The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY REVIEW.—The position of monetary
affairs, though free from any immediately alarming
symptoms, has attained a gravity which was scarcely
appreciated when the sudden rise in the Bank rate
of discount took place. The general idea that pre-
vailed at the first moment was that a merely local
deficiency of bullion would be speedily made good
under the influence of higher prices. We know now
that the disturbance is of a more general, and there-
fore of a more important character, and that there
is no probability of an early return to the easy rates
which prevailed a month ago. As yet, the measures
of the Bank of England have not done more than
enabled it to hold its ground, and no other result
could be looked for when the pressure for money is
more decided in many foreign capitals than it is in
London. At Frankfort, the rate of discount has ad-
vanced 3 per cent. in a few weeks. The Bank of
France has long been losing money at a serious rate,
and is charging 7 per cent. At Turin, the same
terms are demanded, and in all the German markets
a similar tendency is not less distinctly visible. To
a certain extent, the speculations as to political pro-
spects may have added their influence to aggravate
the rise in the value of money, but, as on most other
occasions, it will probably be found that the terms
on which business is conducted are mainly governed
by commercial considerations. When the Emperor
of the French is unusually active in the pursuit of
universal peace, and the Northern Americans are
more eager than ever in their peculiar efforts to
establish fraternal union, it is not wonderful that
the world should feel uneasy, or that the prevalent
anxiety should be reflected in the action of the
money market. Still, the main cause of a general
increase in the demand for money must lie deeper
than any of those vague apprehensions of future
trouble from which we have seldom been free since
the restoration of the Bonaparte dynasty. And it is
not surprising that money should be scarcer than
it was, notwithstanding the steady supplies of gold
that continue to pour in from Calfornia, Australia,
and Columbia. Almost every country in Europe
has been spending unwonted sums upon military
preparations, while in America the great greenback
revolution has probably set free less of the precious
metals than a gigantic war and an artificial pros-
perity have absorbed. Not only gold, but—what is
far more important—capital, is being squandered,
in the unproductive outlay of war and preparations
for war, with a lavish recklessness which has per-
haps never been surpassed. At the same time, a
great expansion of trade has taken place, which
may be traced as visibly in the Castoms returns of
France and other countries as in our own. Cotton,
it is true, is not imported in much more than half
the quantities to which we were accustomed before
the interruption of the American supply,bat it needs
more capital to deal in 2,000,000 bales at 2s. a pound
than in 4,000,000 at a quarter of that price. Nor is
this the whole case, for it is beyond a doubt that,
side by side with a very vigorous activity in the
formation of new companies, and an unusually
strong disposition to invest in foreign stocks, there
is going on a serious amount of gambling in the
cotton market. In the earlier railway days, one of
the favourite. forms of commercial speculation was
the purchase and sale of imaginary iron. Contracts
to deliver a certain number of tons of rails were
bought and sold, again and again, by operators
who had no more desire to be the possessors of that
useful description of goods than tosink their capital in
wooden nutmegs. The same kind of transactions
were resumed during the Irish famine in the form
of purchases of grain, and it appears that enor-
mous transactions are now going on in contracts
for the purchase of cotton to arrive. In all these
cases, just as in the ancient tulip mania, the sub-
ject of purchase is valued only for its capacity of
fl uc' nation. Anything which rapidly changes its mar-
ket value will serve equally well as the vehicle for
speculative dealings, whether it is bulb or a share,
an iron rail or a bale of cotton. For the present,
cotton is king of the speculative market, and, in
addition to the necessary absorption of capital by
reason of the high prices of the commodity, we have
an aggravation of the evil in the spurious demand
for mere gambling purposes. The wholesome ac-
tivity of some branches of trade and the unhealthy
development of others combine to swell that gene-
ral demand for money which is sensibly felt
throughout the world. It is not likely that these
tendencies will change very rapidly unless the pres-
sure should be greatly increased; and there is yet
another circumstance to be borne in mind which
points still in the same direction. The most im-
portant addition to our transactions at the present
time is, perhaps, in the Indian trade, and, from the
nature and habits of the people of India, that is a
branch of commerce which locks up more money
than almost any other. India is a growing coun-
try as well as a hoarding country, and on both ac-
counts it has a tendency to retain a very large pro-
portion of the bullion that flows into it. More
money is really wanted there to keep pace with the
increase of business, and what money India has is
not economised as it is hi more highly civilised
countries. It would be curious if we were able to
measure the comparative amount of work done by
equal values of specie in different parts of the globe,
but, though no approximation to an exact estimate
can be made, it is certain that the transfer of bul-
lion to a country like India effects a great diminu-
tion in its efficiency, and is precisely equivalent for
the time to the total destruction of a certain per-
centage of the precious metals available for the use
of the world. With so many forces at work in one
direction, it is no wonder that one national bank
after another should be compelled to raise its rate
of discount, and it would be unreasonable
to expect any very early or rapid recovery.
