The Express.
London, England, 1861-07-29 00:00:00

BPOSTLXO INTELLIG ENCE.

♦ late edition of the Express im published every
waning daring the racing season, containing the
moults of the day's races.

TM+ is certainly the era of great public loans.
It was only the other day that the French
nation subscribed to a nominal amount of more
than 90,000,000!. on account of a loan of
6,000,000/. for railway purposes, the operation
following closely upon one for a similar object, but
of still larger amount. The Italians are at this
moment putting down their names for 20,000,0001.
of stock. The English public have just subscribed
more than 21,000,0001. iu their eagerness to get
4,000,0001. of India Five per Cents. Almost
before the ink of this contract is dry, the INDIAN
thicarrmir intimates that he cannot get through
the recess with any comfort of mind unless he has
in his pocket parliamentary leave to issue
5,000,0001. more. At the same moment, the
Colony of Victoria, having sent over Six
per Cent. Bonds of the nominal value of
2,000,0001., created for railways, authorises her
agents to put 1,000,0001. of the amount
on the market, which they do in a
bungling manner. The next transaction of the
kind to which the public are requested to give their
attention is quite as striking as any of these. The
'United States Congress votes, almost with unani-
mity, a loan of—not ten or twenty, but fifty infl-
ame sterling (250,000,000 dols.), for the purposes
4Ow war, and authoress the Executive to take
immediate steps to refine any portion of it, up to
20,000,0001., in foreign countries, that is to say,
chiefly in (heat Britain, whore the interest is
made payable, and where an ample market for the
new stock is to be constituted. This is to be, in
fact, a United States Federal Loan in starling
money.

The magnitude and frequency of these applica-
tions to the European money market suggest some
anxious reflection. When capitalists are asked to
fling their accumulations thus by wholesale
into the collecting plates of petitioning
governments, the lint question that arias
is—ls the money to be applied to useful or
legitimate objects? Now, the French and Austra-
lian loans are for the construction of railways. So
is also the Indian 5,000,0001. loan now asked for,
whilst that for 4,000,0001. just placed was to
bridge over the interval between the deficits left
by the mutiny and the financial equilibrium pro-
mised in the better time corning. The Italian
loan represents in part the cost of the national
independence and unity. Adhering to the standard
usual in such matters, an observer cannot put his
finger on any one of these great creations of public
securities and say—" This is the offspring of waste
" and recklmeneas : as • matter of principle, the
" money ought not to be granted." Then, at the
moment when the Americans, the most economical
of people, are voting away in an hour
sums of a magnitude sufficient to make
any financier's hair stand on end, are we to say—
have we the power to say—that they must them..
selves provide all the funds requisite in this
lamentable emergency, and that they shall not
have a stiver from us I Deeply as we may de-
plore this fratricidal strife, regretfully as we may
contemplate the utter exhaustion which will in-
evitably follow its prolongation, we cannot pre-
tend to say that American unity is worth less than
the unity of Italy. And if we could we should be
enable to check the free current of capital it
must and will flow where it list.

It is rather remarkable to witness the calmness
with which the Money Market regards these vast
operations. America Italy, India, France, and Aus-
tralia have put out the particulars of an aggregate
of 86,000,000 i. of new securities, yet the financial
world is imperturbable ; money is declining in va-
lue; and the difficulty of finding employment for it
forms at the moment the staple remark in City
Articles. It might be imagined that the proposed
diversion of so large a sum from the ordinary
channels of commerce, either for investment in
masonry and earthwork; or to fill up the gap occa-
siored by various causes between State revenues
and State expenses, would lead to some com-
motion. But nothing of the kind is
witnessed. Financial people here take •
very practical view of these matters. They
argue that we need not put ourselves out of the
way in the least. Italy is herself raising the
money elle wants—at least she has not yet put
forward a notification of any kind here. What
France has just done in the financial way seems to
be a mere trifle to her. The amount of the Vic-
toria Railway loan is, at the most, a bagatelle.
Half • dozen capitalists whose names few of
our readers probably ever heard of would
absorb the whole in • morning and think
no more of it. As to the India Five
per Cents., the 4,000,0001. just issued
is such • driblet in comparison with the
constant demand for it, that the holders, though
only required to pay 700,0001. in cash up to the
present tune, have preferred to pay nearly °sle-
ben of the entire loan, in order that they may get
the stock into their psesse•ion without any further
trouble. It is one of the immediate vexations of
capitalists, that the additional loan of 6,000,000 L
about to he authorised will probably be withheld
from them for some months. The 'smug Seers•
?ARV would unquestionably add to his popularity
in the City were he to give it out at once and
have done with it. The whole would doubtless
be ■wept off the market with almost as much
avidity as on the last occasion. When the English
public once make up their minds in favour of any
particular kind of investment, there is proverbially
no stopping them. For • long series of years