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THE CLOUD OVER THE " CITY . " Not only is " honesty the best policy , " even in trade , but frankness also is , in the long run , essential to a sound policy . If secrecy is necessary for any operation , it must be for the purpose , either of obtaining an unfair advantage , or of counteracting unfairness ; and it is to be confessed that there is so much unfairness going forward , that the honest man is often obliged to resort to secrecy . Nevertheless , genuine trade , —that is to say , a trade which deals with real things , and only wishes to make such honest advantage as each side would agree to on seeing the whole transaction—must find its enduring
interest in promoting the largest possible amount of frankness . We need not seek for an illustration any further than the actual state of commerce , which is rather remarkable . Within these last few days , the Bank of England has been making successive enhancements in the rate which it exacts for discount . On Thursday last week the rate was raised from 2 per cent , to 2 \ per cent ., an enhancement which has been followed by the discount houses to the rate of 2 per cent . ; and throughout the earlier part of the week , there was an expectation of a further rise in the Bank to 3 per cent ., which took plaee on Thursday .
At first these enhancements caused some astonishment , if not annoyance , inasmuch as the money market was generally felt to be easy . There had , indeed , been considerable demands upon the Bank , and these have been followed by a . general pressure upon the money market , which commercial men found to be not altogether anticipated , nor intelligible . The difficulty was at once referred to the unsound condition of commerce in France , where the extravagant railway speculations under Government patronage have been by no means the worst form of fictitious commerce . The " Credit Koncier" and
the " Credit Mobilicr" banking projects have probably acquired , by forced support , some shadow of hold on the ordinary commercial body by means of investments on the one side , and of loans on the other . The Bank of l < Yance has been for some time in a , steadily sinking condition , its bullion having decreased progressively , by the amount of 4 , 200 , 000 / . since the month of September , and its bills discounted increased within the Nairn ; period by at least 4 , 700 , 000 / . The uneasiness became excessive ; and the report that Cabinet ministers of the highest rank had been gambling , was thought to be confirmed by the denials of the Government . The effect was a
great fall in the course of last week , and a species of panic still continues . Our own City men are no far involved , either by direct advances , or by speculations of their own , or by ordinary trading operations , that ( hey feel the necessity of maKing themselves safe ; and the Bank , contraction was at once referred to the stale of . France as the principal cause . Now it is (| uite certain that in France there is no small amount of substantial industry . There are certain things to be done profitably )> y capital , nnd certain things not to bo done profitably ; and
the misfortune is , that these two classes of operations an ; entirely mixed up . They sire not only kept secret as far as possible , but are subject to a species of disguise , in the fraudulent appearances of things , deliberately kept up by the Government and its commercial tools . - ^" . ' concealment and mystification ; and the capitalist who ventures his means in that field is throwing liirt stake on the table of a Bank , some of whose proprietors are insolvent , all of whom are disingenuous , and whose ehief is irresponsible , Have to the lord and master of the Tuileries . There i » no doubt Unit tlio honest trader could do moro
if he could see his way clear : that he would reap profits from which he is at present deterred by fear , and that the individual Frenchman , in the humble capacity of consumer , would be benefited by a contribution of English capital and industry . 'That benefit is restricted in . the greatest degree by the prevalent incertitude , through dishonesty and concealment . We may contrast with this the actual state of affairs in Australia , which are as clear to the eye in every part as the whole surface of an English farm . We know almost to a man how many labourers there are at work ; we know what they produce ; we know exactly the relations of Government to the trade of the country ; we know to a T what the Banks are
at ; we see bullion increasing in their strong boxes ; we know exactly the amount of goods imported and consumed ; and , in short , anything more absolutely above-board than the Australian trade it would be impossible to conceive . It has taught us exactly where capital can be invested wholesale—in the business of shipping , for example , or of trading in goods ; and where it cannot be so invested , as in the business of digging , or in that of speculative land-purchase . Mistakes even are kept down to a minimum , and corrected almost as soon as they are made . In spite of the newness of the trade , but little waste
has occurred , or is likely to occur at present ; and the consequence is , that on each side there is the largest possible gain from the reciprocation of industry . The Australians get out of this country as much in the shape of living labour , active capital , ministering commerce , and general assistance , as this country can possibly collect and send to their shores . On tlie other hand , we have upon the whole as large an amount of gold , of wool , and of relief for our superabundant resources , as , under the circumstances , Australia can furnish . Nay , we are able to make a daily increase in the use of Australia , by the expansion of practical experience .
There are two things which materially contribute to preserve the continent as a contrast to this honest , substantial , open , above-board state of commerce with Australia ; and the distinction does not depend upon our peculiar relation with the Australias as colonies . Those two things are , the secrecy of the Governments , and the secrecy of our relations with those Governments under the name of diplomacy . We have the vaguest conception of what the Government of France is really doing ; and as the Government of France exercises so jealous a control over trade as to order the men on the Stock
Exchange what to say or not to say , and to place them under the surveillance of the police , we know that there must be much arbitrary meddling . Again , while diplomacy is secret , it is impossible for us to toll what our own Government is doing in relation to any foreign Government , or how the political influences of this country may be operating , injuriously or not , upon commercial rights . The absence of the same degree of secrecy in our
relations with America makes our commerce with the IStates almost as intelligible as that with our own Australian colonies , subject , perhaps , to some occasionally mystifying operations of ' cuteness . Still the diplomatist cannot meddle much , or mar much . Whereas , in our relations with the continent , we keep up a great ambassadorial staff , as if for the purpose of preventing ourselves from knowing what we arc doing . At a great expense we plant a machinery of concealment , in order to reap a harvest of loss . .
