The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-23 00:00:00

PEACE OR WAR.

(From the Constitutionnel.)
According to the Journal de Francfort, " in fife
teen days, three weeks at the most, the question
of peace or war will be decided." Thus of the two
journals which we quote (the Augsburg Gazette the
ether), one declares the engagement taken by Aus-
tria (by note obligatoire in case of no peace), the
other states with an air of something like authority
that the date and the terms of that engagement are
falling due. Both of these advices are completely
in accord with our own announcements. We were
therefore well informed when we said that Austria
was committed to the Western Powers to declare war
against Russia, if she should not have accepted
the conditions of peace by the Bth of April. In
case the conferences shall come to be broken off by
the non-consent of the Russian plenipotentiaries,
the latter shall be authorised to wait for fresh
instructions from St. Petersburg ; but if, on the
Bth of April, they shall not have communicated a
definitive acceptance, the state of war will exist
between Austria and Russia. Two points result
from the semi-official correspondence which • has
been noted. The first is, that in the eyes of Aus-
trian statesmen an understanding with Prussia is
impossible, and even that a tardy conversion of
the Court of Berlin would be now without
utility and practical effect. The second point is
that at Vienna the war was considered to be immi-
nent, since the Austrian plenipotentiary to the
Diet was already furnished with instructions in
case of the rupture of the conferences, for Austria
has announced in a high tone her intention of re-
quiriug the aid of Germany in this offensive war.
Austria is therefore convinced that "all human pro-
bability is for war—and that the eleventh hour has
struck." To think otherwise would be to deceive
ourselves with illusions. The full powers of Prince
Gortschakoff and M. de Titoff have been renewed
only so far as they bad been given by the Emperor
Nicholas ; and at Vienna it is known that the in-
structions despatched to his envoys by the late Czar
were not of a seriously pacific character. It is more-
over known at Vienna that the assurance given by
the Court of Berlin to that of St. Petersburg that
in no case would Prussia draw the sword against
Russia has not contributed to incline for peace a
Government already little disposed that way. Is
it surprising, as the Journal de Frankfort ob-
serves, that Austria no longer expects any effect
from the declarations which Prussia may make ?
According to the intelligence fiom Vienna, the
discussions in the Conference. have not yet
extended beyond the first of the four guarantees ;
out so far as can be judged from the primitive in-
structions of Prince Gortschakoff, and from the
language held by the Russian plenipotentiaries in
the preparatory conversations which preceded the
of ciel opening of the negotiations, it may be
opined that the serious difficulties will commence
with the question of the second guarantee, Russia
interpreting the free navigation of the Danube in a
restricted and singularly prejudicial sense for Ger-
man interests."

THE STATISTICAL SOCIBTY.

DISCUSSION ON LOANS RAISED BY MR.

PITT.

On Monday evening the fifth ordinary meeting of the
Statistical Society for the session 1854-55 was held at
the rooms of the society in St. James's•square ; W.
Tooke, Esq., F.R.S., in the chair. The attendance,
w hien was unsually numerous, included Lord Overstone,
Loid Ifarrowby, Lord Carnarvon, Lord Ebrington,
M.P., Sir C. Lemon, SirJ. Boileau, Bart., &c.

