The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-18 00:00:00

THE FRENCH LOAN.

THE Pays, whose most active rtgdaeleur, M. PAUL
DE CABBAONAC, a young man of 28, has just been
decorated, on the special nomination of the
Emperor, says the unparalleled success of the
loan is • warning for the foreign enemies
of France, who now knew that she has
1,200,000 men in arms ready to take the
field, and can get as many milliards as she
likes (milliards d diseretion). This is another ver-
sion of the text which the late M.FOULD.aa he told
the EMPEROR, in a celebrated letter, thought it so
dangerous to act upon, " The resources of
" France are inexhaustible." An analysis of the
figures of which M.Msorrx's fifteen milliards are
comprised shows that thoj are even more fantastic
than on the first blush everybody of common
sense must have felt them to be. During the first
seven days of the subscription not more than throe
milliards of this famous sum were written for.
The remaining twelve milliards were all sub-
scribed (fictitiously) on the last day by Paris
bankers who, knowing the state of the subscription,
scraped together all the ready money they oould
and deposited it as a guarantee for demands for
enormous slims of the loan, well knowing all the
time that they would only get about 21
per cent. of the amount they asked for.
They also knew that they would not lose
the interest of their surplus deposits for more
than three or four days at the utmost, and indeed
the Moniteur announces that the process of
repayment began on the 14th, the very day
after these large deposits were made. The bankers
who thus played into M. MserrE's hands will in
many cases get 2148 per cent. for their
money. There never was a greater fallacy
than the assertion that this is a poor man's loan,
i.e., that the greater part of it has got into the
hands of small investors who, glad to buy rente a
little below the market price, mean to keep it.
M. MAO E, of course, would have wished
this ; but if he expected it, the result
must have woefully disappointed him. The
Prophecy which some government papers ven-
tured upon a week ago, that the whole loan would
be made up by Mr. subscriptions, has been terribly
falsified. These subscriptions in Paris and
the provinces amounted but to 3,141,170 fr.
of rente, or about one-sixth of the whole
loan ; and it is notorious that the greater
part of this is in the hands of specula-
tors who paid small wage's to pampers to go and
subscribe, and that the only object was to sell at
a profit. The allotments of 100 fr. rente, which
are discountable, and may be thrown upon
the market at once, will be very ex-
tensive, because all but very large demands
must be cut down below that amount.
Ilona fide investors who wanted to place such a
sum as, say 10,000 fr., and would have asked for
430 fr. rente, must be cut down just in the
same proportion as the gamblers, and
will not get more than lofr. It is quite
certain, therefore, that contrary to M. HAM M'S
programme the loan is not " classed." By far
the greater portion of it is in the hands of specu-
lators, who will watch their opportunity to foist
it off upon the public. The farce is so transparent
that many express the opinion that this will be
the last loan by public subscription, and that in
future the old system of adjudication to the
highest bidder must be resorted to.