefit with the job of lending to great contractors , than deal direct with those from whom , after all , the money must come I This is remarkable . Must we ascribe it to the arbitrary conduct , or the inveterate habit
of jobbing ? Not at all . "We impute it to ignorance . We believe that it is the result of the exclusive habits of our Ministers , who , whether they are dealing in a question of the franchise , or of national defence , or of national expenditure , mistrust the people , because they do not know them , and prefer to deal exclusively with the cliques who come nearest to them , and are prepared to approach them with cringing facilities . It is that aristocracy hauteur , that exclusive shyness , which is here paying its penalty in finance as well as in everything else .
Middle Class Statesmen And The-I Army. T...
MIDDLE CLASS STATESMEN AND THE-i ARMY . Tnis leadersof the middle classes have hitherto assumed an attitude at once undignified and unwise towards the army . Mr * Cobden aud Mr . Bright , by their conduct on military questions , have unhappily exposed themselves to a good deal of not unjust ridicule , which it is painful to us to see poured upon them by men incomparably inferior to them in character and capacity . They have persuaded themselves that the war spirit and
the causes of war are really extinct among nations ; that wars are brought about only by the folly of statesmen and the bickerings of diplomatists ; and -that the army is a simple social nuisance , kept up by the aristocracy as a maintenance for their younger sons . And therefore their only thought is , if possible , to got rid of the army altogether ; and if it is not possible to get rid of it , then to reduce its expenses as low as posaiblo , without its
the least regard to its efficiency or oven composition . They take no part m any attempt to correct its abuses , to purity its patronage , to elovato its moral tone , to secure the respectability , aud with it tho civil character of tho soldier . All this , and tho credit of all this , they leave to other hands ; wlulo they remain in a state of impracticable isolation , preaching poacowhonwo are actually oi ^ niAul in war , and nflbrding only too much hamllo to tho ploawratrioB of flippant and interested centra . Statesmen must look at facts ; no one car *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21041855/page/15/
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