The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-01 00:00:00

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Sun-office, 112, Strand, London,
9th July, 1855.

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1855,

The great financial experiment has once more
proved successful. Nay, more, its success has

been even more decisive, more MIRACULOUS—
for that is the only phrase applicable to the tran-
saction—than either of the preceding operations.
The French EMPEROR fearlessly appealed to the
devoted love and confidence of his subjects, and
he has not been disappointed. The people have
nobly responded to the call—have with one accord
tendered their resources to their chosen ruler—
to him whom, by an overwhelming majority, they
selected as their EMPEROR.

On the first application ten millions sterling
were required. According to the red-tapist
system, a capitalist, or rather an association
of capitalists, would have been required for
the gigantic transaction, who would have
arranged his bargain with the Financial Minister,
and made a handsome fortune out of the job.
NAPOLEON did not see the necessity for middle
men. He thought that the profits might be dis-
tributed amongst the general body of the people
rather than given to a few of the "Moneyocracy."
He broke the-idol at the first blow. Not merely
was the sum required at once tendered for ac-
ceptance, but 50 or GO per cent. more than was
asked for was forthe'oming—not from stags, or
from the class who wrote for Mr. GLADSTONE'S
bonds, but of men ready and
willing to discharge
their obligations, and to ray down
10 per cent.
on the amount of their subscriptions. When
the Peelite Chancellor of the Exchequer could not
obtain quite two millions sterling the French
EmrEitoß was freely offered more than eight times
the amount !

Such was the extraordinary result of last year's
war loan in France ! Such the confidence, en-
thusiasm, and resources of the people. Financiers
were astounded. Men who had never ventured
out of tha beaten track shook their heads and
attempted to look wise, while uttering sinister
forebodings as to the failure of any repetition of
the experiment.

But they were grievously mistaken.
many months had elapsed a second trial was
inarie, Not ten, but twenty millions sterling were

Ere

demanded. The people were again appealed to, and
'Again they justified the confidence of the EMPEROR.
A larger abatement was necessarily made. Then
on the previous occasion, and applicants could
only receive a fraction of the sums for which they
had made the necessary deposits. On this occa-
sion about seventy millions sterling were offered,
of which only twenty millions could be accepted.
It has again been tried, and for a much larger
sum, and the result has been more astounding.
Seven hundred and fifty millions of francs, or
thirty millions sterling, were demanded ; and,
notwithstanding the fact of so large a loan,
which would naturally depress the funds of any
country, quotations rose nearly 90 centimes, or
about 18s. per 100/., on the Bourse. There
were no Bears to speculate for a fall, or to retard
the upward tendency ; or, if there were, they
could not withstand the spirit of the people.
The result of the operation has been worthy of
the auspicious circumstances under which it was
inaugurated. No less than THREE HUNDRED AND
TEN THOUSAND persons have participated in the
subscription have inscribed their names on
the list of patriotic capitalists, and for no less than
THREE MILLIARDS SIX HUNDRED MILLIONS OF
FRANCS ! or, One hundred and forty-four millions
of POUNDS STERLING ! And of these, the sub-
scribers for fifty francs of rentes and under have
offered and paid the deposit on between two
hundred and thirty and two hundred and thirty-
five millions of francs, or between nine millions
two hundred and nine millions four hundred
thousand pounds. The departments also furnished
two hundred aid thirty subscribers for more than
a milliard of capital (40,000,000/. sterling), while
other nations required more than two hundred
millions, or 8,000,0001. sterling, and the depo-
sits actually paid in amounted to three hundred
and sixty millions of francs (14,400,0001.) with-
out reckoning the sums paid in anticipation of
instalments ! ! !

It requires no extraordinary arguments to
explain the magnitude of this transaction.
The figures speak for themselves, supplying unan-
swerable evidence as to the devotion and pecu-
niary power of the people of France. They
prove that the people are willing to bring

forth the hoards concealed for a long term of
years, or rather kept in store for some extraor-
dinary emergency, and that they think the time
had arrived for the greatest financial operation
ever known, to which no age nor clime could
supply a parallel. Much may, of course, be
attributed to the tact and judgment with which
the matter was managed, but far more to the
patriotic enthusiasm and substantial ability of
the people of France. In this country so large
a sum subtracted from the money in circulation
would cause a monetary crisis, and necessarily
defeat the attempt. But in France there is no
self-adjusting regulator of the currency—no enact-
ment similar to that of 1844. The people can,
therefore, exhibit their patriotic spirit without being
interfered with by artificial restrictions, and the
Financial Minister can deal with the people them-
selves without the intervention of a "go-between."
Will Sir G. C. LEWIS profit by the lesson, or
venture to pass the limits prescribed by red-
tapism ? We fear that he will not, and that
Englishmen will still have to blush for the appa-
rent apathy of their countrymen ; but which
really proceeds from the folly of the party at the
head of the Financial Department, who has not
the sense to take a leaf out of Mr. MAGNE'S
book.

