The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857.

neighbourhoods is very great ; and it cannot
be forgotten that the agitation against the
House of Lords in 1836 and 1N37 completely
failed, and did much injury to the Whigs and
Radicals. It is exaggeration also to assert
that " the power of legislation the Peers have
" lost on all subjects about which the people
" feel any real interest." The history of Par-
liament subsequent to the Reform Bill shows
that the House of Lords regulated the rate
of progress ; it defended the integrity of
the " Church of Great Britain and Ireland ;"
it compelled the Melbourne Ministry to
amend many of its Radical measures; and it in-
troduced into the new Poor Law Act clauses
which mitigated the harshness of the ultra-
economists. " Thank God we have a House
" of Lords " was the utterance of a democrat.
But though the social influence of the House
of Peers is still considerable, we believe that
its political influence must be guarded in any
future Reform Bill. The Knights of the Shire
who now represent the counties would take
care, as far as they are concerned, that a
scheme which would endanger " the conser-
vative element " of the House of Peers should
be opposed. Yet, if by clamour, or organised
political forces, acting under the strategy of
the Whig families, a sweeping measure as-
similating the county and borough franchise
were passed into law, we believe in that case
the power of the House of Peers would be
vitally endangered, and the Constitution would
cease to be one of mixed powers, and would
degenerate into one of a simple form, in which
all would depend on the House of Commons.
Under the present system the stability of the
Constitution is provided for, and care must be
taken that under the plausible purpose of
" regulating the franchise " the entire English
political structure be not dangerously under-
mined.

When it was proposed to abolish East
Retford, a principle was at stake, for the
cases of Gatton and Sarum, and boroughs of
that class, were involved. So with the county
franchise. If it be assumed that no difference
should exist between the county and borough
franchises, a rule would be introduced which,
in the nature of things, must eventuate in
vast political changes. In legislation, as in
all practical works of science or art, it is always
necessary to contemplate changes with par-
ticular reference to their effects as a whole ;
and in any new law on the franchise we can-
not to strongly enforce the obligation of
providing for the harmonious working of the
great constitutional forces of Sovereign, Lords,
and Commons.

NORTHAMPTON WHIGS AND
UN-"CIVIL LIBERTY."
WE have read in our time many election
addresses, but we never remember one so ill
composed, in point of taste, as that to the
electors of Northamptonshire signed " FITZ-
PATRICK HENRY VERNON." When death has
caused a vacancy in a seat it is customary for
a candidate to allude to the deceased repre-
sentative, and in the present instance Auousres
STAFFORD had been publicly lamented by many
gentlemen amongst his political opponents.
The Times had acknowledged his philanthropic
labours, and several Liberal organs did full
justice to the private virtues of the lamented
dead; but it was of his own good qualities and
the merits of his father that the gentle-
man answering to the name of "FITZPATRICK
HENRY VERNON " was thinking. He had not
one word to say with chivalrous grace over the
bier of a political adversary.
But who is " Mr. FITZPATRICK HENRY
VEatNos " ? His name has an odd sound.
Which is he a Fitzpatrick, or a Henry, or a
Vernon? By the style of his address we
might suppose him to be like Cerberus—" three
gentlemen at once." He is neither a Fitz-
patrick, nor a Henry, nor a Vernon ! He is
another unit of the tribe of Smith. He is the
son of the incomparable " Mr. VERNON SMITH."
1-I.e flings aside his father's name, but retains
" hereditary " principles. Th 6 race of
Smith has certainly produced some odd speci-
mens, but Mr. FITZPATRICK VERNON 18 a most

original one. He ought to be put in a glass
case and exhibited for the instruction of
political anatomists.
There seems to be a fatality about this
branch of the SMITHS and their names. Mr.
CANNING christened ROBERT SMITH, the first of
the family, by the name of " Bobus," for " Bob ;"
and when " Bobus " SMITH along with " Con-
versation SHARP" failed in the House of Com-
mons, the name stuck with the tenacity of a
ridiculous appendage. SYDNEY SMITH, the
Canon of St. Paul's, was perpetually con-
founded with Sir SIDNEY SMITH, the Hero of
Acre. The process by which " Mr. Henry
Smith" is metamorphosed into "Mr. Fitz-
patrick Vernon" resembles those ingenious
etymological developments by which gram-
marians, at their wits' end, derive one word
from another to which it has scarcely a nominal
relation. One cannot help thinking of the story
of a " Mr. Tayleure," who had promoted his
name from Taylor. "Is that :Fowler giving
" tongue now ?" he asked of the huntsman with
as imposing an air as if he were a candidate
on the Whig side for Northamptonshire.
" No, sir, we now call him Jowleure." It is a
troublesome thing to recollect so long a name
as " Fitzpatrick Henry Vernon." The master
of the ceremonies at Bath once asked BEAU
BRUMMELL what he would advise hint to do
with odd French names that he could not
easily pronounce. "Oh ! call each or any
"of them ' Monsieur &c., &c.,' and make
" a low bow." The electors of Northampton-
shire have declined being represented by
" Mr. Fitzpatrick, &c., &c. ;" but they have not
made him a low bow.

