The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING AUGUST 18, 1862.

cumstances of extreme provocation, and both
are present in this case. The crime was
committed under intense provocation, and
in what may be fairly considered a passion of utter
misery and despair.

The wider moral of the case, however, ought
not to be lost sight of. It is a serious and ter-
rible thing that it should be possible for a British
soldier of respectable character to be placed in
a position of such causeless and hopeless misery.
The existence of this system of mock tribunals,
employed as instruments of petty tyranny and tor-
ture, is a disgrace to the British army, and ought to
be inquired into without delay. What chance is
there of effecting any considerable improvement
in the character of the common soldier if the
most depraved men in a regiment are allowed,
under a "Judge and Jury" travestie of justice,
to persecute their orderly and well-behaved
comrades ?

THE new Turkish investment, regarding it
now merely from the market point of view, has
prospered ever since its introduction, until within
the last fortnight, when some grave features have
arisen which have excited the earnest attention of
permanent holders, and great anxiety amongst that
more fluctuating class of speculative persons who
only care to bold securities likely to afford oppor-
tunities for selling at a profit. It is one peculiar
point in the case that the prejudice to the Eng-
lish bondholder has occurred, not through
any breach of faith on the part of
the Turkish Government, but really through
that Government having strictly carried out the
engagement of converting the depreciated paper
currency, or cairn& This paper stood at a dis-
count of 40 per cent. or upwards, and it was
therefore argued that by offering the holders 40
per cent. in specie out of the proceeds of the
London loan and funding the rest into a Six per
Cent. Home stock, the conversion would be
effected upon equitable terms, and the finances
and trade of the empire relieved of a great incubur;
In fact, Turkey would be presented, under the coun-
sel and co-operation of British government commis-
goners, with an opportunity of throwing off old
burthens and starting afresh—inopportunity which
should she fail to avail herself of in the spirit
of her well-wishers, she will probably never
be allowed again. The proposed conversion is
now in full progress, and we are not aware that
any hitch has occurred, yet it is at this very point
that the anxious feature to English bondholders
has arisen. Measures had been taken to stop up
every gap, and to rivet tight every screw, in so
far as the security of the holders of the English
loan was concerned. Special revenues were
assigned to it ; special channels were provided for
the unimpeded flow of the hypothecated revenues
to London ; special commissioners were to be
appointed to watch over them; and it is under•
stood that every one of these stipulations meets
with due attention, and that in the course of a
few days the names of the commissioners charged
with the latter duty will be published. But while all
this care was being taken to satisfy the English
bondholder, and to render the punctual payment
of his dividends a matter of comparative certainty
as long as the spirit of good faith presides over the
Turkish administration, one weak point in his
armour entirely escaped observation : no one
seems to have foreseen the possible importation of
the Turkish Home stock into the London market
as a competitor with the English bonds. Under
ordinary circumstances a competition of this sort
could not excite apprehension, for a loan which a
foreign country raises in England is usually sur-
rounded with such safeguards and conveniences

that no English capitalist would think of investing
in preference in the internal stock of that
country. Amongst the safeguards are the abso-
lute limit to the amount of the creation ; the
security against forgery which is afforded by the
signatures of well-known persons immediately ac-
cessible in case of doubt ; the supervision which ;s
exercised over all such transactions by that court
of immediate appeal, the Stock Exchange ; and,
finally, the claim which a British citizen possesses
upon at least the good offices of his Goveinment
where he is wrongfully despoiled by a foreign
power of a specially pledged revenue or other
tangible property. Amongst the superior conve-
niences of an English loan, as compared with a
foreign internal stock, are the payment of the
dividends here, and in sterling money, the value
of which is fixed, and also the ready convertibi-
lity of the bonds. For all these reasons, and for
some others of a prudential kind, the internal or
home debt of a foreign country is never intro-
, duced here, where it meets with no market.

