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    948 _____ THE LEAjrEB. [No. 341, Saturda...

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    ANECDOTES OT PATltONAGE. It may be fairl...

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    Jupiter Tonans And The Three Per. ¦ ¦ ¦ ...

    But he willinspect all the Joint-Stock Companies , permit and forbid , guide and control the credit- England has a gold currency , and he will have a gold currency for France ; sending away the silver displaced by the substitution . He has taught the parsimo ,-nious French to throw their savings upon the waters of commerce . And what are the results of this special jProvidence , self-elected , claiming to rule all France , its mercantile , local , and individual

    affairs , from Paris ? The effect has been an hysterical fit of speculation from one end of . France to the other . The Credit Mobilier is knocked in every quarter , till all France is bubbles . Paris is converted , to a capital of palaces , 6500 houses substituted for 1500 pulled down . Employment was given to the workmen ; but then the substitution of palaces for hotels raised the price of lodgings . Whole streets of magnificent palaces are to let at immense rents ; but they remain . c to

    let . ' The property has vastly increased in value- —on paper ; but the positive income is not proportionate . The work of construction must come to an end , and then there will be an end of wages ; the workman must begin to hunger , and " Bread I" has been heard as the cry in one of those conspiracies which the French G-overnment is so frequently putting -down . But if the workmen begin to want bread , if the landlord of the building speculation begins to want tenants and rent , if the bubble companies begin to burst , eTen the sound trade that has been created

    in France will , begin to share the pressure ; and commerce , like the democracy , "will find that no earthly Providence can secure the daily bread of the workman , or manage . the trade of an . entire country . The reaction has begun : the cry of " Bread ! " has been heard , and while the Bank is raising its rate of discount to . 6 per cent ., shares are tumbling . When the Kby al British Bank closed its doors , Alder-man Ejenneds :, Mr . Esdaile , and several other very honest and substantial men found , their property sacrificed and their

    name called in question . When the swindle of Joseph Windxe Cole exploded , some of the most respectable and substantial houses on the City bad somehow or other got mixed up in winking at strange practices . Mr . Malcolm Laing , a merchant , came before the world with a romance of real life ; the connexions of Dayidson and Gtoedon sustained painfnl family mortifications ; and hundreds of honest people were driven to pain and penuTy by the fraud which , while it lasted , converted the perpetrators into temporary princes . John Sadleib . was for a time a

    potentate of money ; and when he lay with nis face to the stars on Hampstead Heatli , thousands who had honestly worked for their bread found ruin come upon them . What is true of individuals is true of States . If we have business transactions with those who are bankrupt and fraudulent , we shall suffer from bankruptcy and fraud . If the system explodes in France , those who have business relations with France will suffer from tlie explosion . We shall survive , of course , and France will exist after the shock is over ; but the poin and suffering will fall upon those classes who are the least able to defeat it .

    Men who are learned in money matters explain the nature of the crisis in the City , and show us that a time of prosperity will return , after the pressure . Their explanation is true . The immense influx of gold from the new gold countries haa altered the relations of the precious metals in Europe ; haa Sffl n f i ? Partly compelled the adoption ot a gold . circulation in France , as it jn D 1 probably do m Belgium and Germany ; both following the example previously set them by the Levant . There has been ,

    however , a real extension of trade in Frauce , and there has been a still more vast expansion of trade iu this country . Silver has been demanded in the far East , to supply the wants of the native Hindoos , whose condition is much better than it was ; to supply capital for an increasing British trade in India ; to pay for more tea which our comfortable

    people at home want from China ; to meet new trades in flax , hemp , and seeds , substituted for similar trades suppressed daring the war with Uussia . But it has been reckoned that the sending of 2 , 500 , OOCW . of silver by the lasb three mails will have gone far to fill up that void . The demand for money in this country is occasioned partly by the want of ' accommodation' for the over-traders

    ra France and Germany ; but the major part of our trade is perfectly sound . We have extended it in immense proportions over the whole globe ; we have to find more capital for shipping , for goods , for wages , in every quarter of the world , but the exchanges of commodities are substantial . The increase of our wealth is shown in the increase of the revenue beyond the proportion of taxes ; in the increase of our exports ; and , in short , in

    the amount which we produce and consume at home . All this is true ; the present pressure will be only temporary . Those who have means will only be called upon to make sacrifices . If , for example , they have no income this year , they will only have to draw so much out of their capital . In Fiance , after the pauic , they will wind up , and the whole community will be richer than dt was before .

