The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-11 00:00:00

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[ PRICE 5D •

reducing the burden of the Debt as a mere party
I question. As Lord John Russell remarked, a bit-
terness very unusual under such circumstances,
was exhibited in the criticisms to which the Reso-
lutions were subjected; and yet the success of the
Financei)riseaat the
Minister rislc
declaration.
objections which were urged would only have de-
prived the Treasury of a definite advantage, which
certainly, whether large or small, involves no cor-
respondingiklM had
r.
ever
ef
IvDisraeliir.E
proposednie expressedEllice,
an d thati
tt
hihises tnsrueuwre-
, project was one of the most important which any
that Mr. Gladstone, on the
other hand, had pru-
dently protested against any exaggerated expec-
tations which might be formed t' the
results mg
results of his plan. There is, however, no incon-
sistency between the views put forward •by the
author of the scheme, and those of his able and '
experienced supporter. As an experimental and
gradual measure, the creation of the new Stocks
' will effect but a moderate reduction in the public
burdens—it is only when its,success shall have
been:obstablished that the prospect of a reduction
in the total interest of the Debt will become dis-
tinct. Mr. ELLICE himself has long considered the
expediency. of placing the Suitors'. Fund on a
securer basis, and at the same time providing the
nucleus 'of a Two-and-a-Half per Cent. Stock,
which may prepare the way for the ultimate con-
version of the Three per Cents, It is not sur-
prising, therefore, that he should appreciate the
utility of a plan which renders possible the great
improvements which he desired to see effected.
Mr. GLADSTONE'S anticipations of the ultimate re-
sults of his own policy may probably not be less
sanguine ; but at present he judiciously takes
credit_only for the good which he is enabled to re-
alise, knowing that experience will;.best develope .
the future possibilities of public advantage. The
objections which are urged against the plan are
partly conjectural.

Sir Fitzroy Kelly's argument was intended to
show that, of three proposed securities, only one
would be selected by capitalists. And if so, what
then ? Investments in the Two-and-a-Half per
Cents. would produce a clear profit to the public,
even if a sinking fund were set aside to absorb the
future increase in the nominal capital of the Debt;
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is of course pre-
pared to satisfy a demand for any class of the New
Securities which he offers, though it should be
exclusively preferred. Sir Fitzroy Kelly wastes a
good deal of energy and ingenuity in proving that
the Two-and-a-Half per Cent. Stock will be a more
desirable purchase than either Three-and-a-Half
per Cents. or Exchequer Bonds. The calculation
is irrelevant to the question which Parliament has
to decide, and it assumes throughout the Treasury
will be bound in 1894 to pay off the new stock at
par. From the beginning of the discussion to the
end, all the opponents of the measure seemed to
forget that the Government can buy up its own
securities in the market, instead of dealing directly
with the whole body of creditors.
If Two-and-a-Half per Cents. are, under the pro-
posed scheme, cheaper than Three-and-a-Half per
Cent. Stock, capitalists in general will of course
prefer them ; and there is little doubt that such
will, in fact, be the case as to the majority of
investments. But the objection to a threefold al-
ternative of conversion involves the erroneous as-
sumption that all purchasers require precisely' the
same commodity. Sound policy suggested the
prudence of making the new experiment as varied
and exhaustive as circumstances would allow ; and
Mr. Glad'stone's measure is intended not merely to
test certain very important facts and probabilities
in finance, but also to satisfy the different wants of
classes placed in the most dissimilar positions. A
man may sell shoes and boots in the same shop,
without subjecting himself to the reproach of
caprice or inconsistency. Sir Fitzroy Kelly may
persuade himself that the dealer makes a somewhat
larger profit on the boots ; but his inference that
those who require shoes will not buy what they
want, is, to say the least, somewhat hasty. Mer-
chants and bankers have frequently occasion for a
portable security which can be deposited or passed
from hand to hand as often as convenience may
suggest. Trustees and persons living on fixed in-
comes require investments of a totally different
character ; but according to the ex-Solicitor-
General, both classes ought ,to fgego their re-
spective habits and interest 3, if they can save 61
per cent. by the operation. Mr. Gladstone has
ascertained that the portable character of foreign
securitiesjidds some shillings in the pound to their
value ; bfft Sir Fitzroy Kelly altogether disregards
any facts of this kind, in the ardour of his investi-
gations into the deferred value of 101. forty years
hence, which the State, as it happens, will not
even be liable to pay. The experience of a few
hours after the passing of the 'act will supersede
' all speculation as to the demand for Exchequer
Bonds. The money dealers in the City are, it is
believed, prepared to take them, notwithstanding
the demonstration which has been tendered that
they ought to prefer the Two-and-a-Half per Cent.
Stock, for which they may have no occasion. If
the Bonds cannot be sold, neither good nor harm
will have been done. If the Three-and-a-Half per
Cent. Stock hangs on hand, its nominal creation
will have cost nothing. The greater part of the
South Sea Annuities can be conveniently paid off
in cash ; and the most zealous adversaries of the
whole project declare that the Two-and-a-Half per
Cents. will only be too good a bargain for the fund-
holder.

