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Leader (1850-1860), 7th April 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 327, SAEE I TSTESTMENTS.* .•

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  • Departments (2)
    • SAEE I TSTESTMENTS.* .•
    • EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. .:.;. ¦ - . - ¦; . ox Tuscany. ¦ . ; • ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
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      Untitled Article

      Consols and similar Government securities being perfectly safe , but precisely because they are safe they yield a low interest , and make those who have little , who see many example ^ of persons gaining a high interest , seek , by investing in less valid securities , greater gains on their savings . A high rate ot interest and an unsafe security are synonymous , and though Government securities are , in some countries , still very unsafe , and wei-e unsafe In this country before the time of Whxiam the Deliverer , the continued good faith of our Government for upwards of 1 / 0 years , has given to its guarantees the characteristic of perfect security . On them the interest is comparatively low , merely because they are

      honesty conducted railways will be so increasingly used as the population fills the vast area ; that they must be one of the great industrial enterprises which will pay well . At present , enterprise is talcing a start in the States . Again , their securities will be more favourably looked on in our markets . Again , probably , immigration from Europe into the States will increase . Again will newlands be taken rapidly into cultivation , and * in general , the railways of the States » as one of the most useful of the many enterprises of the day , will be amongst the most profitable . In general , enterprises planned with a view to the distant future , vvhether undertaken by Governments or individuals , are not successful . Industry is not to be driven out of its course . It begins in want , and its function always is to provide for wants as they arise . Only rarely , as when it contemplates , sis in this- case , a great increase of people needing more communication , is it likely to be , prospectively , very advantageous . But railways , like every other business , must be honestly and skilfully managed , to succeed . This is the condition sine quit , ni > n ; aiid whenever the Americans can convince the people of Europe that they do manage these great undertakings with skill and honesty , the savings of Europe will flow into them , and an . additional part of the surplus labour of Europe will go to the same quarter . , . . „ , > The work which has suggested these observations will , by its judicious account of American securities , contribute to this end . It gives good advice as to the principle which should determine investments in these securities . We can assure our cousins that they ohlv require to satisfy the yearnings of the people of Europe for a good security , to attract to themselves capital from the national debts Of all Europe .

      safe , iand comparatively high on all enterprises to earn money , because their results are uncertain . That they should be so is not xiecessary , for by industry all the money is raised which passes into the coffers of the State . " . . Till of late years we had few enterprises except the Bank ot England , the East India Company , the Equitable and Sun Insurance Companies , in which individuals could with any safety invest their earnings . Now money-making enterprises , offering generally much higher interest than Government securities , and , in many

      cases , really as safe , such as joint stock battles , railway companies , insurance companies , manufacturingcompanies , credit and discount companies , &c , &c , supply an immense variety of investments , amongst which : it is quite art art , and an especial business to choose . As capital is of no country , though each capitalist likes to have a-command over his own property—vvhielr he finds by -markets feeing established in many places for the sale of foreign securities—investments at present may be made in industrial enterprises in all parts of the world . Railroads in Australia , banks in Constantinople or

      Calcutta , or water supplies in Berlin , are only specimens of innumerable securities in which money may now be advantageously invested . One of the inost curious features , indeed , of-modern society is the mutual help which people in different countries now give each other l > y loans of capital , in the Shape of in vestments in industrial undertakings . By them capital , whatever may he 'its advantage ^ gets pretty equally diffused . . \ ' . . . . Of sucli undertakingSi railways , a new species of industry , not yet half a century old , lire amongst the most remarkable . Already there Is embarked " in them—showing how the means of safe ! investment have increased—an amount of capital almost equal to the money invested in the debts of all the states of Europe ; they offer intrinsically a better security than state debts , for these can only be paid well their

      by taxes , while well-coridueted and -managed railways earn dividends * , and will increase in ' utility-and profit as population and goods to be carried increase . In ho country have railways made so great a progress as in the United States . There , 2 . 1 , < UQ miles were made in 1855 ; when only 8 , 297 miles were made in Great " Britain . When we now speak of " American securities , " we mean Railways exclusively . The federal debt is small , and the debts of individual states , liable to repudiation , are not much honoured in Europe . Their canals are of very limited extent ; their banks are alUocal , and probably are wholly sustainod by local capital ; bub her railways havo been in great part' ? made by imported capital . Shares in them hnve boon freely bought in , all the money markets of Europeand for some of them , us the Qri > a , t

      , Central Illinois , the bulk of the capifenl has boen avowedly raised in Europe . By his connection with this railway . Mr . Cojjden is said , to have suffered great pecuniary losses , but he does not consider them , we are told in the present publication , to bo permanent , or irretrievable . It cannot , hovtiyor , be dovfbtedi thnt the work of railway making was sot about in the United States in the wildest spirit of speculation . Though no such scene was witnessed there as here , when , to comply with the requirements of our Acts of Parliament to prepare plans for projected railways , scores of lads were taken prematurely from school , and witU their assistance all the surveyors and engineers of the empire could not : work fast enough to tret their nroiocfcs before the House of Commons at the beginning 1

      of a stvsHion . But there is abundant evidence that many of the hues an the United States were oven still moro hastily undertaken than here . At present , it is said , by our author , with some appearance of satisfaction , " one eighth of the railways in the United Slates are dividend-paying linos . " Out of 21 , 'UO miles , then , we may suppose not more than 2 , 880 pay Cor the making and the working . To . Ohiohairo , a great centre of railways , 100 , 050 passengers wore cavviod in 1850 , when work was in full activity ; in 1851 ) , the number carried was 17 , 574 . . ,. , Between 1851 and 1857 progress in America was astomslung-ly great ; in 1857 a revulsion ; sot in , and from this that country has not yot fully recovered . Nevertheless it is p lain , notwithstanding the facility of watqr-onmago there oxisting , that judiciously planned nnd

