The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-02 00:00:00

spirit of the Public Journals.

(Front the Times of this day.)

The omission of the United *States from the Queen's
Speech provokes the criticism of Ldrd. Derby, and may
possibly be a source of some additional bitterness on the
other side of the Atlantic ; but probably the United States
were well left out, for there is nothing that we could eay
about them just now that is likely to please them. For
oar own eake, as well as hers, we could most sincerely
wish that the machine of government in the great Republic.
worked a little more smoothly, and was not so apt to get
slogged in some places and stimulated' to violent and de-
structive. action in others. *Differences have arisen, as
they will arise occasionally between the best friends,' be-
tween us and the American Republic. War, always
odious and destrUctive, would be against such an enemy a
thousand times more bevelling than against any other. To
sweep her commerce from the seas, to: lestrey her navy,. to
ravage her seaboard, wsnld be feats: neither difficult nor
dangerous to a Power with such forces as Great gritein
now possesses, but little would be the honour and heavy
the loss of this suicidal triumph. We are unwilling to
fight, not because we fear our enemies, for never were con-
ditiOns of combat more unequal than those would
be between Greats Britain and the United States at
this moment, . but . because we cannot bring our-
selves to regard them as enemies at all. When Liman
spoke of a more than civil war, he must surely have
alluded to such a war as would be waged between
Great Britain and North America. The parent devastat-
ing the fair inheritance of the child, kindred hands em-
ployed in rooting out that prosperity the increase of which
has overflowed in a tide of riches into this island, are sub-
jects too painful for contemplation, and from which the
mind of every Englishman turns aside with unconquerable
disgust. Let us have war, if need be, with any other na-
tion, but not witk those colonies—the proudest historic
monument we possess, the most enduring memorial of
Anglo-Saxon greatness.
Yet what can we do, and how avert that which this ex-
traordinary nation, or those who hove at least the 'teal
right to Rua in its name; seem 'to be determined to bring
upon tier -Wore tliq wlabla *Weep. of tO-irleolo.tpehnblie
mind of America-bent ttp6ei the 4nestioii,'vre 15¢b'+
for a setisfaation and reconciliation ; but what is to be
done with a nation which is drifting heedlessly into war
with a people possessing a splendid army and the finest
navy in the world, while it possesses, in truth, neither the
one nor the other? A few thousand soldiers scattered over
an immense continent, and vessels carrying in all about
500 guns, are literally all the resources with which the
United States confront the enormous fleet and well-trained
armies of England, about to be sot at liberty by the impend-
ing peace with Russia. If *e were the aggressors—if, taking
advantage of the enormous disparity of our forces, we
had been mean and base enough to force a quarrel on
an unoffending neighbour, no words would have been suf-
ficiently vigorous to reprobate our conduct; but what is
to be said when a Power utterly helpless in military and
naval resources insists on fixing us with a quarrel which
we have as little power to avoid as it has adequately to
carry out ?
We find, indeed, in America an Executive Government,
which is ready enough to exchange defiance with us, but
that Government is on the very eve of dissolution, and is
well known to be using a quarrel with Great Britain as a
means of courting popularity for the coming elections.
We have a difference with it with regard to certain places
in Central America and the interprotatiou of treaties re-
lating to them. Whether we are right or wrong in one
view of the case we will slot stop to inquire ; at any rate,
we have adopted the most conciliatory step in our power,
for we have offered to leave the quarrel to the arbitration
of any impartial State, and to abide by whatever award
may be given. America rejects this offer, and continues
the argument, which a succession of letters and memorials
has worn completely threadbare. Meanwhile, a baud of
pirates, issuing from her own shores, seize upon a por-
tion of the disputed territory, and, so far from repres-
sing their outrages, we find the naval forces of the
United States engaged in assisting them against the
authorities of the State which they have invaded.
Our offers of amicable reference aro refused, and armed
violence, seconded by the forces of the State, is let loose to
seize by force that which we in vain beg them to refer to
friendly arbitration.
If we turn to another cause of quarrel--the eulistmmt
in Canada of American citizens for the English service i
the Crimea, we find a quarrel intemperately urged and
vehemently pressed by the American Government, not-
withstanding our disclaimer of any intention to violate
their municipal laws, and our offer of the amplest satisfac-
tion to the offended dignity of the States. Amends more
than enough to satisfy the offended pride and wounded
sensibility of any private gentleman have been offered to the
American Cabinet, but offered in vain. They cannot be
content with satisfaction unless it be attended with
humiliation, and require that wo should withdraw our de-
servedly popular Minister from Washington as an expia-
tion to the injured dignity of the Union. We trust that
this rash intention is not finally determined oa, or, after
so flagrant and unprovoked rin insult, it may be long in-
deed before Washington will beheld another representa-
tive of the Cabinet of St. James's.
But let us appeal from the Executive Government to the
people, and see whether the representatives of the commu-
nity a ill support the Government in forcing upon us, in
spite of offers of satisfaction and appeals to arbitration, a
quarrel to us most unwelcome and unnatural, and to them
assuredly most disastrous and calamitous. Alas ! the re-
presentatives of the people can give us no answer. They
have eyes and sea not, earshave they and hear not. They
have met together now for seven weeks, but they have con-
cerned themselves with nothing relating to the public ex-
cept fruitless attempts to elect a Speaker. The American
press, to its honour, raises its voice against this state of
things, but raises its voice in vain. in the anarchy and
suspension of all the functions of government into which
the country has fallen the Executive seems emancipated
from all control, and disposed to use•its power to drive
things to a point at which, though the reason of tho coun-
try may condemn, its patriotism will be bound to support
them. The situation is becoming every day more critical,
and we must await the result with a firmness inspired by
a confidence in our own strength, and the knowledge that
we have done and will yet do all that a pacific and hon-
ourable nation can do to avert the catastrophe which
seems impending, not over us, but the nation that has
surrendered the care of its honour and peace into such
hands at so anxious a moment.

