The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-01 00:00:00

THE S

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Now again, money is so plentiful that it cannot be
profitably employed.
very Consols, during this
summer, have been as high as 102. At this moment
they are over par. The result is that, once again,
people are inclined to joint-stock speculations. These
have chiefly been limited to the auriferous produce of
America and Australia—the latter being the fa-
vourite scene of operations, as being our own terri-
tory, wherein, under the protection of the law, life
and property are safe. It appears to us that, on
the whole, the investments in such speculations
are considerably less than might have been
anticipated. The amount received by all
the companies now before the public is less than, in
1845, would have been obtained on account of ten
railway schemes of the second class, making
1,100,000/.—the full amount of all the deposits yet
received by ALL the mining companies of 1852.
No one, therefore, can pretend that there is much of
a " mania" at present. Speculations they are—as
every commercial enterprise must be,—but when
gold is to be had for the mere digging for it, and
when, in some cases, large tracts of country yielding
abundance of the precious metal, have been exclu-
sively secured, by lease or purchase, for particular
companies, it would be ridiculous to deny that the
prospects of a profitable yield are most favour.. hie
and promising. When runaway convicts gain for..
tunes in " the diggins," without organization, with-
out capital, without the machinery which money can
procure and organization properly apply, it will be
odd, indeed, if assciated bodies, with the requisite
funds, have not abundance of success.

It is maintained that, at the present market prices,
the sum of 1,200,0001., or ten per cent. premium
!night be obtlined for the shares on which the sum
of 1,100,0001. hex been paid. Ten per cent. is a con-
siderable yield on such an investment, made, as is
obvious, on present expectation of a future profit.
But the question is beyond this. It may be .put
thus :—lf there be ten per cent. profit already, on
the contingency above named, what will the profit be
when the returns come in on actual operations ? The

supply, by all accounts, is exhaustless. Gold is to be
found in Australia in almost unlimited quantities.
Suppose that a man had invested 100/. in a railway

company, woult,v4(o,e not think four per cent. per
,•s,;(I);RJ2_ jhat is what may be

Bucra copper-mine was discovered in 1845, when the
colony of South Australia was exceedingly depressed.
With extreme difficulty a capital of 20,0001. wr3
raised, in five pound shares, to purchase the land.
After the first year, each five pound share has been
worth 1201. If such be the result as to copper, what
may be looked for from gold?

The future historian of the time will probably
wonder at the very trifling amount of joint-stock
srculation now. The whole investments of this
year have not involved such payments as were
actually made in a single day in 1845—made, too,
on the chance of a speculation receiving incorpora-
tion from Parliament, whereas the mining companies
of 1852 have only to send out and raise and refine
the golden wealth with which nature has so profusely
enriched the soil of New South Wales.

Another very energetic, and we must add very
grandiose, attempt has been made by Blackwood to
smooth the way before the present Cabinet in anti-
cipation of the meeting of Parliament. Nothing, we
mast admit at once, can exceed the mingled energy
and industry of our contemporeTy. He steps out in
the first instance with an ill-concealed air of import-
ance—although disclaiming the idea of being in any
way officially authorized to appear before the public as
a sort of political pursuivant to the administration.
After insisting of in this point very decidedly, Black-
wood—as if aware that there is really no time what-

ever to be lost in merely apologetic and complimentary
introductions—adventures boldly upon his somewhat

offices
difficult enterprise of preparing thepath before
DERRY Government. The
mbe acknowledged, assumed
tthe
writer in this direction, 1
in their character. At
are at any rate the most diversified, and even anoma-
lousonemoment he is lustily
t 00l e ro pof his
sounding the trumpet of party to the glorification
of the PRIME MINISTER, and the wh
eMinisterial colleagues. At another he is whistling
down the whole of the motley Members of th
Oppo-
sition, and this, as it were, with the shrillest tokens
of .disgust and contumely—whistling them down, as
Frenchmen used Sometimes to whistle down any ob-
noxious speaker in the Chamber of Deputies, souf.
flant sus les clefs jusw
l'exterminatiou ! At one
instant the writer in Blackwood is daintily strewing
before the approachg in; el
Ministers the most delicate
flowers of compliment, and, alas I sometimes also,
here and there, the gaudiest weeds of flattery. At
pleasantlynewGovebrenfinorzlttl.le lbeaodeetrosr a
jndontNbe.
another he is bludgeoning the people, right and left,
ttahhyae t if be were a king, he should like
Ft 013 Nbc3l lent aecrient 8182..,:0indf7 fellows with long poles walking be-
te/ have t"-
the streets, to knock everybody
fore him in
Blackwood
on
the head
to be doing this kind office gratuitously before
who stood in his way.
seems
of the DEBBY Administration. Where-
fllortunate
sconce n 1
And then come a
the bLudge° " down collies
ethveerCahniefutani
way
weeds, and another blast
handful of other flowers andonce appears to be "in the
on the trumpet.
Repeatedly before now we
position in which the
the
extraordinary difficulty -0-
f
have been placed
Earl of DEBBY and his colleagues
have insisted upon the
ever since they were suddenly
celled
_
cares of state during the course of last
to assume the
last February. We
have maintained that anything like precipitate
cabinet so
con-
demnation would be ungenerous towards a _
which
surprised into existence, and the members of
nevertheless consented, in spite of all the accu-
mulated dangers of the emergency, to tyke upon
themselves, almost at an
ones hour's warning, the
ous responsibilities of administration. Up-
wards of Six months have elapsed since then
—end stilt we have said to the country, Let
offo us hear what Ministers have to say on the assembling
the new Parliament
, before we consent, while still
llto
in the dark, with eyes blindfolded by circumstanceu,
pronounce the sentence of their condemnation. We
have regretted that the
earlier. We have considered the
revelation of the DEBBY policy has not been earli
latest delays of that revelation unnecessary. We have
complained that there bas been evidenced of late an
undue an
mount of procrastination. Yet we have per-
sever i declaring at the same time that it would be
unfair and ungenerous to condemn the Government

eki Lt lbw l'telqtlit,
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1852.

Some people have been so sagacious as to compare the
present desire of the public to embark in joint-stock
companies with the " mania" eras of 1825, 1835, and
1845. In our humble judgment the cases are the
reverse of parallel. Six-and-twenty years ago, with
a money plethora, JOHN Bina, sank twenty-fiv•e
millions sterling in foreign loans, money as much
and as irretrievably lost as if it had been cast into
the bottom of the sea. Within the last seven-and-
twenty years (taking into account the money thus
wasted in foreign loans, what was spent in foreign
mines, and what has been invested in foreign rail-
ways), over one hundred millions have gone out of
this country. Of this amount, three-fourths are lost
for ever. What would be the value of the balance
should circumstances involve this country in war ?
Superabundance of money creates speculation.
When only two per cent. can be obtained for capital
(on account of its plenty), the capitalist naturally
seeks investments which promise more. Thus, in
1825, money being very plentiful, some six hundred and
twenty-four joint-stock companies were projected,
on which over seventeen millions and a half were
actually paid as deposit!. In 1835 the same game was
played, and an immense sum likewise raised by way
of deposits in public companies. In 1845 the "mania"
was at its height, and, besides numerous other joint-
stock speculations, es many as fourteen hundred
railway
companies were registered. Over one hun-
dred millions of money changed hands m the transac- I
tions they gave rise to.