The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-17 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1855.

Sir CousswALL Lewis won't do. He has
broken down at the earliest trial, failed at the
very first step in his progress. Yesterday he ap-
peared thickly covered with streamers of red tape.
Every-mischievous precedent was adopted so far
as the objectionable portions were concerned,
while thje good that was to be found in every
scheme was, by a species of perverted ingenuity,
•• completely dissipated. There might have been
something to be asserted in favour of an unmixed
I.___
Issue of 3 per Cent. Consols, or of Terminable
Annuities,, but he has contrived so to dovetail the
two as to retain all the obnoxious features, with-
out anrof the incidental advantages. It is said
that the proposition bas been received favouiably
in the City. It m.ly be so, and siaiply because it
is iu the highest. de!:;Tee unfavourable to the Ex-
chequer, affording -prospects of exorbitant gains;
to those who have the prospect of participating
in the exorbitant profits that may be realised on
the transaction.
The,,leading particular 3 of the projected Loan
appeared in our impression of yesterday ; we may,
therefore, comment upon the sali-vnt points whli-
out rendering ourselves liable to the imputation
of seeking to control the discretion of the Fivan-
cid Minister, or wishing to' drive him into a
corner' from whence he could not readily eseapv.
IA, It appears that the total amount of the to
is to be sixteen millions of pounds sterling—that
is to say, it is sixteen raiilio_us to be paid into the
Exchequer, not a fixed amount to be issuci, and
prove to be,
the proceeds, whatever they might
rendered available. The above sum has been de-
t*rmin'cdaccordino-to the present estimates of what
will b"tcluired for the wants of the current year.
latudia
IF;arzymn,atenesst: .ry to refer to the numerous
1 ntingencio) any
of whiat woxiia
1)e linprobabie co
lations y wade. sllfficieut to derange
of Marcia) of last Li the first the caleu-
alreadßudget (that
Exchequeran'
araser;
.the then Chancellor of the
aition that the
tli:"'lt against the suppo-
he then demandedaddi wool
jhref! Millions which
to meet the extra expmait:,raure than- sudicient
r
May, just two months lat.: t'n the
Year. In
nary to quadruple his previo:::rveifyit t ;and,
cent. it,l3eaeles-,
e
even that amended estimate
cent. beneath the actual outlay. fully 0 per
It would, therefore, have been a w• It
dent and
dent precaution if Sir G. C. Lewis haidl.l
WI PoWriaa)
himself some reasonable margin, which
have rendered a further appeal to speeti.
lativo capitalists unnecessary. Had he asked
for Twenty Millions, which he could hare
obtained just as easily and ou as favourable terms
as Sixteen, he would, although not pledging him-
Belf against &Tann") low; have rendered such a
step so , it4robabl
aty-- ould' scarcely be
taken an element in lations by which
the biddings will be n He might even
have got rid of the ant ,te of credit to be
raised by's.Zisckcquer-1 there is no pre-

~ y :~. ~ r.

ate.

sent expectation will exceed 3,000,000/. We-need
not expatiate on the benefits of a well-filled Trea-
sury in time of war. The Right Hon. Gentleman
has, however, taken no step to retrieve the grave
mistake of his predecessor in denuding the Ex-
chequer of its balances by unnecessarily paying off
more than eight millions--a valuable financial
demonstration, as we were then told by
" a leading journal" —so valuable, indeed,
that it was one of the chief causes that
induced NICHOLAS to suppose that he had nothing
to fear from England, for that she could not be
in earnest in her opposition when taking a step
so incompatible with impending hostilities. In
fixing the amount at only sixteen millions, it
seems to us that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
has committed the first of a series of blunders in
reference to the Loan.

