The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-26 00:00:00

which would erase only the blots upon our institutions,
and leave their essence undisturbed ? -When it is said
that only one difference can be acknowledged between
Englishmen at the present time—namely, that be-
tween Reforniers and Anti-Reformers—we must re-
peat that a far more important and prominent diffe-
rence is to be found—viz., between Reformers who
embrace the intelligence and property of the nation,
and revolutionists who present only a portion of its
physical strength, and the whole of its dregs and
deleterious off-scourings and deposits. Let us,
therefore, put it plainly to the Whig and other Li-
beral but constitutional politicians of the United King-
dom, whether they are ready to confess and act upon
this denial of all difference but between Reformers and
ultra-Tories ? Is there not a much closer and more
real assimilation between the moderate Conservatives
and rational Reformers, than between the latter and
the Destructive mob ? Of course, it is for the obvious
interest of the Destructives to hoax the sound Liberals
into a belief that they are fit confederates for each
other. Of course it is the business of those who would
overturn the State to reinforce themselves, if possible,
by one of the parties which would preserve it, but
which, to preserve it, are conscious that they must re-
form it. Only see what the Whigs are likely to gain
by their present alliance with the extreme Radicals.
They fancy they can make use of the Radicals as an
instrument of their own restoration to place. But what
a price will such a temporary union cost them ? Can
the party of the Whig Ministers be wild enough to
conceive that they will have the help of this desperado
faction towards unseating the Conservatives for nothing,
without sacrifices of principle which must disgrace
and destroy them, without absolute conditions to be per-
formed on regaining office, the fulfilment of which
must irretrievably undermine the foundations of our
whole system of political society ? We are astonished
that the Whig statesmen do not seem alive to these
perils. It is incredible that they should not see the
true nature, and the manifold advantages both to them-
selves and to the country, of the alliance which they
ought to seek, and of the only fusion which would
really serve them, either as holding property and sta-
tion in the country, or as candidates for the reins of
Government, on the only terms on which honest Eng-
lish gentlemen would ever consent to hold them. We
refer to certain expressions used at a meeting of the
ward of Aldersgate, reported in the Times yesterday,
where one of the orators of the movement faction
thought fit to remind his Sovereign of the " time of
Charles 1.," to which, said the orator, " the present
times are approaching !" This is pretty well as a
sample of the " sort of people," as Mr. Ward re-
marked, into whose arms the Whig noblemen and gen-
tlemen of England are now invited to throw them-
selves, under the auspices of that precious maxim, that
no difference ought to be acknowledged but between
the friends and enemies of Rfform.—Times.
From the great unceasing pressure of matter of more
immediate political interest, we are now only able to
resume the subject of Spanish loans, suggested by the
pamphlet to which we alluded in a former article, as
published by Effingham Wilson. Although several
days have since elapsed our readers will, probably, be
able to preserve the connection between what follows
and what we have before published :—ln order, so far
as we are able, to mete out an equal measure of justice
to all parties, it is right to notice here, that on reference
to documents, not at the moment of our last writing
before us, we find that the contractors of the first
Spanish loan, whose iniquitous mysteries have been
unveiled, were no other than the well-known Pari-
sian capitalists, Lafitte and Co. Of the third
loan, about which we shall treat presently, the
house of Arduoin, Hubard, an Co., were the under-
takers—a house, we may remark, not known pre-
previously in the character of capitalists, whatever it
might have been as bankers a la mode de Paris.
For be it understood by our readers, that the class of
bankers in Loudon and Paris are two castes, as distinct
and as superior the one to the other, as a Brahmin to
a Paria in the East. Every man is, and may call
himself a banker in Paris, upon whom a bill of ex-
change shall be drawn ; and a ludicrous examplifica-
tion of this came to our knowledge some time :ago,
which by way of illustration seems worth repeating.
An Englishman in Paris replied to an advertisement
in the Petites Agiches, offering an appartement meu-
ble, on very moderate terms ; the proprietor of which,
on their meeting, represented that he was in very
pressing need, and would, therefore, take 700 francs
(281.) for what little miserable furniture he had ; he
was setting out for Bprdeaux, and must conclude on
the instant, as he could not make the voyage for want
of the money. Our countryman casually observed
that he presumed he was a wine-merchant (from the
city he was about to visit), to which the Frenchman
answered, with customary vivacity—" Non, iTlonsieur,
je suis un banquier."—" No, Sir, I am a banker."
In relating the anecdote, we have no desire to
class the house alluded to (and which, we un-
derstand, failed some two or three years ago) with
this grade of Parisian bankers. Arduoin, Hubard & Co.
were, we believe, respectable as Paris bankers and mer-
chants, but without any pretensions to loan millions,
or even perhaps tens of thousands, on their own ac-
count to states or individuals. Indeed, with the ex-
ception of Delessert, Perier, Aguado, Rothschild, and
some half-dozen other firms, there is nothing in Paris
to answer to our caste of London capitalists and
bankers. The two former concerns are more known
for wealth acquired, and extent of business as manu-
facturers, sugar-refiners, or other enterprises, than as
bankers, in *our acceptation of the word, in that re-
sembling much of our provincial banking practice in
the smaller towns. The " third Spanish Loan, or
that of Conversion" as it was called, was con-
cluded with this house of Arduion, Hubard, and Co.,
November 22, 1821. It embraced two objects; the
first, to supply the Government with 140 millions of
reales vellon, of which it was in urgent need ; the second,
to convert the two former loans, already described,
and the loans contracted .in Holland, in the
reign of Charles the Fourth, into new Stocks—a
Juggling piece of hocus-pocus for pocketing some
millions of commission agency, in return for exchang-
ing certain pieces of paper, signed by Senores Tonto,
Picaro, and Astuto, against others countersigned by
the Senores Ladron, -Hermanos, Y Compa, all of
Madrid. The first part of the transaction was thus
accomplished :-
1. A loan of 280 millions of reales was concluded,
at the rate of 50 per cent.
2. It was payable in eight monthly instalments.
3. A deduction of four per cent. for commission, &c.
4. The interest to commence from November 1, al-
though the loan was not concluded until the 22d ; the
first instalment was not payable for one month after-
wards, and the Sciip could not be brought into the
money markets of London, Paris, and Amsterdam,
before the same period. The amounts actually re-
ceived by Spain, from Arduoin, Hubard, and Co., are
thus enumerated :

