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

Obetniag :-;un

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1850.

Amore has pronounced Russia to be one of the
poorest, if not the poorest, country in that continent
of which he has rendered himself the historian.
Nevertheless we are continually stunned with
panegyrics on the incalculable riches of the
AUTOCRAT : the apologists of absolutism are perpetu-
ally reviving certain old wives' tales about the hoards
of gold coin and bullion secreted in the cellars of the
imperial palace at St. Petersburgb. Were we to
credit the assertions of those, who in England, have
taken upon themselves the task of advocating the
cause of despotism, we should most assuredly labour
under the delusion that the gorges of the Ural
mountains are as thickly covered with a gravel
of precious stones as the valley of diamonds where
SINBAD was conveyed by the roc. So prodigious,
indeed, is the wealth of the Czast, reputed to be, that
he is invariably regarded as the last stay of every
bankrupt Government in Christendom. No sooner
is the •rand Duke of TUSCANY aware of the
emptiness of his treasury, than the organs of Euro-
pean absolutism declared that his Imperial Majesty
the EMPEROR of all the Russias is about to save him
from insolvency by a beneficent lean of half a mil-
lion. Simultaneously the exchequer of the Sovereign
PONTIFF is found to ba as empty as the box of
Pandora, without even retaining the shadowy ghost
of hope at the bottom ; and thereupon the same vera-
cious quidnuncs asseverate that the Lord of Moscow
and St. Petersburgb, the descendant of the dynasty
of ROUMANOFF is about to infuse new vitality into the
exhausted authority of the Pontificate by a sponta-
neous supply of no less than 500,0001. sterling.
Every occasion during the last half-century has been
seized as an opportunity for magnifying the amount
of the national coffers of Russia, and for enlarging
upon their monetary repletion. Yet, when this
gigantic boast has resounded in its most sonorous
accents, suddenly we are startled by the intelligence
that the billionaire of Christendom has come a-beg-
ging to the money-lenders of England. Never bas
any declaration proved to be a more stupendous sham.
Not even Sir EPICURE MAMMON, when indulg-
ing in his day-dreams of more than oriental magni-
ficence, while the crucible on the alchemic furnace
simmered amidst nothing but dross and ashes--ap-
peared in a more contemptible plight than the AU-
TOCRAT now vaunting of the magnitude of his pos-
sessions, and almost in the same breath revealing, by
his appeal for assistance, the depth and urgency of
his destitution. Every one familiar with the stories
recounted in the shape of " Arabian Nights' Enter-
tainments" by the lips of the Vizier's daughter, the
Sultana SCHEHERAZADE, will understand our mean-
ing when we say that the noise made by the ap-
proach of this demand for a Russian loan is marvel-
lously like the sound of the smashing of the porter's
basket of crockery kicked over by the foot of the
v; %inn ory R,Eicr-o Udall-0 Hero lo tho woad thiest
potentate in Europe, the vaults of whose palace are
crammed with ingots, whose hills are ribbed with
gold, and seamed with silver, and powdered with
jewels, whose sceptre is little else than a cornucopia
running over with riches into the laps of the less
fortunate princes of Europe—coming to the banking-
houses of London for a loan of 5,500,000/. ! And the
demand, moreover, is made upon a pretence as
shame-faced as it is transparent ! The completion
of a railway that may be said already to have been
completed—the prosecution of a work of public uti-
lity already on the eve of its final achievement.
Thank GOD—if there are men with cupidity, and
without conscience in England—there are also men of
heart and discernment. The magnificent meeting
convened yesterday in the London Tavern is a noble
attestation that the people of this country are not dead
to the sentiments of humanity, even when those sen-
timents are inimical to the seductions of pecuniary
speculation. In more particulars than one that majestic
assemblage was a pendant to the gatherings made
during the last year by those who sympathised in the
cause of Hungarian independence. The enthusiasm
evinced by the auditors of those who breathed from
the platform the stirring language of indignation was
a sequel to the ardour betrayed on all those occasions
when the British orator responded in tones of admi-
ration to the war cries and the battle-songs of the
patriotic Magyars. Although, unhappily, the meet-
ing of yesterday occurred too late to prevent the com-
pletion of a loan loathsome to every generous heart in
these islands, the intelligence of its convocation, of
the speeches delivered by the principal personages
present, and of the spontaneous enthusiasm with which
those speeches were applauded, cannot fail to exercise
a beneficent influence, not only here, but elsewhere
To ourselves it is, in truth, a matter of profound ex-
ultation that the language of abhorrence should have
been so audibly articulated against those despicable
persons who would improve their fortunes by
taking part in a transaction of so dark anti detestable
a character. For the loan recently negotiated by the
BARING Brothers is nothing less than a transaction of a
most dark and detestable character, seeing that it is
in reality a loan for the payment of expenses in-
curred by the AUTOCRAT in one cf the most atroci-
ous wars ever adventured upon in this or any pre-
ceding generation. Even the organs of absolutism,
as we shall show elsewhere in this evening's impres-
sion, are found to acknowledge that while ostensibly
borrowing these five millions and a half for the pur-
pose of effecting the completion of the railway
between Moscow and St. Petersburg+, the Rus-
sian AUTOCRAT is actually doing so with the
intention of applying those moneys to the payment
of the troops lately dispatched on the damnable errand
of Hungarian devastation. Every coin, therefore, cf
this enormous loan is dripping with the heart's blood
of the Magyars—the money is as much blood-money
as the thirty pieces of silver paid for the purchase of
Acaldama ! And those who participate in furnishing
these supplies to the imperial master of the woman-
flogger PASKEWITCII are virtually implicated in all
the horrors perpetrated in the unfortunate countries
bordering the Draave and the Danube—they share with
the savage Cossacks of NICHOLAS the infamy of those
fiendish crimes, the mere rumour of which filled the
whole of Western Europe with consternation—the
scourging of females, the massacre of children, the
human battues of Arad, and the permanent gallows of
Presburg, the military assassinations at Pesth, and
the public murders in the squares of Buda, the
destruction of so many splendid cities, and the
butchery of so many illustrious heroes. On their
heads will descend a portion of those execrations
which have followed upon the dismal execu-
tions of Amnia and BATTLIYANY. They will
share _ in the detestation of Christendom
fur the shedding of that blood which cries aloud to
heaven for vengeance—the blood of a nation whose
men have been strangled upon the thresholds of
their homes, whose women have been scourged
upon their hearths, and whose children have
been stricken down within the imaginary shel-
ter of their sanctuaries. When at length the
hour of expiation has arrived—that hour which is not
the less inevitable because it may, perchance, appear
procrastinated— these abettors of northern despotism
may find cause to curse the fatuity of their avarice, and