The second and chief condition is, that "for
every 1001. subscribed in money the contractors
are to have 1001. 3 per Cent. Consolidated An-
nuities, and a Terminable Annuity for 30 years,
ending on the sth April, 1855 ;" the interest on
the Consols to commence on the sth January
last, and the annuity from the sth instant ; and
" the biddiugs to be made in the terminable an-
nuity." Here, then, it will be seen that
the terminable annuity is the unknown quan-
tity. To ascertain it there must first
be determined the exact value in money
of a- perpetual annuity of 3 per cent. ; having
thus found the money-value of the difference be-
tween 100/. cash and the value of 100/. Consols,
a new estimate must be framed of the amount of
Terminable Annuity worth that difference. A
complicated calculation that would effectually de-
ter any private individual from competing, and
throw the whole matter into the hands of a
favoured few who could fix their own terms in the
absence of all emulation. As if, however, there
was not a sufficiently decided advantage, the
Financial Minister has announced "that the bid-
dings must be made for the whole Loan of
16,000,0001.," as none for a smaller amount will
be received. A virtual monopoly is thus granted
to the very few members of the Moneyocracy,
who will find it far more to their advantage
Ito combine than to compete. It is scarcely
probable that more than one tender
will be made. Under any circumstances the
competition must be restricted within very nar-
row limits. The Treasury is thus placed, bound
hand and foot, at the mercy of some half-dozen
Pluto-trots, who have only their own consciences
to consult. Their customer wants the money.
He hag. voluntarily cut off all other sources of
supply. He has eschewed anything like popular
slipport ; and "as he has sown so must lie reap."
How different is this from lie French Financier,
whose successful operations during last year and
this year might have taught a valuable lesson to
Sir G. C. LEWIS. But " red-tapery " is once
more predominant. That which all but sacrificed
our noble army in the Crimea is again permitted
larzely to enhance the burdens of the people.
TheßiglatHon. Gentleman has already sufficiently
proved that he is totally incompetent to discharge
the duties of the important office into which he
has been pitchforked. It is scarcely necessary to
advert to the development of his financial scheme
to prove the total absence of all the qualifications
necessary for the head of the Financial-] epart-
meat of the British nation.

The spectacle presented yesterday in the me-
tropolis was at once unique, imposing, and satis- ,
factory. The intelligent and orderly masses that
for so long a period patiently lined the miles. of
streets through which the Imperial cortege vms,
to pass ; the balconies gay with youth and
beauty ; the bands of music catching
up the distant strains ; the banners float-
ing proudly from the windows in the light of a
sunny day constituted a sight of no ordinary
occurrence. But when the Imperial guests
made their appearance the waving of hats
and handkerchiefs, and the general agitation
of the enthusiastic spectators as they cheered
loudly along the line, lent to it an effect
that wellnigh beggars description. The
EMPEROR, in short, from the moment of his
leaving the South-Eastern station to that of his
arrival at the Great Western, or, for an hour and
a half, was the subject of a grand triumphal
ovation. And this, it must be added, was only
in keeping with the reception he had experienced
from the moment of his landing on the British
shores.

