The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-12 00:00:00

RAILWAYB.

Cash. Account.
Orleans 1340 .. 1342 50
Northern
New ditto 930 .. 931 25
Lyons and Mediterranean 1077 50 1080
Geneva — • .
Southern 725 727 50
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard

WITHDRAWAL OF THE FRENCH

LOAN.

(From the Times.)
It was announced yesterday morning that the pro-
posed loan of £4,000,000 to the French Government
or its agents has been altogether given up. The causes
of this abandonment were not stated, except in an
intimation to the subscribers that the securities
which were to be hypothecated are not to be ob-
tained. It is plain that the parties with whom the
negotiations originated must have been greatly mis-
led, but it is needless, especially after the debate on
the subject in the French Chambers, to speculate
on the considerations which have brought about the
present result. Many persons have been put to in-
convenience, and some have sustained loss, by their
preparations for the transaction, but others, and
particularly those who were enabled to buy Ex-
chequer-bills at Bs. premium. which have now again
recovered to 165., have profited in like proportion.
The affair therefore calls for no further public com-
ment, and M. Fould, for the success of whose plans
the best wishes are entertained on this side, may
be congratulated on his non-acceptance of a mode
of assistance the employment of which would cer-
tainly not have been favourable to his reputation.
It is also satisfactory that we shall escape establish-
ing a precedent for our leading banks to lend extra-
ordinary sums on foreign stocks, to be locked up
during three or six months, when the politics of the
world are as unsettled as at any period of history.

(Ftom the Daily News.)

A good deal of surprise was occasioned yesterday
morning by an intimation from Messrs. Barings to
the subscribers, to the effect that• the proposed loan
to France cannot be carried out, in consequence of
the inability of the French contractors to supply
the requisite securities. It will be very curious to
learn exactly how the hitch has occurred. The
view taken in London is that the affair, in conse-
quence of the injudicious magnitude of the sum in-
volved, had attained a publicity which defeated the
peculiar objects aimed at by the Government. It
has been made a subject of damaging reproach to
the ministry in the Chambers in the course of the
debates on the conversion scheme. The Government
has winced the more under the criticism inflicted
upon its policy, because the loan is avowedly part
and parcel of a grand scheme of Bourse legerde-
main, whereby the public were to be duped, and
prices for the time bolstered up. It is said that a
feeling of extreme annoyance prevails in official
circles in Paris, and that to the strong impression
entertained with reference to the matter in a still
more exalted quarter the present collapse of the
perfected negotiation is mainly due. The original
design was, probably, to raise money in England
with complete privacy. The inability of the French
contractors to supply the Three per Cent. Rentes
which formed the stipulated security betrays plainly
what was always pretty clear, the origin of the
negotiation, and helps to bring out in stronger re-
lief the unscrupulous mendacity (a milder word
does not meet the case) of the government journal.
The result shows that, as the Government is pre-
vented by high intervention from supplying the
requisite stock, no one else can do so. But it was
always absurd to imagine that the transaction could
be for account of the Bank of France, which, on
this hypothesis, would be carrying on the very
lucrative game of borrowing at 6 per cent. or up-
wards, and lending at 4. The common sense of the
public on both sides of the Channel carries them
straight to the only possible conclusion, which is,
as before remarked, that the loan was a mere ma-
noeuvre to " rig" the market for an interested ob-
ject, and has failed, from the inconvenient publicity
acquired by it. There is some consolation in find-
ing that the strictures of the English press have
some influence towards helping to straighten the
tortuous course of French finance. It is now more
than ever a question whether the Government
will be able to force the proposed conversion
through, and whether, instead of trying for a
loan in a hole-and-corner fashion, it will not be
ultimately obliged to appeal to the moneyed classes
in the ordinary way. To meet the deficit by means
of a public loan would be legitimate enough, as
such matters are regarded, and it would be at-
tended with the important advantage of giving
French capitalists that influence which they ought
to have in the financial affairs of the state. In a
word, a public loan would not go off well without
the Government consenting to what the country
wants more than anything—reduction of expendi-
ture, particularly in the military and naval depart-
ments. For these reasons, the failure of the pro-
posed loan is fairly matter for congratulation, apart
from the favourable effect which the event is calcu-
lated to have upon our money and stock markets.
There is a minor matter which may be com-
mended to the consideration of the French Govern•
ment, and that is the compensation due to the per-
sons in this country who treated the proposals of its
agents as serious, and who have gone to a large ex-
penditure of time and trouble, in addition to
realising securities and calling in loans, in order to
fulfil their part of the bargain. It would appear
that Messrs. Barings are absolved from blame,
being merely agents in the affair, and of course not
responsible for the vagaries of the Paris financiers.