The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-16 00:00:00

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BONDS.

A good proof is given of the wide distribution
of the United States debt among its citizens by
the slight effect on the value of the bonds
produced by the intense excitement and alarm
that followed on Mr. JOHNSON'S attempt to
expel Mr. STANTON. Even while telegrams were
flying over the country, and governors tender-
ing the military force of their States either to
Congress or to the PRESIDENT, no movement was
discernible in the bonds. For a brief space a civil
war appeared almost inevitable ; not a sectional
war like the last, but a real genuine civil war,
wherein the inhabitants of villages and cities would
have to fight it out in the streets, before the con-
quering party could proclaim into which scale the
State ~vas to be thrown. It wasin the presence of this
danger that gold declined, and 5-20 Bonds stood
like a rock. Now this is a very curious fact, and
calls for minute inquiry. What is it that has given
to the national debt of the United States a strength
so extraordinary and unlooked for ?. It is certainly
not shown in the market price of the bonds, for if the
security was held by the world to be really good, it
is not at 71 or 72 that 6 per cents. would be quoted
as now in London. We believe that the explana-
tion is to be found in the diffusion of the debt in
small lots over the country. It is difficult to get
a people in motion ; it is easy to excite a panic and
quick action in a few large holders. Capitalists
being influenced simultaneously by the same
causes become sellers ; they sell in heavy parcels,
while if they be the only dealers the buyers
are removed from the market. Where a na-
tional debt is thus held, and a country danger-
ously threatened with disruption, the fall in its funds
is decisive. Even English Consols, had a small portion
of the danger threatened England as threatened
America, would have declined heavily. There is some-
thing very strange in the way Five-Twenty Bonds
seem to maintain almost the same quotation in the
face of total Repudiation —payment in greenbacks—
reduction of interest—or taxation. When the
country met Mr. PENDLETON'S proposition with a
general cry of indignation, Five-Twenties remained
impassive ; there was no buoyancy when the
West stamped on every candidate's ticket " Green-
back Redemption," two words largely endorsed by
the East, when the cry was taken up by such
Radical chiefs as STEVENS and BUTLER, when it
became the platform even for the Presidential nomi-
nation, and newspapers were launched expressly to
advocate it, still United States Bonds were the same.
At the moment when a bill was introduced into the
Senate, and another into the House—the one to
enforce a reduced interest and a longer date, the
other to levy on the bonds a tax of two per cent. per
annum—still they continued unmoved. Even in the
last great trial, when the PRESIDENT and Congress
threatened to be at the head of opposing armies to
act in America the part of England in the time of
CHARLES 1., still Five-Twenties were unchanged.
Why is this ? Fancy-Stocks and even great Railway
Securities fly up and down in Wall-street with a mar-
vellous rapidity, but Five-Twenties seldom stir. They
are no barometer, for there cannot be a question that
the political atmosphere was momentarily heavily
charged during the recent crisis at Washington ;
and yet these bonds did not respond. if the
general apportionment of this debt among the
people be not the cause of the stability, we
are at a loss to understand the reason. The
mass of the holders have a firm faith in the
security of their Bonds. They believe in the des-
tiny of the United States, and in its prosperity they
look for repayment in full. The idea of a United
States' promise to pay, becoming worthless, retains
no place in their minds, for they hold such a con-
tingency to be impossible. Politicians may rave at
Washington; statesmen maybe grouped on the plat-
form of Repudiation ; but the people's faith remains
unshaken. If the Bonds fell, and they had money to
invest, they would buy, and where a large number
are thus impressed, such funds will in all probability
retain the value at which the holders appraise them.
Though we give it, we do not attach importance to
this explanation; but the fact is curious and striking,
and is in truth one of the strongest proofs of the
innate belief of the people in the manifest destiny
of their country. An idea how far the poor classes
of the Republic are interested in the Debt may be
gathered from the fact that the Savings' Banks in the
State of New York hold 40 million dollars of the
Bonds, and it is estimated not less than
$209,000,000 are held by the Savings' Banks of
the nation, which means that nearly 30 millions
sterling of the savin gs of labourers are invested in
United States' Government Securities.
Few who watch the current of American events
fail to perceive how strongly the drift is towards
the payment of Five-Twenties in greenbacks. We
believe that the people will act on the strict letter
of the law; that is, that they will pay every bond
issued before greenbacks became a Legal Tender in
gold, as well as every bond afterwards issued bear-
ing on its face the pledge of such redemption.
The fight will be over Five-Twenties. The Rhode
Island Republican Convention favours payment in
gold, and there is no State of the Union that has
had a more bitter experience of the paper-money
folly. That of Missouri adopted no resolution on
this subject. The Kentucky Democratic Conven-
tion endorsed PENDLETON'S plan of paying the
debt in greenbacks, so did that of Minne-
sota. The Repudiator, a newspaper appropriately
named, as it was devoted to repudiation, has been
brought out in St. Louis. It is a Democratic
journal, though the more respectable of the party
repudiate it, having t sufficient load of sins to
carry without being saddled with the infamy of a
paper which they protest has been fastened on them
by Republicans. Senator SHERMAN spoke on the
27th upon Finance. He said Bonds issued before
the creation of the Legal-Tenders must be paid in
gold, or it is repudiation. The proposition to print
greenbacks for the purpose of swamping the debt
he also pronounces repudiation. In the face of the
Report of the Treasurer of Massachusetts, he affirms
that " Every State has recognised the paperyrinciple
by paying its debt, principal and interest, in
,green-
backs, save the States on the Pacific slope. ' He
believes the United States have a legal right to re-
deem the Bonds not promised in gold with paper.
Ile proposes to reduce the 5-20's from six to five
per cent., and gradually to pay off the principal in
gold until the debt be annihilated, which he cal-
culates can be done in 1901-2. The Attorney-
General, of New Jersey, replied to a resolution of
inquiry by the Legislature, giving it as his opinion
that any law of New Jersey, taxing, directly or in-
directly, Government Securities, or the income de-
rived therefrom, as such, would be repugnant to
the Constitution and laws of the United States.
This is also the opinion of Senator SHERMAN, who
states that to tax Government Securities in the
manner lately proposed would be a palpable viola-
tion of the Constitution. —Anylo-Americau Times.