The Leander, 50, Captain King, arrived at Spithead
yesterday morning from Leith. She is ordered to pro-
ceed to Plymouth to join the Channel squadron under
Rear-Admiral Corry.

No critic of the Government measure, in or out
of Parliament, has undertaken the responsibility
of suggesting a plausible alternative. It will
hardly be asserted that the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer would have done well to abstain from deal-
ing with the Debt, if lie saw a probability of re-
ducing the public burdens ; nor will any man of
business pretend that it was practicable to follow
the example of former Ministers by effecting a
compulsory reduction in a sum of five hundred mil-
lions. If, therefore, it was impossible to pay off
the debt, the next resource was to create some new
species of security. By raising the nominal rate
of interest, the Government might have provided
for the future reduction of the prinpipal ' • but it
must be remembered that, in a voluntary transac-
tion, the views of both parties must be consulted.
The Three per Cents. might at this moment be con-
verted into a Five per Cent. or a Ten per Cent.
Stock, if proportionate advantages were offered to
the holders ; but such an operation would only
amount to a round-about device for paying off a
portion of the debt. It would be cheaper to effect
the same object directly, if the country had not de-
termined that, for the present, it is more expedient
to apply the surplus revenue to the reduction of
taxation. If Sir Fitzroy Kelly is right in his cal-
culation that the terms offered to purchasers in the
Three-and-a-Half per Cents, are not sufficiently
liberal, it follows that the creation of a Stock of
that denomination, on a basis advantageous to the
Government, is, under existing circumstances, im-
practicable. There can be no doubt, however,
that the objection is overstated, and that even the
trifling additional interest of 2s. 9d. will attract a
certain portion of the capital which will be dis-
placed. It was quite right to try an experiment
which could do no harm if it failed, while its suc-
cess would confer a considerable advantage on the
Treasury. _

The real problem evidently was, to create a se-
curity, which, bearing a nominal interest of 24 per
cent., might serve as a pivot for further financial
operations. For commercial investment a new cir-
culation is provided with a reasonable certainty
that the convenience of its form will procure it a
preference in the market. All the arguments
which were urged against this part of the measure,
as being unnecessarily liberal, were, to a great ex-
tent, founded on an oversight. The first appli-
cants among the South Sea holders will receive
Bonds paying, for the present, 21 per cent. ; but
should the securities be quoted the next day at
any considerable premium, the Treasury can take
advantage of the rise by selling new Bonds at the
market price. When it is asked how Exchequer
Bonds, at two-and-three-quarters per cent., can
circulate by the side of Exchequer Bills at a lower
rate of interest, it is forgotten that both classes of
securities will return a profit, not on their nomi-
nal amount, but on the price at which they
may have been bought. If general expectation is
nr eilaul !slled ,
which
willb onl
edasv
pur
csihmosretlrys
ac
no madinmt
ern
es t ao
fless
-
than 2 per cent. on their outlay ; and, as it was
properly suggested in the course of the debate, the
annual convertibility of Exchequer Bills constitutes
a la
necessarily give the older
securities which will
uritiesa
incdsisfreorfenpreferenceidred that l
certainforlewa
s ridiculing
theMMr.inDisitserriaealli secheonsee when he described it as a
kind of financial model farm. Yet no statesman
need be ashamed of trying a
at the same time an instalment of e
definite
wahnidchacis-
tual gain. Unlike model farms in general, the
new scheme of finance will, from the first, return
a profit to the owner ; and if, according to Mr.
Elice's well-grounded, expectations, the improve-
ment eventually extends to the whole estate, Mr.
Gladstone will have no reason to be ashamed of
Ithe policy which he has inaugurated.

~..~.-~ y
~- -,

We perceive by the French papers that the Minister
of Marine has issued an order, re-establishing the per-
manent levy of seamen between the age of twenty and
forty years who have not served on board the state navy.
The object of this levy appears to be to fill up the va-
cancies left bythe seamen in the fleet who have already
or nearly served their time. A letter from Toulon of
the 4th inst. also announces that the steam-frigite
Montezuma had sailed on the 2d to join the fleet. The
frigate Itranie sailed the same day. Yet, with all these
facts before their eyes, and Sir James Graham's taunts
and insults to the Emperor, the First Lord of the Ad-
miralty has not added a single man-of-war to the
Mediterranean force, so infirm as it confessedly is in
numbers of ships and men to the French fleet. A
weekly contemporary announces that it is contemplated
to add to: the qualifications of naval instructors a know-
ledge of the steam-engine. We believe it is now about
two years since that we published an Admiralty circular,
making it imperative on naval instructors so to qualify
themselves. Last week our contemporary stated that
there were no " ward-room warrant officers." We arc
sorry to contradict our professional contemporary by re-
peating to the service the superfluous information that the
naval instrucr is a "ward-room warrant ofticer."—
Morning Herald.

