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Leader (1850-1860), 30th June 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 12

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      The Suicide Of Commerce. Commerce Has Co...

      appropriated securities ; and the case does not involve that only young commission house , but is the subject of an action at law , in which the house of Ovebend , Gurnet , and Co . are -defendants . Banks , at all events , were supposed to be immaculate ; but in one at least , outwardly and undistinguished from many -other private banks , we find that the partners themselves have been carrying away the -property of the customers that trusted them ; have been using expedients of that kind to

      keep up an appearance of means that did not exist , and leave their creditors to divide enormous losses . As the mustard you buy is turmeric , the pickles are seasoned with poisons , so the securities are vitiated , and in the strong-box of the bank there is the lawless hand of the banker . What guarantees can be a protection where the criminal law itself is insufficient ? Those who object to limited liability in partnership do so because they say the property of the to t

      partner should justly be surrendered ne creditors of the firm , and the possibility of losing it is the best of checks upon reckless trading . A fortune of 180 , 0002 . would generally be thought a sufficient caution-money ; yet Mr . Stbahan , a man personally esteemed , allows that money to be invested in the bank , and is not prevented by his own liability from letting the firm'to which he has belonged drift through an eventful course into bankruptcv and the criminal court . In fact , all cannot be liable for

      liability is limited ; a man more property than he possesses , except by his body , and we are not aware that any dissecting academy would give sufficient for the bodies of the three partners to make up the balance of 400 , 000 Z . and odd for their creditors . The liability of banks , then , is limited to their means of meeting it . The second partner must virtually have made away with a fortune not less considerable : he now has to face the consequences ; and we see that these outside checks—this

      forfeiture of property , this prospective penalty of the criminal law—are of no avail when the very life-blood of commercial integrity is vitiated . Commerce , we say , has drawn the disaster upon itself . The grandfather of the present tradesman , the plain man who paid his way and was proud not to possess a house at the

      "West-end , laid down the law in commerce , that that is right which " pays . " This has been taken as the grand test of commercial correctness . Any transaction which would pay was thought to be right . By a perfectly consistent application of the rule , that which would pay on the books was correct . Hence , if on the books a merchant can calculate

      that he has only incurred certain liabilities within a given time , and that returns will accrue within a given time , the whole is correct , though no allowance be made for friction in demurrage of ships , failure of sale , or delays of payments . Hence many a house is bankrupt in fact , though not in the theory . The paying rule having become the sole test and guide , no moral check is offered to expedients for securing payment ; hence speculations upon the very subject of

      bankruptcy , and we find some houses which are ranked with others of high character dealing in securities of doubtful liabilitythat is , trading in the bankruptcy of their fellows . It is but one more step to trade in one ' s own bankruptcy—only a step further to the embezzlement of securities . Indeed , if once absolute personal integrity bo abandoned , there is no control or guide for the trader . All is confusion ; bankruptcy becomes one of the normal attendants of

      commerce . Now , the whole mass of property forfeited in consequence is an aggregate loss to trade . It is the penalty imposed upon

      commerce for its own moral depreciation . If men are too lax or . too lazy to look after their own characters , they will scarcely look after the character of their customers . Even commerce , therefore , - cannot give up that high feeling of honour , that sentiment , which m any one transaction may appear as if it would not pay ; in the aggregate it is , we see , the great safeguard , the sacred fire without which British commerce would die out . The p lain man ' s father knew as much in his day , three generations back ; but the march of intellect has made us wiser !

      624 The Leader. [Saturday , ^

      624 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      The Von Beck Case Unmasked. An Appeal Ha...

      THE VON BECK CASE UNMASKED . An appeal has been made for justice to English gentlemen , who had been unjust and had the opportunity of atonement ; but they haye refused , and the case is carried to the public . The case of the Baroness von Beck must be in every reader ' s recollection ; she appeared before the public as a victim to patriotism ; she sought assistance from Englishmen on that ground ; travelled about the country accomand thrust

      panied by a Polish gentleman , herself upon the hospitality of those who had sympathy for Poland and means to spare . It came to the knowledge of Mr . Totjxmust Smith that this woman was an impostor , and that she had , in fact , acted as a spy upon refugees , under the foreign department of the English police . She visited Birmingham , her imposture was stated to persons there , and it will be remembered that Mr . George Dawson

      was one of those consulted as to the propriety of bringing her to justice . Anxious to save her from any undue vexation , he used some pains to ascertain her identity . That ascertained , justice took its course . It was an accident that the woman died in the custody of the police , and while a very piteous case was made out on her behalf , those who had exposed her infamous function were represented as her traducers , if not as her

      assassins . An appeal was made by Mr . Totjlmin Smith to L-ord Pailmerston , who declined to * interfere , and the course taken by Government , was such as to make the public believe that the Baroness Von Beck had been wronged . It now turns out that Lord Pa : lmebsto : n had written the following letter in reply to a question from Mr . Ironside , of Sheffield , who has published the fact in his vigorous newspaper , the Sheffield Free Press :