After the transaction of some routine business, a dis-
cussion took place on " the loans raisad by Mr. Pitt
during the French war, 1793-1801."
Dr. FARR, who now opened the discussion, took an
opposite line of argument to that adopted by Mr. New-
march,truaintaining in brief that Mr. Pitt did not make
the beet bargain on the part of the nation possible to
him at the time, and that the system of funding which
he carried out was highly injurious. This view was
combatted by the Earl of Harrowby and Mr. Hill. Mr.
Hodge, Mr. Danson, and Mr. Neison also spoke, the
discussion extending over a wide range of topics, and
betokening wide differences of opinion amongst the
members of the society on matters of finance. Late in
the evening Lord Overstone rose.
Lord OVERSTONE, after observing that he bad not
given the subject the attention it was entitled to re-
ceive, continued— I have seen but a portion of Mr.
Newmarch's pamphlet, having been interrupted during
the perusal, but I read that portion with the greatest
interest, and certainly felt that, to a great extent, 1.
agreed with him. I have never concurred in that
very common and superficial view of the subject
which would, from the mere fact that the nominal
amount of debt exceeds the amount of money received,
bring at once a charge of gross ignorance or neglect of
duty, or indifference towards national interests, to ono
of tha greatest statesmen that has ever flourished in
Europe, and who was characterised by an order of
intellect seldom encountered in our history. (Hear,
bear.) Those who hastily attribute all this to Mr.
Pitt are speaking without sufficient study, and their
opinions must undergo a severe examination before
they can be entertained by superior and -seriously-
reflecting men. It seems to me, sir, that the question
before as this evening can be approached in a very simple
form. It is, as I think, merely this—Was the money
borrowed by Mr. Pitt on behalf of the nation borrowed
upon the best terms which the circumstances of the
times permitted, or, from blameable waste or igno-
rance, was it borrowed on less favourable terms
than he could have obtained I To answer that we
have to ascertain the rate of interest at which the
loans were borrowed. That is a branch of the sub-
ject to which Mr. Newmarch has well addressed him-
self ; and you will find upon reference to the figures
that the absolute rate of interest which we contracted
to pay was below, and not above, the market rate
of interest at that period. (Hear.) Another question
is—Did Mr. Pitt, in borrowing that money, give to the
lender a security which indirectly involved an injury to
the nation and a benefit to the lender beyond what
the nation paid for ? That again must be to a consider-
able extent a matter of positive calculation ; and if
calculated, it will prove, I think, that the 'advantage to
the lender and disadvantage to the borrower was not
so great as is ordinarily supposed. But we must re-
member also that these loans were the object of public
competition. If the advantages were so extraordinarily
great to the lender, how comes it that the lenders did
not raise their terms, and by the ordinary principles
which regulate the market prig • give higher and better
terms to the borrower ? We have been dealing with this
question to-night too much in an abstract or philosophi-
cal light. You must show that it was in Mr. Pitt's power
to do otl.erwise. Some gentleman objected to the argu-
ment that the borrower was in the baud:i of the lender,
and contended that the lender was in the bands of the
borrower. How was it in the cane in point ? Mr. Pitt
was the person coming on behalf of the ration at a mo-
ment of great difficulty, when the national safety was at
stake, and he was therefore a borrower of absolute ne-
cessity, and an immediate borrower by necessity. (Hear.)
What w(r3 the circumstances of the lenders :They were
perfectly free to lend or not to lend ; to lend now or
to wait another year. Under such circumstances, the
borrower I say was in the hands of the lender. He
must come forward and borrow not only on such terms
as the lender offers, but must offer securities of such a
form, character, and duration as will be most popular
with the lenders. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Pitt was ne-
cessarily tied up moreover by the actual state of the
money market at the time. At that period the stock
market was loaded with a large mass of floating stock—
stock that is in the hands ofdealers and speculators. Mr.
Pitt could not wait ; he must raise millions and tens of
millions at once, for thedefence of England was at stake.
His alternative was either to borrow in the stock in which
he did borrow, or not to borrow at all. And that he
was alive to these considerations and conscious of the
ultimate advantages of borrowing on higher stocks,
and involving termination at no distant period, we have
evidence in the fact that a portion of many of his loans
were borrowed in those stocks. He was as sagacious
in these matters as we are ; but the public safety
was his first consideration, and that provided for, he
took the portions of the debt then required in other
securities. The issuing of exchequer bonds by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the late Ministry
wthheic
el J
state
was analogous in principle to that adopted by
Mr. Pitt. It was with Mr. Pitt ex necessitate return.
had His
erdarshdipthtehpenropeoxspirteiosnsedtotrhaeise nealmaromwy fitohr
tbhytttmtohret mortgage, and
would concluded
n
ot be desirous
with
augment the
cdoeubnt,trfyrowlllasthaeuigdmeaenthtead, that baencaauusgemtehneted debt would notproperty of the
expose us and posterity to very many dangers.
The Cs.trear.sos observed that he had a perfect recol-
lection of the circumstances under which Mr. Pitt had
thatm hip.
dNiflewrlernAtumcnodtheecnomuladdbeeaandaobpltee
replyd
effected these loans, and no one at that time believed
to the various
objections which his paper had excited, and with his re-
marks the discussion was brought to a close.

Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, has been requested
by Lord Panmure to provide the medical officers requi-
site for the formation of another civil hospital in the
Past. He will be required.
it seems, to select pbysi-
cianP, surgeons, assistant-physicians, assistant surgeons,
apothecaries, and male and female nurses.
An absurd and unfounded paragraph appearad in the
Times of Wednesday, headed " Narrow Escape of the
Lord Chancellor," and affecting to give an account of
the falling of a stone that was being raised•to a lantern
immediately above where his lordship was standing in
the House of Lords. There is, we believe, no lantern,
but whether there be or not, the stone, as we have
already stated, fell from a, parapet at the end of the
house, close to the reporters gallery, and damaged the
representation of one of the solitary pair of silk stockings
possessed by Queen Elizabeth. The Lord Chancellor
was delivering judgment at the table, and as every one
who has seen the house must know, full one hundred
feet from the scene of the accident. His lordship paused
in delivering his judgment,
but it was merely to send a
messenger for the purpose of ascertaining whether any
one had been hurt, Our contemporary deceives its
rcaders often, but never without a motive, and we sus-
pect there must be some strange political secret in the
attempt to wcrk on the feelings of the Ministerialists
with a feigned account of the narrow escape of the legal
corner-stone of the administration. We advise the gobe•
ntoutho to be on the Alert,—Morninif ticrad•