We have been anxious not to underate the real gra-
vity of the existing state of affairs; but at the same
time there are reassuring circumstances which en-
courage the expectation that England will not be
the first to feel any serious increase of pressure
which may possibly be impending. If the general
character of trade throughout the world is on a
reasonably sound basis, the mere fact that the rate
of interest is higher than usual will cause no im-
portant mischief. We have seen the Bank rate rise
to 8 per cent. and recover itself in a comparatively
short time, not only without suffering but without
alarm, and the only thing which ever warrants
anxiety on this ground is the possibility that some-
where among the wide ramifications of commerce
there may be a rotten spot capable of spreading its
contagion through the world. On the occasion of
the last serious crisis, it was from America that the
infection spread, and it is so far satisfactory to know
t
that the war which has deprived us of cottonmu
have so limited our transactions with the American
continent as to remove to a great extentNanYis risk of
a recurrence of the same evil influence. or there
any other country which can
scareod at just how
ty
as likely to convert a sliglatof money into
anything approaching the dimensions of a panic.
And beyond all this there is the g t
great fact of a
magnificent harvest to counteract,

at any rate, the tendency towards higherrates." It
is very likely that India and other countries may
draw away a larger share of our money than they
have hitherto done, and that a coorinuan!,,i of high
rates will be required to maintain equilibrium at
boom Notwithstanding the ambiguous assurances
of the official organ, it is difficult to see how a
French loan can be much longer deferred, and there
may be other calls quite sufficient to prevent money
from becoming just at present as plentiful
as it was a month or two back. But we have
more than ordinary resources to set against any
threatened drain. We shall have far less than
usual of imported corn to pay for, and it may well
be calculated that there will be abundant strength
to sustain any demands that may come upon this
country, in the absence of any special check or dis-
turbance in the course of commercial affairs. A
period of diminished buoyancy is not of necessity
an evil time. In its ultimate effects, it is often the
best financial tonic that can be administered, and
the symptoms which have as yet revealed them-
selves point rather to a bracing commercial atmo-
sphere than to a nipping frost. If this should prove
the true reading of the signs of the times, the
moderate increase which has taken place in the
stringency of the market should rather be welcomed
as a wholesome influence than dreaded as the pos-
sible precursor of greater severity in store. For
once, the mote hopeful seems to be the sounder
judgment.
