The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-06 00:00:00

711 E AMBERICA.N LOAN.

The American advices for some months past have
shown that great reliance was placed on the ability
of the Federal Government to raise money by a
large issue of their bonds in Europe. Indeed, the
total failure of this hope is obviously one of the
causes that aggravate the deficiency exhibited in
the correspondence of the Washington politicians
in the power of courteous control. The only want,
both of North and South is money. Men are
abundant on each side, yet the Northern statesmen,
who would hold us up to execration if we were to
permit a handful of volunteers to leave this
o._l..atry for service under Jefferson Davis, think
it a high ground for reproach that our capi-
talists do not furnish them with those far
more important sinews by which their opponents
could at once be overthrown. It appears, however,
that they do not yet despair of obtainhig a consider:..
able amount. The home subscribers to the loans,
which are 'now being poured out at the inadequate
rate of five millions sterling per month are comforted
by assurances that immediately on the forthcoming
victory there. will be a rush of applications from
Europe that will go far to clear the market ; and it
is currently reported that numerous agents in Eng-
land have been invited by the New York banks,
with a reward of 2* per cent. commission, to per-
suade our people to enter on these investments. The
prospect of realising £25 for every £l,OOO theft
another person can be induced to subscribe will
doubtless prove a great stimulus to individual
dealers, and probably if 2* per cent. should not
arouse sufficient activity a still more liberal al.
lowance would readily be conceded. There should.
be little fear, however, that any attempts of the
kind will be succeSsful. There is no prejudice here
against American or any other loans. The prejudice
is even the other way—namely, in favour of any
new channel for a profitable investment. We are
always lenders, and, like a rich banker, we welcome
good paper from any source, and only inquire if it
is likely to be met at maturity. Sometimes a bill
that has been rejected by a banker may be, dulypaid
after all; but the banker acts on a, general ru/e, and
in the long run never regrets not having departed
from it. -Without venturing, therefore,- into any
rash prophecy as to what will be the fate of the
Federal Bonds now offering in Europe, it will be
enough to say that their origin and endorsements
are such as would deter any ordinary man of busi-
ness from touching them. The Government. by
whom these notes are drawn is spending at the rate
of 100 millions sterling per annum, with a revenue
which it is not professed can, under any circum- •
stances, exceed 30 millions, and the collection
of a large portion of which will not even commence
till next midsummer. Like all spendthrifts, they
assert that this rate of outlay will not last long, but
for the moment, at all events, the signs are the other
way. Next, while this expenditure is going on the
resources of the country are diminished by a lockup;
of cotton to the annual value of 40 millions, and
which cotton will, upon its release, be utterly insuf-
ficient to meet the debts of its Confederate owners,
who are entering into pecuniary commitments with
no less zeal than their Northern enemies. Next,
when the war is ended the Federal bonds contracted
in the name of the Union must be exclusively paid
by a dismembered portion, or must be legalised and
provided for by a Congress largely composed of the
persons for whose subjugation the debt was con-
tracted. These are contingencies which, to say the
least, will keep any holder of the stock on tra
bed of thorns, while the unpleasantness of his posi-
tion will be increased by the consciousness that, as
he has interfered in a quarrel with which he had no
concern, everybody will regard his distress with
complacency. Further, while it is plain that the
financial prospects of the borrowing Government
are most critical, we are also bound to remember
that its previous character is not such us in Lom-
bard-street would be regarded as satisfactory. It
the loan is to be considered a loan for the Union as
it lately stood, and still theoretically stands, coin-
posed of 34 States, then the circumstance must ha
weighed that four of these States are pledged to the •
principles of repudiation, and that three or four
others have been stained by acts of a very simile'.
character, so that about 20 per cent. of the
whole are more or less disentitled to reliance.
If, on the other hand, the loan is to be simply to the ,
States of the North, we have the fact not only that
one of them is the most flagrant of the repudiating,
class, but that her attempts at justification and sub-
terfuge find insertion and approval in the leading
journals of New York and the other Northern States.
The three or four instances which, although not in-
eluded in the history of direct repudiation, approxi-
mate very closely to that category likewise belong to
the North. If, again, it be urged that we must not
look at the conduct of individual States, but only at
that of the Federal power formed at the agglomera-
tion of these States, we are met by the circumstance
that when Mr. Jeferson Davis was most notorious
as the apostle of repudiation he was selected by
the will of the Union to be one of the most influ-
ential members of the Cabinet at Washington.
Although that personage had been untrue to foreign
creditors, not a word was said against him until he
became untrue to his alleged national obligations,
and then every other country was threatened that
refused to treat him and his followers as pirates
to be executed wherever found. Finally, the per-
sonal relations likely to subsist between.debtor and
creditor are not unworthy of consideration in any
loan negotiations; and the fact, therefore, that the
feeling againstEn gland on the part of theWashin g ton
statesmen is avowedly such as almost to overmaster
the ability on that side to keep within the conven-
tional civilities of ordinary intercourse should be held
to have some significance. The supporters of the
American Government cite a long list of grievances
which they conceive justify this feeling, but that
is a matter on which it is not necessary here to pro-
nounce, the point of importance for lenders being
simply that the feeling exists. The notification,
moreover, by Mr. Seward that every consideration
regarding the rights of property as well as of per-
sonal liberty, alike on the part of aliens or
citizens, must be subordinate to the " saving of
the national life," may suggest a question whether.'
if the existing struggle be much protracted, the
"saving of the national life" may not necessitate
that all foreign payments should be su!pend d•
These are the sole considerations that int erfe ere
a sih.nasdtoawntloyfbeerrmoradine
with our willingness ttohesynbbsce rriembinece,tvnoetldomabnayys
denialsdt oesai rn
ey
extent that the American Government
Are they valid, or can
upon the means being furnished. All that it is
desired to impress upon the Americans is that in
zyexopfltahneamti,onas ihoenr e
shallis
cPorrlefctt
matters of this kind we are wholly free from any
thought except for our own profit and security, and,
that if we decline to part with our money it is front
no aristocratic rancour either to North or South.
The principles of political economy have not made
much advance among them, as they are even now
engaged in calling their Government to account for
having purchased some woollen necessaries for the
army in the cheapest market, but they should surely
be convinced by this time that financially we do
nothing for an "idea,"and that we never allow either
personal likings or antipathies to interfere with our
shopkeeping rule of making money wherever we can
honestly do so.-7inres' City Article.

THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION.—It is the wealth
of the members of the Establishment which has called into
existence, and keeps in action, the extensive educational
machinery which is the subject of all this boasting F WO',
of the £3,905,644 voted by Parliament in 20 years, the
Church of England has had the benefit of no less than
£3,070,432. So that, if she educates 10 per cent. of the
scholars, she has 76 per cent. of the public money spent on
education, and SI per cent. of the sums expended on school.
buildings. And the difference is occasioned, not by a lack
piscopalial so
of dissenting zeal, but by the fact that the Dissenters ob-
ject to receive State-money for education, while Epit-cor4.
boyw maeasne.shoofolsbriaberpyr,adetiricaectl or
monopoly
liens will take every shilling they can get, and;!Juivi,a,
obtained it, they are able to outbid Dissenters with their
OWII money,
g ends. If not, what other construction can ha
forrce needful say, further, that E •
e extent, take up the cause of education
church on Sundays is
sectarianocttatai:Einar
on is imported in the
made
tdue upon thecon dfiatciot,nthonatwathtegaillrilnai.te for se' la
ais
,ayan.
sdchtho
oalt
ofth etheehicldhuoxfchth,e
insteadti of the Chapel, and
week,
Dissenter must attend the
lose even the help of charit
Y)
fortuity ?--The acratui except at the price of con-

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