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No . 413 , Febkttaut 20 , 1858 J T H gj . LBADBR . 183
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THE INDIAN LOAN . Neater did a Government have to come into the market under such promising circumstances as the present . The . public are quite anxious to . pay down their money , and almost any amount could be raised with the greatest ease . Two months ago the dimcultv was how to get cash at all , now the anxiety is Low to get rid of it . Then the circulation seemed to be almost dried up , now society is full to repletion . We do not stay to inquire into the causes ol this extraordinary change in the world of finance , but hasten to give our readers the fullest information upon the subject of the new loan that can at esent be obtained .
pr The bill before the House of Commons is simply to enable the East India Company to raise money in this country by way of loan . At present it is under a legal " disability from borrowing any considerable sum here , and it is quite unable to raise the necessary funds in India . Power will be taken to make loans to the extent of eight or ten millions , but it is not intended to borrow even so much as the smaller sum immediately . Probably about five millions will be required—an amount that will , no Leadeuhallstreet
doubt , pour into the treasury at - in a few hours , if only moderately favourable terms are offered . Already the two leading houses are understood to have received numerous applications to be inserted in the lists of subscribers which it is presumed they will make , and the leading stockbrokers are daily met with inquiries as to the time and terms of the new loan . We believe we may state positively that no steps will be taken in the matter until the bill has passed both Houses of Parliament , when biddings will be
invited . It is pretty generally understood that th € security will be in the form of debentures having a certain term to run , during which term the rate of interest will be fixed ; in fact , that it will be very similar to the Exchequer Bonds which Mr . Gladstone introduced . The main difference will , of course , be that the British Government offers no guarantee whatever , the security , beiirg the revenues of India ; the interference of the Legislature being limited to granting power to raise the loan , in the same manlier that it enables railway or other commercial companies to borrow money to a limited extent . this
We think 'it necessary to dwell upon point , since an erroneous impression has got abroad , that as Parliament is called upon to pass an act upon the subject , it , in so doing , gives some guarantee for the interest . Nor will the nature of the security be in any way improved or altered should the Government succeed in carrying their crude and most inopportune measure for transferring the government of India from the merchant princes in leadcnhallstreet to a board of Government dependents at Whitehall . Whatever may be the form of Government , the security offered will be simply , as we have said , the revenues of our Indian empire . On this account , trustees will not be able to place any moneys settled by deed in the new loan , as ;*• will nnt- nrw-t-ic miflov flip , rlnnin-iiiiiioii of a ID Will 11 OU CO 111 C IIUUUI LUC uuaiguuwuu " «•
" Government security . , Private individuals and public companies will , however , find it a most convenient mode of employing temporarily any sums of money they may have over . After tho late revelations , a large number of persons prefer having their money idle to placing it m deposit with tho joint-stock banks ; tlicy will not ' givc 40 s . per cent , premium for Exchequer Bills , which will no doubt have the interest lowered next month ; und Consols at 97 and upwards arc too high for investments of a temporary character . The new 1 ' oan will , therefore , supply a want extensively felt ; it will afford a legitimate means for investment of tho numerous and very largo sums of money that we at present entirely unemployed .
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APPROACHING SETTLEMENT OF THE KANSAS QUESTION . We offer a very heart y wdoomc to tho Times on its arriving at a much clearer view of American politics , and especially a more distinct appreciation of Mr . Buchanan ' s own diameter andposUiou . OlIr ^ oTit ' ompdviDivy ^ is ^ wToiVg on one p 6 iu 17 "\ vlli 5 lrlTas passed out of notice , though it is of tho grculciat importance Xfc oudoavoura to givo a recapitulation of the history of tho Kansas Bottlomcut , to exp lain how the present position lias happened , and it is quite correct in saying , " Tho fuel , of tho nuMer is , that froiu'lho flrat sotlioinont of Kansas there have boon two factions , each ready to tthod tho other ' s blood . " What follows is not so correct : — " It scams beyond a doubt that' tho majority of tho
first inhabitants were opposed to slavery ; but a large body of " slavery men burst into the country from , the adjoining State of Missouri , not with any-intention of settling , but merely to force slavery institutions on Kansas , and to deliver their own state from the dread of a freesoil neighbour . " The first point is omitted , and upon that all turns . ' The fact of the matter is / that if there had been no interference , no factious contest , no race for the possession of the territory , Kansas would have been settled from the neighbouring Slave states . The population of the Union is gradually spreading westward , in lines nearly parallel ; and any one who will consult the map will see how ' the two factions , ' which may be regarded as taking Virginia or Massachusetts for their centre , would extend towards the Pacific .
