The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-19 00:00:00

be fighting you with the moneys borrowed from this
country.—(Cheers.) 'We read in the history of
Holland, that on one occasion, when a town was
bombardk d, its merchants said saltpetre to the enemy
to manufacture gunpowder with, to be used against
themselves. 1 don't stand up for such a
transaction ; but it may be that England
may not stand better in the page of hip
tory in 1850 when it is found ready and willing
to endorse the desperate wickedness of Russia by
lending her the means of continuing her career of
violence which she has hitherto maintained. 1
say, therefore, that, apart from the abstract moronity,
I, as a tax-payer and a politician, with the
rest of you, have a right to meet and protest against
a transaction like this from whatever quarter it may
come. Bat I denounce the morality of this loan. We
have a snug doctrine half hinted, half expressed, and
not very confidently asserted ; but we have
heard that doctrine broached that you must
not question what a man does with his OAll.
(Laugl;ter.) You must only ask how much per
cant. you can get; if you can get 51. per cent. in-
stead of four that is quite sufficient to sanctify the
transaction.—(Laughter.) That is the doctrine I
hear put f zth in the name of the citizens of London.
I can only say the Emperor of Russia has given them
credit for a much higher standard of morality than
they possess. He was afraid to come before them and
avow what he wanted the money for. Ha was advised
by his counsel to tell a fib—(Laughter)--to allow the
citizens of London to swallow the gilded pill, when he
stated that money was wanted for a railroad.—
(Laughter.) Now, what is the money wanted for?
Simply and solely to make up the arrear caused by
the Hungarian war.—(Hear, hear.) lam not
much in the habit of boasting at• public
meetings', but if I were a boaster, I should
exult on this occasion that the assertion
I made in this room in June or July last, and which
was subjected to so much sarcasm from friends and
from foes—l say I should feel some exultation,
at all events, that this poverty stricken Czar
has been obliged to come, and most re-
luctantly, to verify every word I said. Now,
what becomes of the two millions that we were told
the Emperor of Russis was going to advance to the
Austrians ? Now what becomes of the 500,000/.
which he was going to advance to the Pope ?
(Laughter.) Where is that half million which he
was generously to bestow on the Grand Duke of
Tuscany ? He ought to pay his scribes well in
Western Europe to tell such lies for him, seeing

has the proud distinction of ruling over 26,000,000
of male serfs, who are bought and sold with the
land.—(Cries of " Shame !") Well, now, do you
think that a very safe state of society in
the present age ?—(Hear, hear.) Freedom (pro-
ceeded the Hon. Gentlemen) had extended to the
south and to the west—it had extended with such
rapid strides that it had advanced up to the confines
of Russia—and did they think it likely, in these days,
that it would stop short at Russia ?—(Hear, hear.)
They could not anticipate any other result than that
the serfs of Russia, being men, would prefer freedom
to slavery, and, being ten to one as compared with
their masters, could there be any doubt
that they would do in Russia what had
been done in every country in Europe_
namely, assert their freedom ?—(Hear, hear.) What
security would they then have fe the repayment of
the loan, before:many years had passed away ? Tnere
never existed in any country a body of serfs who did
not achieve their emancipation when other nations were
by means of revolution effecting on a large scale many
important changes. What could they say in such a
case? for they had lent their money to maintain for
a longer time despotism and the overawing of the
serf. He should say they would repudiate such a loan,
made for such a purpose.—(Loud cheers.) Let them
bear in mind that this system of civilized states
lending money to more barbarous Governments was
the way to perpetuate slavery, and to uphold
tyranny.—(Hear, hear.) By doing so they made
Governments depend upon foreign aid instead of de-
pending upon their people for the supply of the
requisite resources for the government of a state. Let
them go back to the time of the Plantagenets, when
the people of England were gaining liberty step by
step. How did the people secure the liberties which
they demanded ? By the necessities and embirrirsi=
meats of their King—one King being obliged to
grant the franchise, in order to raise money,
and another, who was obliged to pawn the
jewels in his crown, was compelled to grant certain
rights to the people. In this way were the liberties
of the people wrung from their kings, namely, through
their pecuniary necessities. But if one of their ancient
kings could have borrowed 5,000,000 of money from a
foreign state, as Russia wished, did they think the
liberties of the people would have been given ?
