The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-11-27

The Political Effects OF the Revuls,o.
As soon as the public have recovered the
shock of the financial disorders which are oc-
curing in Europe, they must prepare to hear
of political disturbances. Political revolutions
have invariably followed periods of commercial
and financial embarrassments. Disasters in
business have the effect of unsettling mems
minds; and, in their disturbed state traders
naturally vent their spleen on the government
of their country, and try to convince them
selves that had ii been different the crisis need
not have occurred. This is alike consonant
with experience and with human nature The
financial embarrassments of the reign of Louis
the Sixteenth precipitated the first revolution in
| France; the troubles of 1928 in the money
markets of the world laid the seeds of the re
yolutions of 1880; and the panic of lS47, which
compelled the Bank of England to resort to the
same extraordinary measure which has relieved
it now, Immediately preceded the French, Ger
man, Spanish and Italian commissions of ls4S.
The sequence has required too frequently and
too uniformly to be matter of chance
1t is, therefore, according to precedent and
witness some political CONFUSION of some kind
or other. And it is also reasonable to anticipate
that that political CONFUSION shall be co-exten-
siye with the financial embarrassment which
has occurred.
In this country, as the revulsion of 1887 pre-
ceded and led to the political revolution of
1910, so the revulsion of 1857 is likely to lead
II, If of
parties for 1860. Up to the present time, no
political issue has grown out of the affair,
mainly because its financial bearings have not
yet been fully gagged But when these are
known, the political aspect of the matter will
come into view. The republican party being
efde, the native Americans defunct, the demo-
cracy tending toward disorganization. ample
opportunity will be offered for the creation of
new issues on the financial questions suggested
by the crisis.
In England the question of indemnifying the
bank for the overissue of notes authorized by
the circular of the government will create the
first dividing line among politicians One
party will take the ground that an act of Par
Lament which requires to be superseded every
and that new bank charter is imperatively re-
quired. The other party will reply to this that
Sir Robert Peel, when he drew the Bank act
distinctly explained to Parliament that the con-
tingency which has occurred was foreseen, and
that he relied on the interfbsition of govern
ment whenever the pressure on the bank should
endanger the solvency of the institution. Be
tween these two factions we can see already
that the conflict must be very severe. But,
besides this issue, another and more important
one may be raised at Manchester, Leeds and
Paisley. We hear already that many mills have
been closed and that others are working half
time; we know that curtailments must be the
order of the day for many weeks to come. The
manufacturers are suffering from combination
of bad debts in America and hard times in Eng
land; they cannot keep anything like their
usual force at work. 1t is likely that the suffer-
ings and the conduct of the masses of the unem-
ployed may create new party in Parliament
on the basis of some industrial or perhaps char
fist principle.
But il is on the continent of Europe that the
political effects OF the financial revulson will
he most plainly felt. France and Germany are
radically rotten; so are Spain and Italy. The
imperial regime in France, which, in the guise of
increased national prosperity, has been nothing
but a scene of unexampled imitation, with paper
credit and stock bubbles carried to an alarming
extent, is quite likely to collapse under the
combined effect of the stoppage of the Bank of
France, the failure of the Credit Mobilier and
the SUSPENSION of merca ntile houses And eype-
rence shows that if the French Empire falls,
the other dynasties of Europe will go likewise.
Such contingency would come naturally on
the heels of the financial crisis.