The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-29 00:00:00

Tag FRENCH LOAN.

(From the Derbyshire Courier.)
The extraordinary success of the French Loan, to
which we called the attention of our readers last week,
has el'cited an article on the subject from the Times.
A law was passed for a loan of SOO millions of francs
(20 millions sterling) on December 31, 1854. In nine
days, that is, between January 3d and January 11,
1855, the sum subscribed " amounted to 2 milliards 175
millions of francs, or 87 millions of pounds sterling, on
the whole of which a deposit of 10 per cent., or
8,700,0001., was immediately paid."
This the Times speaks of as a " great financial opera-
tion," which " deserves to be recorded among the most
remarkable political occurrences of the present time."
Much as the Times has depreciated the financial po-
licy of Luis Napoleon, we are not surprised at its
making use of these laudatory expressiors in speaking of
this financial operation of the French. For we remember
what the Times said and unsaid respecting the suspen-
sion of cash payments by the Bank of France in 1848
and 184 g. . _

On the 18th March, 1848, the Times said, " the
actual suspension of cash payments at such a time
(during the revolution) and among such a people, will
produce the worst possible effects." The measure "is
hardly to be distinguished from a general act of bank-
ruptcy." "Unhappily, the credit of the Bank of France,
by far the greatest and most solid establishment in the
country, was already shaken before this decree gave the
finishing stroke to it." "To suppose that the decree
of the Provisional Government can restore the confi
deuce of the public, or, in other words, the nominal
value of the notes, is ridiculous."
The Times of 16th February, 1849, unsaid all this in
a " remarkable" manner. The paper of that date gave
a detail of the Bank measures in 1848. After the sus-
pension of cash payments by the decree of the Provi-
sional Committee, so far from national bankruptcy fol-
lowing, the Bank of France was enabled to purchase
from abroad 40,000,000 francs of silver, to pass ever to
the public treasury in dollar, 100,000,000 francs, and
to throw into the circulation of the country, between
March, 1848, and February, 1849, five frano pieces of
silver to the amount of 150,000,000 francs. " Vast ad-
vances," says the Times, " were made to the City of
Paris, to Marseilles, to the department of the Seine,
and to the hospitals, amounting in all to 260,000,000
francs more." Further, the Bank of France discounted
registered invoices of all kinds of goods lodged in na-
tional warehouses. "In Havre alone 18 millions were
thus advanced on colonial produce, and in Paris 14 mil-
lions on merchandise—in all 60 millions were thus made
available for the purposes of trade." The Bank of France,
be it observed, lost the comparatively trifling sum of
four millions of francs by all these risks. And the Times
of February, 1849, thus summed up its remarks :—" We
cannot do more tha❑ present our readers with this very
brief outline of these masterly operations ; but when it
is remembered that they were conducted in all the gloom
and terror of an unparalleled revolution, when the Go-
►ernment lay prostrate before the mcb, and property
itielf was openly assailed, this narrative of dry financial
iiries assumes the importance and dignity of an heroic
resistance to adverse circumstances, and in the very
first rank of those who rescued France from the jaws of
bankruptcy, and society itself from dissolution, we place
wit!iout hesitation the patriotic and able conductors of
the Bank of France." France, the Times further states,
has -' reason to be proud " of this passage in her history.
We have mere pleasure on referring to this circum-
stance from the fact that the credit of placing these
counter-statereents of the Times, soon after they ap-
peared, in. jutxta-position, and ably enforcing the great
monetary principles which they illustrate, is mine to a
geatlemau of our own county—Mr. James Taylor, of
Bake well.
But we refer to what the Times has more recently
raid and unsaid about the financial policy of France.
In March, 1852, Louis Napoleon, acting on the ad-
vice of his able financial minister, M. Bineau, formed a
plan for nothing less than the relief and amelioration of
the condition of the whole agricultural population of
France, by means of the establishment of Mortgage of
Land Banks. At the same time the establishment of
the Banks of Moveable Credit, for making advances or
railway shares and bonds, had for its object the relief
and encouragement of the trading and commercial com-
munity. The Derbyshire Courier approved and sup•
ported the plan, on its appearance, while the Times de-
clared that the scheme must " lead to ruin," and that,
if carried out of which it altogether doubted the
possibility—it would "hereafter be remembered as more
calamitous and disgraceful even than Louis Napoleon's
political conduct." Such measures were said by the
Times to carry the ravages of revolution into the
very heart of society." The project of the Mortgage
Banks is said to be "execrable," and in conclusion
it is declared that " the credit of the nation and the

