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AUSTHIAN WAH MOVEMENTS,
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thinks , perhaps the largest lot . Everybody was delighted at this arrangement—that is , everyone who did not hold Spanish paper : — the possessors of the oveivdue coupons were * however , m spirits " considerably "below pur . " In the words of a Spanish advocate , perhaps a paid one , " Spain was not attempting to pay oft all her creditors in fall , which the state of her finances would not have allowed ; but she resumed payment of the interest on that portion ot Tmr public debt on which the coupons had remained unpaid , on what was considered tlie 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 tlie increasing resources of the country , the princip le was adopted of paying interest by a Gradually increasing scale , first at one per cent ., and eventually ( after adding a quarter per cent , every two years ) , at the end of eighteen years at the current rate of her consolidated fund , which is three per cent . ¦ ¦ ' ¦ - ¦ ' ' -
. ___ . „ . , " "With regard to the interest wliich 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 neAV " deferred stock " at one half of its nominal value . In other words , a coupon ,.. which was worth on the Stock Exchange at that time ( sec Tlmi ** , July 1 st , 1851 ) 8 f per cent , of its ' nominal value , was to he 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 , that our Lame Buck thinks so lavishly generous , was , in the London Stock Exchange , at once branded and " posted" as rank repudiation . The City holders said , This is disgraceful , and unworthy an honest nation . We gave our money ; . we got no interest for eleven years ; we were prevented putting it but where it might . have hatched other gold ; we will declare commercial war against Spain , " Bodikins ! . we will be revenged' ; war to tlie knife with repudiation . " Meetings at this time ' - ( July 3 , 1851 ) of couppji holders were held , in which a few accepted , but the majority rejected , the proposal . A few weeks later , however , the law , of Bravo Mltrtllo passed the Cortes , without waiting for English consent , offering payment of half the arrears , and cancelling tlie other half . Three months
later ( Dec . . 3 ) a meeting Of London holders protested . against tlie 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 tip 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 he inade .
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 . JJOSsnys he ( Sykes ) has been three times ' " lagged , " " whereas it were o ' uy twice your Mudship ; " they declared that half the creditors accepting the proposal implied-the . whole nccejjting it ; and they denied the right of creditors to accept the interest , yet reserve a right to some future settlement . When n Spanish niinistor owned the . nation ' s error , ' and in 1853 propped to repeal the repudiating law of 1851 , he was at once hooted from his seat-with all his gang of plavisihlo hirelings .
In vain commercial men , appenling to the gross but plustio passion , of selfishness , which works the largest honrlstrings of so many of us , represented that the % 'ttloment of this-questionnot more than £ 1 , ()( K ) , 000—would send nj » the Spanisli funds ten per cent .., a rise which would b (\ worth £ 15 , 000 , 0 , 00 to the fallen country , besides restoring her commercial credit ; all over Europe , and' make her dollars worth more than thoy had been sinco the time that ¦ 'Philip sailed for England , or Chaw , us Y . sailed for Africa .
