The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-28 00:00:00

AMERICAN LOANS.

The following letter conveys some useful warning against
American loans reported to be forthcoming upon this market :
" Sir,—The American Government having determined on
raising a loan, the greatest part of which they will endeavour,
by every plausible representation, to get negotiated in England,
1 cannot avoid expressing a hope that through your valuable
and widely circulating paper, a warning voice may be raised,
sufficiently strong to prevent innocent Englishmen being duped
by the Federal Government, as they have been by the swind-
ling acts of the repudiating, or non-paying States.
" Knowing, by sad experience, the distress occasioned
by the faithless conduit of the Mississippi State, I am the
more anxious to prevent my countrymen trusting to any
professions of the President of the United States, whose
authority avails nothing against the wishes of a repudiating
population ; and who, if the said repudiating mob wish it,
' would, in case of non-fulfilment of the loan terms, merely
say, on being remonstrated with, ' that he is sorry for it, but
hopes honesty may some time or other prevail.' My own case
is simply this :—Some few years ago I retired from the army,
in which I spent thirty years almost constantly in a foreign
clime. On arriving in England 1 found the English funds un-
usually high. Being anxious to invest my hard. earned savings
advantageously, though not in a speculating mariner, 1 applied
to my friends, who assured me that American State bonds were
negotiated by the respectable houses in London, the interest
regularly paid, and considered quite as safe as other semi ities.
Unfortunately 1 purchased some Mississippi bonds, signed by
the Governor of State, and certified to be redeemable 1861,
1866, and 1871.

" After receiving my interest, five per cent., with the greatest
regularity, through the respectable agents in London, for
four years and a half, I was suddenly told that no more
payments were to be made, and from that day to this I can
neither get principal nor interest. The very Governor of the
state, M'Nutt, who signed the bonds, became their repudi-
ator ; and thus I have, with numerous others, been duped,
cheated, and defrauded by the Legislature and people of the
Alississipi State. That the loan will be represented as more
advantageous than State bonds, as to security, Congress having
issued them, there is no doubt ; but when we consider how
general the idea of repudiating debts is become in America,
and that Congress have neither proclaimed the infamy, or its
abhorrence of such fraudulent acts, I cannot avoid again ex-
pressing a hope that (in however favourable ,a point of view
this loan be presented to the English people by persons who
will derive advantage from the commission, &c.) any persons
intending to purchase into it, will consider the extreme dis-
tress many are now suffering from the fraud of the non-paying
States of America, and that they themselves, on becoming
creditors of the United States Government, are actually cre-
ditors of these non-paying States, who are now causing such
distress in great part of England.
" Romsey, May 24, 1842. MILES."