The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-27 00:00:00

GOVERNMENT G UARANTEBS.

The recent remarks of the Chancellor of the Ex"
chequer at the Great Eastern banquet, on the sub
ject of Government guarantees to public undertak-
ings have awakened attention. Mr. Gladstone
pointed out that the unsatisfactory returns of rail-
way investments have tended to produce a novel
and, as he believes, mischievous tendency in the
public mind to abandon the principle of self-reliance
and to make an assault upon the national purse
whenever any fresh project is deemed desirable, and
as guardian of that purse, to say nothing of the
moral considerations involved, he claimed the sym-
pathy of his hearers for the task he has continually
to perform of resisting such importunities. To this
he is undoubtedly entitled, and he may also demand
the thanks of all persons of vigour and judgment
not only for the firmness of his course, but for
having alluded to the evil. There is one part of
the philosophy of the matter, however, which has
never yet been sufficiently recognised. The refusal of
the public to place confidence in the promises or
management of private directors is perfectly prover
and natural. It is simply a result of hard experA-
ence, and one at which—seeing that there is always
a hunger for good investments—they have arrived
with the greatest reluctance. We have for some
time been at that pass at which all public under-
takings of magnitude must be declined unless Go'
vernment security can be obtained. The lesson is
painful, but as wholesome as it is painful; and,
instead of putting an end to it by granting the re-
quired aid, it is the business of the Government to
let it work a cure. That cure will consist in the
whole herd of modern company-mongers being
thrown out of occupation, while individual capital-
ists endeavour to effect single-handed, or by means
of the untrammelled superintendence of some one
whom, from long personal knowledge, they can
thoroughly trust, such public improvements as may
be within their power. Nothing could be more un-
palatable to the parties whose trade is thus liable
to be spoiled ; and the cry for Government guaran-
tees was chiefly raised by them in order that they
might still lead the public, by getting from facile
Ministers something that should excite the conff.
dente which they could no longer win in any other
way. The clamour, in fact, was simply to keeP,
such things practically in their old channels ; an
the history of several recent companies—home and
foreign—shows the extent to which it has succeeded.
Let any further compliance be sternly refused;
let the public be told that if they want invest-
ments they must find men they can trust, or keep
their money idle, and the requisite individual
will be found, just as in all other exigencies
of life the right characters rise up when events
have reached the stage at which they are a neees"
sity. Those who have shown the greatest talent►.
combined with that capacity for faithful labour
which springs from the steady consciousness of
duty, will then sometimes come into the place of
those who are distinguished only by a grasping
self a fluent knack at all the platitudes of
public meetings, and an unlimited faculty of ma.'
ing promises for the future, and of justifying
disowning the past. This is the good to publie
morality that Mr. Gladstone, and such as thin
with him, may help to achieve. The change will
be slow, but it is worth the patience of years, WV
-
ever mortifying it may be meanwhile to conteia:
plate the great things that might be done, but that
must be deferred, for lack of co-operative faith, t°
another epoch. Yet, as all rules have exceptions,
there is a conclusion to be guarded against in thie
sweeping deductions to which we are thus led'
Although the principle of Government guarantFc,
is wholly unsound, and radically in contradiction
to the habits tliat have made England what she It
the nation must not use this plea in order to throb
upon individuals the risk of purely national under-
takings. There has for years been a reprehensi?,
tendency' in this direction on the part of lea(106
statesmen. Go to them on some question involving
simply the consideration whether the Government
w.
honestly pay a certain sum or undertake a cer-
tain liability for a purely national want, and thl
will meet .you with a threadbare lecture on t's,,
i
desirableness of individuals being induced to supply
it by private enterprise ; just as if the propriet%
of certain lands you might propose to drill r
should meet you with a pompous reproof fi(3)if
outraging the principles of political economl,iil,
asking him for a pecuniary contribution. In the
same spirit, whenever any totally imfirovia
financial outlay, which may have been uPT
fill to the people and ruinous to the subscribers,
celebrated by a demonstration, some members ,0a
the Government are always found to laud
schemers who have instigated the folly for t'
" patriotic" marvels they have achieved. The °...01.;
rupting consequence is that the community T:o
taught to regard as eminent benefactors those v/:,
have enabled them to gain a great advantage ,u.TO
the impoverishment of individuals. This desire of T
Government to get benefits at the cost of famillesir
requires to be controlled quite as much as the ell
site desire on the part of promoters before a health
position can be assumed. If the Government thi n
a speedy communication with India, either by tel
graph or railway, via Suez, the Euphrates, tilt
Cape, or any other route, on the ground that a
might add to the security of our empire or saps
million or two per annum of political expenditw;e
or if they deem an instantaneous corresponds be
with the United States or any other country t°
of sufficient political importance, apart from sce
commercial considerations, with which they ba
nothing whatever to do, to warrant a certain peen'
niary risk on the part of the two nations, it is their
business to say so, and fairly to volunteer the Pae.;‘..
mein. van rue oiner-nana, tney reel called toe
press any opinion as to the propriety of individuaaa
being drawn into such hazards they should, ieste
of trying to assist delusions, condemn by every P os.
sible opportunity all premature steps, and P.rett.,ot
the mercantile doctrine that the true patriot is
one who throws great enterprises back by eget?,
cally outstriding the demand of the hour and brut
ing them into financial disrepute, but who COl.hi.
tinually makes a steady onward move wheuel.....e
confidence has been justified by previous success'
Times.