The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-06 00:00:00

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[PRICE SD.

SUCCESS OF THE FRENCH LOAN AND
FAILURE OF THE ENGLISH LOAN•

(Front the Derbyshire Courier,)
We have not been accustomed to see such an announce
ment as that which stands at the head of this article, bul

e
ch
iGt
ocvoenrtnaoi
esozo more thano
tthhi
op:1; twr ua
otht
e. d Tthoe
beag
250,000,000 of francs (equal to 10,000,0001. sterling),
and the amount of subscriptions registered was
468,315,400 francs (equal to 18,732,6361. sterling). The
English Government want to borrow six millions ster-
ling on Exchequer Bonds, and cannot raise one-third of
the amount. " What a contrast this offers !" says the
Daily Ncit'3. " Nineteen millions offered to the Finance
Minister in France—and only about one million and a
half to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of England !"
! As it cannot he doubted that England is still a very rich
country, to what cause, it may be asked, is it owing that
the same financial operation is in the two countries at-
tended with such different results?
The cause is wholly to be ascribed, as we conceive, to
the different monetary systems in use in the two coun-
tries. The mercantile classes in France know, from ex-
perience, that if a pressure for gold in exchange for
paper money arise, which is likely to curtail the opera-
tions of trade. in that country, the Bank of France will
be authorised to suspend cash payments till the pressure
is over. The mercantile classes in England know, from
experience, that if a similar pressure for gold were to
arise, which is likly to cripple trade in this country, the
Bank of England will not be allowed to suspend cash
payments till the greater part of the mercantile and trad-
ing establishments of our principal towns, and the manu-
facturing firms of the provincial districts, aro ruined.
They cannot forget that, in 1847, after the Bank was most
reluctantly allowed to put an end to the distress of the
country by departing from the rigid rule laid down for its
conduct by the late Sir Robert Peel in his Bills of 1819,
113+47-ebod.-1246,--the-principal anxiety of Government
was shown, not in atoning for its errors by prompti-
tude of action, but in trying to get a share of that
usurious profit which the Bank was encouraged to de-
mand from its customers as the price of the accommo-
dation which they required. The people of England
are accustomed to place great reliance on the wisdom
of Parliament and the paternal care of Government,
but their interests have been too often betrayed since
1815, and especially of late years, to make them wil-
ling any longer to trust to the discretion of Govern-
ment, or the intelligence and virtue of their represen-
tatives. They have learnt at last that they must take
care of themselves, and they know that if they lock up
their money in Mr. Gladstone's Exchequer Bonds for
six years to come, they may rue the day before the pre-

sent year is over.
The injuries inflicted upon this country, in 1847, by
the operation of Sir Robert Peel's Bills, are too fresh
in the memory of our readers to require particular no-
tice. The losses which the community then endured
have been estimated as high as from 250 to 300 mil-
lions sterling. Instead of dwelling upon them, we will
point out, as a more valuable lesson, the means which
the Government of France employed to mitigate the
evils of a similar pressure on the Bank of France, and
the success which, even in the estimation of its bitterest
enemies, attended its measures. We shall quote for
this purpose a tract which has just reached us, entitled
" The Times Newspaper and the Bank of Fngland,"
written, we believe, by a gentleman in this county,
and printed for private distribution. It is dated May
16, 1854 :
After the French Revolution broke out in February,
1848, difficulties in regard to the monetary system of
France immediately arose, which, it may be safely
affirmed, were more fearful than had ever previously
been surmounted by any nation, without incurring the
dreadful consequences of a national bankruptcy. On the
15th March, 1848, the Bank of France was on the point
of being totally stopped ; and in this extremity the Pro-
visional Government issued a decree, by which French
Bank notes to the amount of 350,000,000 francs (equal
to 14,000,0001. sterling) were made a legal tender. This
decree was no sooner issued, than our Times paper de-
nounced the measure as the worst thing the Government
couid have done. "Unhappily" (said the editor) "the
credit of the Bank of France, by far the greatest and
most solid establishment in the country, was already
shaken before this decree gave the finishing stroke to it.
For two days a run of silver had been going on to an
immense extent. After the Bank had discounted to the
utmost limit of its powers, it was called upon to reim-
burse the holders of its own notes. Those notes had,
therefore, lost the confidence of the public before they
were made a legal tender. To suppose that the decree
of the Provisional Government can restore that confi-
dence, or, in other words,ithe nominal value of the notes,
is ridiculous."
The same influential paper afterwards exerted all the
power it possessed to promote the fulfilment of its own
unhappy predictions.
But notwithstanding all the hostility which the power-
ful prejudices of the daily writers in the Times paper
could bring to bear against the Bank of France, and
against this Decree of the Provisional Government, the
measure proved eminently successful ; as is further
shown on the testimony of the same parties, who had
been so prejudiced against it. The editor of the Times,
in less than a year afterwards (February 16, 1849), was
constrained to admit the success, which he had previ-
ously declared impossible, and to give a statistical state-
ment of the wonders which the decree had accomplished,
which he concludes with the following important re-
marks :—"To complete this marvellous summary, it must
be added that the Bank, after all these exertions, had
completely recovered the ground it h.+ d at one time almost
lost. At one moment the amount of bills overdue and

