The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-25 00:00:00

SPANISH BONDS.

The readers of this Journal will recollect something
about a decree issued five or silt months since by
the Spanish Government, declaratory of its intention
to pay the bondholders a dividend of three per cent.
per annum on the overdue interest of the Active debt,
from the Ist of July next ; as a provision for which
the sum of 20,0001. was to be appropriated monthly of
the national revenue. They will recollect also, it is to
be hoped, the efforts made at the same time by one of
our Government papers to give importance to that de-
cree by the insertion,. from day to day, of statistical
tables illustrative of the resources of Spain, her liabili-
ties, &c. They will, perhaps, in justice to ourselves,
further recollect the care we took to disabuse the
public mind upon the subject, by proving, beyond
all doubt, that the decree—the " solemn decree '—of
Gamboa and the statistics of the Morning Chronicle
were not entitled to the smallest credit ; that both the
one thing and the other was, in fact, a contemptible de-
lusion—the merest moonshine. We stated distinctly
that the three per cent. per annum would not, be forth-
coming, and our reasons for expressing ourselves with
the confidence we ventured to do were numerous. We
have for years past been vigilant observers of the finan-
cial exploits of the Spanish Government, and the result
of our experience is this : we have come to the irre-
sistible conclusion that there is no deception, no trick,
no manoeuvre, be it ever so heartless, to which, organised
as it has been, it would not willingly have recourse, in
order to get at the pockets of foreigners, those of the peo-
ple of this country more particularly, to whom many of
its members are indebted for the asylum afforded them
during the years of proscription to which they were sub-
ject from political and other causes. We took our stand,
however, principally upon one practical point. We
well knew that if the Spanish Government really in-
tended to return to the path of rectitude from which it
has so long and grievously departed, a symptom of that
change would be first made apparent in the removal of
the foul blot cast upon its credit by the infamous Trea-
sury bond affair of 1836. While the Exchequer paper of
Spain, guaranteed by the express decrees of the Queen-
Regent, the Cortes, the Finance Minister of the day, and
the Ambassador in London, which was, moreover, intro-
duced to the British public under the auspices of
a gentleman like Mr. Isaac Lyon Goldsmid—while
this sacred engagement remained unfulfilled and un-
attended to, we knew to a certainty that Gamboa's
three per cent. proposition would never be faithfully
acted upon or adhered to. Had a rig been produced
in the London and Paris markets and more paper
been got into circulation, the grand object; aimed at,
one dividend might have been paid to secure ulterior
advantages ; but the scheme broke down the moment it
was concocted, and the puppet of Mendizabal, its author,
was driven out of office in consequence. We are now on
the eve of the day when payment should take place in
virtue of the solemn pledge published all over Europe ;
but where is the money for the purpose? Wlfy does not the
Spanish Commission—why does not the agents, Messrs.
Ricardo and Co., advertise it in the Journals ? It really
behoves the Legislature and the Government to take
measures for putting an immediate stop to these decep-
tions. That the onus of such a duty should be thrown
almost exclusively upon ourselves, and with the Minis-
terial Journalists acting-against us, too, is unreasonable ;
vet such is the case. Government and Parliament think
It sufficient that the public should be left wholly to the
protection of the press.
To pay the interest of the Treasury bonds it scarcely
requires 10,0001. per annum, and surely, if it were in-
tended to pay anything at all, the,SpLiish Government
would think it politic to begin with the remittance of
this bagatelle, seeing that the effect would be that of
redeeming the honour of its Qttean,the Cortes, the Prime
Minister, and the Ambastador in London. But the Spa-
nish Governmoett-Will do nothing of the kind without
coercion, physical or moral. The sum wanted to pay
!'he interest on the Treasury bonds has, to our certain
knowledge, been tendered by a capitalist here, under
mutually proper guarantees, and at the moderate rate
of five per cent. interest. It has been tendered, but
not accepted ; and why ? Because no bonus would
accrue to the Spanish Treasury—no tommissions
and pickings would be secured to individuals
out of such an operation. Had it; been in the
power of Gamboa to pay three per cent; per annum
regularly on twelve or fourteen millions of coupons, as his
trumpery decree gave out, it was in his power to pay five
per cent. on the quarter of a million of Treasury bills,
'without assistance from anybody. We exposed the
shuffle at once, and exposed it effectually. The Spanish
Active Stock has now five-and-a-half years' interest due
upon it, and its price in the London market is to-day 22,
or 78 per cent. discount.
There is no longer the excuse of Don- Carlos and the
civil war to plead in justification of a postponement of the
payment by Spain of the just claims on her Treasury, as
was the case two or three years +back. The country is
now in the enjoyment of general repose, yet the foreign
creditor is•farther off from gefting his due than ever.
A most respectable party in the country addresses us
on this matter as follows :

"Of what value," he says, " are the bales of Active,
Deferred, and Passives, to contain which the warehouses
of Thames-street are scarcely sufficient, if our Treasury
bonds are not now at length to be paid ! ! Was
d'Aguilar, the Ambassador, authorised or not to issue
them as he did, and, more, to advertise the payment'of
them ? Why does not Mr. Golclsmid, for his own sake,
as well as for our satisfaction, publish every letter, with
the whole of the instructions he received concerning the
issue ? He ought unquestionably to do so. It is too
bad that nearly five years should have elapsed and not a
fractional payment of interest be made on those securities
which they (the bonds themselves) declare most solemnly,
and in three different languages, to be payable, one-half
in six, the other in twelve months, and which an Am-
bassador announced positively for payment, both prin-
cipal and interest, on June 1, 1837."
The Treasury bonds, when issued by Mr. Goldsmid,
sold freely at 67 per cent. With 25/. in interest due
upon them, they are now quoted at 24. They will not
fetch the value of the interest alone ; and the least the
Chairman can do at the next meeting of the sufferers
will be to communicate the hint here thrown out by our
distressed Correspondent. Let every letter and every irk-
struction out of which this cruel sacrifice of English ca-
pital has arisen be forthwith made public, and let, by all
means, another memorial be drawn up, embodying the
main facts of the case, and despatched through General
Alava and our Foreign Minister to Senor Surra and Rull.
The Chronicle will perhaps strain a point, and declare
that in this case there is nothing to complain of.—Post.