    But what of the poor t What of the industrious classes ? What if wages stop , or are diminished to one-half during the extreme pressure ? It is very easy to go without wine and pastry for six : months , but it is not so easy to go without dinner for six days . The money pressure stabs into the very vitals of those who , live from hand to mouth , upon money , and ready money too .

    The " period of prosperity" is all very well for those who will have to repair their fortunes ; but how are some of these poor and helpless creatures to survive it at all ? The Registrar-General will account for some of them ; and in the number of those who are lost , we shall see the penalty incurred by France , and by her accomplice , official England , for letting one bold man undertake the duties of an earthly Providence .

    948 _____ The Leajreb. [No. 341, Saturda...

    948 _____ THE LEAjrEB . [ No . 341 , Saturday ,

    Anecdotes Ot Patltonage. It May Be Fairl...

    ANECDOTES OT PATltONAGE . It may be fairly objected to popular cries that they are apt to degenerate into mere cant phrases , or else to become converted into stalking-horses behind which political adventurers conceal their interested purposes . The old lady who held " Reform" to be a removal of the tax upon sugar , may be a fair sample of the intelligence with which certain classes echo a party cry ; but it must be admitted , nevertheless , that the thing was wanted none the less because some of its supporters understood it imperfectly , or not at all . Just so with this cry about Patronage , jobbery *

    high places , the rottenness of our system , nepotism , and the thousand other forms which corruption assumes to woxk out its own selfish ends ; the cry may be a little vague , the notions of the objectors somewhat loose as to the best method of bringing about a new order of things , Mr . Layabd may make a blunder or two in details , and the Reform Association may ' bluster much and effect little ; but a p lain man , at all acquainted with the composition of public affairs in the present day , and having no special reason to think otherwise than as liis unbiassed judgment points , can entertain no reasonable doubt that Reform , and that of the most complete

    radical , and searching nature , is imperatively demanded , and must , sooner or later , come to pass . We are now in the still waters of the recess , and the House of Commons no longer rings with the indignant interpellations of honourable members engaged in the patriotic task of denouncing the corrupt manner in which patronage is used ; but , beGausc we hear nothing about the matter iu this particular

    quarter , we are not , therefore , to conclude that the evil has ceased to exist , or that it is not ten times more active for the fact that the principal mouthpiece of this self-governed nation is gagged . We , casting about in our quiet way , and keeping our ears open to what is going on in the world , have picked up one or two little facts a projpos of the matter , and without further preface shall proceed to serve them up for the delectation of our readers .

    It is not the late appointments in tlie Church that we are about to refer to . Ifc is just possible that the brother of Lord CfcABENDON and the brotlier and brother-inlaw of the CHANCHiiiiOE of the Exchequer were the very fittest persons in the Church for the lucrative offices to which they have lately been appointed , and , at any rate , we have no positive charge of unfitness to bring against them . Let them , pass ; the game at which we are pointing is of quite a different nature .

    Here is our first story . Be it known that there is at the present moment a Board of Inspectors appointed to exercise certain functions , not very onerous in their nature , and consequently ( for tbere is a sort of consistency in these matters ) uncommonly well paid for . It should be admitted , however , that up to within a very short period , the gentlemen composing that Board exercised their duties with perfect propriety , and received their salaries with praiseworthy punctuality , until , the other day , they were startled out of their dignified composure by learning that two new colleagues had "been appointed : seven men , in fact , to do what five had done all too easily . The previous members of the Board did not know how to

    take this . " Was it a reflection upon the manner in which they had performed their duties ? That could not be ; for one of the gentlemen appointed was utterly ignorant of everything connected with his future duties . Inquiry brought light . One of the gentlemen on whose behalf the appointments had been made was professionally employed aa

    electioneering agent by a member having great interest with the Government , who , doubtless , thought this the best way of discharging that document so troublesome to all rising politicians , his electioneering bill ; the other was a naturalized foreigner , whose only qualification was that he was blessed with a pretty wife who had made herself agreeable to a certain noble lord dear to Cupid .

    So much for the top of the treej Jet us take a peep at what is going on at the roots . Not many weeks ago , a young gentleman , son of a respectable City merchant , startled his family by announcing that he did not intend to follow any longer the profession to which he had been bred , and in answer to an inquiry as to his intentions , replied that ho " should like to have a government appointment , with

    four or five hundred a year . " Further question elicited that a fair lady ( whoae character may best be indicated by stating that she lived aa a spinster sole , without any visible means , in the neighbourhood of St . John ' s Wood ) had offered to procure him such a place , on being presented with fifteen hundred pounds . It was also establiebed beyond the shadow of a doubt that the lady promised no more than she could porform , or than

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04101856/page/12/