The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

fact that Sardinia has no direct interest in the
war, and that she is much too small a State to
influence other than very indirectly its for-
tunes.

Sardinia furnishes a contingent of 15,000
men to the allied armies, and we are to ad-
vance her a sum of one million at present, and
another million next year. The money is to be
advanced at four per cent., one per cent. being
reserved as a sinkingfund. Virtually, therefore,
the money is lent at three per cent., though if
the Sardinian Government appealed to the
capitalists of Europe it could not raise the
amount it requires at double that rate.
That amount of interest which it engages
to pay us fbr a million it would, in the
money market of Europe, have had to pay
for half a million. No principle is better es-
tablished than that public credit is public
wealth ; to part with one is to part with the
other. Nations, like individuals, must pay a
rate of interest according to the risk estimated
to be run; and whatever premium (and we
fancy it would be a high one) capitalists would
require to take this Sardinian loan off our
hands, is the measure of the subsidy we grant
to Sardinia.

In another point of view the loss is more
direct and immediate. By a dexterous con
trivance which proves that the concoctors of
this scheme (whoever they may be) are sun
ning financiers, Sardinia will be altogether
clear of the debt in a period of about forty-one
years. For, as the loan bears nominal interest
at four per cent, it is stipulated that the one
per cent. reserved for a sinking fund shall also
bear interest at the same rate ; and, conse-
quently, while the lender (England) will
actually receive only three per cent. interest
on the money advanced, the borrower (Sar
dinia) will enjoy the advantage of having the
fund appropriated for the repayment of the
debt accumulate at four per cent compound
interest. Thus we shall at the same time be
lending at three per cent. and paying at four.

Further, this million will have to be raised
on loan by our Government. Certainly
we shall not obtain it in a Three per Cent.
Stock at par. Probably the money will
have to be borrowed at 90. In that case we
shall incur a debt of 1,100,0001.; and assuming
that the credit of Sardinia were as good as our
own, we should still make her a present of the
100,0001. we must lose by the transaction. Is
not this a subsidy?
But subsidies may be good or bad. When
honestly expended for the purposes for which
they are assumed to be granted—as for carry-
ing on the operations of war—they are at least
genuine ; but when only a portion of them is so
expended, and the remainder is applied to the
other uses of the State, they are fraudulent.
No one pretends to assert that the expense
to which Sardinia will be put by sending her
contingent of 15,000 men to the Crimea will
amount to anything like the million she is to
receive. Sardinia may, perhaps, spend one or
two hundred thousand pounds on her army, and
will put the rest of the loan into her exchequer
to aid what the speakers who supported the
measure termed her " embarrassed finances."
This kind of subsidy therefore is fraudulent.
It is not wanted for the contingent ; it will not
be spent on the contingent ; nor can we avoid
the conclusion that if Sardinia takes part in
the war, from motives of principle, she is still
bent on deriving financial advantage from
her course. Look at the question as we may,
it appears that we are purchasing the aid of
this contingent from Sardinia, and at an enor-
mously dear rate. If the war continues
a second year we shall be called on for a second
million. No money—no troops, is the first prin-
ciple of this arrangement.
Had Sardinia chosen to remain neutral no
one, considering her position in Europe, could
have blamed her decision. Had she deter-
mined on joining the allies, seeking as a loan
that amount only which she would be out of
pocket by the activity of her force, we should
have heartily applauded her spirit. Further
than this our Government should not have
gone. It is not to the credit of Sardinia to
wish to profit by the blood of her soldiers, nor
can our Ministry on any principle of right be
justified adv- -eing to that State a larger
<kirly claim for the addi
"r part in the war