(Hear, hear.) Did they think that the masses in
Eastern Europe were ignorant of this; and had they
not a perfect right to ask what right we had to
lend money to an irresponsible despot to perpetuate
their serfdom and slavery. But there was another
difficulty which he wished those who were willing to
lend money to Russia to bear in mind. Though
they there represented public opinion out of
doors, they might not be strong enough to
prevent the actual lending of the money ; but let
them who did so well understand, that the tax-
payers of this country would be no parties to
the collection of their debt'.—(Hear, hear, and
laughter.) Hitherto there had been a sort of
vague notion, that if a foreign Government
failed in paying its debts that the Government was
forced to interfere to enforce payment; but he was
glad to perceive that Lord Palmerston, in some cor-
respondence which had recently taken place,
stated that, though he objected to interfere in
the special case brought before him " by force of
arms" yet he reserved to himself the power to do
so in cases that he might think deserving of such an
interference.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) Moreover
he wished them to understand, that they had
sufficient power to prevent them making a
Prime Minister a bumbailiff.—(Laughter.) The
Peace party would be found a powerful obstacle to
such a course, and most assuredly there were men in
that room who would live to see the time when not
one farthing of this loan would be paid.—(Hear.) In-
deed he believed the universal feeling of the country
would result in the loss of the money—(Loud
cheers)--not from any ill will to the unfortunate
persons who would hold the bonds, but from the belief

chat they are subject to this rough refutation of a,
they say in his behalf at the hands of the poor Czar
himself.—(Loud cheers and a cry of" The Times," and
" Will any gentleman produce and burn it ?") If had
been employed to write up to wealth and power the
man who, six months afterwards, was obliged to come
before the citizens of London and sign his name to
such a humiliating document as that ukase, I
should feel I had been hardly used, and I should
expect to be exceedingly well paid for the lies
I had told.—(Cheers.) I stand here to utter the very
words I have twice used on this platform, that the
Russian Government in matters of finance for years
has been the most gigantic political imposture in
Europe.—(Cheers.) That is the word I used before,
and I used it as Ido every word I use in public,
advisedly and with due reflection, and I
come here to repeat it.—(Cheers.) What was
this money wanted for ? For the purposes of the
vile ambition and bloody designs of a man who has
the will and all the tastes of Peter the Great wrapped
up in all the livery of Louis the Fourteenth,
but without the genius of the one or the
wealth of the other (Loud cheers)—
and who wants to play a part in Europe,
forgetting he is in the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury instead of the seventeenth, and utterly wanting
not merely the appreciation of what can enable him
to play a part in history now, but wanting also the
means to pursue the tastes he possesses.--(Cheers.)
What is the object of the loan ? To make up the
deficiencies and to pay the debts incurred by the
Emperor of Russia in his wanton attack and outrages
upon the liberties cf Hungary.—(Hear.) I said before '
here that the expenses of that oppressive war have not
been paid. I will tell you why they were not. The
Russian army was moved from the interior of the
country to the borders of Hungary ; but owing to the
Government of ;Russia not having any money in
its military chest,, they had not the means of
paying for the transit of their army
from St. Petersburgh to the confines of Hungary.
How did the Government manage to effect their pur-
pose ? The Government sent out directions to the
farmers and landlords along the whole line of
march, ordering them to deposit at certain places
of the route certain quantities of provisions and
other things necessary for the forage of the
troop.. Upon a given day the parties were to repair
to the 'Treasury at Cronstadt, where on satisfactory
proof being given that they had supplied the com-
modities, they would receive Treasury receipts
in exchange, which were to be made avail-
able for the payment of taxes. A t the
appointed time these receipts came in—they had been
anticipated before the arrival of the tax-day--and as
the Government had not the necessary means for car-
rying on the affairs of the country it issued 3,000,0001.