We trust that the Government and the House
of Lords will make the trade in money free at
every point from limitations and charges, and
withdraw the trimming compromises of principle
which such a person as Mr. BOOTH, the timid
Secretary of the Board, would suggest for the
conciliation of large capitalists, the OVERSTONES
and the others whom it does not conciliate.
Mr. JOHN M`GREGOR rendered much service
by displaying the commercial experience abroad,
in answer to the forebodings of the capital-
ists at home, as to the improvident specula-
tions and disasters to arise from giving entire
freedom to the trade in money. He might, how-
ever, have referred to those points in the French
system which are no better than our own, and
amongst them the one pointed out by Mr. JoaN
MILL, in his Lecture on Political Economy ; that
a company cannot be formed in France without the
intervention of a body not unlike our Board of
Trade (since the departure of Mr. DEACON HUME
and Mr. M‘GnEooß himself), that is to say "without
the express authorisation of the department of Go-
vernment called the Conseil d'Etat—a body of
administrators generally entire strangers to in-
dustrial transactions, who have no interest in
promoting enterprises, and are apt to think that
the purpose of their institution is to restrain
them ; whose consent cannot in any case be ob-
tained without an amount of time and labour,
which is a very serious hindrance to the com-
mencement of an enterprise, while the extreme
uncertainty of obtaining that consent at all is a great
discouragement to capitalists to subscribe."
An example of the dealing of the Board of
Trade with such questions may be given in the
case of the Metropolitan Association for the Im-
provement of the Dwellings of the Labouring
Classes, the object of which was to set an
example to prove that improved dwellings
might be constructed at remunerative prices. But
the interest of money on building investments
being then 6i and 7 per cent., or more, the
Board of Trade would grant no privilege of
limited liability unless the profit were limited to
' 5 per cent. This limitation of profits at once
limited the undertaking to those only who made
the investment from motives of benevolence,
that is to say, to a very few. This limitation
of the capital augmented the pressure of
the necessary establishment charges upon the
comparatively small amount of subscriptions ob-
tained. Then, again, 1,0001. was charged in
the shape of fees and expenses, or the cost of
eight or ten productive model dwellings, for the
ill-devised charter conferring the privilege of the
limited liability ; the effect of allh
wheshiethpublc
wasi
seriously to damage a measure of the highest
importance. Again, very recently, when it was
found that the ironmongers and gratemakers, who
had large stocks of grates of the old fashion on
hand, refused to make and sell Dr. ARNOTT'S
new smoke consuming and fuel economisingriuo
i p 1 e,
grate, or to adapt old grates to the new p
except at prices as for a new and uncertain work,
and such charges as were prohibitory, un-
less to the compaiitively few and wealthy. It
appeared to a small number of persons that with
a capital of not more than two thousand pounds,
entrusted to a manager and a few workmen of
ability, devoting themselves entirely to the one
object of improving the old stoves and preparing
the new ones, and that when a trial might be made
o n
whether the public could not be got to adopt the
invention the adaptations of the old grates were
undertaken,
eas they might be in large numbers al
between
he
materials and and
ab twour
upeoeudn dust)
tp ehr a
v e grate
cost ( for
mucht
above half that s",i'
na), instead of four, five, and
six
pounds charged by the ironmongers. Several

gentlemen who considered the subject were

quite willing to risk their one or two hundred
pounds each, simply experimentally, but would not
risk all their fortunes to a partnership ; and an
inquiry was made whether for this purpose the

usual charges for a charter, 1,0001., would be re-
mitted. They received an official answer that

nothing would be remitted, and the public were

deprived of the benefit, not only of what the pro-
posed company might have done of itself, but of the
general reduction of the ironmongers' charges, which
would have been produced. To take another

illustration : some gentlemen having looked into
the evidence in respect to the distribution of
sewage or town manures by steam power and
pipes, and, yet after the method adopted by Mr.
MECHI, saw sufficient evidence of the success and
of important results, to induce them to try it by

a small company for the application of the sewer•

age of a small town. But it was found that a

,rial farm could be laid down on an adequate scale

for almost two thousand pounds, but the half-
dozen persons must either subscribe the amount
as a gift, which would be beyond their inclina-
tions, or they must beyond the loss of the entire
sum risk in a partnership the loss of their
whole fortunes ;—or if they made a joint-stock
company affair of it, they must either get an Act