In bills upon Spain ..............
In Spanish money ... ....... ..
In gold and silver bars ......

Realles Talon.
74,280,933
1,538,124
31,633,314

107,472,428

The commission absorbed
per cent., as per contract, on
Whereas, at four
ought to have amounted on-
il!.
5,600,000
That is, instead of four, it was charged at 24
11y40t01:"...., ..................................
per cent.
And, finally, the state was burdened with a
capital debt of 280,000,000
Whilst it received no more than 107,472,428
That is, rather more than 38 per cent.
This is wholesale work ; but the government would
hardly hay? escaped so well but for the after game of
the conversion, or hocus-pocus, which had yet to be
played. By the terms of the contract of Conversion,
the Spanish. Government bound itself " not to receive,
under any form whatever, from any but the contractors
to the present bargain, for the term of eighteen months
from the date,all and each of the undermentioned
W!!tiFil ini_9f9.9y9.9,,3c9,lqwprs T'l9tYo ty
the flgt4 qf i:emittiug exclusively," y 4.
" Lad' bond,of the loan 1820 (Lafittes) at the price
11-- w,rl each premium ticket at
of 1,400 reales velion ;
300 reales," being the par of issue or contract. 4. tach
bond of the loan 1821, at 2,100 reales," which we
presume also to have been the rate of issim, ft liach
Dutch bond of the old loans of 1,000 florins at
5,600 reales," which may be taken also at the par
of issue. " Each florin of arrears of interest on

