The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-17 00:00:00

THE EGYPTIAN LOAN.

Now that the Egyptian loan has been well placed,
and there can be no interests except those of a few
adverse speculators to be served by any further
attempts to misrepresent its character, it is neces-
sary to remark that the manner in which the oppo-
sition to it was conducted was not calculated to
raise the financial reputation of our operators or
capitalists. In the first place, it is certain that the
parties who were most active in depreciating the
loan were those who, at Alexandria and Paris, and
in London, for months past have been endeavouring
to procure for themselves the special privilege of
introducing it to the British public, or who have
been accustomed for years to carry on a profitable
business by volunteering personal aevances to the
Viceroy, the necessity for which will in future be
obviated by the present transaction. Secondly, the
efforts to influence the market price of the loan
have been mostly in the shape of underhand asser-
tions, although every invitation was given for all
who had any remarks that might be of service to
the public on the subject to make them openly ; and
lastly, the only charge that, through the prompt
action of the committee of the Stock Exchange, was
fairly brought out consisted in an assertion that,
under a certain technical reading of the contract, it
might be in the power of the Viceroy or a successor
at some future day to imitate the practice of Missis-
sippi and Michigan, and repudiate his liability.
The accuracy of this charge was summarily and
unanimously denied by the committee, but even if
it had had any foundation it would merely have
been one that applies equally to Consois, and to
every kno ran security. The only safety for those who
grant loans lies in the honour of the contracting
parties, and it will be a bad day if ever the practice
should become general of holding up the idea, either
to our own or foreign Governments, that the dis-
covery of a purely verbal omission or discrepancy
can be entertained for a moment as something that
would be likely to induce or to warrant them to
evade the smallest fraction of their equitable and
generally understood responsibilities. When Mr.
Gladstone thought it expedient to submit the India
Telegraph guarantee to the Law Officers of the
Crown fcr their technical judgment it was itnme
diately found that he had no legal authority to pay
it, and if the same course were pursued to-morrow
with Consols, and a case were adroitly submitted,
hundreds of clever barristers would perhaps at once
be ready to give an unqualified opinion that, with-
out some amendment of the original Acts, it would
be dangerous and improper for the Government to
continue the payment of the dividends. In Mis-
sissippi there was never any question of the loan
having been equitably contracted, but it was found
that a certain formality prescribed by the Constatu.
tion of the State had been neglected. end when
Mr. Jefferson Davis advocated repudiation, and
was denounced by the Times, the whole people
of the United States, in reply to these " malig-
nant" attacks on so prominent and distinguished
a member of American society, approved his ele-
vation to the most influential position in the
Federal Cabinet. Can any one doubt tbat, with
such a feeling prevalent, the bonds would in one
way or another have been set aside, even if all the
lawyers in the world had previouslybeen employed
to draw them that they should defy cavil ? The
moral is, that if you cannot trust the honour of the
parties with whom you are invited to deal, or their
possession of that ordinary sagacity which teaches
that honesty is the best policy, you should not deal
with them at all. All the checks ever devised would
avail nothing against a cashier determined to rob,
and it is the same with a potentate or people. In
lending money to a foreign country the only point
of any value must consist in seeing that the bonds
given concisely specify their purport and bear !,he
signature of the executive power. If, after having
issued such a pledge, any potentate or president
chooses to repudiate his obligation, the sufferers
may console themselves that their case would not
have been in the slightest degree bettered by any
words that Messrs. Freshfield or the Committee of
the Stock Exchange might have suggested to be
introduced in order to guard against such a con-
tingency. Let those who believe that there is dan-
ger of Turkey or Egypt falling to Ressia or France
or other countries, and that the first step of such
countries on taking possession would be to repu-
diate all the fair debts of the property they had
acquired, or who distrust the resources of Turkey
or Egypt and the influence of their comparatively
liberal systems of tr ide, avoid such investments.
In any case, too, while there is a determined preju-
dice against them, let those who have no money to
lose, and who cannot afford the risk of fluctuations,
pursue the same course, since these very prejudices
are in themselves demoralising in their tendency,
and calculated in some degree to bring their own
fulfilment. But in no case should the persons who
after mature deliberation make up their minds to
invest fall into the folly of countenancing or plo
fessing for a moment even the shadow of a sus-
picion of the personal honour of the potentates or
the Governments to whose good faith they have
thus resolved to commit themselves.—Times.

THE GREAT EASTERN.—The Great Eastern was
removed from the gridiron yesterday morning, and steamed
off to Milford grandly. It will be remembered that she was
beached in February last, for the pupose of fixing the new
paddlewheels and completing other repairs. These have
been done, and the ship, it is said, has been rendered as per-
fect in all respects as money, experience, and forethought
can make her.
The additional strength imported into the
new paddlewheels and sternpoet will, it is to be hoped, ren-
der a recurrence of the disaster of September laat almost
impossible. In the saloon and state rooms many improve-
ments conducive to the comfort of passengers have been
made, and no expense has been spared to render the ship
what she ought to be, a floating hotel. She is to leave
Milford for New York in ab.,ut three weeks from this time
Special arrangements have been made with the various
railway companies to convey passengers alid their friends to
the port of departure at reduced rates, and it is expected
that many, both saloon and steerage passengers, will avail
themselves of the low fares and proffered comfort to cross
the Atlantic in this noble specimen of English enterprise.
WORK FOR WomEN.—To cheer our spirits, we
may glance into the offices where educated women are at
work under happier circumstances ; the law-copying offices,
qualified women are support-
ingnow multiplying, where duly
themselves in a frugal mode of life without exhausting
toil ; the printing-office,
where the American example is
followed of employing women as compositors ; and the book-
binding warehouses, where female folders, stitchers, and
artists in ornamental bindings are collected in hundreds.
These sights are cheering ; and so is that of a really well-
managed factory village ; and so is that of the body of cer-
tificated schoolmistresses, teaching common things through-
out the length and breadth of the land. But these sights
are not all : and we must not turn away altogether from
that which fills a large space in the area of social life, in
every old European, oountry.—Once a Week,