The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

faintest indication of a dissension, however trivia],
between the Queen and any of her children. Since
the deeply lamented death of Prince Albert, the
Queen's subjects have been watching Tier with, inte-
rest and sympathy, and with much concern. very
year that she is preserved to us adds to the difficul-
ties of a very difficult position. The heir to the
throne has grown into a zn inhood that seems to
fulfil the fair hopes universally entertained from the
promise of his youth. We look back on the mise-
rable mischief caused in times not so very distant
by differences between royal parents and their
children, and congratulate ourselves that we are not
likely to be harassed by a repetition of the evil.
No shadow of the kind could again fall upon the
Court without stretching itself far and wide over
the nation. Nobody felt, therefore, at all ashamed
of exhibiting as much interest—as even Sir Charles
Phipps himself—in her Majesty's dislike of tobacco ;
or in the amenities invariably observed by one
member of the royal family towards another. The
jealous anxiety with which English people are all
guessing at the sentiments of Queen Victoria about
the unhappy Danish war is excusable, even if here
and there it begins to take an exaggerated form.
Lord Derby pays a visit to her Majesty at Osborne,
or King Leopold comes across the channel to stay
with her at Windsor, and straightway the tongue
of gossip starts off upon its busy round. The leader
of the Opposition has been sent for to tell her
Majesty whether she is obliged by the Constitution
to obey the decision of the Cabinet. Her Majesty's
uncle has travelled over to give her counsel on the
nice point whether Lord Palmerston is not too hot-
spirited an adviser. Finally, we learn from the
unerring lips of rumour, that her Majesty has made
up her mind io case England declares war for Den-
mark to pass the summer at Coburg in a German
castle by herself. All these inventions of the Clubs
filter by slow degrees into the country newspapers,
and are destined in course of time to become the
subject of grave discussion at many a village ale-
house. The excitement the topics in question cause
is partially increased by the evident embarrassment
of the Ministry at having to deal with so compli-
cated a problem as the rival claims of Denmark and
of the German Diet. Whenever Lord Russell can-
not make head or tail of the last deepatch from
Berlin or from Vienna, his hesitation is at once put
down to the account of his loyalty, and his head is
supposed to be kept in a state of distraction by his
heart. In spite of all the respect professed by Eng-
lishmen for monarchy as a system of government,
they seem to grow nervous and petulant at the least
suspicion that the Crown is interfering in the politics
of the day. This is a little curious, for nothing can
be plainer than that the wearer of the English
crown must always of necessity exercise a consider-
able personal influence on politics. If there ever
was a question in which Royalty was personally
interested it is the present. The Queen of England
is connected by the closest of all ties with some of
the leading actors in the present German movement.
Her Majesty understands the way in which Germans
view the Slesvig-Holstein affair better, doubtless,
than many of her subjects. She sees the allowances
that ought to be made for the German Courts which
are driven into war by an excited population, and
she knows the history of the various influences that
are at work in Germany itself. If she cares for
England she cannot help being deeply anxious that
England should not rush into war without having
mastered the rights of the dispute. The death of
a wise husband bas,'moreover, deprived her of the
best and most judicious of counsellers. She has a
consciousness that things seem to be going wrong,
and she has not the benefit of his clear head and his
strong hand. If, under all these circumstances, her
Majesty were not perplexed and troubled, she must
be very unlike most other prudent and honourable
women. In so natural an embarrassment there is
much cause for sympathy and respect.
ECONOMIST.—The number of new companies is
an unceasing theme of remark. They fill the city
articles ; they swell the advertisement lists of all
important papers. Most men are directors of some
company or another. Every object has its company,
and most objects have many. Is all this good, or is
it bad? Will it produce great evils, or is it right,
rational, normal? Are we beginning a right course
which we should have trodden years ago, unlese
prohibited and prevented by legislation, or are we
engaging in a series of speculations which will soon
recall the dreadful phenomena of 1847 and 1857 ?
A little inquiry will, we think, show that neither of
these extreme opinions is correct. We think it may
be proved that, as far as we have gone yet, there
is ground for caution and discrimination, but no
ground for sweeping censure and condemnation.
