The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-29 00:00:00

WAR AND THE MOIVEIr MARKET.

(From the Times.)
Let our readers note a fact which it may be
interesting to remember, and almost incredible to
tell twenty years hence, that this great European
war is commenced by three destitute, necessitous,
and almost bankrupt Powers. The last word is
scarcely too hard to apply to Governments which
are asking for the loan of immense sums, happily
in vain. Russia, whose Four-and-a-Half per Cent.
Stock stands at 87, has lately been inviting the
British capitalists to lend hor twelve millions ;
France, whose Three per Cent. Rentes have fallen to-
day to 62f. 65c., announces a loan of twenty millions,
when a loan of much less amount had been raised
with difficulty ; and Austria's Five per Cents.
stand at 49. These figures represent the financial
condition to which England might be reduced
after carrying on with increasing energy a war
in the Crimea and another in India for ten years,
without stinting herself of anyootrhreorwliunngu,rayn.d
can
these three Powers cannot keep the wolf out
without continual begging and
only discharge their old obligations by contracting
fresh ones, their bankruptcy is a question of
time. But, with a perfectly empty Exchequer and
a blasted credit, they set abort the costliest of all
human operations ; for, happily, nothing costs so
much as killing one's fellow-creatures. That this
should be done once would be a marvel, had not the
marvel been so often repeated as to be a marvel no
more. As most great battles have been fought by
armies in a state of physical exhaustion, so most
great wars have been commenced with empty trea-
suries. It is a truth with which statesmen are only
too familiar. When Prince Felix Schwartzenberg
was appealed to by a deputation of merchants to
consider the hopeless state of Austrian credit, he
observed that till a country was bankrupt it never
knew the extent of its resources. Money, he was
aware, was a good thing, but it was sometimes
quite as well to have no money at all, though it was
not to be denied that the measures necessary under
those circumstances might be burdensome to the
people. It may, then, be rash to assume that these
three Powers now rushing into the fray will find
any insurmountable difficulty in carrying on the
war. Austria may as well feed her army upon
Piedmont as upon Lombardy, and France
has always found it convenient to quarter her
soldiers on her neighbours. Then, even our
own commercial experience may have taught us
that insolvency often takes refuge in extended
operations. It is natural to escape lesser liabilities
by undertaking .greater; and the sequel seems to
justify the wisdom of the process, for a discerning
public evidently thinks a great bankruptcy less
discreditable than a small one. To fail for a thou-
sand pound is ridiculous ; for fifty thousand tragic
and magnificent. We do not venture to prophecy
the value of French, Russian, or Austrian stock
after a seven years' war; but war will always be
possible so long as the majority of mankind look to
the interest rather than the security of a loan, and
are always able to flatter themselves that the worst
is over, and that this is positively the very last
addition to the debt.

Yet, let it be understood what sort of a financial
stage we are entering upon. If the war does go on,
then we venture to predict that British capitalists
will be able to purchase French, Russian, and Aus-
trian stock much cheaper five years hence. The 7
had better, therefore, use their money for domestic
purposes at present, and invest in the Continental
funds, if they are so minded, at the end of those five
years. Almost any investment is better than lend-
ing to a State which is plunging into an endless
war. It wants everything. It wants men ;it
wants all the materials of war; it wants credit for
daily transactions ; and for all these purposes it
must borrow more still. Already all kinds of corn
are rising rapidly ; coal of every sort is caught up
for conveyance to this or that place; and freight is
again in request. So, here we have that golden
age of high prices which the agriculturists and
some merchants remember with delight, but which
a statesman cannot contemplate without the utmost
concern. War is a disease which turns into one
huge sore all the aliments which should supply
strength to the body, and which is more exigent
of supplies than the most robust and industrious
state of health. The belligerents will want
everything, and they would be delighted to
obtain from us the means of our own destruction
or humiliation. Perhaps we cannot refuse them
materials. It will rest with individuals to lend
their money as they please ; but nobody will pity
those who are ruined by too eagerly grasping
this opportunity of a private gain at the cost of
their country. To those who wish to think a
little before they lend foreigners the means of
indefinite mischief, it may be as well to suggest
that war is daily
.becoming more expensive than
ever. It is becoming a question of money. It will
be fought as much in the dockyard and the labora-
tory as on sea or land.
Our city intelligence supplies some curious hints
as to the way in which a confiding country may
be made to fabricate instruments against itself.
There are now building in the Thames 27 gunboats
of very light draught, besides vessels of larger size,
for the Spanish Government. What can that Go-
vernment want with apparatus for landing arma-
ments and pushing up creeks and harbours ? What
is the proposed scene for these interesting opera-
tions ? By a singular coincidence Spain also wants
a complete set of our Admiralty Charts. She is not
usually adventurous. She has not mach to gain in
our waters, or in any waters frequented by our
shipping. But there still survives a tradition that
Spain can throw herself into the service of France,
and has not always been able to resist the attrac-
tions of that service. Indeed, she is hardly a free
agent in the matter. France holds, as a sort of
State secret, that Spain must always be either her
property or her accomplice, and that whatever be-
longs to Spain is at the command of France. Thus,
we see all around the mysterious evidences of a
grand preparation, for what we know not. For
objects so great as those she may have in view
France can afford to wait, to hesitate, and even to
withdraw. That, we are told, is the purport of the
last intelligence from Paris. But is not delay itself
worth something to France at this moment, when
Austria is two or three days ahead of her, and when
the season is full early for the Alpine passes P Aus-
tria had made an effort, iot to say a sacrifice of
appearances, to strike the first blow. If France
now at last listens to reasons, and pretends to ne-
gotiate, how shall we know that it is not to put
herself on a strategical equality with Austria ? All
must be distrust where there has been so much
hypocrisy ; and we feel that what we have to look
to is the actual movements of the French armies,
not the professions of the French Government. So
long as half a dozen corps d'arniee are converging
upon Piedmont it matters little what is said at
Paris ; for Napoleon 111. himself could hardly pre-
vent a collision between a French and Austrian
army if they found themselves face to face.

(From the .Daily News.)
We fear it will be poor consolation to the mer-
chants who have been broken and the families who
have been beggared by the panic which has raged
since Wednesday morning to learn that they have
been the victims of a stupendous imposture, and
that after all there was no reason why they should
be ruined. If terrifying mis-statements are to sup-
ply the place of reason in the formation of public
opinion, and men's estates are to be knocked down
by the thousand, merely to prove that one despot
is cleaner handed than another, we can only are-