these last, to the Ist of January, 1821, at 42 reales,"
being about 55 per cent. on the same ; and, " each florin
of current interest, that is, of such as shall accrue after
January 1, to the period of delivery of the bonds, at
eight reales ;" • being the par, we think, of exchange.
The interest due at the period of remitting the bonds
of the loans of 1820, 1821, at par ; that is, to sum
up all in a few comprehensive words, they had the pri-
vilege of delivering to the Govrnment for 18 months
all the bonds of the old loans at 7O per 100.
In exchange for which the government assigned
to them a quantity of indeterminate stock at
Difference —2o
But this was not the whole profit of this honest
manceuvre-40 per cent. profit did not suffice for the
exchange of nominal capitals, in the operation of
which not one single dollar of real capital was requi-
site. The State was saddled moreover with a cross
fire of two concurrent payments of annual interest
upon the same total of debt for the 18 months, making
12 per cent. against her, instead of five only—as
thus :—The interest of the new stock to be exchanged
against the old, commenced from the Ist of November,
at whatever subsequent epoch it might be forced into
the market or exchanged. The interest of the old
stocks was chargeable against the State in the like
manner, until delivered in—say until the conclusion of
the eighteen months. The besotted Government of
Spain remitted to the contractors besides, 700,000
dollars of stock, bearing interest, " by way," says our
author, " of anticipation," or guarantee, (guarantee! ! !)
as we presume, such stock to be restored un-
touched at the " end of the transaction." In
the month of May of the following year the Cortes
began to open its eyes, long after the rest of the world
had been wide awake, through some exposures of the
press, upon information which had imperfectly trans-
pired. A commission of inquiry was appointed, and it
was resolved to impeach Angel Vallejo, the finance
minister, who had managed this notable exhibition of
sleight of hand. The commission, of which the Conde
Toren° (the actual Minister of Finance) was, if we
mistake not, reporter, for our author is extremely cos-
tive touching some names, made its report on the 17th
of May, from which we have no room for lengthened
extracts. The eloquent orator exclaims, "It is de-
signed to make her (Spain) drain the bitter cup of
sacrifice to the dregs. In the eighteen months which
this operation may occupy, of double payment of in-
terest, it will occasion to Spain a loss, in specie, of
61,096,950 reales venom' And, further on, "At
the end of 18 months from the signing of the treaty,
and without reckoning the disbursements occasioned
by the former loans, the 140,000,000 reales specified
in Article 1. (of which it will be seen 107,000,000
were received), are in reality reduced to the wretched
sum in specie y. 47,785,251 reales ; for which incon-
siderable sum Spain binds herself to the payment of
2,082,235,609 reales,"—two thousand and eighty-two
millions !! ! Let us hasten to the summing up of
this magnificient budget of spoliation. The Cortes
entered into a parley with the contractors, awl after the
passage of divers state papers between the high con-
tracting parties, succeeded in obtaining from French
liberality an abatement of grievances to the extent of
100,736,000 reales of " real value" or upwards of
one million sterling of our money. It is pleasing to
be able to record that the contractors were not entirely
ruined by this display of unexampled generosity, nor
even very materially damaged. The actual balance
even yet exhibits hundreds of millions to the credit of
their moderation. According to our author :
Ai-chola, Hubard, and Co., received 37,742,455 Reales.
reales of rentes, representing in nominal capital 754,849,100
For which they remitted to the Spanish Treasury

in payment :-
108,003 Bonds of the first loan 210,000,000
77,360 Premium tickets 23,208,000
24,418 Bonds of the second loan 76,254,000
15,436 Bonds of the Dutch loans 123,488,000
_ _ _ _

295,846 Dividends of Dutch loans 136,893,434

575,849,434

Difference of loss to the Government, and profit
to the contractors, in this exchange of stocks,
in round numbers 179,000,000
Add to this the double allocation of interest in
actual money
Losses in interest upon the stock issued payable
yearly

16,959,375

In round numbers . 245,000,000
Or about two millions and fifty thousand pounds sterl-
ing profit to contractors and loss to the state. It must
be borne in mind that we cannot pretend, in the haste
of writing, and when we do not quote, to anything be-
yond approximate calculations. The misfortunes of
the improvident Government did not, moreover, ter-
minate here.