We believe the impetus given to joint stock enter-
prises to be beneficial and healthy ; we believe that
it will go much further than its most sanguine pro-
moters now imagine; but we also think that, like
all new benefits, it may easily be changed into a
new evil, and that, in matter of fact, some evil
which may be distinctly specified is already being
produced by it. First, let us glance at the recent
facts. It appears from the carefully-classified state-
meo which will be found in the supplement to the
Econonifse of Feb. 20, that in the year 1863, 263
companies were brought before the public, and that
the respective ll3ture of these were as follows :
Banking companies • 27
Financial societies and aiscount cotnpanies
Manufacturing or trading companies .. 65
Railway
Insurance .. 14
Steam and shipping companies....
Mining
Hotel companies
Gas
Miscellaneous

263
Now, is 263 a great number, an excessive number,
or is it not We may impair the reputation for
caution which we may think we possess when we
say that this number is not an excessive number.
Of the merits of the companies we shy nothing—
nothing at least now,—but we say that their mere
multitude is no subject for alarm. In the first place,
it is to be considered that the whole of the vast field
till now occupied by private partnerships is at
length being opened to limited companies. They
are trying what part of it they can profitably en-
gage in, and what part they cannot. They were
prohibited till a year or two back, and could not
touch either what was fit. or what was unfit for
them ; it is only within the last eighteen months
that the investigation of the true scope and the true
limits of joint stock enterprise has been partically
begun. Before, by law or custom, the bulk of the
trade of the country was in individual hands; now,
for the first time, we are seeing what part is
adapted, and what unadapted, for management by
corporations. But we should be content to forego
the use of this argument. The capital subscribed
for these companies is, according to the acme
authority, £78,135,000, and if we suppose a quarter
of this to be paid up, which is an exaggerated cone
putation, the absorbed capital is under £20,000,000.
Now, we lately showed that, according to the best
analysis and computation, the annual savings of the
country amounted to £130,000,000,and, therefore, if
all these undertakings absorbed new capital to the
whole extent of the sum paid up, they would absorb
but a trifling part of the annual accumulation of
this country. But, further, all these companies do
not absorb new capital to the extent of the sum
paid up. Many of them are wholly or in part sales
of a business already established, already profitable,
already absorbing a large capital. Take a case which
has occurred this week. Messrs. Morrison, Dillon,
and Co., a house in which a colossal fortune has been
made, is to be turned into a joint stock company.
Ts, ere is no new capital wanted for that. The goods
in the' warehouse, and the debts which used to
belong to an unlimited partnership of few members
now belong to a limited partnership with many
members, but th; resources of the country are not
trenched upon by tn 9 transfer. It is as much a sale
as if the p e Morrison and Co., and
wen-e
a new private partnership
—as if the firm ceased to
elf:lent, then, that the
became Jones and Co. It is
mere size and multitude of these' companies need
not appal us; we have capital for a vast number
more if they be profitable. But will W.' be pro-
fitable? To sum up, we do not fear a pan2e from
the bare operations of these companies. We are
sure the country has capital enough for them o:
twice as many. We wish well to the principles of
joint stock enterprise, and are confident of its es-
sential soundness. But we are apprehensive that
some unwholesome and mischievous trade may be
generated by undue credit and misjudging money-
lenders, and that if a panic arose from any other
cause, these unhealthy speculations would tend by
their collapse to aggravate and intensify it.
SPECTATOR.—Does any one object to the general
policy of the Ministry, either at home or abroad ?
Not in the least. Yet no single Minister can make
a proposition which commands support, or keep
himself altogether clear of personal blame, Lord
Palmerston, of course, is au exception. He is never
wrong ; but this curious result is only attainable by
paying him the rather questionable compliment of
supposing that, as Prime Minister, he is not in the
least responsible for the proceedings of his col-
ieagues. Yet even these last, even Lord Russell, and
Sir G. Grey, and the underlings, are not so much
wrong as unlucky. They manage so to act as to excite
no enthusiasm in their favour,while they tread heavily
on the toes of some individual with a crotchet and a
bitter tongue, or some section of fanatics which can
live, only in a squabble. Without conciliating the
majority, they outrage the minority. Probably a
large majority of the English people in the main
approve Lord Russell's Polish policy; yet, by some
fatality, he so acted that while the majority regard
it with languid indifference, the two extreme par-
ties, the friends of Russia and the friends of Poland
cannot speak on the subject without foaming at the
mouth. Sir George Grey is an amiable man, N
eleTeeman, a good speaker, and personally popular ;