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Leader (1850-1860), 7th April 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 11, EDUQ\.TION\L AND RELIGIOUS ItfSTITUTTONS...

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      Apriii 7, I860.] The Leader Andsaturday ...

      ApRIIi 7 , I 860 . ] The Leader andSaturday Analyst . 327

      ¦ . ¦ '¦ ¦ ¦ ¦' . ' • ¦ Safe Inve Stment...

      ¦ . ¦ '¦ ¦ ¦ ¦' . ' ¦ SAFE INVE STMENTS . * - ¦ TTiHE want of safe investments for sayings , and the desire ^ to get a i- ? high rate of interest have led , in modern times as , is well i-emarked in" the work before us , to many scenes of deep d stres ^ Careful and provident parents , anxious to secure their cliildi en iroin wanM . Sn . Bds dSS to provide for their wive * younj people looking forward to the time wlien labour becomes J * ; * ° ^ ' ™^ trious men , who give no moment to pleasure , and V ™*™™ ous » £ * who deny themselves even necessaries m order to save , have been tempted by flattering promises to invest theirtreasury w Britis h Banks , ia flash insure companies , in railways that cou d not be made , and have lost the savings and the hopes «* «» ejr £ « £ Consols and similar Government securities have the : merit of being perfectly safe , but precisely because they are safe they yield a low Sesttand make those who have little who see many examples of persons gaining a high interest , seek , by investing m less valid securities , greater gains on their savings . A high rate of interest and an unsafe security are synonymous , and though Government securities are , in some countries , still very unsafe ^ and were unsafe in this country before the time of William the Deliverer , the continued good faith of our Government for upwards of 1 / 0 years , Las given to its guarantees tlie characteristic of perfect security . On them the interest is comparatively low , merely because they are safe , -and comparatively high on all enterprises to earn money , because their results are uncertain . That they should be so is not necessary , for by industry all the money is raised which passes into the coffers of the State . . ^ - ~ i e Till of late years we had few enterprises except the iiank or England , the East India Company , the Equitable and bun 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 , m many cases , really as safe , such as joint stock banks , railway ^ companies , insurance companies , manufacturing companies , 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—wliiclt he finds byvmarkets 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 mvested . One of the inost curious features , indeed , of-modern society is the mutual help which people in different countries now give each other fcy loans of capital , in the Shape of investments 4 . n industrial undertakings . By them capital , whatever may be ' its advantage ^ gets pretty equally diffused . \ . . • . . * Of such undertakingSi railways , a new species of ind us try , not jet half a century old , are 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 oflcr intrinsically a better security than state debts , for these can only be paid by taxes , while well-conducted iuid well-managed railways earn their 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 . L / 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 i-ailways exclusively . The federal debt is small , and the debts ot individual states , liable to repudiation ,, are not much honoured in Europe . Their canals are of very limited extent ; their banks are allheal , and probably are wholly sustained by local capital . ; bub > her railways havo been in great part' ; made by imported capital . Shares in them hiive boon freely bought m all the money markets of Europe , and for some . or them , as the Great Centnd Illinois , the bulk of the capital has been avowedly raised in Europe . By his connection with this railway Mr . Gohden la 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 , however , be doubted ; thnt the work of railway making was sot about in the United States m the wildest spirit of speculation . Though no such scene was witnessed Oiero as here , when , to comply with the requirements of our Acts of Par-Jiament to prepare plans for projected railways , scores x > i lads were taken prematurely from school , and with their assistance all the surveyors and engineers of the empire could not work hist enough , to got their projects before the House of Commons at the beginnmg of a session . But there is abundant evidence that many of tho hues an the United States were oven still moro hastily undertaken than here . At present , it is said , by our author , with some uppoarnnco of satisfaction , " one eighth of the railways in tho United Slates arcs divideml . paying linos . " Out of . 21 , < UO wilo * , then , we may suppose not more than 2 , 880 pay for tho making and tho working . ¦ tto .-OhlohatfO , a great centre of railways 100 , 050 passengers wore ¦ carried in 1850 , when work was m full activity ; m 1850 , tho number carried was 17 , 574 . ... t t ,:., « . i .. Between 1851 and 1857 progress m America was aslomslnng-ly great ; in 1857 a revulsion , sot in , and from this that country has not yot fully recovered . Nevertheless it is p lain , notwitistuuding tho facility of water-barringo there oxistrngr , that judiciously planned nncl toata ot b

      honestly conducted railways will be so increasingly used as the population fills the vast area > that they must be one ot the great indastrial 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 , whether 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 , as in this case , a great increase ^ of people needing more communication , is it likely to be , prospectively , very advantageous . But raHways , like every other business must be honestly and skilfully managed , to succeed , lhis is the condition sine qud nbn ; aftd whenever the Americans can convince the . people of Europe that they do manage these great undertakings with skill and honestv , the savings of Europe will flow into them and an additional part of the surplus labour of Europe will go to the same qi The ei work which has suggested these observations . will , by its iudicious account of American securities , contribute to this end . it 4 ives good advice as to the principle which should determine investments in these securities . We can assure our cousins that they onlv require to satisfy the yearnings of the _ people , ot Europe for a good security , to attract to themselves capital from the national debts of all Europe .

