The Express.
London, England, 1866-11-20 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

THREE months ago our monetary authorities
were commenting on the complete collapse of
British credit abroad. Foreigners, possessed by an
unreasoning and an overpowering incredulity,
would not look at English commercial paper, and
stories were told of bulky parcels of gold passing
one another in contrary directions between London
and this and that foreign capital, because discredit
had thrown the delicate and invaluable machinery
of exchange quite out of gear. The announce-
ment of a new Russian Loan for Six Millions ster-
ling may, we suppose, be taken as an indication
that some of our neighbours believe that our state
of impecuniosity has been succeeded by one of
repletion. Whether, if the Emperor of RUssIA
had six million sovereigns in hand, he would thirk
himself safe in lending it to us, is not certain,
but he does us the high honour of inviting us
to be his creditors, and the public will this
morning feel flattered accordingly. The time for
tendering this opportunity to Englishmen has
been happily chosen. It is the season of compli-
ments between the two nations. The HEIR APPA-
RENT to the British Throne is at St. Petersburg,
on the first visit a Prince of Wales has ever paid
to a Czar, and the Royal Houses of the two
Empires are now connected by marriage. While
the most touching marks of affection and confi-
dence are being interchanged between the rulers,
why should not the two countries be drawn closer
together in more material bonds f There are, no
doubt, people of grosser fibre who will say that
such considerations as these are altoge*.her
ita the matter in hand ; that the Loan has been
brought out just now because the eminent finan-
cial houses who have charge of the operation
have accurately surveyed the state of the
market, and taken the measure of local
feeling ; and that a Russian Loan is held to have
a good chance because immense sums of money,
thrown out of employment through the prevail-
ing distrust of railway debentures, financial and
other miscellaneous securities, are more likely to
be drawn forth by the offer of a Government
Stock free from undefined liabilities than by any
other mode of investment that could be offered.
If so, it will not be well to lay too much stress on
sentimental considerations. Leaving then, the
experienced financiers of the City to compute, as
they are well able to do, the direct and incidental
advantages of the new Stock and its value
for the purposes of investment and specula-
tion, we may remark, from the po:nt of vie x
of national interest, that the Russian Govern-
ment has not on this occar'on thought
it necessary to state for what purpose it wants
this large sum of money. This observation is not
made as if the Government had omitted any state-
ment which it was bound to make; but, as a matter
of fact, the announcements of former loans have been
accompanied with a designation of the occasion
and purpose of their negotiation. The Imperial
ukase authorising the Minister of Finance to con-
tract this loan may contain the necessary informa-
tion, but it does not, as has been the case on some
former occasions, accompany the published in-
structions. To individual investors this may ap-
pear a matter of indifference. They may concern
themselves simply with the rate of interest, the
quality of the security, and the circumstances
likely to affect its standing in the market.
They will, of course, make inquiry, and
then if they should find that the dividends
on Russian stock have been punctually paid,
and besides this, that through the good
management of the Imperial Government every
new loan is brought out at a higher subscription
price than the one before it, instead of gradually
sinking in value, as some Government stocks have
been known to do, they would probably think
that they had found a most desirable invest-
ment. From a political point of view, how-
ever, these considerations have an almost
inappreciable value, while, on the other hand,
the intended application of the money assumes
considerable importance. We confess we should
like to know whether these Six Millions are wanted
for some purpose of peaceful, economical, and
social development, or for iron-clad war steamers,
and Kaure's steel guns, which our seamen and
soldiers, recruited with so much difficulty, may
one of these days have to meet in sulphurous
encounter. We are aware that to some persons
there will appear something fantastically superfiu-

(THIS DAY.)

WORM DIPIONSTBATION/3.
Describing those who took part in the Edinburgh
demonstration on Saturday as on the whole • good,
honest, trubstaatial body of working men, with whom the
country has reason to be satisfied, and to • number of
whom the franchise might be wisely extended, the Times
proceeds to suggest what • different demonstration it
would have been if the Scottish people bad been resenting
a real grievance. What fierce denunciations, what strong
resoletions, and what evident signs that the malcontents
were bent upon deeds as well as words, we should have
heard ! Edinburgh has had its processions because
Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow has had them. The
Tisam trusts that the trades of London on the 3rd of neat
month will imitate the peaceable demeanour of the Edin-
burgh artisans, and will arrange their legions so as to leave
as little space as possible for the London rabble, who will
certainly seek to attach themselves to the procession.
It is simply impossible, says the Star, for any ministry
or any class to resist these united appeals from the body
of the people. The multitude and importance of the
handicrafts represented—in a few instances by the men
actually working in the presence of the spectators as the
procession poured along—is convincing proof of the im-
portance of these men in the economy of the nation—that
they, in short, more perhaps than the classes already en-
franchised, constitute the nation, and that until they can
send representatives to parliament our constitutional free-
dom is only half effected. The success of this great meet-
ing will, doubtless, animate with new scat the reformers
who attend to-night the Manchester banquet. All our
largest towns have now been subjected to a searching ordeal,
and the only disturbance was created in London by the
foolish and officious interference of the chief policeman.
The Star has no doubt that if the police abstain from in-
terference the display of the 3rd of December will be as
orderly and effective as any that have yet taken place in
the provinces.

TRADES' UNTOIM.
In the opinion of the Times the official inquiry which
the principal operative unions in Sheffield are anxious
should take place into the late outrage, can only be abor-
tive. Whatever the result of an inquiry, it will matter
little, for everybody knows what these outrages mean
better than a commission could tell him. They interpret
one another, for their significance is in the certainty of
their recurrence under similar circumstances. Of course,
the trades' unions do not connive at such criminal violence
as the Sheffield outrage. But they wish to be feared, and
it is only by appealing to fear that they can rule the mass
of their members. The worst is that what they intend to
be only a useful degree of fear some brutal natures take
care shall be terror, of a penal as well as coercive
character.
The Herald looks for a speedy collapse of the strike
organisation in the Durham and Northumberland iron
fields. The men are getting tired of enforced idleness and
voluntarily endured privation. Slowly ■nd unwillingly
they are recognising the obvious truth that not the will of
the masters, but the circumstances of the times, are
against them. Coincident with the renewed sellinsness
of the men to work is the unwelcome discovery that by
their ill-advised action they have in a measure
at least deprived themselves of work to do.
Already many orders which but for the strike would have
gone to the north of England have gone upon the Continent,
to the serious detriment of a trade previously in an
abnormal state of depression. Let the leaders and sup-
porters of trades unions remember this, or they may find,
when too late, that by successful combinations against
working on any but their own terms they have prevented
themselves from working on any terms whatever.
Reporters were excluded by Mr. Walpole from the late in-
terview with the Sheffield deputation, but a local paper has
p iblished a tolerably full report of what took place. The
Star. commenting on the narrative, says that every word
uttered did honour to the artisans. Several very inter-
esting facts were brought to light. It was shown that on
previous occasions the workmen had made the utmost
endeavours to ascertain the truth respecting these out-
rages, and that in some oases the inquiries had proved
fruitless through the absence of co-operation on the part
of the employers, and that in several cases where the
facts were arrived at grounds of private malice were
proved, wholly distinct from trades union motives.