THE LAW OF PARTNERSHIP AND JOINT-STOCK

COMPANIES.
(From the Times of this day.)
One must dive rather low into human motives to get at
the foundation of the commercial prejudices described last
night by the Vice-President of the Board of Trade. The
law of partnership in this country has hitherto been,
in the words of the old proverb, " In for an inch, in for
an ell." It was assumed as a matter of course that most

people, on going into any business or commercia
undertaking, would be glad enough to go just so fur and ra
further. Of course, if a man could put himself in the way
of indefinite gain by a moderate stake, Si) inuch the
better ; but the very wish to do so was thought only the
dictate of a corrupt nature. Generosity, fairness, and
honour required that a man should risk in proportion to
his chance of profit. But, what was more important, the
man who did risk his ali thought it very hard if others
did not do as much. There is no principle that admits ut
such gross perversion as that of fairness. At school it 's
not fair in a boy to do twenty verses when the rest of the'
class have agreed to the average of a dozen ; nor is at all
fair to exhibit a more than average propriety of language
and demeanour. In trade it has hitherto not been fair
that people should assist one another to carry on a business
unless they run the same risks as everybody else, or even
greater risks, in consideration of their greater advantage.
When a man conducts his business alone lie has only his
own follies to answer for ; but when there is ii dozen part-
ners he may be at the mercy of any one of them. That
might have suggested that a large partnership was so far a
' condition of greater risk, and that each partner might
therefore reasonably be excused from risking his all on the
integrity and wisdom of a dozen partners, But no; the
jealousy of prirate partnerships and single traders has al-
ways insisted that everybody who can be made out a tradei
shall be liable to the sarne pound of flesh as the rest "Drink
deep, or taste not," has beau the cry, inspired, as it
was thought, by eternal ,justice. Could ,n;• shift lar ima-
gined by which a man might alleviate hii risk, he way,
thought to steal a march on his follows, like the pilgrim
who boiled the peas his penance required Mar to put in
his beets, or the man who occasionally prefers a ;_:ap in tbe
fence to a five-barre 1 gate. Everybody may have heard
partners, sleeping partners, unknown partners, poor old
ladies, young gentlemen, and others of a condition to de-
serve pity, described as shifty teeause they wished to risk
only their 10,0001. or so expressly advanced. Of course,
whenever the opportunity occurs, they are eagerly seized
and despoiled by creditors to the last farthing, not only as
lawful prey, but as the victims at the shrine of iu:mutable
justice. The old lady who one morning finds herself not
only minus the 20,C00/. left under her father's will in his
business, but a penniless outcast, and the young gentleman
who was a Cambridge wrangler one week, and a bankrupt
and a beggar the next, without in the least knowing why
or wherefore, only adorned the shrine at which they were
immolated. Trade is a craft of that sort that a man must
be made free of it, and the process of adoption, it would
seem, must be painful and tlegradieg. It must take as
much of a man's liberty and substance as can be extracted
from him. All this was thought fair. Evil was called
good, and good evil. It was ivrong to wish, as most people
privately did, to trade with a limited risk, and right to make
everybody put his foot into a commercial enterprise as
deeply as possible. So far, indeed, has this feeling
al eon
carried, that not only angry creditors, but high -
thorities, have disputed the propriety of allowing marriage
settlements, under any circumstances, to stand against
bankruptcy. That they should be allowed to do so is an
extraordinory witness of nature against the general rigour
of the law. It appears that in this case we do allow a
sleeping partner with limited liability—limited, that is, to
the amount reserved ; and, whatever may be the opinion
of a few crotchety lawyers, no person of common humanity
would object to the practice.
Tho object of the proposed measures is simply to reassert
the law of liberty with no more than the usual securities
against fraud. In the nature of things there is no reason
why half-a-dozeu persons should not subscribe their thou-
sand pounds each to carry on a trade, or a hundred per-
-1 pound a-piece ; or any number of persona each
E:;:rhcheir as they can ; and the law, which last session was
timidly amended, will now leave people at liberty to do
this. Certainly it was time for it when it is considered
that within the present generation three hundred mil.
lions have been invested, and a large proportion of
it thrown away, in one particular farm of commer-
cial enterprise with limited liability the censtrac-
tion of railways. Indeed, the management of
these companies and the utter incompetency of the
shareholders generally to protect their own inte-
rests betray the very.weakness in our commercial habits
which it is now proposed to amend. We boast in England
of our self-government, our powers of combination, and
our representative system. It is true that as politicians
we may lay claim to these things. But iu trade our boast
has hitherto been individual enterprise rather than asso-
ciation and self-government. Our commercial authorities
seem to take for granted that it is quite impossible for any
number of men to conduct a business together, to watch
over the proceedings of their officers, and secure their
honesty. Thus it was lately urged by a correspondent, in
, the fiery face of what takes place erery day in the Urated