      *Amor(O0n Aoouritiot. Practical Hints On...

      * Amor ( o 0 n aoouritiot . Practical Hints on tl | 0 f "" ^' "" profit , for tho guidance and wftrninff of B « tiah invoafcow By an Anglo-American . Sooona BdiUon . Maun Nophowe , OornlUll , « o .

      Eduq\.Tion\L And Religious Itfstituttons...

      EDUQ \ . TION \ L AND RELIGIOUS ItfSTITUTTONS :. ; . /¦ . - ¦ ¦ . 6 l > TUSCANY- ¦ . ' •; ; ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ THE gradual decline b farts , letters-commerce , and ^^ industry in Tuscany since the death , of Leopold I . has . been very- . marked . Count Cesakb Bai-bo , . lamenting their general decadence , addressed the foLlowuig hiemorable words to the Italians a lew years ago : ^—"We are couteivt to live upon the benefits of Heaven and- the reputar tion of our forefiithers . Their architectural monuments , the workot their hands and the productions of their brains , have to . do duty . tor us . We are-like degenerate nobles , who live only to dissipate the fortunes amassed , by their ancestors . 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 them , and even more . Thus did this patriotic writer exhort his felloV-countrymen to guard and augment the treasure transmitted to them as the legacy of their glorious predecessors . XM . ough his Counsel nnght seem to fall unheeded for a time , it has been energetically iictgd upon during the past few months , under the guidance of the Provisional rulers of 1 ' ^ my . It can scarcely excite-surprise that art and literature whouId languish in a country whose history tor the last three hundred years has beeiv such as to make Italians lose all esteem for their own institutions , estrange the noblest and beat among them from Nvhat 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 her deficiencies here as well . as in other , particulars ; and that she does so is a most favourable augury : It is useless to inquire whether she nnyht have made greater resistance to the inauspicious circumstances under which she was placed . At all events , . it was little to be hoped that she should do so , Bince she had become corrupted when her slavery bc-an . But she is now bent up 6 n lmilurig up for lost time . JNo long-er contenting herself with pointing to her , great and . noble writers ,- artists , and states . ne . r , who stuud out « s isolated figures on her social and political canvas ^ -no longer content to live upon the Hory of having Oiice possessed the most enlightened institutions , and tlie richest and best literature of tho universe , she is dotermmed to arise and take her proper place among tl * o cultivated and liberal nations of modern days . . „ . , Had the Italians given no other proof of being worthy of that liberty to which they so ardently aspire , than the attention which thev ' have bestowed upon -their educational establishment * mid reliious institutions during the pimt eight or ten inonthH , they would have . merited the admiration und applause ol civilized Europe . During tho recont period of . agitation und uncertainty , thu aiicionfc and glorious university of I > ina I iiih boon restored ; that oi biuntt rocstttblished , with additional professorial chairs tho l . yoouu . s n . i . early every town lwq boon enlarged and popular wj hbol » » f J *«* throughout almost every vlVlafo . of the Tuscan State . All I , i hi has been eilected by tho vigilant wire and Hupurinteudenco of an uwpuctor , vhoao objoot \ L been to release intallouLuul liflrlifi fro . n tl . mldorn , and cau « e it to bo unceasingly and universal y nOjuirod «» d j »^ Tho agrarian institutions have been rwvivod and incro . ihuU ; matitutes for the hiffhest branel . os of complomcntary studies huvo been created ; tho Florentine Academy . of ime Arts ' •»» been ro-opoiied with much pomp and solemnity ; m short , tho aood ot intoilootual progress as been m > wn bPOiioaHt . w » d it , wwita . but neon . nuance of tTto vivifyiug bronth of i > olitieal liberty to produce nuoh fruit * as will Ua tovv years ' , give Florence tl » o right to pniolmm hoppeM , « s of old , the coutro of European civilisation and duHmu Immediately following the ubdiqiiuou ot tho Grand JJuIco , in April St . the no * Govprnmeut net to work umm mk . m fminnntinn with TIlODhKY , I ^ lWfl , PhiloHOpliy , VUllQlOgy , lUOOl-ZT & iStloB , and ilSturftl Science . During the former Govern-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041860/page/11/