There are , as we have already pointed out , many qualifying circumstances in this progress ; more particularly as settlement advances towards the west ; it encounters difficulties not necessarily belonging to the business of the planter—difficulties which it is impossible to surmount by means of a Negro population . Hence natural linnts are offered to the colonization of the west by means of the Black race ; and as we ' shall presently see , the Free states are sure to circumvent the Black states by the simple extension of territory in the process of natural settlement .
With regard to Kansas , however , the Freesoilers , anxious to preserve a new state of the Federation from the Black taint , hastened to settle it in order to preoccupy the ground and pre-establish free opinions in the new territory . This was where the contest began , and the irruption of settlers from the Slave states was simply the effect of ' unrestricted competition in that behalf . Each side has endeavoured to obtain . its own convention . The Free men had the convention of Topeka , the Slave men the convention of Lecompton . There was , however , a
distinction between the two conventions , v , ery slight , but not unimportant . The Free men monopolized the Topeka convention , but they deliberately abstained from attending the Lecompton convention . They thus permitted the Lceompton convention to assume the appearance of a convention representing the whole territory—one party being absent by default . ' i ) e apparentibus et nou existentibus eadem est ratio '—those who do not make their appearance must be considered as non-existent ; and in the eyes of a lawyer , the Lecompton convention bears to a certain extent the aspect of a convention
representing the territory : — " The President , " says the Times , " absolutely denies the authority of the Topeka Legislature , and declares . that the Constitution which has been lately voted , and which he presents to Congress , is the legal expression of the wishes of Kansas , and must be received as such ; but it rests with Congress to accept it or not . By the fundamental law of the United States , any region within its jurisdiction which is sufficiently settled may be declared a territory , and when it attains a certain population may bo admitted as a state , on the demand of a properly constituted Convention . Now , even allowing that tho Convention which framed the Lecompton
Constitution was duly constituted , the question is whether Congress , looking to tho circumstances of the case , . should admit it . The south is , of course , eager in tho affirmative . The admission of Kansas would , for the present at least , give two Pro-slavery votes in the Senate . A more moderate party is for rejecting the Constitution , and passing an ' enabling Bill' to give Kansas the power to form another . Mr . Buchanan is for the former courao . tie shows that it is an inherent right of a territory to moot in convention as Kansas did , and that it would bo unjust to refuse to acknowledge tho Constitution it adopted or to contest tho claim to admission . Moreover , Minnesota and Oregon aro waiting olno for admission , and Kansnw , which haa waited longest , ought to bo disposed of lirst .
" Yet it must not be supposed that Mr . Buchanan is anxious that Kanaus whould bo a Slave state . Ho merely says that tho Constitution which tho Convention hus established enacts » lavory , and that Kansas must como into tho Union with its Constitution , and change it afterward * , if it pleases . Tho quoMtion of slavery was duly submitted to tho people on tho 21 st of last December . The Froesoilers abstained from voting , na not recognizing { ho assembly which put tho question . If they had chosen to vote , says tho President , they inigAit have
¦ Tnado-Kan 8 ae-fl-J ^ -eo" 8 tator ; -nB-thoyabstainedrthoy"musr take tho consequences , and romedy tho ovil by another voto after tho territory han become a state . Tho lato judgment of the Supreme Court , which has caused such astoniahmont at homo and abroad , in cited to show that Kaunas , being United Statou territory , is from that vary / act jSluvo soil . 'It has boon solemnly adjudged by tho liiyhost . judicial tribunal , tliut slavery exists in Kanmis by virtue of tho CoiiHtitutlon of tho United Status . Kansas is therefore at thin moment as much a Slavo state as Georgia or South Carolina . ' So there is nothing
in the facts of the case or the law of the country to forbid the admission of the territory with its present Constitution . " There can be no doubt that ± he President haa much reason on his side , and that the Freesoilers have acted of late with imprudence and intemperance . " ***** " That their cause will have the sympathy of a large elasfl both in their ovn country and in Europe we have no doubt , but that tfae-y will have to yield seems
equallyclear . Resistance to the Central Government is the highest of crimes in the eye of every true American , and when the Chief of the Republic calls upon the citizens to support his authority he will be responded to from every side . Perhaps the best solution of the question is what the President proposes—that Kansas should be admitted with her present Pro-slavery Constitution , and that then the Freesoil party should demand a Convention , and endeavour by legal means to abolish the institution they detest . "
This is excellent : it places the whole case , as it now stands , very clearly before the British public . One of the sources of trouble in the entire case lies in a point which Englishmen generally cannot appreciate , but which , is felt with all the force of desperate pressure in the United States . The citizens of the Slave states are quite conscious of the process of surrounding that we have already described . At this very moment , -when they are struggling as if for life , in order to procure the admission of one state into the Union—one Slave state giving them two more votes in the Senate—they see that two other states , giving four more votes in the Senate , are at the threshold of the Union , awaiting admission .
