The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-01 00:00:00

~Tj~,

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 1, 1R54.

We shall learn before another day has expired

the result of the financial experiment on which
the Chancellor of the Exchequer has adventured.
No tender can be received after two o'clock to-
morrow, and the Right Hon. Gentleman is bound
to deposit, at or before that hour, sealed papers
declaring the reserved prices at or above which
he binds himself to accept the offers. For the
reasons already set forth, we greatly fear that the
less wealthy classes will not be induced to bid for
any of these bonds, or to select them as invest-
ments for their " smaller accumulations." Had
Mr. GLADSTONE been really desirous of sinking
the financial shaft "to a lower seam"—to the
middle, and even the labouring, classes—he
would not have rejected so peremptorily all ten-
ders for less than 1,0001., or permitted the mini-
mum rates at which the Financial Minister would
be willing to dispose of his new securities to re-
main unknown. Like all former loans contracted
by the English Government, the matter will re-
main exclusively in the hands of wealthy capi-
talists; and if the poor man desire to obtain one of
these much-vaunted bonds for 1001., he can only do
so by purchasing it in the open market at a premium,
and thus sacrificing the first year's dividends to en-
hance the profits of persons of already overgrown
wealth, who will receive the entire benefit of the
mode in which the instalments are made payable
(equivalent to a bonus of 15s. 2/d. per cent.) ;
and also some 2 or 3 per cent. premium on the
investments of the general public. Indeed, the
system in operation appears to be founded on the
Scripture rule, " For unto every one that bath
shall be given, and he shall have abundance ; but
from him that hath not, shall be taken away even
that which he hath." We may therefore expect
that the Bank of England, some of the wealthy
insurance companies and first-class firms, such as
the ROTHSCHILDS, BARINGS, &C., will be the only
bidders, and that all the profits on the transaction
will fall into hands that, do not require or need
them, and who will have no additional motives in
consequence thereof to support public credit.
It is already more than hinted that the Bank
of England will itself be the largest bidder—that
the Old Lady will tender for no less than
2,000,000/. of the new bonds—and that a single
insurance company will offer for a million ster-
ling. It is, therefore, probable that there will
be ample competition for the full amount, as there
would be were it even quadrupled. But it does
not, therefore, necessarily follow that the bargains
Will be completed, or prices offered which Mr.
GLADSTONE may consider equivalents for what he
has to dispose of. It must not be forgotten that the
/tight Hon. Gentleman -forms a very high esti-
mate of the value of this species- of security.
When bringm* g forward his abortive conversion
scheme last year, he estimated Exchequer Bonds
at par not payable for ten years, and bearing in-
terest at only
2i per cent. per annum, as being
worth as much as 110/. 2-i per cent. stock, not
redeemable for forty years; so that 21. 10s. per
annum arising from these bonds, and redeemable in
ten years at par, was worth asa much as 21.155. from
Consols, redeemable only at text
Pg.er,ccLenftr.oaricalfvuanndcse
on the original sum, or as 21. rr
not redeemable for forty years. The convenience
of form, and the power of demanding payment at
the end of ten years, was thus esteemed full com-
pensation for a difference of interest or dividends
of from ten to sixteen per cent. ou the amount
receivable. Now, as 3/. 10s. is the interest at
present proposed on these bonds, it would, if Mr.
GLADSTONE remained of the same mind, be as
valuable, without reference to the earlier period of
paying off at par, as 31. dividend arising out
of Consols. But at the present price of say 87k,
the 100/. will only pnreliase dividends amounting
to 3/. 7s. 6d., or 9:4. 6,1. annual dividend hem
than the value equivalent to these New Bonds.
It is therefore evident that these New Bonds
should be issued at a considerable premium. If not
another job will be perpetrated at the public ex-
pense, in order to enhance the overgrown profits
of wealthy parties, the favourites of our Financial
Minister.

There is inother- chance of the transaction not
being completed, besides the possibility-of a dif-
ference as to terms between the vendor and in-

_-~.m

tended purchasers. Different tenders are to be
sent in for each series of bonds. Now, as those
that are to be paid off at par in four years will
probably be the favourites, the great majority of
the tenders may be in these denominations, so that
one only way be taken up, while the other de-
scriptions
are suffered to remain on hand. Under
such by no means improbable circumstances Mr.
GLADSTONE will have to deplore another failure,
not calculated to enhance his reputation as a skil-
ful and successful financier.
Should the Bank of England obtain a large
proportion of the amount for which it is said it is
about to tender, it is difficult to perceive how
the loan will benefit the commercial commu-
nity, or enable the Directors to grant the pecu-
niary accommodation which is so urgently re-
quired, and the power of conceding which is the
alleged object of the new loan. The Directors
complained of being, under the terms of their
agreement with Government, obliged to advance
something more than two millions on deficiency
bills, which would be liquidated during the pre-
sent quarter, and which would, therefore, create
but a temporary derangement. But how, we
ask, will it improve their position to advance a
like sum of two millions, not for "a few weeks or
months, but for four, five, or six years ? Surely
the money thus locked up would as completely
take away from the Bank power of accommodation
as if it had been invested inkdeficiency bills. The
outcry that has been raised in Threadneedle-street
was not then for the sake of the mercantile inte-
rests, or that increased facilities might be afforded
for obtaining the requisite funds for carrying on
business by our manufacturers and traders. Far
from it ! It appears to have been but a pretext
for increasing their already exorbitant profits at
the expense of the tax-payers—an addition
to the " million sterling per annum" which,
according to the Times, is added to the charge
of the National Debt, by the exclusive
privileges which we bestow on the Bank,
and which " it would be just as easy to appropri-
ate to the Exchequer." If we examine the Bank
Returns for the last three weeks it will be seen
how quietly the Directors have been curtailing
the discounts of commercial paper. During the
week ending the Bth April, there was a decrease
under the head of "Other Securities," of 802,4551.
—for that ending the 15th April, of 957,015/.,
and for that ending the 22d April, of 426,4211.
Thus showing a reduction of no less than
2,185,891/. of the accommodation to mercantile
men—within the last three weeks of which we
have any returns—or as nearly as possible the
amount required by Government deficiency bills
And thus a large amount will be permanently
withdrawn if invested in the New Exchequer
Bonds. The only way by which the money could
be obtained without injury is by doing as they
did in France, and obtaining the petty savings
and accumulations of the less wealthy classes ;
but that Mr. GLADSTONE has guarded against by
the injudicious regulations framed in accordance
with the old system of " red tapism."