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T 1 IK lMtKSS AND T 1 IK ADMINISTRATION OF . 11 JSTICK . " iNTKitMKDor . iNCi with justice , "—¦ "Justices ' , " for example , may be a , very ba < F practice , but certainly is not a very novel idea . It was atteninteif , not unsuccessfully , Homo years since , by divers gentlemen whom nobody called unscrupulous , and whom nobody even suspected of having any knowledge of criminals , or any sympathy with crime . A journal , then , perhaps , the boldest of its day , won a . reputation by its fearless vindication of the right , no matter in whose person it was endangered ; and men in the position even of Larnan Blanchard—for wo must not speak of the living—wore not ashamed to confess themselves the contributors to thai , paper of articles which called magistrates and judges to account , and jibsolutoly " intermeddled" with juries when they let prejudice got the bottor of
duty , or hanged a man though they had only the wish , and not the evidence , to find him guilty . A troublesome memory , apprising us of these facts , has somewhat diminished the enjoyment with which , otherwise we might have read a very indignant article that has just appeared in the contemporary to which we allude , and which , condenses into a space of very little more than five columns quite a new view of the Kirwan case , and various original as well as important remarks upon the infallibility of juries , the " outrages " of the press , and the sanctity of an unrighteous
verdict . Possibly , however , some of our readers may not remember the Examiners of the period to which we refer , and probably they do not see those which now appear , so we may be excused for drawing their attention to both , and asking , of course by the way , whether they do not deem it at least an absurdity that the sin of " intermeddling" should meet its great rebuke from the Satan who first taught erring men to " intermeddle . " Of course , in this case as in others , it is very natural , indeed very necessar y * to . our
contemporary to act up to the " short hint" which makes its motto , and " proclaim war with mankind " whilst professedly only aspersing individuals , with , be it remembered , the praiseworthy object of upholding law . We feel no surprise at seeing triumph , and not truth , its object , and observe , with little more than a smile , tnat the executive , the journalists , the barristers , in fact all , who have recognised the propriety of the verdict
which the coroner ' s jury returned on the Kirwan case , are alike denounced for their misrepresentations and misconduct in reference to the results of that second investigation , which was held when Irish imagination had had three months ' play , when vulgar malice had had three months ' preparation , and when Kirwan had had three months to make good his escape , if he preferred trusting to his heels to confiding in his innocence . But let us quote by way of illustration : —
" In our time we have witnessed many an outrage on the administration of criminal justice , but we remember nothing to compare with the scandal of this Kirwan case . For weeks the papers have teemed with such garbled misrepresentations of imperfectly-reported evidence as are here described by the Irish Crowu Solicitor , —and on the faith of them , a solemn legal investigation has been discredited , its results set aside , and men of whom it exacted the most painful duties put upon their defence for having conscientiously discharged them . Such impartial witnesses as the
accoucheur employed by Mr . Kirwan in his mistress s confinements , have been heard against the upright and learned magistrates who sat in judgment on his crime . The Crown Solicitor employed in the case has been obliged to appeal to the press against charges he could answer in no other way . The Jury who did their duty according to their oaths , have been driven to the same expedient of defence against imputations the most shameless . The Executive bus not had the courage to support any of those whose services it had engaged in the discharge of the most important of its offices , against a miscarriageofjusticeof thevery worst example . "
For something " to compare with the scandal of this Kirwan case , " let the inquirer turn to almost any copy of the JUxamincr , at the period to which we have alluded . As regards the " imperfectly-reported evidence , " let him look back at the Times , and note what was the obvious impression of the reporter , where ho has omitted anything he thought material , and whether lie gave the speech for the prosecution , or that for the defence ? , at the greater length . Passing , then , to the Hiieer at the " impartiality "
of the accoucheur , who spoke out at Anderton ' s in Kirwan ' s favour , wo must consider what interested motive that gentleman could have , and how a ruined man , even if liberated , is to compensate him for that deviation from truth of which , since he dares to follow the Examiner $ example , and " intermeddle with justice , " where he conscientiously believes that injustice lias been done , this fearless writer ventures so coolly , not to say so audaciously , to accuse him . Wo
must mark , too , the total omission of the fact that the subject of this dolieato irony has been backed in his assertion , that the statement for the prosecution was false on the point to which he alludes , by Mrs . Bentley , a solicitor ' s wife ; and we must not forget tlio expression that " such impartial witnesfien" have been heard a ( fain . st upright and learned magistrates—the said upright and learned magistrates knowing nothing whatever about the matter excopt what they hoard from " such impartial
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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 .
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SATURDAY , JANUARY 22 , 1853 .
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82 THE LEADE R . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1853, page 82, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1970/page/10/
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