The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-25 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 25, 1867.

able may be the present prospects of foreign bor-
rowers in our markets, the tide may suddenly
turn. At one time the permanent success of the
Russian Loan, and the temporary encouragement
with which the Chili= operation had been received,
were thought to have shown a marked change in
the public views. Within the last week, how-
ever, opinion has again veered round to a general
want of faith.

One by one we find the means of employing
money growing fewer. Our Australian colonies
appear to .afford the chief outlet, but they can
hardly take any sums of real importance. A loan
of a few hundred thousand pounds merely repre-
sents the national savings of comparatively few
days. The Indian guaranteed railways every now
and then announce an issue of new stock, but they
have committed the fault of repeating their appeals
too frequently; and thus, although the public ulti-
mately subscribe to them, there is no chance of
such a rise in price as would stimulate regularly
increasing investments in the East. English rail-
way enterprise is at a standstill. New public
companies are carefully shunned. Purchases of
Consols do not of course involve an absorption of
capital, but simply its transference from the
hands of one person to another. Tho discount
market is oversupplied with money, and trade
does not appear likely for some time to come to be
more than moderately prosperous. The question
thus continually arises what, is to be done with the
accumulations of capital that in a rich country
like England steadily go on from day to day ?
A common opinion prevails that the result of
tho present state of financial affairs will be the
outbreak of a fresh speculative mania. The pro-
babilities, however, are in favour of its being
deferred for one year at least, if not longer.
Indeed, it is difficult to perceive what direction it
can possibly take, at least for the moment. The
memory of the losses in 1866 has temporarily
cured the public of too hastily embarking in
new and untried schemes. Prudence is now
curled to the extreme of universal distrust. The
lesson, however, is not likely to last long, at
leash, if it does, previous experience will be
singularly belied. The inevitable reaction is cer-
tain to recur. Money will continue to be saved
for an indefinite period, until at last the holders
will begin to consider how it may be profitably em-
ployed. Should one particularchannel of investment
be selected—and in thesequestionsthepublicalmost
invariably act in unison—there is a mania ready
made. It was so in 1825. The close of the old
European war, and the subsequent difficulties from
bad harvests and the restoration of the currency,
caused an universal feeling of prudence. Money
was accumulated until at last an outlet was sought.
In this case foreign mines and loans became the
mania. Precisely the name effects were reproduced
'in 1845. Again the nation had a quantity of sur-
plus capital to dispose of, and everybody turned to
railway investments. Some years laier, when the
effects of the speculation of 1845, and of the
crisis of 1847, had been repaired, the gold dis-
coveries in California caused a certain amount
of excitement in gold mining companies. Since
that period investments for capital have been
found in loans for the Russian war, Indian rail-
way stocks, direct loans to the Indian government
rendered necessary by the mutiny, and to foreign
nations ; and, lastly, in the new companies estab-
lished, chiefly in 1864 and 1865. Some new
phase of finance is probably at hand ; and it may
be hoped that it will be one leading to really pro-
ductive expenditure, promising both individual
and public benefit.

that such court should not be the House of Lords; and
that there should not be more than one appeal. The por
sibility of retaining for hay very long period the appellate
jurisdiction of the House of Lords was destroyed by Lord
Derby, when he succeeded in defeating the attempt to re-
vive the practice of granting life peerages, without, as Sir
itoundell Palmer truly says, any warrant in law or history.
Our intermediate courts of appeal, so far from being useful,
are positively injurious, since they conclude nothing finally,
and their structure is peculiarly defective. The Exche-
quer Chamber is so framed that the appellate tribunal is
very often entitled to less weight than tho court from
which the appeal lies ; and the Lords Justices, sitting an
they generally do without the Lord Chancellor, are liable
to differ in opinion, and so to render the appeal abortive,
leaving the diasatisfiedsuitor the alternative of submitting
to what he considers a wrong and incurring the expense
and delay of an appeal to the House of Lords, a tribunal
whose jurisdiction far transcends its authority.
The Daily Ntaos tells Sr R. Palmer that he will come
under the same judgment as other nominal law reformers
if he is content to discuss without making a real effort to
advance. It is now open to him to bring in a bill, to
force it with all his energy through the house, and to let
the public see the reason why if his reforms are 'rejected.
The jurisdiction of the Lords of the Privy Council Sir It.
Palmer would transfer to a new court, to be composed of
ex-Lord Chancellors, who would thus render some service
for the pensions to which their having held office, for
however short a time, entitles them—and of other
eminent judges who might be induced by a slightly
larger pension to retire from their courts while
still in the full vigour of their faculties. The
court thus created would not only supersede the
House of Lords and the Privy Council, but the interme-
diate stages of appeal which now exist. The excellence of
the suggestion, the Daily Nears thinks, will commend
itself to all ; but that a house which, as it now exists, is
distinguished by nothing so much as the anxiety to do
nothing in any matter, will practically entertaiu Sir It.
Palmer's suggestion, the Daily News cannot profess to be
sanguine.

•

THE GOVERNMENT AND REFORM.

THE EARL OF DERBY'S RECEPTION.
(THIS DAY.)

It will readily be understood that Pall-mall and
its neighbourhood, and in • somewhat lesser degree the
Royal Palace of Westminster and its neighbourhood, have
been in • state of considerable excitement this morning.
In the neighbourhood of the House of Commons there
h►ve been the usual number of patient people who, having
received tickets of admission to the gallery, are content to
wait during the whole of the day in St. Stephen's Chamber
until the doors are opened at 4 o'clock.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had a lengthened in-
terview this morning with the Earl of Derby, at his resi-
dence in St. James's square. Mr. Walpole, Lord J.
Manners, and other members of the government, also had
interviews with his lordship. Shortly after 12 o'clock the
Earl of Derby left St. James's square for his official resi-
dence in Downing-street. _

Although the great ministerial gathering in Downing-
atrect was fixed for 2 o'clock, members of the House of
Commons began to arrive long before that hoar. Prior to
the meeting the Earl of Derby had interviews with most
of his colleagues in the cabinet, and with many of the
leading supporters in both houses of parliament.
The reception-room of the First Lord of the Treasury in
Downing-street was crowded.