security of property would eventually be shaken by the
fulfilment of a project which is at variance with every
principle •f political economy or financial science, and
copied from the chief absurdities of socialism and revo-
lution."

And so on every occasion ; such as the conversion of
the 5 per cent, stock into 4i per cent. in March, 1852,
which was said to be dishonest, fraudulent, and tyran-
nical, and to be certain to fail, but which was entirely
successful ; and again on the formation of Bakers' Banks
at the end of 1853, by which the working classes of
France were preserved from destitution and famine at
that period of high prices, the Times has coins forward
as the prophet of evil, to ridicule, to depreciate, and,`if
possible, to defeat the financial policy of France and.
Louis Napoleon. And, we will also do the Times the
justios, to say, that when thet event has proved that the
writer was wrong, it has been fully, though evidently
reluctantly, admitted.
We may now affirm that tie cliraaz has been reached;
and the most "remarkable" success of the French Loan,
" which," says the Timm of Monday last, is an " unde-
niable proof of the wealth of France ; that within so
short a period this enormous sum should be subscribed ;"
"a demonstration of the confidence inspired by the Im
perial Administration is all ranks of the community,"
" proofs of wealth, patriotism, and fidelity to the Govern-
ment of their choice in the French people" sets the
question at rest.
We may, we repeat, safely say that of all ti• evil
prognosticated by the Times, not one jot or tittle has
come to pass, but that the financial and monetary sys-
tem of Louis Napoleon has, so far, been eminently and
astonishingly successful.

The reason why we call the attention of our readers
to these " remarkable " changes of opinion in our ver-
satile and volatile contemporary is-this. The Times is,
and kas long been, the most powerful supporter of the
bullion* or hard money party in this country. All
that the clever sophistry of practical political writers
could adduce is support of Peel's monetary policy has,
again and again, been brought forward in the. Times
newspapf:r. On a subject so confessedly difficult as the
currency question the writers have constantly appealed
—te the common nonsense of the country. Every idle,
silly, and vulgar prejudice which ignorance could sug-
gest, or selfishness and self-interest fabricate against
paper money, has been unscrupulously employed.
Now while the Times and its supporters were proving
to their own satisfaction, and we may add, we are sorry
to say, to that of the great body of the English people,
that paper money and paper credit are bad, false, ruinous
expedients, Louis Napoleon and his able and energetic
financiers have been employing this powerful agent—
Representative Paper Money—to restore to prosperity
and happiness a nation which had fallen into circum-
stances as unfavourable for the attempt as any which the
history of the world can exhibit.
We have left ourselves little space to refer to the latter
part of the article of the Times, and indeed it deserves
little notice. The writer evidently wishes to say some-
thing to detract from the merit of this " great financial
operation ;" and so he says that the terms are too
favourable, and that it is a bad thing for Governments
to find teo easy facilities for borrowing money.
Let it, however, be remember-ad that if the terms are
easy, it is the poor and industrious members of the
French community, not rick money-dealers and bankers,
who derive the advantage. Whether Louis Napoleon
will abuse the facility which he has of raising funds re-
mains to be seen. We think he will not do so.
In the meantime we recommend to the attention of the
Times and Mr. Gladstone this consideration, viz., that
if a financier wishes to borrow money—and especially in
a great national emergency—he will act wisely by pro-
posing such terms to the lenders as may insure success.
And to the common sense of the English people we sub-
mit this important fact, viz., that the monetary system
of France is proving itself as superior to that of England,
as their military system has proved itself to ours.