of Treasury notes, accompanied by an ukase avowing
that these notes were issued for the payment of the
expenses of the Hungarian war. Now, gentlemen, you
will at once see the character of the proceedings of
Russia, and how they were brought about. They
obtained provisions for the troops dispatched to c fr
the liberties of Hungary from the agricultur. te""
in the course of their march, depending upon raisin
sufficient money to enable them to discharge their
claims as well as all othere incidental to that disgrace-
ful war. And they have come to England for a loan
—(bear)—and I say that this money now abuut to
be raised in London is so much money used fir cutting
the throats of those unoffending men in Hungary,
for the devastation of villages, and for the outraging
of women.—(Hear, hear.) Aye, and as much so
as though the money were lent before ever
a soldier marched into Hungary. And I say
in the case of Russia, as I formerly said from
this platform with respect to Austria, that it matters
not whether the money is obtained a little after or
not. The operations in the case of Hurgary were
based uron calculations as to the amount cf money that
thus may be bad on loan in England.—(Hear, hear.)
They calculate in such proceedings upon the future,
and therefore I say it is by the aid of English capital
that these barbarous cruelties are inflicted. These
are the purposes, and not for those of a railroad, for
which the money is wanted. And are we to be told
that because the money will pay 5 per cent., that
therefore we are not to inquire into the object for
which the money is lent ? Why I can only say, if
the doctrine is to hold good that a man may make the
most profit he can out of his money, there was a
worthy man much injured the other day, who was sen -
fenced to 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour,
for having been the owner of a number of infamous
houses which returned him a profit of 20 per cent.—
(Hes-, hear, and laughter.) I think that man
should console himself on the treadmill that
he is , justified by the new code of mo-
rals I hear repeatedly advanced in this country.
But, gentlemen, the immorality of such a loan as this
is not the only ground I have to advance, and upon
which I rely for the means of preventing this money
from being obtained. I think more is to be done by
appealing to the self-interest of persons who may be
dispcsed to take any share in this loan, and of the
risk they run by doing so. Who are they going to
lend it to ? To an Irresponsible despot, who never
publishes any account of his income or expenditure.—
(Hear, hear.) You may look through the Gotha
Almanack, which contains the receipts and the expen-
diture of the nations of the continent, but you will
find no mention of the finances of Russia. I did so,
thinking I might find some of the sources of the income
and the nature of the expenditure of Russia, with the
view of becoming better acquainted than I am with
her resources. There is more or less information
with respect to almost every state, but with respect to
Russia we read—" We are altogether unable to
furnish any particulars with respect to the income,
expenditure, and resources of Russia."—(Bear, hear.)
Now that sort of investment is considered good by
some gentlemen, because it is 1,000 miles off. Sup-
pose a person came to borrow money, who gave no
report of his means—would he succeed ? (No,
no.) How would you like to invest money
in a railway which made no report to the
shareholders? You have your meetings every six
months ; you have auditors, and yet, though you ex-
ercise the utmost surveillance over the management of
railway companies, yet Government audit is de-
manded in addition ; and by a strange inconsistency, of
the gentlemen who are prepared to aid:the Emperor
of Russia in borrowing money, though he renders no
account at all, one is also an advocate of Government
audit in railways.—(Cheers.) That is my first ob-
jection, that we do not know what is done with the
money we know, certainly that it is wasted
in an exterminating war. My next objection
is that you are lending money to a Sovereign whose
throne stands upon the most combustible elements
of any in all Europe. (Dear, • hear.) It is
net„. I think, improper when the Em-
peror of Russia comes and invites the citizens
of London to lend him money to say something cf
the condition of the Emperor. Ile is the only hie.-
peva in the world that rules over white slaYea. jie

that such a retribution would be a righteous one,
and that it might operate as a warning to prevent
similar transactions for the future.—(Hear, hear.) A
change had come over the public mind with respect
to these loans, and nobody now would justify them on
the ground of political economy, consietencyonorality,
and indeed they were indefensible in public opi-
nion.—(llear, hear.) This had been the work of six
months, whereas they had but begun their work.—
(Hear, hear) And when it was once known in foreign
countries that no more loans could be had from England
the interest would cease to be paid—repudiation
would be the order of the day.—(l fear, hear.) He
would, undertake to show that since 1815 the Go-
vernments of the continent, in the aggregate, had
borrowed more money than they had paid in inte-
rest to their creditors.—(flea-, bear.) In fact, the
gullible people had been lending money out ( f one
pocket in order to receive a small portion in interest
out of it into the other.—(Laughter.) The money -
lenders, speculators, and brokers were not, how-
ever, the parties who would sufftr in such a
state of things. These parties subscribed to a
loan contracted by a large house, in order that they
might distribute it among their customers and
clients, making a profit of Indeed, he would ven-
ture to say that not 5 per cent. of the loan would
be subscribed by Monday next by parties who in-
tended
to hold the loan as a permanent investment.
