On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (9)
-
1020
-
•NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. ^ li&^iM? * ...
-
Several communications unavoidably stand...
-
irdw*™* *?
-
"SATTJBDAT, OCTOBEB 21, 1857. lk
-
= s*i 1 I* T1tfrt;^^ J^tUIuC.JlUlU uL * » is
-
'There is n&thing so revolutionary, beca...
-
THE MONEY CRISIS. Tele crisis in the Uni...
-
STATESMEN FOR INDIA. The reporb that Lor...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
1020
1020
T 111 X B ABEm TNo . 396 , QftPOBEB 24 . ISri ?
•Notices To Correspondents. ^ Li&^Im? * ...
• NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . ^ li &^ iM ? * ii 2 Sf t ^^ P' ° * ™* y special occasions , tSS ^ S ? S ? Uy ^ dressed to contemporaries . The subject of R . Q . ' s communication is already out of date
Several Communications Unavoidably Stand...
Several communications unavoidably stand , over . [ fcis impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters ve receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press Of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently fronfreasons quite independent of tlie merits of the commnnicavion . ^ TOh ° » ico ° — J > ^ e » of anonymous correspondence , whatever is intended for insertion must l > e authenticated toy the name and address of tbe writer ; not necessarily Tor publication , but as a guarantee of his good faitli . Wo cannot undertake to return rejected communications .
Irdw*™* *?
irdw *™* *?
"Sattjbdat, Octobeb 21, 1857. Lk
"SATTJBDAT , OCTOBEB 21 , 1857 . lk
= S*I 1 I* T1tfrt;^^ J^Tuiuc.Jlulu Ul * » Is
^ tili Mturs .
'There Is N&Thing So Revolutionary, Beca...
'There is n & thing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keen thing ' s fixed , when allthe world is by the very law of its creation m eternal progre 3 s . —De . Aekold .
The Money Crisis. Tele Crisis In The Uni...
THE MONEY CRISIS . Tele crisis in the United States arises from exactly the same cause that has , not very many years ago , produced a crisis in England , and that has prepared in Europe a more tremendous crash , perhaps , than the world las ever witnessed ; for it involves empires as "well as commercial firms . The cause is speculation , overtrading , gambling in commercial chances , or whatever else it may be called . Its motive is the avaricious desire
to obtain profits without the expense of much trouble . A man has money in his hands ; he wishes to be richer than he is ; he does not care to be at the trouble of entering into any honest business , to look after it himself , or to study the duties ; but he liears that by putting his money into some novel enterprise just started , lie may make his fortune at a stroke . In the United States they grow cotton far more than they cau use ; we can buy it at a price -which is a great profit to
the grower , and which leaves us a profit to be made on the work of manufactivriug it . A railway between the place of production and the exporting harbour diminishes the delay , trouble , risk , and expense of carriage . The labour of constructing and managing the railway can be carried on with a profit for the proprietors . Having manufactured the goods in our densely-peopled country , we can carry the manufactured cotton back to America , and sell it with advantage to American
purchasers and profit to English makers . In . all these cases there is something made or done , a substantial piece of goods or a ^ solid service exchanged for the money given ; all parties are co-operating to increase each other ' s wealth . But some man who understands nothing about cotton , railways , or manufactures , hears that probably there will be a great demand for cotton in England , audjho buys up a large quantity , only ^ to ^ ctnir ge a higher price for it , and make his tortune at a blow . Another man hears that
shares in the railway are likely to produce a great profit ; he puts his money into shares , not to make the railway better , or to assist in serving the cotton-grower and the cottonpurchaaer , but most likely to sell the shares again to somebody who will sell them , again , Bimply to make money by . the exchange . Th . e English manufacture catches tho fever ; he hears that cotton goods are selling atagpod price , and he makes oh much as ever he can , without reference to tho real probabilities , o £ . the want in America . What i £ he does foreatal thu > . market for others ?—
-he puts money in his own pocket , and that is all he cares for . The clothing of the Americans , the employment of English labourers , the complete development of railway communication , the welfare of the country producing the cotton , the mutual advantage of all parties , have been forgotten by these speculators . They are in a fever of buying and selling ; they put others into the fever ; the same bale of cotton is-sold several times over , the same railway share , until at last it is
discovered that the value is exaggerated beyond any real demand . The last man who has invested his money in the speculation has fallen mto a gigantic mistake ; he has not made his fortune at a blow , bub he has made his bankruptcy at a blow ; and his friends and connexions who have trusted him , or . perhaps shared in . his inflated hopes , suffer with him . Xhw is the whole story of the American crisis . It is identical with the history of the Credit Mobilier speculation , which has not yet come to its crisis . It is the story of Capel-court ; of the London Joint-Stock
mania m 1825 ; of the . South-Sea Bubble , and of all the artificially created bankruptcies of Europe or America . This part of com-, merce could not be developed to such gigantic proportions if the regulations of trade did not facilitate gambling and open the door for the forgers and swindlers . We have had very nefarious transactions in the United States ; we see in the defalcations of
Mr . Jtkederic "W \ Pouter , the corresponding Secretary of the American Sunday School Union , that the practice of defalcations has been exported to that side of the Atlantic ; but neither New York nor Philadelphia can show so long a list of swindlers and bankrupts by conspiracy as Paris , with its bubble companies ancLits Docks Napoleon ; still less as London , with its well-born forgers , its fashionable swindlers , and its religious bankers .