The political matrimony between Lord JOHN
RUSSELL and Mr. GLADSTONE appears to have
similar results to those which we often see from
the union of advanced age with a comparatively
youthful wife. Seniority, of course, is " Leader,"
yet somehow " youth rules the roost ;" and when
veteran statesmen and younger politicians
COALESCE, the younger, especially if of Conserva-
tive tendencies, generally gets the whip hand of
his colleague. Thus at least it has been with the
present Coalition. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer carries his own measures, and neutralises
the liberal clauses of Lord JOHN'S with clauses in-
geniously contrived to look innocent, though preg-
nant with mischief. The abandoned Reform
Bill was, if parentage can be judged from the pro-
geny, in all its subtle devices to escape democracy,
thoroughly Gladstonian ; so much so that we may
well believe that our prudent and wary Peelite
financier would have been willing enough to go on
with it, had he not had so good a pretext for
backing out altogether. And now the Oxford
Reform Bill turns out on discussion to be such a
e Wav .311 %wuveu wilt urryr of betto.-
quality, that it seems doubtful whether the old
mischief will not be left substantially triumphant.
It seems a great stride to abolish the close cor-
poration of heads of houses, men with purely a
college interest, and it is too ; but it is one in
which all parties appear to concur. No special
merit, therefore, is there in that ; but it is now
pointed out that College Tutors and Fellows of
the Colleges will so predominate in congregation,
by which the new Council is to be elected, that
the college interest, as distinct from, and, indeed,
opposed to, the University, will still be completely
predominant. Mr. DISRAELT demands that this
new one-sided council having been constructed, all
further details should be left to it ; and thus the
independence of the University, he conceives,
would be retained. He should rather have said
the monopoly privileges of the Colleges ; for all
the power would still have been left with them,
and it is little likely, judging from their past his-
tory, that they would have permitted the estab-
lishment of private halls, rivalling, perhaps, in
energy and success their own schools. The result
is a new Hebdomadal Council, so constructed that
it could not be trusted with the details of
practical and administrative Reform, and
hence the necessity of legislation on numerous
minor points by the House of Commons, which,
by its own testimony, understands Oxford about
as much as it does India ; and also of Commis-
sioners, under whose superintendence the details
still left are to be adjusted. An elective council
reminds us that Lord JOHN brings in the bill; but
electors, chiefly composed of persons in holy orders
and tutors of colleges, suggest the hand of Mr.
GLADSTONE, and the younger man has thus con-
structed the fountain of power.
It seemed pretty well agreed that Mr. HEY-
WOOD'S amendment, to refer the bill to a select
committee, would probably throw it overboard for
the session ; and here, singularly enough, the best
University Reformers were forced into alliance
with those who were opposed to reform altogether.
The very serious point of the retention of religious
tests was evidently viewed as one of the greatest
consequence, not only by the dissenting represen-
tatives, but by Mr. HEYWOOD, Mr. BLACKETT,
Mr. HORSMAN, and, indeed, by all the earnest and
consistent advocates of University Reform. These
tests have certainly been imposed and varied by
legislative authority on most of the present col-
leges, and it would seem quite reasonable to set
them aside entirely by the same authority; but if
the colleges are to be indulged in requiring mere
youths, and youths, moreover, intended for secular
professions, to sign the, Thirty-nine Articles, why
not, as we have asked, and others, too, again and
again, why not leave the new private halls
perfectly unfettered in this respect ? Here, again,
Mr. GLADSTONE appears most cleverly to have
carried the day. Lord JOHN avows, in perfect
consistency with his life-long educational course,
his wish to abolish the tests. His colleague in-
dulges him with private halls under the care of
an Oxford graduate, in which Lord JOHN observes
the test can some day be abolished, but Mr.
GLADSTONE takes good care that the halls shall
not start free. He well knows that with his in-
geniously contrived council, and the dead weight
in the two Houses of Parliament, it may be long,
very long, before religious liberty will show its
face in Oxford.

We cannot wonder that Mr. HA DFIELD and the
Dissenting Members should feel that the measure
was nothing to them, although taunted by Lord
Jonic with illiberality for indifference to bone-
fitting five millions of Churchmen. His Lord-
ship knew it was not illiberality. A little
while back, the author of the Durham Letter
seemea exeessive+ly galled at his own Church
being "ignored" by the POPE, and lie might
have a little sympathy with the indignation
felt by five millions of Dissenters, when
studiously ignored
by five millions of
ech
isu r g
in the reform of a national university.
It " "
by one GLADSTONE organ that Die..
alleged
lieueend ,
centers are not injured ; they are only left where
. °
they were. Strange, surely, the bigoted obliquity
of -vision. which refuses, to perceive that a more
the nation than to lei it behind while the other
aggravating insult can hardly be offered to half