After showing that the loan was not by any means
an investment, whereby any man would wish to
provide for his children, the Hon. Gentleman pro-
ceeded to canvess the value of the loans previously
contracted for by the Messrs. Baring—for instance,
se Spanish, the Grenada, and the Portu
uese loans. He had constantly letters of
complaint from sutfering individuals, w'ro had un-
fortunately invested their money in these and
other loans. Tnose who investigated the value of such
loans, and pointed it out, did, he believed, society
good service.—(Hear, hear.) All he had previously
stated with respect to Russia had been fully verified.
Tney must, however, take nothing for granted
with respect to Russia, as its Govern-
ment was a systematic fraud and a lying
misrepresentation. The money waiting to be loaned
in this country would be in great part devoted to
promoting the system of espionage that was pursued
by Russia, in bribing employes at Constantinople, and
the press of Germany and of France.—(Several
voices, "And in England. The Times—burn it.")
They could not believe that the press of England was
bribed.—(Renewed cries of the " Times.") To be
sure some of the newspapers had done the work of
despotism right well—(Loud cheers)—and now
they seemed disposed to play the part of
vampires or ghouls. No, they were worse.
No name had yet been found for that
indescribable monster that preyed upon those who
had fallen from lofty places, and were begging their
bread in want. How should he describe the wretches
who were base enough to traduce the characters of these
men:? He spoke of ghouls and vampires; they preyed
upon the carcases of the material body. They had
no monster akin to the character of him who lived
by destroying the character of a fallen foe —(Pro-
longed cheering.) That was the way the money
would be spent. The Hon.Gcntleman then defended the
Russian people from the charge of being warlike, saying
that such was the dread of the people to join the army
or the navy, that when a man was taken by the con-
scription he left his town in a procession headed by
the priest, as if they were all going to a
funeral, and he mentioned the fact of a man
who being declared by the surgeon as unfit to serve,
ran out of the house, where he had been stripped for
examination, in a, state of nudity, such was his deliri-
ous joy at being liberated. Neither were they ag-
gressive people. They loved their country, and were
contented to stay in it, and though, like all serf-, they
were petty thieves, and indulged in the vice of
drunkenness, yet they had a great regard for human
life, and crimes of deep dye did not prevail. By re-
fusing loans of this kind they would teach foreign
Governments to promote the welfare of their people
and to govern them through their affections rather
than their fears. He exhorted those who thought of
investing their money in this loan to bear in mind
that the family to which the Czar belonged was not a
long-lived one—(Hear, hear)—and that his son
was utterly unfit to cope with the difficulties of the
Government. They would place their monegr.d o_nnda
volcano, and they might rise one mor_ninogne scene
a
this great empire rent asunder,
the influence of
and
of devastation springing from
he
despotism, cruelty, and oppression. (The Hon. Gen
tlernan concluded a speechofmere than an hour's
duration amidst much applause.)
'
Considerable merriment was created at the conclu-
sion o f Mr. Cobden s speech by a burly individual in
the meeting calling out, " Send the Emperor of Rus-
sia the Reformer's Almanack, and let him see that we
have enough to pay without contributing to his loane"
mr. J. 148. SMITH, M.P. for Stirling Burghs, said
.
he most cordially united in the expressions contained
in the resolution, which he begged to second. He
entirely agreed in the assertion, that every one who
contributed a portion to the proposed loan shared in
the crime of which it was to be the result.
Mr. Mum. supported the resolution. After the able
speech of Mr. Cobden, which was so convincing,
because so full of fact., he almost despaired of being
able to gain the attention of the meeting to that
aspect of the subject which was more especially moral.
