The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-17 00:00:00

The Late Commercial Crisis.

A writer in a contemporary says :
SiR,---I was much pleased on Tuesday last with a
letter I read in the Times, signed "Justitia." The
prominence given by the leading organ to this
epistle shows that the Times is not inclined to evade
the clear duty of great journalists to bring the
authors of the calamities which have overwhelmed
this land to the bar of public opinion. I agree with
you, sir, in what you have so ably stated, that if
the laws of England be so defective that these cul-
prits can escape their just punishment, it is more
than ever incumbent on the press, to see that they
do not go wholly free. " Justitia's" letter throws
generalities aside and cuts in straight to the core.
The press has gone to a certain length, but when
they stood on the threshold of the infamy, they
turned aside as if appalled at the task they had
undertaken. I hold with "Justitia " that this must
not be. The shortcomings of the nation were fear-
lessly and at all hazards exposed, in its war with
Russia, and I feel confident that our true course is to
adopt the same principle in dealing with the men who
have swindled the English public, and at whatever ex-
pense to our national character bring forth and show
in their true light the great criminals who have
ruined thousands of innocent and trusting families.
The two most prominent examples of the commer-
cial immorality which has caused all the ruin, are
undoubtedly Overend, Gurney, and Co., and the
London, Dover, and Chatham Railway. " Justitia"
has dealt with the former case, and we are promised
from his able pen the exposé of the criminals to
whom we owe the latter disaster. Yet, sir, these
are but the most prominent two. The names of
the other swindles are legion, and we must see that
the culprits of the lesser swindles do not escape by
directing national attention on the greater. It is in
the highest degree satisfactory that the Times is
beginning to throw its great weight into the scale,
and we predict that the storm which will probably
rage round the authors of the ruin will yet clear
society from the presence of the unscrupulous gang.
Is it to be said of the English people, that a child
is to be sentenced to three months imprisonment
with hard labour for stealing three-halfpence, while
those who have stolen millions are to drive in their car-
riages about this city and to retain their seats in
Parliament. What just laws are likely to be passed,
when the promoters of numberless villanies have
seats on the benches of the House of Commons?
These people gain their seats by bare-faced bribery,
using the money of which they have defrauded the
public to attain the position—then using that in-
fluential position as a means of extracting more, and
legislating so as to shelter themselVes. If Parlia-
ment wishes to escape the stigma which must always
attach to those associated with persons convicted of
gross frauds, it must clear the House of the un-
worthy members. When the iniquities of the Lon-
don Joint-Stock Discount Company were first ex-
posed there was a universal cry of indignation, and
its board of directors were expelled from the direc-
tion of respectable concerns. Since then the nation
has been stupified witil the horrors revealed, and a
general notion has settled over the country
that all men are, more or less, liars. This
the nation thinks in its haste, but if it boldly
grapples with the subject, and drags from among
the flock the tainted sheep, it will be found that the
flock is still sound, although those affected are
numerous. The best means of making a cure and
of restoring confidence is to cut out the cancer, no
matter at what cost. As the case now stands every-
thing is condemned, and the good suffer with the
bad. As the case will then stand, the good will be
restored and the bad expunged. I trust that the
press universally will work for such a result, and
that English commercial morality will recover from
the fearful blows it has sustained, and the authors
of the calamity meet the fate they so richly deserve.
—Your obedient servant,

A VICTIM.

EXTINCTION OF THE UNITED STATES
WAR DEBT.