How•different this entry into England from his
departure thence, to go back no further, some five
years ago, when elected President of the Frenc4
Republic. Then he embarked at Southampton,
and sailed for Havre, with orly one attendant,
comparatively speaking unnoticed and unknown.
How are we to account for the marvellous chance
—for the reception of yesterday ? Under ordi-
nary circumstances, doubtless, an Emperor would
attract crowds of spectators, and an Emperor of
FnANcE, accompanied by his EMPRESS, was cer-
tain enough to du so in an unusual do-
grec. But this is not • enough to account
for the cordiality of the reception which the
Emperor met with yesterday. Thera was a
depth and earnestness about it which distinguished
iit from ordinary rezeptions. It was the welcome
of a great people tv a great man, holding man-
fully a great trust—a welcome of faith and re-
i•lyct. The Emperor bad destroyed the Republic,
i t was true, but the practic Ll English people
had learned to value the Republic at its
wor tai, and had lung ceased to deplore its
He had brought back again the
t; of ies of the Empire—but to England he had
Lteh!. out the right hand of peace. He had
"ap :fled political opponents honest and otherwise
\rout France, but he had put down anarchy, and
os.ita')lished enlightened rule. He had male
hinazielf the absolute ruler of France, but he bad
i.,Lso restored her prosperity and elevated her in
ta.) rank of nations. His aim hail been
iroble and his success had been great. A
•• ,rood, practical, constitution-loving people
ou'cl honourably receive this self-raised Lil-
-1 The credit for noble
—et-or with manifestations of the heartiest
and for good feeling towards this
ispi rations
and respect.
iati Oction
;on- itry which. le from
d and the British peop
gave him from the first
• ted his good wishes
'he r heart.of hearts reciproca
•
no 3,ad openleaglithiee S,
al'
: aid paid him their
•th his ElnPreB3
lover, wi
3,ll,x—the high-spirited
d our
their full debt. The magnanimous
• ims honourably recog-
-I,.i....e—the head of,'
."
"i' le Ally—had their claims (
artificer of his
I" it 11; but the self-raised man, the
the French people an
3.1,.,, Shp
,—the
-I- fortunes, and the saviour of his country from
-toc A uti
~,,„:1 , proud islanders that we are, respected
'--the 'peaceful NAPOLEON—that
. ,rusted us---ho it the people he-
"AI rea most i_ was whom t under-
- ran worth a life. an
v -,b, t may,
sure.
'yesterday's procession. Come
ovation from such a people

•
'Vienna anti Sebastopol re the two localities
-)et teen winch the national iotereist appears to be
ingt. now equably and
pendulously vibrating. It
nne.t otherwise, perhaps, be more It
thus
sxr ressed, that the popular atteatioa it at this

moment darting to and fro between the Siege and

the Conference, like a monstrous shuttle-cock be-
tween two great, political battledores. The Go-
vernment all the while receiving very nearly the
same amount of comparatively valueless informa-
tion from either direction alternately. Despatches
from Lord JOHN, informing Ministers bow hopes
and fears in regard to the shadowy day-dream of a
pacific settlement, circle perpetually about the
Four Points of the discussion. Despatches from
Lord RAGLAN, on the other hand, acquainting
them with the various fluctuations of the winds of
heaven about the four points—of the compass.
Whence it so happens, to employ a favourite ex-
pression of the Master of Netherby, that diplo-
matic pottering and military pottering, each, drags
its slow length along, like a wounded snake or a
superfluous alexandrine. Season, all the while,
inexorably following season—the horrors of a
Crimean summer approaching rapidly upon the
scarcely-terminated miseries of a Crimean winter
—a second campaign abortively frittering away
week by week, and month by month, after the
melancholy fashion of its disastrous predecessor.

The Commander-in-Chief of our army at
the Seat of War would really seem to be
impressed with the fulness of a deep-roAed
conviction that somebody was right in speak-
ing of History as an Old Alma'nack. Satisfied
upon which head his Excellency appears to be
seriously ,bent upon contributing his store of facts
to the future annalist, in the shape of an elaborate
table of chronology—with particular allusion to
the changes of temperature, and especial regard
to the variable movements of the barometer.
What the late Lord H•LLAND wrote, once upon a
time—in a fugitive couplet, or familiar jeu,
d' esprit anybody might echo nowadaysi not
altogether inaptly in reference to Field-Marshal
the Lord RAGLAN and his official weather-
almanack

" That he's like a palm tree, it well may be said,
Having always a cluster of dates in his head."