      " Broadlands , 3 rd January , 1852 . " Sir , —I received your letter of the 1 st instant , and can reply to the question put in your missing letter , as now restated by you . When I saw , some months ago , a statement in the newspaper that the person who called herself the Baroness Von Beck had been employed by the police in this country , I made inquiry upon the subject , and I ascertained that she had offered her services to the Government , but that her offer had been declined , and that she never had been so employed . I state this for your own information , but I do not wish to be brought into the controversy by the publication of this letter , or by having my name quoted in regard to the matter . " I am , Sir , yours faithfully , —Pauiekston . "

      To this Mr . Toulmin Smith adds : — The following written testimony , by an employe ' of the English I ' olico , is in my possession . It now acquires an importance which cannot bo exaggerated : — "I beg to inform you that the poreon styling herself ' Baroness do Beck , ' is tho same who , accompanied by Dr . It , offered personally her services as a spy and informer to tho recently established ( 1851 ) foreign branch of the English police force . / know likewise that for a fortnight or three weeks she has obtained for such services the sum of 5 / , IGa . 8 d . per week . " To what foreign Bum 5 / . IGa . 8 d . corresponds , is a question not difficult to aolvo . Tlio sum , however , proves tho complicity between tho English and Foreign Police . —T . B .

      Mr . Ironside is the friend of tho gentlemen who wore so slandered at the time of Von Beck ' b death . He felt himself , however , under an obligation not to publish IJord pAiiMEBSTOJsr ' s letter .

      How To Organise An Army . The Following ...

      HOW TO ORGANISE AN ARMY . The following remarks were made during a conversation held in Paris in 1858 : — " A military nation , " said M . Th s , " can without much preparation , invade an . unwarlike neighbour . It would not take us long to make a rush on Belgium . But if a serious invasion is to "be attempted , if good troops are to be encountered , and an army is to be got ready to which the honour of the country can be trusted , six months is a very short period . First , the different regiments must be sifted , to get from each of

      them two hataillons d ' elite for foreign service . These battalions must be united in brigades , and the capacity of the regimental officers tested by the chef de brigade , in the same way in which those officers tested that of their own privates and sous-officiers . The brigades again must be united in a division . They must be accustomed to act together , and to know how far one regiment and one brigade can rely on another . The general of division has to do only with the colonels . He sends away all those whom he finds too old , or too negligent , or too ignorant , or too dull

      for real fighting : and the comparatively low social position of our regimental officers—more than two-thirds of whom have risen from the ranks—enables him to do so without mercy . It is thus by a long-continued process of selecting , and training , and changing , and promoting , and discharging , that a division is moulded and welded into one mass of homogeneous materials , the efficiency of which can be relied on , as we rely on that of a well-constructed machine . If any

      one step in the process be omitted , or even hurried over , the machine becomes imperfect , and , if it be opposed to one that has been properly prepared , it will break in the general's hands . But this takes time : six months is too little . The army that won the battle of Austerlitz had been subjected to this training for more than two years . " The army of the Hundred Days , which gained the battle of Ligny , was raised by Napoleon in less than six weeks ; but you must recollect what

      were his materials . More than 180 , 000 veterans , men who , though young , had passed years under fire , whom he had scattered over all Europe , from Dantzig to Alexandria , were restored to France by the peace . He had only to stamp and the legions sprang up . And , after all , what was the result ? This hastily-collected army was broken , was scattered , was actually dissolved as no French army ever was before in a single battle . Would the army of Austerlitz have thus fallen to pieces ? I will not Say that that array wquld have gained the battle of Waterloo ; though

      if it had been ready , as it would have been , to attack at eight in the morning instead of at eleven , the chances would have been in its favour ; but I affirm that it would not have been ignominiously beaten . It might have failed , but it would not have been destroyed . " Now , nothing but a first-rate army could invade England . They must -be men , like those of Cortez , whose courage would not flinch when they saw nothing but the enemy before and the sea behind them . Napoleon thought 180 , 000 men necessary—and 180 , 000 of his men were worth 300 , 000 of ours . Where can a double ileet be ^ k-r % ^ x ^ ^ - ^ ^^ ^^ ~** r ^ ^ - ^ * - ¦ ^ — ' — r » — — — — — — ' — to defend

      found , one to carry the troops , the other them ? For the transports , even if sliips of war , could not fight : the soldiers would rise on the crews . No men could bear to stand or be inactive behind a ship ' s sides through which shots were driving . It is difficult to keep them steady under a cannonade in the field when they arc encouraged by the constant hope of attacking in their turn . The transports must bo kept out oj / ire , and how is this to be done unless a ileet largo enough to keep yours at bay —that is to say , larger than yours—accompanies them . We have no such fleet , and it would tako at least a year to form one . Therefore , I repeat , you will have a

      year ' s warning . " London couM not bo entered by less than 25 , 000 men—and to briri £ 25 , 000 men to London , 50 , 000 must be landed in Kent or Dorsetshire . Such an army and the fleets that would have to carry and protect them could not bo got ready in six months . The iden , however , of a dash on London is preposterous . Fifty thousand »» cn thrown on your shores might , indeed , do you enormous mischief , but they would bo ultimately sacrificed , and such a sacrifice would bis Jutai to the best-established government . V U « on it , that if he attacks , and I still bolievc

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061855/page/12/