If the American people have displayed a mar-
vellous power in war—they have shown since the
close of their gigantic contest a still more marvel-
lous power in bearing the burdens with which war
saddles nations. The ease with which the young
giant has thrown on his shoulders the enormous
load, has more astonished Europeans than the rise of
the nation in arms to maintain the Union, and the
determination and pertinacity with which the diffi-
culties and dangers were met and overcome. There
was a grim smile over the face of Europe when
Americans talked boastingly, and with what on
this side was held to be a contemptuous indifference
of the way in which the financial perplexities would
be solved by their people. We here thought the
giant would faint under his load•--they replied that
the giant would dance, and toss the burden from
shoulder to shoulder in the mere wantonness of
play and of exuberant strength. If he will not
faint, European financiers replied, he will weary of
the continued strain, his limbs will be trammelled,
his freedom and energy gone. You don't know the
American people, was the retort ; the burden will
sit lightly on such broad shoulders, and once under-
taken will never for a moment be dropped till the
task be completed. A question such as this can
only be solved by the test—the test has been tried,
and even the Americans are surprised at the result.
The great fact stands prominent among the items
of the PRESIDENT'S Message telegraphed to Europe,
that the estimated surplus for the year closing on
the 31st May next will amount to the gigan-
tic sum of £31,600,000 sterling. It is not
easy fully to realise the magnitude of these figures
and the facts they convey. We are accustomed to
consider the national expenditure of the United
Kingdom as unequalled, absorbing sums which
are raised here with difficulty, and which could
not be supplied by any other nation. Over
an empire, on which it is proudly said that the sun
never sets, are scattered military and naval stations
kept up by a lavish outlay. At every capital we
have an Embassy, at every port a Consul. Our
missions traverse the earth, and the oceans are
swept by our fleets. Colonies clamour for defences ;
and, in spite of a vigorous opposition, draw largely
on the mother country. Great national arsenals
employ hands by the thousand, and in great camps
are gathered regiments which are the most costly in
the world. A royal court is maintained in a way
that befits the greatest of Queens, and Government
measures are debated in the halls of a building suit-
able for an assembly allowed to be the greatest of
Parliaments. Government establishments on an
imperial scale are grouped in its neighbourhood, and
lesser establishments are maintained in other cities
over the vast empire. Englishmen know the cost,
and groan over the ceaseless taxes, but though they
continue an endless fight against the imposts, they
consider themselves born to bear the burden, and
they rejoice with a natural pride at the magnificent
result. Yet all the costs of this display, added up
into one sum, will hardly equal the mere surplus
revenue of the United States for the current
year. It must be borne in mind that the
United States is a young nation. But a
few years ago the Americans boasted that not only
were their resources unequalled, but that they were
untrammelled and free from debt. It was their
delight to depict England as a decrepid old country
sinking under its weary load, and to contrast their own
youth and unshackled vigour, backed by the untold
wealth of their unoccupied soil. Since then a" change
" has come o'er the spirit of their dream." The people
and the resources of the country are still there, but
with the great exports crippled, and the nation
weighted with a debt little short of England's
national burden. The change of circumstances is
met by a change of sentiment. " We have piled
" up," say our American cousins, " the biggest
" burden in the shortest time ;" and now, they con-
tinue, " We will show you European nations who
" profess to teach us, how honestly to liquidate
" these liabilities." It is a maxim of Europe that
democracies will not be honest; that national honour
will not weigh in the scale against the personal in-
convenience of endless imposts ; that the masses
who have the power to shake off the burden will
never voluntarily carry the load. The action of
the American people is the grandest and most con-
founding refutation of such assumptions. These
assumptions, may be pretended by those who wish

to vilify Republican institutions, to be axioms, but
they are in truth untrue. A nation which intends
to be dishonest will be dishonest under any form Of
government. A nation firmly bent on meeting its
commitments, will meet them, whether ruled by an
absolute sovereign, or ruled by an elected PRESIDENT;
and we believe, there are no people who bold the
honour of their country in greater esteem than the
citizens of the United States, and who are more
fully sensible, not only of the wickedness, but of the
folly, of defrauding their creditors. Thus, then,
they are bound by two strong sentiments--national
pride and national expediency. The true question was
the power of liquidating such vast debts, so suddenly
contracted. Their financiers were compelled to
bring into force at once, a complicated system of
taxation, and no one could positively predict the
results until so novel a method had been tested by
actual experience. It is difficult for Englishmen to
free themselves from prejudices, and they have held
too strongly to the idea that a ruling population
would not put the collar round its own necks
easily to be moved. Even if it could be coaxed
into submission, none, it was thought, would
dare to make the strain heavier than that,
which would meet a greatly reduced expen-
diture, and pay the interest only on the debt con-
tracted. There are many in England who would
have been surprised even at this result, and that
such opinions were generally held furnishes conclu-
sive evidence of English ignorance of the American
character. The grandeur of American conception
is shown in the speech and imagery of the people'
but there is a wide difference between talk and acts*
The most sceptical, however, must be undeceived by
American performances, and if the war bas raised
the national character for gallantry in the field,
the process by which the debt is being extinguished
will raise to even a greater height the reputation of
the nation. Liberals throughout Europe may well
rejoice, for the enemies of human liberty are beingi
confounded. A people are now successfully engage"
in a task which history has never yet recorded ; 3
task, which was supposed to be opposed to the ln-
stincts of a Democracy—and that people is the great
Republic of America.—Anglo-American 2 lines.