Being based upon no substantial productions or exchanges , this kind of speculation must , sooner or later , come to a wind-up . The longer the day is postponed the larger the proportion of loss which falls upon innocent parties ; nnd we ought to be glad , therefore , when the day comes for a settlement of accounts . It occasions great difficulty for the moment . One of the first requirements , for a settlement of accounts , even in bankruptcy , is money . Your bankrupt wants
money ; his neighbours , whose credit is whispered away , want money to make their credit good . The State wants money , because some tax-payers are defaulters ; and the tax-payer wants money because the State is screwing lim . This is exactly the condition of things in every part of Europe . Hamburg , New York , Paris , Xondon , Glasgow , and Vienna have been carrying on a kind of auction to obtain the largest supplies of money . The banks of Hamburg have gone as high as 94
per cent . ; private persons aro said to have gone in Vienna as high as 12 or 18 percent . By the depreciation of ita own stock , tho State in Austria has gone to a yet higher figure , and will have to do something of tho kind early next year . Under these circumstances , gold would have been drawn from London and Paris to the East and "West , if the principal banks of England lind of lYaueo had not set tlie example of giving a sufficient
price for the gold they required to , keep . This is the reason why tho Bank of Praneo has gone as high aa 7 £ per cent ., and that ia not high enough ; for tho Bank of England , which can really obtain money at a cheaper rate , because its security is better , hna gone aa high as 8 per cent . The Bank of franco , however , has circuitous contrivances for g iving a bettor price for gold , without appearing , to do so on tho face of the returns .
_ How shall we get out of the difficulty ? We shall accomplish a rescue entirely by force of the genuine trade of all the countries involved . By the side of the speculation which Louis Napoleon ' s jobbing statesmen have got up in France , there is a real extension of commerce , and some of the commercial houses that have been actually involved are recovering by favour of that extension . In this country the immense increase of our trade and the great extension of our agricultural enterprise and produce , at once give us tlie
means of maintaining the present pressure , and the confidence that we shall come off in the end . This is still more the case in . tlie United States . The Americans Iiave only to wait for a few years , when the spread of settlement , the increase of produce , tlie growth of the older states in wealth , will be so liiany substantial guarantees that the Union will continue to grow richer and richer from this moment , notwithstanding the ineonvenienceB occasioned to many individuals by the passing embarrassments of speculative commerce . One evidence of the sound
condition of the whole Union is the fact that its Government is at this very day enabled to mitigate the severity of the pressure , not only by the punctual payment of salaries and of all claims upon the Government , but by a steady and rapid redemption * " of the public del ) t . After all , the injury inflicted by the recoil of over-speculation must fall upon the minori ty , especially in America . Some few years since , those very men who had ruined ' themselves by speculations in the railway market , went back and retrieved themselves and their country by pursuing agriculture in the halfcolonized lands of Michigan .
Statesmen For India. The Reporb That Lor...
STATESMEN FOR INDIA . The reporb that Lord Canning is to be recalled from the head of the Indian Government does not appear to rest upon the slightest foundation . It does not express any intention of the Ministers , "but it expresses the intent of the English public . Public opinion has never been satisfied wibh the selection of Lord Canning . " When he
was sent over to India it was said that lie had been appointed after others with a greater capacity foir statesmanship had declined the office . In this country Lord Canwing was well known as occupying the place which Rowland Hill should have occupied . While the latter did the work of the Post-office , Lord Canning was Postmaster-General ; and when he exchanged the government of letters for the government of Hindoos , it was understood that he could not get on unless he could find some Rowland Hill in India to do
the work . But there is a difference between the Indian Empire and the great office in St . MartinVle-Grand . It would probably have puzzled Lord Cannino to keep order in that largo establiwhment , if ho had not had experienced , energetic , and inventive men under him- As it was , there were lettcr-carricra who destroyed letters instead of delivering them j letter-carriers who claimed higher wages ; newspapers and book parcels that refused to reach their destination ; an < l it
was reported that Lord Cannino gave a great deal of attention and anxiety to the arduous duty of looking over Mr . H ill ' s shoulder while he performed tho labour of keeping the Post-office in order . When somebody proposed that the ornamental part of tho 1 ' ostoffico should bo abolished , and that Mr . Ro-wxanj ) Hill himself should bo TostmiiBter-General , Lord PALMEitsroir said that tho good of keeping a peer in tlie department waa , not that the work of tho Post-office might bo bettor done , but that there might bo another noble lord in tho Cabinet ; and
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 24, 1857, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24101857/page/12/
-