EXAMlNER.—Christian IX. has ascended the
throne of the united principalities of Denmark,
Slesvig, and Holstein. His title to the triple sceptre,
like that of the First George who bore rule in these
kingdoms, is founded in constitutional right, ratified
by public law. Like Queen Anne the late Sove-
reign died without issue, and passing over the direct
heir in the male line, the crown, by a previous act
of settlement, devolved on a relative whom the
estates of the realm had long recognised as the ex-
pectant sovereign. Then, as now, a claim was set
up in contravention of law and riglat,"a claim founded
on the bare principle of legitimacy, and impugning
that which constitutes the foundation of all regal
authority in modern times—the consent of the
governed. Curiously enough, a doubt was cast in
the former case as in the latter, upon the validity
of the pretender's claim to be his father's princely
heir. The Prince of Wales, born 1688, was for
party purposes, at the time, said to be suppositious
though nobody of sense or candour long believed
the fable ; and nobody pretending to correct his-
toric information now wastes a thought upon
what was unquestionably a mere slander. The pre-
sent Duke of Augustenburg was confessedly born
in wedlock, and about his parentage there is no
dispute. But his mother became his father's wife
by a morganatic marriage, that is to say, she was not
of the sovereign caste; and according to the tenets
of German Toryism, youth, beauty, virtue, and con-
stancy cannot cure the congenital defect of inferior
blood. The Duchess of Augustenburg's family be-
longed to the class which in England we call the
gentry; and her chillren were therefore not re-
garded as capable of inheriting any of the preroga-
tives or privileges of Divine Right. The late Duke
was reminded officially of the fact by the Ministers
before he signed the treaty of 1852, in which the
succession to the Danish crown was solemnly de-
clared, and morally guaranteed by six of the prin-
cipal Powers of Europe, to be vested in the colla-
teral branch of Glucksburg. This. like all other
distinctions of the kind, we utterly discard as worse
than worthless, inasmuch as they tend to raise a
false issue, and to divert popular attention from the
only one worth trying or determining. We men-
tion the circumstance only to illustrate the parity
of the two cases even in points unessential. If'
hereditary right, founded in the feudal law of
primogeniture, could have determined the possession
of the British throne, James 111. was undoubtedly
the legitimate King of England, Ireland, and Scot-
land, and George I. was a usurper. But if, by a
solemn and deliberate act of the Legislature, passed
in the lifetime of the preceding monarch, with the
full assent of the Government, a descendant of
ancient royalty through the female line might be
preferred, then the Elector of Hanover was our
rightful and lawful sovereign, and the son of
James 11. was but a pretender. And so in
the instance actually before us. Christian IX.
comes of a younger branch of the Ducal house
of Holstein ; and Prince Frederick is ad-
mittedly the male representative of the elder.
We raise no special pleas about his mother's mar-
riage, or the validity of his father's renuncia-
tion of his claims on his own behalf and that of his
son. These were miserable grounds on which to
come to a decision respecting the government of an
important territory lying in the very heart of
Christendom, and inhabited by a community fit to
be free. Duke Frederick is a pretender, because
he sets up his personal pretensions against the will
of the people and against the laws of the land.
That is our only objection to him. But if it is not
held to be fatal, then Victor Emmanuel is a usurper,
Isabella IL is not Queen of Spain, and Henry V. is
lord of France and Navarre. The public law and
the civilisation of modern Europe must be abandoned
as untenable fictions, based on a tissue of impudent
frauds, and upon nothing else, if the Ducal crown
of Holstein can be claimed by virtue of mere descent
on the part of the Duke of Augustenburg. The for-
mation of every constitutional government is
brought into question, if the title of Christian IX,
be impeached. It is said, however, that a partition
of the Danish monarchy would satisfy his Serene
Highness; and that provided Holstein and Lauen-
burg be handed over to him, he would be content to
allow his remote relative to rule at Copenhagen.
We have very little doubt that his ex-Majesty of
Naples would cheerfully agree to a like bargain
with Victor Emmanuel, and we dare say the heir of
Don Carlos would come to similar terms with his
cousin who reigns at the Escurial. But here the
voice of international justice and policy makes itself
heard, and declares that it is not for the common
weal that the united provinces which have composed
the Danish monarchy for generations should be
dissevered for any purpose whatsoever, least of all
for a purpose so ridiculous as that of creating a
new principality for a gentleman of ambitious
tastes, but whose merits and talents are utterly
unknown to mankind. If Duke Frederick,
by bravery, eloquence, or the specific genius
for rule, had convinced the Slesvigers, Hol-
steiners, and Danes that he was likely to make them
a better king than his cousin Christian, they would
probably have resolved to give him a trial, and we
should have had nothing to say about the matter.