Lord LILFORD, a Liberal, and a connection
of the Fox family, also distinguished himself
in his correspondence with Mr. HUNT. After
intimating to Mr. HUNT that his Lordship
did not think the Honourable Gentleman
qualified to represent the county, his Lord-
ship added—" I must, therefore, request that
" my tenantry may not be canvassed for their
" votes in your favour." Oh ! the Whig love
of purity of election ! Is this the "civil
liberty" which " Mr. Fitzpaddy VERNON" ad-
vertised himself as ready to support? Mr.
HUNT very properly declined to accede to such
a request, more especially as it was made in a
style that just fell short of what was downright
offensive. Afterwards, Lord LILFORD deter-
mined to improve his style, and learn a better
method of letter-writing, and he sent a politer
answer to one of Mr. HUNT'S calmly resolute
notes. The latter gentleman contented him-
self with the admission of his right to canvass
the tenants of Lord LILFORD, and so the matter
terminated.

We cannot compliment the Northampton-
shire Liberals on their personal bearing. Mr.
FITZPATRICK HENRY—We mean Mr. FITZPATRICK
SMITH—no, Mr. VERNON SMITH—or whatever
his name is or was—had not one single grace-
ful word for the memory of a man who was a
great favourite in Northamptonshire ; and
although Lord LILFORD was formerly a Lord
in Waiting to the Queen, it could not be in-
ferred from his first letter to Mr. HUNT that
his Lordship had ever been to Court in
his life.

MERCANTILE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS.
WE maintained a short time since that to
ascribe the commercial crisis to any cause so
necessarily limited in extent and secondary
in character as those which regul ate the
currency of the country is out of all keeping
with the nature of the crisis and with its
magnitude. No doubt a great deal of the
difficulty has been due to the causes we then
pointed out—a too great investment in im-
provements that only pay interest, and do
not reproduce the principal periodically,
thus diminishing the capital needed for
conducting efficiently the old investments.
When private people, tempted by the promise
of a high rate of interest, withdraw their
capital from productive employment, and sink
it in the form of railways and steamboats, or
agricultural improvement, they diminish the
floating capital of the world pro tanto ; and if it
does not embarrass trade, its place must be
supplied from savings—that is, from sources

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which are not as yet otherwise productively
employed. It is only out of savings thatimprove-
mews which sink a great deal of capital can
he made without embarrassing trade, as the
interest and profit, however great, can, in but
few new undertakings indeed, repay the capital
sunk within any short period.
Now, merchants, properly so called, are
quite as much in .danger of originating this
embarassment to trade as any other part
of the commercial world. Properly speaking, no
doubt, their capital and credit is all employed
in tran4ferring wealth, their profit being only
a commission on the ordinary expenses of
managing an exchange between distant parts
of the globe. They are intermediate between
producers and consumers. And the credit
that is given them rests on two considerations
—the belief that they have a considerable
capital of their own to cover any losses which
they may meet with by the failures of con-
sumers who owe them money, and the belief
that they are men who do their business
cautiously, and are not likely to be found
under heavy engagements with any but solid
firms. A good deal of a man's credit depends
on the capital he is supposed to have em-
barked—a good deal more on the nature of his
business-reputation for careful trading with
well-known firms. Of course, if we could
suppose, for a moment, that a merchant were
quite sure never to make a bad debt, he might
carry on his business for an indefinite length
of time, simply on credit; for, as his pay-
ments are always coming in and replacing his
disbursements, it is not theoretically neces-
sary, as it is with the producer, that he should
have a good sum in hand to begin with at all—
provided one man will trust him until another
pays him. in such a case, then, his only
floating capital would be credit,—this, and
this alone, would be his means of trading ; and
it is obvious that the credit would be given him,
if his circumstances were supposed to be
known, entirely upon his reputation for judg-
ment, caution, honesty, and on nothing else ;
for if he should lose at all, he would be unable
to pay. This, of course, is a theoretical case.
We have put it only to show how powerful
credit is ; it m 4 ht be almost the only floating
capital of the mercantile world, supposing no
merchant did anything but transfer from pro-
ducer to consumer, and did that with perfect
accuracy and without any loss. He need sink
nothing, as the producer must, in fixed
machinery or laud; his returns aro spread
over the year as equally as his outlay ; he is a
mere medium of supply. If all the consumers
pay him he can pay all the producers, and will
have his own expenses and profits over. If he
had to pay sooner than he had received pay-
ment, he would draw a bill of exchange on his
debtor for goods received at the ordinary date,
discount his bill by the aid of a bank, and so
turn his credits into cash. Now, in such a
system of things as this, when credit consti-
tutes the only floating capital, it is obvious
enough that there is absolutely no room for
loss, except such loss as can be covered by
savings, and no possibility of bona-fide con-
version of floating capital into fixed capital,
because there is no floating capital but credit,
and credit, moreover, founded not ou any
stock of accumulated wealth, but on the confi-
dence that all which comes in as payment from
consumers is pledged to pay for what pro-
ducers sena.

Now to this state of things—where there is no
margin whatever for ordinary business loss, for
the failure of a speculation, or for the with-
drawal of any sum to be sunk as fixed capital
—the state of things just before a commercial
crisis is very nearly approximated ; and then
losses come, and with them the crisis as a nel
cessary consequence. Great houses seldom fail
from ordinary business losses, that is from bad
debts which they had no reason to expect would
be bad debts. They fail because in some form or
other they have lost or sunk the floating capi-
tal with which they started, and are trying to
make their credit carry them through, or per-
haps even more than carry them through—to
make the credit regain for them, by fresh spe-.
culation, all they have lost. There is a limited
supply, and only a limited supply, of mercan-
tile capital, all of it needed for the actual
safety of trade. If any large proportion be
abstracted, and locked up in any way, the state