Henceforward the progress of Free settlement must be still in a greater ratio . At the same time , with the decline of Abolitionist agitation , opinions favourable to the ultimate extinction of slavery have again made their appearance in the Slave states . It is no wonder , therefore , if the extreme Conservatives—the Tories of Slave institutions—should just now be in that frame of mind which the Orange party have exhibited in Ireland—violent with a sense of approaching defeat—a defeat the more resistless since it is coming upon them by the natural
progress of the Union , iu population , in territory , m power , and in intelligence . It is true that the party which Mr . Buchanan represents foresees a time when the industry of the Black race may be reconciled with the gradual requirement of freedom , and with ^ the continual prosperity of all the states , South or North . 3 Jut what man of extreme opinions will consent to listen to the dictates of either reason or fate ? Meanwhile , we cannot but rejoice that so universal an authority as the 2 l imes should assist in enabling England and America to arrive at a better understanding .
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LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S OATHS BILL . On Wednesday next the Oaths Bill is to be committed , and it is to be hoped that it will be settled and become law this - session . On every ground of right and expediency it is desirable that there should be no longer delay iu the closing of tins ungracious question . Framed with the avowed object of giving admission to Jews into Parliament , it puts that part of the question upon a fair basis for discussion , and duals with it in such a manner as to challenge as little as possible of the Christian antagonism by which it lias hitherto been met . The course now adopted by Lord John Russell has Konn <> ikr « ii in i . ]\ n linlittl that it is the Olllv O 11 C likely
to be practicable at the present time . His bill no longer attempts to reconcile members of different religious persuasions to the taking of one form of oath ; but it amends the oath of allegiance , the oath of supremacy , and the oath of abjuration , and while proposing one form of oath to be taken by all Protostant Christians iu the Lcgislaturc / it provides a spcoial form for tho Jews . * . It is with tho Roinun Catholics that the principal difficulty lies ; but Lord John Hussem , has surely % f mm . 1 J * , H I . . « * -m suoh
^ given au answer to their gravest objection us ought to suffice any but opponents pedantically tonacious . Wo do not suck to keep Jcwb out ot Parliament , say tho lioniau Catholics , spooking by tho lips of Mr . Ma . cjuuu > : ; nay , wo demand lor them an equality with oursclvos : but you aak us to . . 8 auotio . iuuJor . nx . oLQaUwv 4 ucU ^ wjll . m » J { . o ^ qy _(} pJJ 5 ^ tostaitt who takes it bo forsworn , for it will maK © him affirm his boTlui * in that which tho Catholics know to bo nut true , luunoly , that tho Vovu has no spiritual authority in this oouutry . LorU Joun ItussKLL uuaw < jru I . Iiia casuistry : —
___ _ _ _ ' « I nniwt way that I do not rioo any tiifllaulty in a " rotoutant declaring Chut »•> foreign prlnco , potentate or powor , hiw , or ought to Iwvo , any-power or jurisdiction ,. Hpiritual or temporal , in thoao realms . I make no reservation whon I tako tlmt oath . I aocopt tho yrord
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 20, 1858, page 183, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2231/page/15/
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