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    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 Overend , G-ttrney , 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 partner should justly be surrendered to the creditors of the firm , and the possibility of losing it is the best of checks upon reckless trading . A fortune of 180 , 000 Z . 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 eventful into bank

    drift through an course - ruptcy and the criminal court . In fact , all liability is limited ; a man cannot be liable for more property than he possesses , except by his body , aid 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 ? . 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 pmjmcf 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 stop further to the embezzlement of securities . Indeed , if once absolute personal integrity bo abandoned , there ia no control or guide for * the trader . All is confusion ; bankruptcy becomea 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 . 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 in 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 plain man ' s father knew as much in his day , three generations back ; but the march of intellect has made us wiser !

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    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 accompanied by a Polish gentleman , and . thrust herself upon the hospitality of those who had sympathy for Poland and means to spare . It came to the knowledge of Mr . TouxMisr 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 . Geohge 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 appea ] . was made by Mr . Tottlmin Smith to Lord Paxmerston , 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 Pai / meiiston had written the following letter in reply to a qfuestion from Mr . Ironside , of Sheffield , who has published the fact in his vigorous newspaper , the Sheffield Free Press : " Broadlands , 3 rdJanuary , 1852 .

    Ct G £ « T waamw-i . ^ ¦¦ rj-fcvi'M int-tAt * svf * f-li'i 1 af . inafonf " 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 Bhe never had been bo employed . I state this for your own information , but X 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 , —Palmeuston . " To this Mr . TouiiMiN Smith adds : —

    The following written testimony , by an employe" of the English Police , is in my possession . It now acquires an importance which cannot be exaggerated : —" I beg to inform you that the person styling herself 'Baroness do Beck , ' is the same who , accompanied by Dr . II , offered personally her services as a spy and informer to the 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 51 . 1 Os . 8 d . per week . " - To what foreign sum 5 / . lCs . 8 d . corresponds , is a question not difficult to solve . The sum , however , proves the complicity between , tho English and Fo * roign Police . —T . S .

    Mr . IitONsroR is tho friend of tho gentlemen who wore so slandered at tho time of Von Beck ' s death . Ho felt himself , however , under an obligation not to publish Lord PaiiMEKston ' s letter .

    HOW TO ORGANISE AN ARMY . The folio-wing remarks were made during a conversation held in Paris in 1853 : — " A military nation , " said M . Tb . 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 bataillons ( Telite for foreign service . ^ r-w s ~ +. "w-wT- w-n j"v j ~^ T ~* ^* 4 A . " * T ¦ fi T ^ A TL . T * A "w ^ "m » . _

    These battalions must be united m 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-ofjiciers . 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 , tMfet 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

    veteransmen 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 bad 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 army would 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 , whoso 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 . AVhere can a double fleet be found , one to carry the troops , the other to defend them ? For the transports , even if ships 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 nteady under a cannonade in tho field when they are

    encouraged by the constant hope of attacking in their turn . The transports must be kept out oj fire , and how is this to be done unless a fleet large enough to keep yours at bay—that is to say , larger than yours—accompanies them . We have no such fleet , and it would take nt least a year to form one . Therefore , I repent , you will have a year ' s warning . " London could not bo entered by less than 25 , 000 men—and to bring 25 , 000 men to London , 50 , 000 must bo landed in Kent or Dorsetshire . Such an army and the fleets that would have to carry and protect them could not be' got ready m six months . Tho idea , however , -of a diiah on London is preposterous . Fifty thousand men thrown on your shores might , indocd , do you __ . ... r i /• i j . . i .. 1 , 1 !¦ »<» iiltminXOlV niisumeiuui j « - •¦

    i unormous , lhuj w »««»* " » - r . sacrificed , and such a sacrifice would bo fatal to the best-established government . . Depend on it , that if he attacks , and I still bohevo

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    If 624 t ^ THE LEADER . [ Saturday , M ^^^^—i ^^ E ^^^ W ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ . ¦ i T ( % ¦ _ ¥

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 624, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2097/page/12/