But we have much to say on our own account and
on that of our neighbours against the disruption of
any of the secondary States of Europe, which have
hitherto shown themselves able to maintain 'with
honour and integrity an independent existence. We
only wish there were more of them, and that they
were stronger, for undoubtedly they are already too
weak and too few. The integrity and independence
of Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium are in-
dispensable to the liberty of Northern Europe. Let
one link of the chain be broken, and the maintenance
of the remainder will become difficult, if not useless.
Prussia does not conceal her lust for aggrandisement,
and there is nothing in her way to a seaboard on the
Atlantic but fres and gallant Denmark. Her advanee.
ment westward would inevitably be followed bv that
of Russia, which has already absorbed onss third of
the Swedish monarchy, and which, wit u or without
the aid of her Prussian henchman ,Would then absorb
the rest. And when these things had been done, who
would say to the aggreseLve ruler of France, hitherto
shalt thou come and no further. Fortunately for the
peace of Europe, the Courts of Paris, St. Petersburg,
and Berlin, took part in the treaty settlement of
1852, which bars all attempts at a partition of Den-
mark. The present ministers of Prussia are indeed
capable, we believe, of any inconsistency or folly
that can be imagined ; and we are sorry to be com-
pelled to think that, upon the particular point under
consideration, a numerous section of German Libe-
rals are but too well disposed to encourage them in
an anti-Danish policy. But on the part of this coun-
try there is no room for parley or hesitation, We
have paid too dear a price for the shameful and
cowardly acquiescence of our fathers in one signal
act of partition, and we are in no mood to be duped
or bullied into assenting to another.
ONDON REVlEW.—Amongst the episodical in-
cidents of the war now raging in America there is
one of peculiar interest, as it involves the probable
solution of a vexed problem in the philosophy of
race. The question of the capacity of the negro for
military service has been raised in a practical form.
As is well known, the Federal party has already
had recourse to the employment of negroes as sol-
diers, and regiments entirely composed of men of
that complexion have been engaged in actual war-
like operations ; while an intention of trying that
experiment on the largest scale has
States. also been inti-
mated by the authorities of the Southern
It is therefore not unlikely that the manly qualities
of the negro, and his capability of bearing arms
with efficiency, will soon be put to a decisive test.
As the matter is in a degree still under debate, it
may not ho inopportune to point out that for many
years—for a period almost coeval with the establish-
ment of the standing army of Great Britain on
r
something like its present extended footingi mpn
of African
birth and origin have been
enrolled in
the service of this country, and the re • giments of
which they are composed have always taken their
Places in the regular corps of tb
designation of West India e line. Under the
regiments, a considerable
body of negroes proper have performed
British soldiera in all res the duties of
pects, with the exception
that their services have been local, and in the main
confined to our tropical colonies. During the war
which was brought to a close in 1815, at least
six of these black
regiments were enrolled in our
army, and were employed
on active service in the
euteet4 which took l
p ace between France and ga,
• -5"

land for the possession of some of the islands on the
Caribbean Sea. They were subsequently reduced.
to three regiments ; but some idea of the value of
their services even now m4v be formed, from the
fact that within the last year two more of these
corps have been raised, and there are now five NS, est
India regiments of infantry, and an artillery corps,
stationed on the Gold Coast, in the army of the
Queen of England. Originally these corps were
enlisted while the slave-trade flourished; and they
i
were recruited, it is to be feared, pretty much n the
same way as the plantations were supplied with la"
bourers ; but in later times they have been enlisted
in the same manner as the rest of our army, and
their service is voluntary. The men were and are
all Africans, and were formerly generally
known
among white soldiers and colonists under the gene-
ric name of " Congoes." The officers are now drawn
from the same source as those of the rest of the
army, although at one time a considerable numhbr
of them were gentlemen connected with the colonies
who were in those stormy times desirous of adapt-
ing the military profession. Many if not all of the
non-commissioned officers are blacks, of the same
race as the men, and it may be said, in brief, that is
good discipline these troops are excelled by no white
corps; their attachment to their officers is
.remarka-
ble, while their docility causes them to be easily
managed ; and, when the difficulties interposed‘
by a want of community of lapguage are gob
over, they are singularly tractable, and are
readily trained into good soldiers. Those who have
seen a West India regiment reviewed in company
with white regiments of the line know that in march-
ing, and all the ordinary manoeuvres of a field clay, it
holds its own with something more than credit. 1-nie
band are composed of musicians who are all blacks,tinue
there is a tradition in Jamaica that the band of one of
these regiments was so good a one as to be in great!er
request for festive occasions than those of the white
regiments stationed in the island. It is worth nleP;
tioning, as a matter of detail, that one of the chief
difficulties in the making of an African a British
soldier arose from the conventional dress of oar
troops. The close buttoned coat was trying ; the
stock was an abomination ; but the military boot
was the worst infliction of all, from the peCaliat
structure of the African foot. This is changed nelt.'