to rue that lust of gain which renders them insensible
to the qualms of conscience and to the holier in-
stincts of humanity. Whatever may be their ulte-
rior remorse, this much at least is certain, that the
people of England can never lose a recollection of
their proceedings, and that the hand of fellowship
must henceforth be denied to the abettors of a blood-
stained absolutism, the accomplices of an organized
assassination, and the aiders of that sinister despot,
whose reign throughout has been reddened with
murder and branded with infamy, from the death of
ALEXANDER to the calamities befalling the nuns of
Minsk, from the seizure of Wallachia to the devas-
tation of Hungary.

In our preceding article we have alluded to the
magnificent demonstration which was yesterday ex-
hibited at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street,
deprecating the proposed loan to the Autocrat of
RUSSIA, which has just been contracted for by
British capitalists of high standing and respectability
in the money market. We have pointed out the
more than doubtful morality of the transac-
tion, and, we trust, have succeeded in show-
ing that it should be repudiated by every
man possessed of an honourable and feeling heart—
who is not so wholly devoted to the worship of
Mammon as to have his conscience utterly seared
and callous to every consideration save that of gain
—who is not utterly indifferent to the purposes to
which the money he is about to advance may be
applied, and who would shudder at being considered a
participator in the nefarious projects which, to say
the least of it, are imputed to the CZAR. But the
Stock Exchange has proverbially no conscience, and
although the great majority of the British nation
may avoid the pollution and degradation that would
be inseparable from any connexion with the
,` accursed thing," sufficient may be obtained to
enable the EMPEROR to chuckle over the folly of
John Bull, in placing the sinews of war in the hands
of his most formidable opponent, and depriving him-
self of the power of neutralizing the machinations of
the despot. We shall, therefore, consider the subject
in another point of view, and show its 'probable re-
sults as a mere matter of pounds, shilling!, and
pence.
The first question that naturally arises on this
portion of the case is—What are the reasonable pros-
pects, of reimbursement provided for the holders of
the new stock;? Hitherto the Russian Government
has unquestionably maintained a fair position in the
money market. It has not as yet repudiated any
of its public liabilities, and if it came forward
in a bona fide and straightforward manner,
its application would be entitled to a fa-
vourable consideration. But the entire trans-
action is based upon fraud. The money is at-
tempted to be raised under " false pretences,"
such as would justly subject a private individual to
a prolonged seclusion, and salutary exercise on—
what has been facetiously termed " the gyratory
reformer of morals"—the tread-mill. If a merchant
or trader, however high his standing or his fancied
solvency, comes forward with a palpable false-
hood, a vile, sneaking, contemptible lie in his mouth,
he will be shunned alike by money dealers and mer
chants. His position may apparently be very good, no
flaw can be detected in his proposals, but there must
be some latent radical defect, or why descend to sub-
terfuges to obtain that which he could command if
all were straightforward and bona fide, and could
bear a close and searching investigation ? Now the
AUTOCRAT has degraded himself by such a falsehood,
and what is perhaps still worse in the opinion of
those who, although " they may not scruple to tell
a lie, yet have their consciences materially hurt by
being found out"--an easily detected false-
hood. In his Imperial ukase, signed by
the EMPEROR in person, he says, "To
meet the expenses required for the completion
of the railroad from St. Petersburgh to Mos-
cow, we have judged proper to contract a further
foreign loan, which we order to be opened by sub-
scription, to the extent of 5,500,000/. sterling, on the
following conditions," &c., &c. Now, it is perfectly
notorious that the railway above referred to is already
all but completed, and that a very small sum only
could be required for the purpose. Mr. COBDEN himself
had ocular demonstration of the fact. He spoke as
an eye-witness, when he declared that he was at St.
Vetersburgh two years ago, and at that time the
rolling stock of that railway was all finished—a
hundred locomotives were ready. " I travelled by one
of them on a part of the line. Thousands of waggons
and carriages were ready ." But,Jest the testimony
of the Honourable Gentleman may be objected to,
we will quote the evidence of one who cannot be
accused of any hostility to the contemplated loan,
who has even come forward- as the most strenuous
advocate of the transaction.

