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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.
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OnMiftimi THE LIEAPSiR . 989 .
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FkbAtttmi—In ihe artiel © on * 't flie National Thanks"SssssssgsMf ^ SSSasfcjffiBSsawssir- * : as contrary . r
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NOTICES TO COBBESPONI > ENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the " name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for-publication , bufras a guarantee of his good faith . Communications should always be legibly written . and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the diffi-r culty of finding space for them . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication .
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to Keep things fixed when all the world is "by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Arnold-
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AN EUROPEAN COUP D'ETAT . The Soeiete de Cridit Mobilier has consented to adopt the recommendation of the French Government , and abstains froni issuing the obligations of which it had given notice , to the extent of 240 , 000 / . This fact is stated in the French papers , and repeated in the English , as an isolated event ; but the political public in Paris has not told the kind of authority which this pressure on the part of Government indicates . Still less is the
English public enabled to appreciate the grasp which it proves the French Government to possess , not only over the particular society , but over the whole commercial transactions of France . Explanations of the working of the society have been given in various newspapers , but they speak of it as if it were simply a vast mercantile institution , without seeming to be conscious how extensively it is designed "to concentrate a control over the economy of the country ; still less how it has succeeded in establishing
that comprehensive jurisdiction . We in this country have no institution that resembles the society . From remarks which havu been made , it might be supposed that it resembles our Stock Exchange , in which stock and shares can be bought or sold ; but the Stock Exchange acts collectivel y in nothing more than giving a certain sanction and enforcing certain rulos , the regular observance of which gives groat convenience and influence to the members of the Stock Exchange . . "We have amongst us joint-stock companies for conducting a variety of business , and somo of
the insurance oilicea present examples ot societies that combino several purposes—of granting individual guarantees , lending money , possibly on securities , and thus to a great extent it may bo said , of dealing in securities . Still these societies aro iaolatod ; and whatovor combinations they may have with oach other , they can exercise no general control . An amalgamation of railway companies presents , in somo limited respects , an example of what combination can ollbct in this country ; but in comparison with tho French model the example fails for its diminutive proportions .
1 movable" property of the Kind . It may also purchase stock aud . shares , and receive or pay moneys on behalf of the companies with which it is connected . It is likewise empowered to issue bonds in the exact ratio of the money that it ha ^ advan ced . Thu s it gives credit on the one side , and takes credit on the other ; the shares , bonds , or other securities of its borrowers standing , as securities for its lenders . It is empowered to issue obligations to the extent of ten times its capital , 24 , 000 , 000 / . ; its own paid-up capital constituting a guarantee fund equivalent to ten per cent , on the capital in which it may deal . The company may also receive sums on account current . Now let us consider for a moment the nature of this machinery . The society becomes at once the partner and the agent for all joint-stock associations connected with it , receiving money for them , paying their dividends , holding their shares and their securities , advancing them , capital , and , in short , establishing a very close and complicated amalgamation between the central society and a great number of other joint-stock associations . The aggregate capital in which the company is empowered to deal consists of its paid-up 2 , 400 , 0002 ., and its credit of 24 , 000 , 000 / . —26 , 400 , 000 / . in all . But , that is in reality a very small proportion of the capital which , upon realising the whole project , it could control with a concentrated authority . The obligations which it issues and which would go into the trade of the country have an equivalent in the sums advanced to the several companies , and thus we realise 48 , 000 , 000 / . exclusively of the paid-up capital , or more than 50 ^ 000 , 000 / . But to find the mass of floating property influenced by the society , we must add the unknown quantity consisting of all the capitals of all the companies with which it is connected . These companies are probably amongst the most active associations in the different parts of the country , and thus we say , the society operates as an agency which consolidates the commercial joint-stock interests of the provincial centres , while it places all those bodies under the direct control of a Government which shall say to the central body , " So far shall you issue bonds and no further . " Nor does the society stand alone . There is