In the case of the new issue of Turkish Home
stock, however, there is the distinguishing pecu-
liarity that it is created as part and parcel of a
conversion scheme, and that the securities to be
converted had been subjected to a depreciation
severe in proportion to the debilitated financial
condition of the Government. The case was
really quite an exceptional one, and not to be
measured by the ordinary standard. The object
was to make the cash resources of the Government
go as far as possible towards redeeming its posi-
tion, and the arrangement adopted under eminent
advice was certainly not a wasteful one, for
the Government, in redeeming the caimds, was
to pay only 40 per cent. in specie. Indeed, it
appears by a financial notification just published at
Constantinople, and transcribed in our impression
of last Friday, that the calculation as to adapting
the specie proceeds of the last London loan to the
redemption of the depreciated paper currency was
made with great exactness, inasmuch as, after
paying the 40 per cent. in specie on the whole of
the caimds in existence, there will remain a cash
surplus of only 230,0001. But these terms of
conversion, though, as we have shown, not waste-
ful, presented a large bonus to the holders of the
depreciated caimds, who have accordingly
found themselves in a position to dispose of
their GO per cent. of Home stock at Constantinople
at a price so low that it affords a significant idea
of the lamentable ebb to which the local credit of
the Government has been reduced. It was re-
served for those persons whose gains would be
imperilled by a real restoration of the finances of
Turkey to seize the opportunity here afforded of
at once damaging the credit of the Government in
England, and making a profitable operation by
endeavouring to transfer the new Home stock
from Constantinople to London. A large
amount has, accordingly, been imported, and
it is affirmed that considerable parcels have
beeu taken by English capitalists solicitous
only of a high rate of interest. It is certain that
the supply will continue on a large scale, the
calculation being that if the importers can get any-
thing like 30 per cent. in London they will make
a good profit, while the magnitude of the creation
in Turkey may be estimated from the fact, to
which sufficient attention has not been drawn,
though it was duly mentioned at the time when the
last Turkish loan was negotiated here, that the
home stock is to be created not merely against GO
per
cent. of the caimis or paper currency, but also
(as likewise recommended by Lord HOBART and
Mr. Foam) in liquidation or consolidation of

the internal floating debta, consisting of the
liabilities of various departments of the admi-
nistration, and loans at high interest. In the report
of the British Commissioners these claims were
estimated at 1,625,000,000 piastres, or equal (at,
say, 190 piastres per £, being about the present
rate of exchange) to eight millions and a half
sterling. Assuming that only a portion of these
claims is settled in the Home stock, and bearing
in mind the preposterous prices at which the
Turkish Government has often dealt with its pur-
veyors, and which will enable the claimants to sell
the new paper at a proportionately depressed price,
it may be said that there is practically no limit to
the creation of the Home stock.

This is, we think, a point on which attention
must be kept fixed. There is a virtually unli-
mited issue, nor can any power in England pre-
tend to control the creation of Turkish internal
stock, should the Government be pressed upon by
contingencies over and above those already
referred to. For this single reason, together with
the absence of any check upon simulation or
forgery of this paper, it is and mast ever remain
excluded from official recognition in the London
Stock Exchange. It cannot really compete with
the existing Anglo•Turkiah Loans, payable
as they are in sterling in London, and
secured upon special revenues, except in
the eyes of those sharp speculators who
will rush into any investment holding out a pros-
pect of profit, even if that profit depends solely
on putting a dangerous stock upon the partially-
informed British public.

necessity of providing against a consummation he
so devoutly deprecates. And to this change of
ministry must things surely come in Italy, unless
the Ratazzi cabinet can speedily be placed in a
situation to bid higher than Garibaldi for the
national sympathy. Garibaldi offers the country
Rome presently, at the cost of revolution. The
King's government must offer it Rome, by transac-
tion or otherwise, within some definite period—or
fall. Napoleon 111. can alone enable the King's
government to make such offer. He will surely
not trifle much longer with this Roman question.

B. I. N. D. 1.0. L Z. 8.
--- - - -
Nam ... 29.92 58 64 W. 4 c - 1
LIMIDIMM 99.91 67 56 8. 7 0 - 2
Imes - 1
81111/101 - 1
ARDRO2B6I2 29.91 67 66 W. 3 b - 1
909114091 20.90 66 62 B.W. 2 b - 1
GALWAY - 1
941.9423 - 4
IlumwrOini 80.06 67 46 N.N.W. 1 0 - I
HOL%HEAD 19.90 68 64 N.N.W. 3 e - 2
Liviamol. - 2
Pityaßome 30.01 58 66 N.N.W. 1 6 - I
PROTAMOS - 2
PLYMOOI32 30.01 81 17 N. T Sr 0.461
JUUT 29.99 10 68 N.N.21. 8 104 0.17 1
MIT* 4:121I
PORTRMOUTH 16.94 60 64 N.ll 7 90 0.92 2
DOTER UM 50 58 N.E. 9 82 0.66 2
L 09364 29.4 67 56 N.N.B. 9 102 1.16 -
YARMOUTH
AoAtiookaas WU 58 65 N.N.Z. 8 0 - 3
641320 . - 4
HILMIOLAWD 79.74 01 80 E.N.Z. 8 o - 3
PIORAALI.