doubtful was noless than 77,700,000 f. (equal to 3,108,0001.
sterling); that sum is now reduced to 14,340,000 f. (equal
to 573,6001. sterling), and it is confidently anticipated
that the actual loss of the Bank of France by these
risks will not exceed the comparatively trifling suns
of four million francs (equal to 160,0001. sterling)."
And then he adds in conclusion--" We cannot do
more than present our readers with this very brief
outline of these masterly operations ; but when it is re-
membered that they were conducted in all the gloom and
terror of an unparalleled Revolution, when the Govern-
ment lay prostrate before the mob, and property itself
was openly assailed, this narrative of dry financial entries
assumes the importance and the dignity of an heroic re-
sistance to adverse circumstances, and in the very first
rank of those who rescued France from the jaws of
bankruptcy, and Society itself from dissolution, we place
without hesitation the patriotic and able conductors of
the Bank of France. It is, in fact, the only passage in
the history of the past year of which the French have
reason to be proud ; and it will not be forgotten, that
these eminent services were rendered by an independent
corporation—the only one of its kind in France, though
such bodies are happily more numerous in this country,
and that the men who saved the finances of the Republic
were themselves no Republicans, and wholly uncon-
nected with those political dissensions which have thus
convulsed their own country and the rest of Europe."
Thus that decree of the French Government, which,
in March, 1848, had been declared by the Times paper
to be as absurd and ridiculous as language could be
found to express, was, in February, 1849, declared by
the same witness to have constituted the only passage
in the history of the past year of which the French had
reason to be proud. He says, that it had enabled the
governor and managers of the Bank of France to float
their establishment, " like an ark above the waters of
Discord," and to rescue their country "from the jaws of
bankruptcy, and society itself from dissolution."
Our extract ends hero. We.will merely add that the
Bank of France, on the 11th of this present month, held
bullion to the amount of 409,630,576 francs (16,385,2231.
sterling), while its notes in circulation amounted to
590,153,075 francs (23,606,1231. sterling). The Bank
of England, on the 13th inst., held bullion to the amount
of 11,857,2701., while its notes issued amounted to
25,857,270/. Deducting from these the notes in the
Bank in reserve, 4,713,2801., leaves 21,143,9901. as the
notes in active circulation. Thus the Bank in France,
with a note circulation at least equal to that of the
Bank of England, has to meet its engagements, at least
two-thirds of that amount in bullion, while the Bank of
England has less than one-half. We leave our readers
to say which is the better monetary system.

PICTURES FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY.—A collec
tion of pictures has been purchased on the part of the
Government from Herr Kruger, of Minden. They are
shortly expected to arrive in this country for delivery at
their destination.
THE NEW COUNTY COURTS ACT.—Yesterday the
new County Courts Act, which rece_ivedlttihse
nlolsvoyianl
assent on the 2d instant, was e
is I
operation. By this act it is provided that the right of
appeal given by section 14 of the 13th and 14th Vict.,
C. 61, is to extend to cases in which jurisdiction is givn
by the 17th section. The second clause
of the act is of
to
some importance in matters relating insolvency. It
enacts that the provisions of thellfdth section of the act
c. 54, shall extend to all cases of
15th and 16th Vict.,
petitions of
court
Vict.,
under the provisions of the acts of the sth and
6th
c. 116 ; of the 7th and Bth Vict., c. 96, and
of the 10th and 11th Vict., c. 102, as fully as if the
filing of every such petition had been required to be
registered by the said ISth section of the first-recited
act. The act is called the "County Courts Extension
Acts Amendment."
AN ANGLER KILLED BY LIGHTNING.—SeveraI severe
thunderstorms have passed over Worcestershire and
Gloucestershire during the past week. On Tuesday
evening a heavy storm, but of short duration, passed over
the village of Kempsey, on the banks of the Severn,
south of Worcestershire. Just before its commencement,
an old man named Wingfield, who for many years was
valet in the family of the late Earl of Coventry, at
Croome, near Worcester, went to fish in the Severn,
near Kempsey. When the storm approached he took
refuge beneath a pear-tree, but not coming home
his family went in search of him, and found his lifeless
body under the tree, his clothes partly torn from his
body, and the tree itself much shattered. The body
was almost naked, his clothes being burnt and torn from
him, and portions of them were found in the tree. He
had his fishing-rod firmly clinched in his hand. At the
inquest since held on the body, before Mr. Hill, deputy
. coroner, a verdict of " Milled by lightning" was re-
turued.