also the society which was its model , the Credit Foncier , to deal in real or fixed property much in the same fashion ; and another society , tho " Societ 6 Generale du Credit Maritime , " exercising similar functions with regard to merchandise in the foreign trade of France . Supposing that landowners , the proprietors of fixed property , have availed themselves of tho one , and that foreign merchants have accepted the advances of the other , it follows that wo have central agencies wielding a large capital , and influencing a still more enormous capital , and exercising a paramount control over the real property , tho moveablo property , and tho merchandise of tho country . When tho Emperor Napoleon was a prisoner at Ham ho wrote his treatise on the extinction of pauperism . In that treatise will bo found lurking tho idea that tho State should provide employment for tho industrious classes by promoting the cultiva- tion of tho laud and industrial occupations , and that it should do ho moro by directing tho energy of tho people than by subventions . Xvouxs Napoleon confessedly borrowed this idea from Socialist writers . There ia , iudeod , a fundamental economical truth at tho basia of all Socialist arguments worth oxamining , tho nature of which has been several times explained in these pages . As Adam : Smith said that the true increment of wealth lay in the division of labour ; as Ejdwakjo
< : < < 1 i ) < i t i j i « i < i Gtbbon Wakefield ' corrected : that statement by showing that in order to the effect intended there must be combination of 1 labour and division of employment ; so the Socialist economists have proved that there cannot be the maximum increment of wealth without the combined labour and divided employment be carried on in concert ; and the ablest political economists of our day , such , as Edward Gibbon Wakeeielb- and Johw Stttabt Miiiii , have recognised the substantial elements in the co-operative idea * , IiOUis Napoleon , at all events , saw its capacity for bringing industry into combination , and still more decidedly its power to concentrate industry to be governed by the highest authority . It is evident from the character of the man , if we grant him whatever sincerity he can claim as desiring for obvious reasons to improve the economical condition of his countrymen , that a full half of his thought is given to the concentration of power which the Imperator can thus acquire . It has been supposed that the Napoleonian idea of the extinction of pauperism had been abandoned when it had been used , and Louis Napoleon , by the coup d'etat , had acceded to the possession of arbitrary power . The facts do not confirm this supposition , but rather show that the Empjebob is proceeding in a long formed design , the lines of which are only now beginning to unfold themselves to our view in their enormous proportions . The suggester of these societies , dealing by joint-stock in the capital of a number of outlying joint-stocks , is M . Pebeibe , a member of the St . Simonian order—that mystical sect of Socialists who adopted the idea of community of property , and some other things , upon apostolic grounds , and who -established a transcendental authority in their chief . -The last chief of their order , Enjfantin , is now living in Egypt , where he has made a fortune ; as several of his countrymen have who went to Egypt when the order was broken up . They are at the bottom of the plan for establishing the Suez Canal ; they are to a great extent , in conjunction with other French coadjutors , the effective administration of Egypt . Here is another fact which shows how the association of the Napoleonic idea is ramified . IiOtris Napoleon had no sooner acquired the stipremc authority as President , than he began to exercise the soldiers of his army in exercise calculated to make them peculiarly efficient . Like his uncle , he identified himself with tho soldiers—devoted himself to increasing their comforts—made the officers feel that his notice was their best prospect of promotion , and rendered them immediately dependent upon himself for approval and advancement . Having acquired a complete military control of Franco through its metropolis , by a sudden blow concerted with , base agonta in tho dark ho applied that concentrated power to a conversion of his republican headship into his Emperorship . . Ilia patronage of tho clergy indicates a dojsign to identify himself in a similar manner with tho religious institutions of France and of Italy . This part of his scheme , howevor , has been as yet less devoloped . Wo aro now in a position , from tin a analysis , to understand the Napoleonic policy . It consists apparently in thia . Tho Emperor , sees that material interests ' » ° divided , and that each section of society is intont upon its own dovoJopmonL f-o sots himself to create n machinery wn en shall subserve all those accurate H'Jerosuji , fsfe ^ npe » ss £ . S& Jt& TSaTiM = £° for « fl tl ? o outlviug «¦ .
mdo-The Soci 6 t 6 de Credit Mol ) ilior possesses a capital paid up of 2 , 400 , 000 ? . ; it nas authority to lend money on auy kind of public securities , shares , billa of exchange , or other
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SATURDAY , OCTOBEB 6 , 1855
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Ifahlir Iftairjs
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 6, 1855, page 959, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2109/page/11/
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