The annual interest of the st&ck which it issued Reales.
amounted to 37,742,455
The interests of the amount, if received in pay-
ment to..

Loss annually resulting to the Government 16,956,425
All this, besides other disadvantageous conditions
by which it was bound in the loan, not necessary to
particularize here. But the gains of the Contractors
were far from being limited to the moderate sum of two
millions sterling here estimated. The bonds of the
old loans, which, by their covenant, they were allowed
to deliver in at par, were, we believe, at the time at
enormous discounts ; whilst the Dutch Loans, on
which no interest appears to have been paid for years,
must have been, as well as the coupons of interest
overdue and falling due, absolutely without price or
value in the money market, and were, perhaps, pur-
chased at one-fourth, or less than one-half their
transferable value. By the Pamphleteer, these
items are not taken into account, and so far he
evinces moderation; although it is, in reality, no more
than throwing a veil over the more splendid gains of a
species of speculation in which Aguado, in whose in-
terest lie clearly waites, was one of the greatest adepts
of the time. It would not, probably, approach the
reality, to assume the benefit of this class of operations
in the case before us, at the same amount as that of
the direct exchange—which would, adding thereto the
commission of 34 millions upon the advance of 140,
or rather 107, millions, according to the first article of
the loan, make a grand total of four and a half mil-
lions sterling upon one transaction of eighteen months
alone. We know the house of Ardouin, Hubard,
and Co. did not pocket the one-half, or perhaps more
than the fourth, of. this almost inconceivable mass of
values to themselves—they had neither credit nor erApl_
tal to have excited money markets to the fitting point
of delusion and madness. No, there were other real
and great capitalists implicated in this wonderful con-
federacy and conspiracy of the moneyed interest against
against the Spanish Government and the English
people. If such be the fruits of accumulation of
capital, better were it, we say, for public morals and
public happiness, that gold, and silver, and paper
be annihilated as representative signs of value, and
that mankind return at once to the ancient mode
of simple barter. In face of these pyramids of
riches built up in one revolution of the solar system,
let no one henceforth treat as fables the glories of the
thousand and one nights, the kingdom of Golconda
blazing with precious stones from end to end, or the
magic of Aladdin's wonderful lamp. These are but
the creations of fairy elves, whilst foreign loans are the
Herculean labours of Titans themselves. Our author
states, that the house of Ardsioin and Co. were after all
indebted to the Spanish Cortes, at the time of its
flight to Cadiz, and subsequent dissolution, a sum of
about 20,000,000 of reales on a balance of accounts,
most reluctantly, and after many delays, drawn out,
but which does not appear to have been liquidated
then, and has not been, apparently, to this moment.
He records, moreover, a transaction, for which we re-
fer to the pamphlet, so disgraceful that, if true, and he
quotes names, dates, documents, and details, the par,
ties ought for ever to hide their heads in ignominious
obscurity. Here, for the prqc.tit, we forbear : tlie sub-
ject has olre4dy transport©d Us bevor`2. the limits origi-
nally contemplated ; Surpassing wonders yet re-
m:Ain to tell, which tiid, fair to raise the fame of Effing-
ham Wilson, the oPITIted publisher of this pamphlet,
to ft Ilpigt4 tar beyond the towering dreams of Schelie-
rep* licrsPlf,—Morning Advertiser.

It appears not to be generally underrtood that all
persons are at liberty, by an act of the " no-relief" Adminis-
tration, to open any additional nnmber of windows without
further charge of duty, provided that the house itself be not
enlarg,o4l The Roam of dcu economy is of the greates t
importance. There need be no longer close unhealthy rooms,
dark closets, and damp passoges, and the Duke of Wellington
shall bo displaced in our chamber to give admission to the
glorious breath of Heaven.—Bury Post,