The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-08-19
S5a9,620,0OO

To these must be added the losns effected by
Prussia and Austria at the commencement Of
the war, some fifty millions more; and small
loan recently effected by the King of Sardinia
under the guarantee of England.
Altogether independently of the Russian ex-
penses which must have been enormous, the
cost of the war, in money actually laid out for
soldiers pay, provisions and munitions of war,
has already exceeded six hundred millions of
dollars; nearly all of which has been raised
within eighteen months. Nor has any diff
Guilty been experienced by the finance ministers
who have raised these loans. The narratives
of the subscription for the last French loan of
seven hundred and fifty millions of francs re-
mind one of the old stories of the financier Law
and the Rue Quincampoiy. People slept in
the street, in, about, and opposite the house
where the loan was to be opened on the NOR
row. A large police force were employed to
keep order among the throng, and enforce the
regulations respecting queues That the amount
rendered was six times as great as that want
ed is no wonder, as the hiage was so ar
ranged that each man received an allotment
in proportion 10 bis subscription and those
who wanted $4,000 francs therefore sub
scribcd prudently for 100000. But even
making allowance for this, the bare fact that
the people of France subscribed in one day
sl5o0o0,Oo0, after having paid similar
amount for war purposes during the fifteen
months previous, cvinccs state OF feeling as
well as state OF prosperity wholly unprece-
dented. No nation ever gave such tangible
proofs of it's readiness and its ability to con-
tinue the war; and certainly until some equal
ly tangible fact has been adduced on the other
side, the inference which all unparalleled
persons will draw will be unfavorablc in every
light to the Russian cause.
The fact is the more startling when we ex-
anime the Indebtedness, credit, and financial
standing of the various European nations.
England who has just added .e46000, 600 to her
debt, owed the enormous sum Of G773.923 900
before: the interest on her debt is larger than
the whole United States revenue. France
owed G233.000,00O. In the year 1915, when
Napoleon returned from Elba the British funds
ell to Sc, and the best men despaired of the
State though the only event that had occurred
was the arrival Of stray Corscan on the
shores Of France. In ls4s, when the French
republic was established. the Minister of FL
nances Of the Provisional Government found it
wholly impossible to obtain a loan of o franc.
Commerce having been oversct by the political
conyulsion, decree was passed to grant to
makers Of promissory notes and bills of ex-
change a delay of thirty days to pay them
but this unstatesmanlike measure Of course
failed in its object, and the merchants at last
flying for aid to the government, the pitable
truth was at last told to the people, that no
one would trust the republic. II GARNER Pa
gts and Achllc Fould ever write their me-
moirs, the reading public will he astonished to
see to what straits great kingdoms and impos-
ing governments may be reduced and the
financial distress Of the old Continental Con-
gress and the Madison Cabinet will cease to ap-
pear severe or unusual.
At the present day, as indeed was always the
case in greater or less degree, not only the
sinews but the bone and flesh Of war are money.
Minnie rifles are good, Todtleben earthworks
are good Lancaster guns are not bad and bra
very is excellent but better by far than all
these are dollars, good hard dollars of pure
gold, or paper sold for dollars at premium.
There are no Sebastopols which dollars will
not take, if there are enough of them, and they
last-no fleets they cannot destroy, no armies
they cannot wear out. The old fable-thc
shower Of gold which rained through roofs and
ceilings and walls into the warm bosom of the
blushing Danae--is after all the type Of all
possible wars. Gold, gold. gold is your only
conqueror