Then as to the other Noble Lord engaged
in these gigantic operations for the welfare of
England and the happier fortunes of Europe,
not the military aristocrat this time, observe !
but the diplomatic aristocrat—as to the Noble
Lord at Vienna, are not his labours, we may ask,
almost to a T, as incongruous, as frivolous, alto.-
gether as preposterous? One (as our London
Charivari lately reminded us) at a pleasant little
partie carree. A delightful diplomatic diversion
over a sort of board of green cloth in a
snug saloon at Vienna. The cards duly
shuffled—the' partners chosen—may we not
boldly hint at the opposing players thus—
England and France pitted against Austria and
Russia ? The object of their trial of skill, being,
of course, the acquisition of all the honours,
and 4—tho Four Points. In this agreeable
pastime, we all know, are now engaged ;very delight-
fully for themselves that charminglittle assemblage
grouping together the names of GORTSCITA.KOFF,
and BuOL, and RUSSELL, and DROUYY DE L'HUYS.
Gentlemen who have already made their game,
and are now only waiting the issue of the play at
the hands of the fickle goddess. When the up-
shot of all this becomes known, whether there be
no decision at.all, or whether the decision arrived
at be for the indefinite continuance of the War or
for the re-establishment of a dubious tranquillity,
we shall have her MAJESTY'S Envoy to the
Austrian capital coming back to the Trea-
sury' Bench—in what plight, and under what
particular appearance ? Why, precisely as
he was sketched off to the very life
some fe years ago by the 'Honourable Baronet
the Member for Hertfordshire. How runs the
1 couplet 7
" Serene, and all-unconsoious of reproach,
\Comes the calm Johnny who upset the coach !"

•
For;ssurely has ho not been " at it again" this
imperturli- e, delightful, incorrigible, opportune
Marplo tof min istrations—oppor tune, incorri-
gible, delightful, imperturbable in all his manifold
official capacities, not this once as lithotomist, to
be sure, or, indeed, for that matter as Lord
H;gh Admiral in commaniLof the Channel Fleet,
but at any rate as ex-Premier, ex-President of
the Council, ex-Leader of the House of Coin-
mons, ex-Foreign Secretary, ex-Home Secretary,
ex-this, ex-that, and ex-the-other, still, moreover,
Member for the City of London, and at the present
juncture, we all of us very well remember, at 'este
and the same time Chief of the Colonial Depatt%)
went, and her 'Britannic MAJESTY'S Envoy Extra-
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the
Austrian Com t, and the little pantie ear,* of the
Vienna Conference. Everybody bears in recollec-
tion, of course, how very recently the Noble Pro-
tens has been, as we have before expressed it
colloquially, "at it again," at his old tricks, at
his wonted political mischief, extracting the finch
pin, or unscrewing the tire of an odd wheel, or by
some other ingeu ions con tri vance, upsetting the state
coach—a proceeding, by the way, not so particu-
larly difficult at the period of the last casualty,
when the vehicle was top heavy with coronets,
and the team pulled very ill together, and one of
the many leaders every now and then evinced a
tendency to become more than usually restive.
Wherefore, under all circumstances, remember-
ing these things, we cannot but deem it in
son►e measure consolatory to reflect, in the
midst of such diplomatic twadd'ings and military
pottetings as those by which the patience of the
land is becoming at once exhausted and nauseat-
ed, we cannot but regard it as in some degree
consolatory in the thick of this delay, muddle,
.nod confusion worse confounded, to rememberthat
sooner or later there will, from the courtly gaieties
of Vlevna—

`• Serene, and a'.'-unconeciotri of reproach,
Como the calm J•►hnry who up et the coach !"

That sooner or later the noble Lord—that
"calm JOITNNY"—wiII return to his seat on the
Tiacasury Bench in the House of Commons, and
then awl there may, perchance, in. spite of all
(I iplomatic secrecy, of all considerations of political
ei,iquette and of party precedent, exploiter,
Heaven knows what, mysterious Ministerial tran-
sactions. Tant miewl, so far as the uninitiated
ru'gar are concerned—meaning thereby, of course,
the People of England. The fustier corners and
crannies of the State machine, in truth, are all the
better for being thus occasionally ventilated by
the wise rashness and sagacious audacity of some
affected vaurien,, some assumed ne'er-do-weel, in
the astutcr wiles of the craft of statesmanship.

)1e tha 'lN,e 't WI
n the Ca a
regul9.tedl,
aticipatn.l v.)t
.bil,:i, vviliei 1