He would not cast any unnecessary imputation
upon those classes who negotiated the loan,
and who regarded themselves only as traders '

_....- /-
--- __)3e5r.,,•
in nio • for be believed they had at
~.....xiv.
, ~,,,.....,,,,
s . - - all Imes admitted the truth of the axiom, that
~-... ‘li- •
e. --- „ .s , 1 •-z. ,
~„,,,, I . ,
,- - money, like water, must find its level ; that they
w. ,4k
„, 4 .-.7- _. ------,. i ' ..r,,
.7,7_,„- -1 -2,-- thought the wholly got rid of all sense of persona
. ,
..-t____ "" .--'...-,---_--'"-respctsibi4, in money transactions, and regarded
.44
,-, 141 ~. ';',',,, .-, -
the cpplication of all moral considerations to engage-
/ss ."" • ,
ments of a pecuniary nature as totally inapplicable.
! , The maxims which passed current on the Ex-
change were divested of the smallest degree of
morality,os.t
the pernicious consequences which resulted from them
nefarious aworteiihorlue
esot hfsdo)ou.
system
nteto withouten a enable l e
beingthem
sensible
isTbrlfoo r
ofm
otoveprerapritutabtee
inhabitants
isupremacytonts
mankind, and the present loan
ofbowdyar loans led lesdoutlo the
was an attempt
ooufuotninegn,miun
of lotrustshiesfailml
fact, to the destruction of all the faculties which God
had given us, and the conversion of man from a
thinking, independent being, into a mere machine to
be employed fur the basest purpses, and to accom-
plish the objects cf the worst of despots.--(Loud
destructiont the t
hem
cheers.) The right of assembling to discuss
matters of this nature had been questioned, but
if that thing, that journal which, being without con-
science and without heart, would as soon slander the
character of one man as bespatter with praise that of
another, f,lsified the real state of things, and did not
enforce the principles of morality, they surely were
justified in speaking to their countrymen on
such occasions as the present. The leading
journal had declared the truth of the maxim that
property had its duties as well as rights, and he
maintained that this applied to capitalists as well as
to landed proprietors. lie concluded by expressing
his confident belief that the time would come when
transactions, private as well as public, would be held
to be subject to high moral considerations.
The resolution was then put and carried, amidst
loud cheers.
Mr. JOSEPH STURGE, of Birmingham, in proposing
the next resolution, briefly addressed the meeting,
saying that he had come all the way from Birming-
ham this morning, in order to be present, and assert-
ing his belief, with reference to the security of the
loan, that the thrones of Austria and Russia were not
worth seven years' purchase.—(Cheers.) The reso-
lution he moved was as follows :
" That in the opinion of this meeting loans for war
purposes and for the maintenance of standing armies
are unsound in principle and injurious to the interests
of nations."
The Rev. Mr. BURNET seconded it in one of his
amusing but pointed speeches, asking the meeting to
make a loan to the Emperor of Russia, not of money,
but of their watchfulness and vigilance to his nefa-
rious proceedings, which would do more good not
only to him but to the world, than any amount of
capital.
The resolution having been supported by the Rey.
Mr. RICHARDS, was put and carried.
Mr. MITCHELL, who was announced as the editor
of the Jewish Chronicle, expressed his great satisfac-
tion, as a Jew, that no Jewish capitalist had come
forward to advance any portion of the loan. He
believed it was in consequence of the determined
expression of opinion, at the last meeting on the
subject of the Austrian loan, that they had come to
the determination to wash their hands of this villanous
transaction.—(Applause.)
A vote of thanks was then passed to the Chairman,
and after three cheers for Cobden, and a similar
number of groans for the Barings, the meeting se.
parated.

BANK OF ENGLAND.
(From last night's Gazette.)
An Account, pursuant to the Act 7th and Btb of Victoria, cap. 32, far
the Week ending on Saturday, the 12th day of January, 1850.
11191 n DEPARTMENT.
X.
Notes issued.... •• •• 30,075,685

Government debt .. 11,015,100
Other securities .... 2,984,900
Gold coin and bullion 15,798,6G8
Silver bullion ...... 277,077

X 30,075,685 I X 30,075,665
M. MARSHALL, Chief Cashier.
Dated the 17th day of January, 1850.