PORTSMOUTH, APRIL 10.
The Scorpion surveying schooner, Lieutenant Com-
manding Richard H. Grant, arrived at Spithead last
night from the West India station. She sailed from St.
Croix on the 26th of February, and Bermuda the 21st
of March, from which last-named placo'she brings the
latest mails. The Cumberland, 72, Vice-Admiral Sir
G. F. Seymour, K.C.8., was lying at Bermuda. The
Vestal, 26, Captain C. B. Hamilton, sailed from Ber-
muda for the coast of Cuba on the 12th of March. She
had captured three empty slave prizes shortly before her
arrival at Bermuda. Dr. Rogers, R.N., superintendent
surgeon, who went out in charge of convicts to Ber-
muda, has returned in the Scorpion, also Mrs. Law-
rence (widow of the late commander of the Scorpion)
and four children. The Scorpion has lost during her
commission three lieutenants, one mate, one master's
assistant, and three seamen. She is ordered to Ply-
mouth to be paid off.
The Odin; 16, paddle-wheel steam-frigate, Captain
Francis Scott, is, we regret to say, sickly in crew, 23 of
whom have been sent to Haslar Hospital with influenza,
T which,he istidisenex,p2e2, paddle-wheelcted steam-frigate, Captain, will go through the vessel.
'Goldsmith; has met with another accident. Her main
shaft has been discovered sprung at the starboard end,
but when or how it gave out is not known. Her pas-
sage from Spithead to Plymouth and back was a very
fine one ; all worked admirably, and no defect was ap-
prehended. The flaw seems to be the material and
make—it is a mass of welded iron of about 8 tons. Cap-
tain Henderson, C. 8., of the steam squadron, went on
board on Friday evening, accompanied by Mr. Murray,
chief engineer of the dockyard, and examined the shaft,
which it, will occupy about a nionth to replace. The
Sidon has displayed first-rate qualities as a sea-going war-
steamer, and every one—officer and men—who has
served in her gives her a most excellent character. All
regret this strange defect, which clearly arises from mal-
construction.

WOOLWICH, APRIL 9.
The Rifleman,' screw steam-ship [gun-vessel, Lieute-
nant Commander Richard H. Dalton, was paid off at
this port to-day. Previous to separating, the ship's com-
pany presented a testimonial to Mr. William Henry Do
Carteret, clerk in charge of the vessel since she was put
in commission on October 18, 1848. The testimonial is
a large massive silver snuff-box, on which is engraved,
" Presented to William Henry De Carteret, Esq., R.N.,
by the Ship's Company of the Rifleman, as a testimonial
of their gratitude for his truly gentlemanly demeanour
and exemplary character during the long and eventful
period of the ship's commission. Woolwich, April 9,
1853." The 'ships company at the same time presented
to Mr. Carteret an address drawn up by one of the sea-
men, and printed on white satin ; and the following
shows how strongly they can express their sentiments
when separating from those in authority over them when
they have been kindly treated by their officers :
"„Dear Sir,—The long-wished-for period arrives thatNwe
must separate ; and, after a period of more than four years,
we feel that we should be unworthy the name of men if we
witnessed your departure in silence. The devoted attach-
ment of the British seamen to their officers is one of the
good and remarkable traits in their character of our coun-
trymen ; but seldom has it happened, as in your case, that
this attachment has been secured by such a rare combina-
tion of qualities, eminently calculated to win the esteem
and affection of all on board. We are not more at a loss
to find language to express our gratitude for your truly
gentlemanly demeanour than to speak adequately of the
zeal, ability, and efficiency with which you discharged the
onerous duties intrusted to you whilst amongst us. In our
bidding you farewell we feel we have parted with the leni-
ent officer, the courteous gentleman, and the sincere friend.
Though convinced that no lasting testimonial is required to
keep alive and foster that cordial affection which has for
so long a period existed between you and us, yet you will
confer on us a favour, never to be forgotten,by accepting
the accompanying gift, as a slight and very inadequate token
of our esteem. Dear sir, in bidding yon an affectionate
farewell, we sincerely hope that the 'same zeal, prudence,
and manly beariag which charalteriserl your conduct in the
Rifleman during the long and eventful period of our com-
mission, may continue to mark your career until your
earthly labours are cr3wned with glorious immortality."