      Untitled Article

      rriHE gradual decline of arts , letters , commerce , and industry m -I- Tuscany since the death . of Leopold I . has . been very . marked . Count Cesake Bai-bo , . lamenting their general decadence , addressed the following memorable words to the Italians a lew years ago : — - " We are content to live upon the benefits of Heaven andthe reputar tion of our forefathers . Their architeeturaj monuments , the work of their hands and the productions of their brains , have to do duty for us . We are like degenerate nobles , who live only to dissipate the fortunes amassed . by their aticestors . At least let us not imitate them in neglecting to augment our revenues when favourable opportunities present themselves . It needs but a little energy on our parts to double or triple tli&tn , and even more . " Thus did this patriotic writer exhort his felloVcountrymen to guard and augment the treasure transmitted to them as the legacy of . their ' glorious predecessors . Though his counsel might seem to fall unheeded Torsi time , it has been energetically acted upon during the past few months , under the guidance of the Provisional rulers of Tusciiny . It can scarcely excite surprise that art and literature should languish in a country whose history tor the last three hundred years has been such as to make Italians lose all esteem for their own institutions , estrange the noblest and beat among them from what was passing in the Peninsula , and render literature an extrinsic lifeless form , without either interest or influence . But now that Italy has woke up from her long trance , she feels Jior deficiencies here as well as in other , ' -particulars ; and that she does so is si most favourable augury : It is useless to inquire whether she niiyltt have made " rcater resistance to the inauspicious circumstances under which she was placed . At all events ,. it was little to be hoped thafc she should da so , since she hud become corrupted when her slavery began . But ' she is now bent up 6 n making up for lost time . No . lon g er contenting herself with pointing to her , groat and . noble writers , artists , and st a tesmen-, who stand out us isolated figures on her social and political canvas—no longer content to -live upon the Hory of having once possessed the moat enlightened institutions , and tlie richest and best literature of the universe , she is determined to arise and take her proper place , among- the cultivated and liberal nations of modern days . . Had the Italians given no other proof of being worthy oi that liberty to which they so ardently aspire , than the attention vvhion they ' have bestowed upon their educational o * M > liHUine » t . i and religious institutions during the punt eight or ten months , they would have . merited the admiration and applause of civilized liiurope . During the recont period of . agitation uml uncertainty , tjio aucionfc and glorious university of PiHa has boon restored ; tlint of fc ? iuna reestablished , with additional professorial oliuirs ; the l . yooiiuis m nearly evory town have boon enlarged , and popular schools instituted throughout almost every villago of tlio Tuscan State . All tins has boeneil ' ected by the vigilant wire and mipurintemleneool an inspector , whoso object has boon to release intylloutual lifrhti from tlimldom , and cauHe it to bo unceasingly nnd imirurwally admired and ilifliiciod . Tho agrarian institutions have boon ruvivod and lncro . iisuU ; institutes for the highest branches of complementary studies have been created ; the Florentine Academy of J&'ihe Arts has boon ''" -opened with much pomp and solemnity ; in shoi-fc , tho seed oi mtolloctual progress has been sown broadcast , ami it wants but a continuance Qfthe vivify W breath of political liberty to produce such fruit * as will in a few years ' , give Florence tho right to proclaim hursoH , as of old , the coiHroot ' European civilization and culture . Immediately following the ubdiqiitiou of tho Grand JJuIco , m Anril last , tho now Govpi-ntn . ent net to work upon rof or iris in qonneeion will . Theology , I w , FhlloROpl . y , Pl . J ^^ r ^' cine , Muthemntics , and Nuturttl Science . During the lovmov Govern-

      Saee Investments.* F

      have the merit of rriHE want of safe investments for savings , and the get a - - " . high rate of interest have led , in medern times , as is well i-emarked in" the work before us , to many scenes of deep distress . Careful and provident parents , anxious to secure their children from want , husbands desirous to provide for their wives , young people looking forward to the time wlien labour becomes irksome , mdus-- trious men , who give no moment to pleasure , and parsimonious men , who deny themselves even necessaries in order to save , liave been tempted by flattering promises to invest their treasure iu British Banks , ia flash insurance companies , in railways that could not be tmade , and have lost the savings and the hopes of their lives .

      Untitled Article

      & . PRIL . 7 V 18-60 . J The ( Leader and Saturday Analyst . 327

      Untitled Article

      * Amorlocw Soouritiof ) . Prftotioiil Hints on the toata of Btabillty ivna profit ) , for tho guidance and wivrning of British investors . By an Anglo-American . Second Edition . Maun NotihowB , Obrnlull , « o .

      Saee I Tstestments.* .•

      ¦ SAEE INVESTMENTS . * ' /• '

      Educational And Religious Institutions. .:.;. ¦ - . - ¦; . Ox Tuscany. ¦ . ; • ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

      EDUCATIONAL AND KELIGrOUS INSTITUTIONS OJi" TUSCANY . ;

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1860, page 327, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2341/page/11/