The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-18 00:00:00

struct a railroad ; and in proof that it was wanted for
a railroad he will render accounts.—(Laughter.) I
can only say it is what he never did before.—(Re-
newed laughter.) I have been subjected to the re-
iterated charge that I am not consistent weh
my principles of free trade when I come here
to denounce this loan. It is said to me, "We want
you to allow us to lend our money in the dearest
market and borrow it in the cheapest ; why should
we not have free trade in money ?" I have no ob-
jection to people wasting their money if they like ;
but I claim the right as a Free-trader in this country
to meet in a public assembly like this, and try and
warn the unwary from being deceived by those money-
mongers in the city of London, who will try to palm
on us their bad security if they can.—(Cheers.) I
am not going to attempt to coerce or dictate to them ;
we have done our duty in giving our advice, and
probably by and by, those who do not follow that
advice now will essh they had done so. That is their
business, and not mine. It has been asked me this
morning by a leading journal, whether I oppose
this loan on the ground of its immorality or on the
ground of its being unsafe ? Why, I answer, on
both grounds.—(Leud cheers.) In my opinion what-
soever is immoral is unsafe.—(Renewed cheers.) But
apart altogether from its inherent immorality and
insecurity, I stand here as a citizen of
this country and of the world to denounce
the whole character of this transaction as being
injurious to the best interests of society.—(Cheers.)
Now, I will take first of all the politico economic
view of the question, for it has been supposed that
on this question I am particularly weak in that di-
rection.—(Laughter.) Now, I stand on one of the
strongest grounds in stating that Adam Smith, and
all the great political economists, are against the
very principle cf these loans. What is this
money wanted for ? It is to be wasted,
it is to go to pay the expense of maintaining a stand-
ing army, or the expenses of the atrocious war in
Hungary.—(Groans.) This sum is so much capital
abstracted from England and handed over to an-
other country to be wasted, thereby abstracting
from this country the means by which its own
population are to be employed, and by which
they live. I say that every loan to be
granted by this country to a foreign government to
be expended in keeping up armaments, or carrying on
wars with other countries, that is as much capital
wasted.or destroyed, for all the purposes of repro-
duction, as if the money was carried out into
the middle of the Atlantic and sunk in the
ocean.—(Loud cheers.) I make no distinction
whether the interest be fair or not; for if the interest
be paid on this loan by the Emperor of Russia, it is
not paid out of the pockets of the party to whom it is
lent, it is not paid by the capital itself being iavested
in reproductive employment, but it is extracted from
the wretchedness, the labour and the industry of his
population for the interest of capital which has not
only not been employed reproductively, but in ob-
structing industry, in devastating fair and fertile
Wide, and in depressing freedom, which is the great
source of wealth.—(Loucl'and long-continued cheers.)
I say I stand here as a political economist, and I de-
nounce every such transaction:as this being injurious to
the interests of every class in this country, injurious
alike to the highest and to the lowest, for it stops
employment, impedes industry, and draws away
from this country the very source of profitable la-
bour; and therefore it must injure everybody, more
or less, in this country, from the Government itself
down to the humblest mechanic or farm-labourer.—
(Cheers.) But I stand here also to denounce
this loan as a politician, as a member
of society, and as a tax payer.—(Hear, hear.) For
what is the object of this loan ? It is to enable the
Emperor of Russia to maintain an-enormous standing
army ; and what is the consequence ? Why, that
every country in Europe is obliged to keep up an
enormous armament also.—(Hear, hear.) What is
the statement of France ? Why they are obliged
to keep 500;000 armed men because Russia keeps
800,000 ; and we arel here in ilogland accustomed to
cite the hostile position of Russia as a reason why we
keep our enormous fleet. I should not be surprised
if, in the very next session, when I bring forward a
motion asking to reduce our armament, if you find,
what I have before found, the very example of the
Rus-.ian fleet cited why we cannot reduce our
navy. What has been the recent position of
Russia towards this country? Have we not
had our fleets stationed in the Mediter-
ranean at an enormous expense to this country?
Have we not had a fleet sailing in the Dardanelles, in
consequence of the talk of an offensive engagement of
Russia against Tut key ? B-it it is the acknowledged
policy of this country to endeavour to defend
Turkey against all foreign powers. There is no
foreign poser that menaces the integrity of Turkey
but Pens=ia ; and the common talk everywhere now is
that in the very next spring Russia meditates an hos-
tile attack on Turkey on the Danube. You will then
have to defend Turkey against Russia ; and
you will be fighting Russia, who will
ho fighting you with the moneys borrowed from this
country.—(Cheers.) We read in the history of
Holt ind, that on one occasion, when a town was
bombard: d, its merchants sold 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 hio
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. I
say, there fore, that-, apart from the abstract morality,
1, 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
coins. But I denounce the morality of this loan. We
have a snug dactrine 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 own.—
(Laughter.) You must only ask how much per
cent. you can get ; if you can get 5/. per cent. in-
stead cf four that is quite sufficient to sanctify the
transaction.—(Laughter.) That is the doctrine I
hear put f a-th 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 whet he wanted the money for. He 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 Ithe 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 verity every word I said. Now,
what becomes of the two millions that we were told
the Emperor of Russia 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
that they are subject to this rough refutation of all
they say in his behalf at the hands of the poor Czar
himself.—(Loud cheers and a cry of" The Tinzes,"and
" Will any gentleman produce and burn it ?") 111 had
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.—(Cheere.) 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
vise 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 ithe 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.—([Tear.) 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 Hungary 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
troops. Upon a given day the parties were to repair
to the Treasury at C ronstadt, where on satisfactory
being given that they had supplied the corn-
moclitiee, they would receive Treasury receipts
in exchange, Which were to be pa4dg Avail- i