" LospoN."—A. curious point arose last Friday at
the Rolls Chambers as to Lord H. Seymour's bequest to
the charities:of London. His lordship died in 1859, and the
definition of London by the Master of the Rolls was not
four mile radius, nor the metropolitan police district, but a
" continuous line of houses." An application was made to
participate in the fund on the part of the Home for Sol-
diers' Daughters at Hampstead (within four miles), and
the Chief Clerk (Mr. Marshall) refused the application, ou
the ground that there was not in 1859 a continuous line of
houses to the Home.

---.--,_.,__

~~

_NEWSPAPER'.
,:f.
, t•
„..kq, • ':6111""'
LAW ANIFPO IP;
coml.lo or AGE.—CONTRACTS M\ Trt•isdau- •
Giffard, the new Vice-Challoraas 1151
before him an application in the matter of the Imperial
Credit Company, to put on the list of contributories a gen-
Vert an who had sold shares to a lady one month before
she attained the ago of 21 years. She accepted the
transfer, and on her subsequently coming of age, and an
order being made for winding up the company in June
IFM, she wrote several letters iu reapect of her liability,
which she did not repudiate. She, however, became insol-
vent, and the liquidator now contended that the contract
and transfer of shares having been made during her infancy
were void, and that the transferror should be held liable.
'Vice-Chancellor Giffard, however, held that the contract
was originally only a voidable one, and not void, and that
the course taken by the lady after she came of age
amounted to an acceptance of the shares. The liquidator
must pay the respondent's costs.

ALLEGED CHILD MURDER. —At the Maidstone Assizes,
Margaret Ward, 22 years of age, was indicted for the wilful
murder of William Andrew Nelson, at Northfleet, on the
19th of June, 1867. The prisoner was a domestic servant
in the household of Dr. Nelson, an army medical officer.
stationed at Chatham. She accompanied the family to
Broadstairs in June last, and while there gave birth to the
infant with whose murder she was charged. After her
recovery she was discharged, and went to lodge at the
house of a friend in Rochester. One day she said she was
going to take her child to live with an aunt at Hull. Sub-
sequently the dead body of an infant was found under,
hedge near Rochester. The body was so decomposed that
the cause of death could not be ascertained. The jury,
after a short deliberation, acquitted the prisoner.
A " PROTESTANT" LECTURER CONVICTED OF SHOOTIN4
AT A CONSTABLE.—At the Man Chester Assizes, on Satur-
day, a person, named Mackey, a lecturer of " The Evan-
gelical Mission and Protestant Electoral Union," was
indicted for shooting at a police-constable on duty, with
intent to do him grievous bodily harm. -The case arose
out of a riot at Rochdale, which had taken place in conse-
quence of certain lectures against Popery being announced,
when the police having charged the mob, the prisoner
fired two barrels of a revolver (according to the case for
the prosecution) at the constable. For the defence it was
urged that the pistol was fired into the air and not in-
tended to hurt anyone. The jury found the prisoner
guilty, but strongly recommended him to mercy; and the
judge sentenced him to sixteen months' hard labour.
SHOOTING A POLICEMAN.—Mary Ann Quirk, the woman
who was found guilty last week of shooting at the police-
man in Salford, has been sentenced to nine months' impri-
sonment. She was removed from the dock weeping aloud.
She held in her arms her infant, the father of which is the
policeman she shot.