for the West India regiments are clothed in the
Zonave costume ; and any one who is curious to see
specimens of negro soldiers, has only to reairto
Chatham, where a small depot of these colonial
corps is stationed, with a view to their instruction
in musketry, which is an essential of our army drill.
He may there see what they are like. These blvd;
corps have in their time seen service, and have alwaY
done their duty well and soldierly. At the capture of
the islands of Dominica, Martinique, and GuadalouPe
in the war with France, they formed part of the el'
peditionary forces. They have been constantly en'
gaged in the expeditions which have been sent NO
our settlements in Africa against the natives; where
we hear of their storming stockades and entrenched
works, or serving guns as artillerymen with el-'
cellent effect, and this so lately as lastyear ; and all
reports speak of them as acting in such a manner 80
to entitle them to take rank practically, as well a°
theoretically, with good British soldiers. The el'
periment which is about to be tried in America has
therefore been already made ; and notwithstanding
that the body-guard of the King of Dahomey CO°'
sists of Amazons—a fact which by implication casts
a slur on the warlike capabilities of the male African
—experience has shown that, when well-trainedo
well-treated, and well-led, the black is a good, gi
brave, and, above all, a most faithful soldier.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

11,

NORWICH—SATURDAY.
There was a good supply of wheat to-day, and tiler!
being a better feeling in the trade, the sales made were
effected at 6d to is advance upon last week's rates for 1
samples. A good show of barley, and late prices were fu'll,,
maintained. Flour as before. In other articles little bo'.
ness doing.
White wheat. 44s to 45 Red wheat
Malting barley ...36s to 38s 1 Chevalier barley 43045 s to 4
o 359:
Distilling do 33s to 35s Oats.. 24s to YR
Flour, 31s Od to —s Od per sack from the miller.

NOTTINGHAM—SATURDAY.
,2s.
White wheat, from 44s to 45s ; red wheat, 38s to 4
to
Barley—malting, 33s to 40s ; grinding, 28s to 31s. %i
old, at 24s to 31s Od; new, 22s to 265. Beans sold at
to 43s per qr, ; new, 38s to 425.

LEICESTER—SATURDAY.
There was a good show of wheat to-day, with a fairs 3,1%
but no advance upon last week's prices. Barley in tolern.
show at fully late rates. Oats held at about late Pric36
--New white wheat, 41s to 44s ; red, 39s to 41€1
stone. Old red, 39s to 41s per 36 stone. Barley, 1-03'11;
new, 33s to 38s per qr.; grinding, 29s to 32s ; old 03 ;
25s to 30s ; new oats, 22s to 25s per 24 stone. Be 21"
old, 38s to 42s per 38 stone ; flour, 30s to 35s per 20 stone'

GRANTHAM—SATURDAY.
06e.
Old white:"wheat, 42s to 4es ; red, 40s to 438.pey "
new white, 42s to 465; red, 37s to 41s. Malting bat;.;
34s to 38s per qr ; ggrinding, 28s to 30s ; oats, old, 24s
28s; new, 20s to24s; beans, 40s to 425; peas, 34s to 40s.