In the Money article of the Times of Tuesday last,
when speaking of the loan, it says—
" The investment is still further recommended by the
allegation that the money is wanting for a work of inter-
nal improvement. At the same time this allegation
must ba received with some allowance, since it is under-
,t)od that the railway in question has long been nearly
finished; that the iron and rolling stock are on the
ground; and that little remains but to lay down the
railg. So that it would appear probable that the under-
taking is in a great measure used as a pretext in order
to obtain the supplies for exigencies which have resulted
from the late war.

This is the deliberate opinion of the great organ of
the bullionists and what is styled the " money in-
terest." It will therefore be received with respect,
and regarded as an oracle by the magnates of the
Stock Exchange. How can they then, in the face of
such an admission, advance their money when it
is palpable that the entire affair from its very incep-
tion is tainted by fraud, and that there must be
" something rotten in the state of (not Denmark),
but Russia."

There is another point that should not be lost
sight of by those who are about to connect them-
selves with the affair. It cannot be forgotten that by
the ukase of the 31st March, 1847, the AUTOCRAT
directed the investment of 30,000,000 of silver roubles,
equivalent to the sum of 4,600,0001. sterling, in
foreign securities, in addition to the sum of
2,000,0001. sterling previously invested in
the purchase of French Rentes. The greater
portion of this large sum came to this country,
and was lodged in Three per Cent. Consols, and it is
notorious that it still remains at the disposal of the
EMPEROR in the British funds. Now, if there be no
secret design to injure the power of this country,
why should NICHOLAS, whom no person can accuse
of want of sharpness in money matters, desire to lend
at three per cent. and to keep out an enormous sum
of money which could be realised at any moment, at so
small a rate of interest, while he is actually borrowing
from his debtor at the rate of 51. ls. per cent.? or,
in other words, submitting to a loss of two per cent.,
or 110,0001. per annum for nothing ? Is it not clear
as light, palpable to the most superficial observer, that
his object must either be to cheat the lenders, and
refuse the liquidation of his liabilities on any future
occasion, whenever they may become peculiarly
onerous, or that he meditates some deep stroke of po-
licy, some coup d'etat, the opportunity for which would
be cheaply purchased by the loss of some hundreds
of thousands pounds sterling? Can his unjust ag-
gression on Turkey already be forgotten ? Can his
haughty and impertinent demand for the extradition
of the gallant fugitives, who sought that refuge
amongst Mahometans which was denied in Christen-
dom, be already wrapped in oblivion ? or the pro-
found indignation which he exhibited at the manly
and honourable interference of the " 'Western
Power ? " No. The Czan has not aban •
doned his designs on the Moslem's terri
tory. He still looks forward to the time
when the Russian Eagle shall float above the Crescent
in the " City of the Sultan," and when England
must remain in inglorious and dishonourable qui-
escence to witness the destruction of her ancient
ally, and the aggrandisement of the Leviathan of the
North. Russian diplomatists are but too well aware
of the blighting effect of our monetary code ; the
bankruptcy and ruin brought upon myriads by the
withdrawal of a few millions of gold from
the coffers of the Bank of England is
well known to the wily NICHOLAS. Accord-
ing to the evidence of the Governor and Deputy-
Governor of the Bank of England, Wore the Com-
mittee " appointed to inquire into the causes of the
late commercial distress," the crisis was occasioned
by the abstraction of 7,500,0001. from the bullion
held by the Bank, and the consequent diminution in
notes to that extent, and the withdrawal of probably
not less than 1,500,0001. from other sources. The

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