MANsurairrEn.--At the Aylesbury Assizes, before
Mr. Baron Martin, James Inwood was indicted for the
wilful murder of John White, a gamekeeper in the service
of Captain Swabey, of Wavendon Hall. The evidence
skewed that on the night of the 24th December, 1867,
while the deceased and a gardener named Edward Parr
were watching in a field over which Captain Swabey had
the right of shooting, they heard a report and saw two
men coming up. The men stopped at a distance of about
fifteen yards from the watchers and whispered t3gether.
The taller of the two poachers then ran away, and Parr, the
gardener, followed him: The prisoner stood his ground,
and as White, the deceased, approached to apprehend him,
the prisoner's gun was discharged, and the contents entered
the body of White, who fell and died on the spot in a few
minutes. The poacher who ran away was called, and said
that when he and the prisoner were whispering, prisoner
said to him, " Shoot them," meaning the watchers, and
when he tried to dissuade him, the prisoner replied, " God
strike me dead, I will." This witness and another man
also proved that the prisoner had previously used malicious
language against the deceased. For the defence it was
urged that the gun went off aec:den!,ally. The jury
returned a verdict of maanlaught .r. Sentence, twenty
years' penal servitude.
ATTEMPT TO POISON A MI:1112M At the Lincoln
Assizes, one Sarah Ann Dighy was convicted of adminis-
tering poison to her mistress. It appeared that the defend-
ant had stolen a five-pound note, which, after some threats
had been used, was returned by her through the post. She
was seen posting the letter, and seems to have therefore
determined to poison her mistress. She put arsenic in her
broth. It was only by accident that the mistress was
saved. Prisoner was unteneed to ten years' penal
servitude.

AN IMPORTANT SCOTCH WINDING-UP CAM—The Court
of Session of Scotland has just decided an important wind-
ing-up case. The Garpel llmmatite Company was formed
in 1858, and its nominal capital was stated in the memo-
randum of association, and in other documents, to be
£105,000, " whereof £lOO,OOO is paid up, and £5,000
remains to be called." The company was ordered to he
wound np in 1804, and the liquidator proposed a call
of p3O, and a list of contributories including the names
of the present respondents. These gentlemen, who were
not original shareholders, contended that, as they
had bought the shares on the faith of their
being paid up to the extent of £lOO, the Brij-
dator was not entitled to go behind the register and
other statutory documents in order to prove that the
shares were fraudulent in their original inception, and
that no such sum had really been paid up at the for-
mation of the company ; and further, that they, as
b,:nd fide purchasers, buying the shares on the faith
of the official documents, open to public creditors as
well as to them, could not be made liable for the call.
The court was much divided in opinion ; but the result of
their judgment is, that the liquidator is to be allowed to
prove that no such sum as was stated was in fact paid up.
The majority of the court regarded it as inconsistent with
the policy of the statutes to relieve purchasers of shares
from the obligation to pay up the capital actually unpaid,
merely because a false statement on that subject was con-
tained in thu company's documents. It is understood that
the case will be carried at once by the respondents to the
House of Lords.

r

riIHE LATE EDITION of " THE SUN" at
JAMES SPEEDY'S, "The Wellington," Wellington-street,
Strand

OHN GOSNELL and CO.'S CHERRY
TOOTH PASTE is greatly superior to any tooth
powder • gives the teeth a pearl whiteness, protects the
enamel 'from decay, and imparts a pleasant fragrance to
the breath. Bic() Is. Cd.—lied Bull Wharf, 93, Upper
Immes•street, London.