Tlie wnr with the Moors has now given Spain courngo to pny her debts . Her bast victory has btM'U over herself , llei' armies hnvo imu'elu . 'd , from Oonta to Totvwti , and will soon march buck again ! You cannot wound nu \ The Moors , pnu ' . tiso tlio Parthian trick , mid . wheel round mid wnloh th ' eir cumbrous antagonist , as an agile bull- ( ightor doos n bull . The Rpmriimla will roturn from Africa , having lost souir ten thousand rnni , with a giuno bag of so mimv $ » hnv u hutu-is and sonic burnt huts : The Moors will ilood baelr . on Tetuan-nn < l Tnug'ii- 'rs ., nnd grcill . iiiij > oi * - turbablo Nature ? , with tho voice of llmntler , will shout her parade order to African things in general , "As you woro !"" One good result , however , nt loiist tho war lius lod to , nnd thiil is , tho payment of Spain ' s < lobt to England . Bui let us
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TH AT Austria is preparing tor another conflict in Italy is scarcely open to doxibt , 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 movement of troops and cannon towards Italy , and the military brutality and terrorism under which Yenetia was ruled , they were led to expect that the Emperor would endeavour to wind up hie quarrels with their Protestant churches , in order that he might devote , all his energies to the impending struggle , hy which his fortunes -will be retrieved or shattered to pieces , as the issue may decide . Accordingly , after some demur , the proposals of Baron Yay received favour at Vienna from Count . -Bec ii ber-g and his Impeiiul master , and might have been carried into effect if the Protestant Churches had not wisely determined not to abandon their legal and constitutional stand-point . The Protestants are in possession of eight endowed colleges , four Lutheran-and four ; Calviiiistic , and 6 oiTesponding with these are eight ecclesiastical districts ; divided-into seignories , numbering in each district from eight to iburteeri . Their superintendents , or bishops , are " independent of the Government , as also the lay inspectors ; and when the Synod—which , like our Convocation , can
only assemble when summoned by the Crown , —was brought together , it afforded a real representation of tlie ; interests committed to its care . The object of . Count Thun was to destroy this independence , to make the hishops the creatures of the Court , and . break up all free local action by dividing the eight districts into twelve . There were other portions of the scheme , which would have made honest voting a dangerous course , and the Protestants saw with alarm and indignation an attempt to place tlieir venerable institutions under the virtual command of the Jesuit priests . "" . ' ' Baron Yay recommended a diplomatic solution of the difficulty ; Count Thux find the Emperor were to have tlie satisfaction of retaining tlieir arbitrary twelve divisions , but tlie elections were to take place in the Seignories , whose boundaries were 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 , and elected by the eight . districts' which the CrOvermiient had overthrown . This very rational and prudent proposal was highly unpalatable to a despotism which , -hates legal restraints ,. and it is now expected that no compromise will be effected , and that the quarrel will 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 ngainst Hapsbuug usurpation ; and if Fkancms Joseph should be so infatuated as to go to war again , ho Mill labour under the disadvantage of an incipient rebellion , which may easily travel from Pcsth to Vicnun , after another Solfcrino has reduced him'to despair .
But , although lluugary is not to be pacified by any coucos . siou-of religious liberty , aunt tempt will be made to remove tho fuumcui ! difficultiOs of her landowners ,, most of whom uro under heavy mortgages , and , a prpvisioiuil consent is said to have been given to n scheme , for a Qr 6 dit Mjucitw , which IJuron Moiut / llABKit is expected to take up . At present : —tluuiks to tho inllucuco of misgovernincnt—money cannot be borrowed upon , land in Hungary except at ruinous rules j and it is proposod that
the Cnh / U Fourier shall advance notes or bonds bearing five per ( . cut " , intoreat upon the security of lnud , and that tin ; mortgagors shall pay for this accommodation live pojvount . interest and two prr cent * , amortiwitiou . The only . cupitul required for the scheme would be a guarantcu fund , lurgu enough to nuikc tho nu \ cs uiarkotalih ) commodities . It iu diilioult , howiivor , to . see that it oould do iiiuuli good , us the policy of Ik ; ( Jovcniinont would bo unchanged , nnd tho now paper could only bo cashed at a depreciation proportioned to tho iilnr . ni which tlio conduct of tliu Emperor
Thcio is also a scheme nilout to adjust thc < Govcirnniunt finnniios by a lottery of about tni millions sterling , intcudod to make what constitutional luwyopjuull au illegal saloof iho Cruuu estates in Hungary . H is possible that the South Oionuim . i and Dutch , wlio art' deeply involvucl iii Atiatrian scouritiod , nui , y fivll inti ) thia trap , in thu' fiopo of Btnviiig off tho biiukrup'toy ol their creditors , and occasioning a rise In AiisUhin slock through the j'ofttimptiou of wsh payments , whu'li , for a time , Piioh a plan miglil enul ) lo tho Bank to undcrlalvc . Tho vMulfi m q . uo « tiou
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not flatter ourselves , for the old Peninsular debt of gratitude will never be repaid while Gibraltar remains ours ; and let us be assured that we owe this tardy and angry casting down of repudiated cash not to the hoKesty . of " Spain , but to her P 1 M 11 T ! . . . ¦ . ' ¦ ¦
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Fkb 18 , 1860 J The Leader mid Satw dt ^ Analyst . 153
Austhian Wah Movements,
AUSTHIAN WAll MOVEMENTS ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 153, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2334/page/5/
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