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

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 crash
the liberties of Hungary from the agriculturists
in the course of their march, depending upon raising
sufficient money to enable them to discharge their
claims as well as all ()there incidental to that disgrace-
ful war. And they have come to England: far a loan
—(Hear)—and I say that this money now about to
be raised in London is so much money used for 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 whe'her the money is obtained a little after or
not. The operations in the case of Hurgary were
based upon calculations as to the amount of money that
thus may be had 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-
tenced to 12 months' impriscnment with hard labour,
for having been the owner of a number of infamous
houses which returned him a profit of 20 per cent.—
(Hear' 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."—(Hear, 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 hiss 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,
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. (Hear, hear.) It is
nek I think, improper when the Em-
peror of Russia comes and invites the citizens
of London to lend him money to say something of
the condition of the Emperor. He is the only Ras-
peror in the world that rules over white slaves. He
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 ?—(11-ar, hear.) What
security would they then have for the repayment of
the loan, beforemany years had passed away ? There
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 embarass-
merits 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 cut 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: debts.—(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
arm.,", 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 bad
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
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, consistency,
morality, and indeed were indefensible in public opi-
nion.—(llear, hear.) This had been the work of six
months, whereas they had but begun their work.—
(l fear, 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.—(Hear, hear.) Ile
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
peopleinte-
rtiohdtinto
rt
hhtoea droetbcheeeeiryn.
receive
lendingmoney out of one
rest to their creditors.—(Hear, hear.) In fact, the
gop
oiul
ctl lkiebeftl e
ii
Ia smallß h
tpe
ro.r)t i o nT
nine
mi not enreeys
.t
lenders, speculator=, and brokers were not, how -
ever, the parties who would suffer 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 it. 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
man would wish to
panroviindveefsotrmehnist,chwihlderreenb,y
thaenyHon. Gentleman pro-
ceeded to canvass the value of the loans previously
contracted for by the Messrs. Baring—for instance,
the SplAnisb, the Goode, and the l'Qrtu