The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-09-08

| The opinion that England will ultimately accept
such terms for the settlement Of the Oregon question
as the United States may feel disposed 10 offer, is
gaining ground all over Europe. The French press,
especially looks upon that matter as already settled,
limiting at the probability that England will accept
anything which does not actually look like threat,
so as TO injure her reputation; and believe the
French press is right. The five great powers Of
Europe are, by mutual jealousies, and by the i'm
possibility of developing simultaneously their re-
spective resources, so entangled in the labyrinth OF
diplomacy, that not one of them can make move,
without losing its position in regard to the rest.
This, and not their growing good sense is the rea-
son why Europe has enjoyed uninterrupted peace
for quarter Of a century. America is like man
Who, in fighting, has his back covered. England
iannot turn westward, without exposing her eastern
position, not only in regard to France but to Rus
STA, and what is termed the Oriental question.
While she quarrels about Oregon, the Russians
may be in Constantnople, and close the Darda-
nelles. England, before ten years over our
heads, will seek our friendship, as being more val
liable than that Of France, and more necessary to
the undisurbed possession of her East India colo
Mes than the present good understanding with the
Emperor of Russia, and his good Offices in Persia,
where, ever since the war in Affghanistan the in
fuence of Great Britain has been at its lowest ebb.
Such prophecy seems strange in these days; but
'truth is not always truthlike" says French prov
erb and events will show that am right.
England, observed above, is on the eve of a
monetary crisis, produced by confederation Of va
rious circumstances, but more especially by excess
sive speculations in railroads. These when compile
ted will call for extraordinary increase in commerce
and industry, to pay the cost of entertaining them,
and the interest Of their outlay But will business In
crease in that ratio, believe not II is very natural
that the first railroads made in rich and thcklyset-
tied country should be productive; because they are
then preferred to other routes, so that business is car
ried into a new channel or forced to take the new
roads, which pays for their reconstruction. But the
is very much changed when several rival railroads
estabished-that Is, when competition, instead OF
operating against other means of conveyance, be-
| comes active as to railroads themselves. All the
dreamed-of advantages then vanish, and the Temporal
ry prosperity produced by the accumulation OF easi-
y transferable property because all property repre-
scented by paper enters in the ratio of about one
tenth of its nominal value into circulaon) is at an
end Apart from the decentralization produced by
the buying and selling Of stocks on premium, Eng
land, and with her all Europe, will yet feel that our
old exploded banking system, which has led to so
much mischief and the present railroad mania on
this side Of the Atlantic, but different varieties
of the same genus of self balanced moneyed specua-
tion which, in the end resolves itself into gambling,
and the whole series of disastrous consequences in
the train of that vice. But monetary crisis in
England is very different from that Of America, as
sickness in sexagenarian is very different from the
ndisposition of a young man. England has no
youthful energy, and no western territory to fall
back upon in of such great national calamity.
She depends upon her commercial credit, which is SO
interviewer with every species of governmental en-
terprise, that serious check given to it from any
quarter, may bring the whole complex machinery
to stand. This threatening monetary crisis, which
can only be prevented by a steady and continuous
progress of industry and commerce, is the cause
of returning reason in England in regard to our
selves The additional tax of 5 per cent. on the es-
timaed capital of railways, levied by the House of
Commons, in addition to the former five per cent,
will, no doubt, lessen the excess of speculation
in Great Britain. But how will it act in reference
to the continental railroads. II is computed that
not less than thirty millions sterling Of British
capital are already invested that way, and the
present law may probably carry that amount TO
fhy-besides running the holders of promissory
stock at home. The present high tariffs on the
continent, which, II is probable, will rather be in
creased than diminished, act in the same manner on
the increasing transfer of British capital the
productive and least taxed, wherever that may be;
for the capitalist, as such, is patriot however he
may otherwise feel disposed to serve his country.
At present. the MANN of English capitalists is to
invest the continent Of Europe, and to dispose Of
American stock; but in less than twelvemonth
they may discover their shortsg htedness. Cont
mental stock is, in my humble opinion, not even as
good as English, because no one knotcs its real val
ue; the probable future events which that value
depends, being much more hidden, and less the
sequence of wcll-ascerained premises than in Eng
land, whose institutions resemble more or less our
own, and enable every man to judge of their merit.
We know, for instance, that Parliament has closed
its session without materially contributing to the
paci6cation of Ireland that the concessions made
by to the Catholics and Protestant dissenters must
eventually undermine the established church; and
that the fall of that establishment must necessarily
entail that of the feudal nobility. All these things
are foreseen; men have the courage TO talk about
them, and to form speculations on the subject.
Hence the revolution which these events, whenever
they may come to pass, must necessarily produce,
will be gradualaffectng, assuredly, the prices of
all commodities, but not affecting them at once On
being there less straghtforwardness in public matters
than in England, and with the exception of France,
no publicity, every event of revolutionary nature
must produce panic, which, am inclined to be-
eve, English spectators will be made to feel in a
very short time. Then American stocks will again
become the fashion, unless reputation should pre-
vent that otherwise necessary consequence.
Let us for a moment pass the continental States
in review:
lst France She is certainly the most formidable
power on the continent; but she has also, than
any other, the germs of decay in her own body. In
potsm; the King depending daily more on the army
and the Notifications for the safety of his dynasty,
than on it's popularity among any one class of So
ciety. There is the quarrel with the Jesus, whom
France cannot entirely dispense with, if she would
not destroy the affinities which they have awakened
in Spain, Belgium, and the Rhensh provinces of
Germany, and which the government must publicly
dsavow, 10 satisfy the people of Paris and the north
of France. Then there is the threatened regency of
the Count Of Paris, the unpopuarity of the Duke OF
Nemours and the precarious state Of the present dip
lomatic relations with the northern powers There
is still republican party, though (hanks to the Sep
tember laws) her organs are now gagged; and there
is party in favor of the old line of BOurbons which
particularly strong in the south, and has its repre-
sentaiives in the remnant of French nobility and
in the upper clergy. The Bonapartst faction is
probably confined TO the army, but has received a
fresh impulse by the writings Of Theirs and his
CONDUCTORS. France has an Achilles heel in Africa,
which, in time Of war; would subtract 200 900 men
from her available means; besides adding enormous
ly to its cost. France moreover-and that ia the chief
cause Of her declining nluence--has no great ma
ona cause to rouse the energy of her people, such
animated her in the first revolution, and in 1890
Louis Philippe, while unquestionably doing mucl,
for the quiet order and prosperity of the country