On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    December 11, 1852.] THE LEADER. 1185

  • 

    ROBERT LOWE (XNT LIMITED PARTNERSHIP. Th...

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    How" J.O1iis Nal'olkon Is Kml'kko R. Trr...

    and which is generally understood to be conduciveto " order . " By his professions , Louis . Napoleon has stood to the French in the light of an instrument to secure national independence . The incapacity of the R epublican leaders had broken down every party , the prestige of France , which is so precious to every individual citizen , had been abased ; and at that point Louis Napoleon offered himself , in a manner the most deferential towar ds the whole bulk of the nation , as the man to concentrate the nower of that people , and to uphold it before all

    Europe with the strength of an hereditary name . Perplexed by different political projectors , anxious m more for national glory than for individual liberty — a preference always shown by the French people—the nation accepted Louis Napoleon and gave him successively those powers which he asked as a means of exalting the state . Thus he became President , Dictator , and Emperor ; and more than ever at the present time , maintaining the bold language which he does , is ] ie to the French people the representative of national independence . We are not now saying that he is the best of such instruments , or that

    lie is sincere in all those professions j but we are simply noting the result of facts . From first to last , Louis Napoleon has always Ero fessed to foreign powers with whom he has een in friendly relations , that he was the great instrument for preserving " order" in France , the said France being the great focus of revolutionary disorder in Europe . Thus it is that while at home he is viewed as the representative of national independence , viewed from without he is the representative of order . This duplex view of him has become familiar to us all ; but it is only within the last few days that we have seen the great use that he has made of it .

    The Allied Powers forbade him to use the title of Napoleon III . ; but he insisted . They then consented to his using it , on conditions . " A rose , " they argue , " would smell as sweet by any other name , and no sweeter . Louis Napoleon is as powerful as he would be by any other name , but not more powerful . The name matters little ; and it can always be avoided . We call the Emperor of China the brother of the sun and moon ; a contemporary has instanced the audacity of that potentate who calls himself King of

    the twenty-four umbrellas , without any international indignation . "Why not , then , let him be Napoleon the Third , if he will disclaim any succession ? " Again , Louis Napoleon plays the double part . He tells the French people that the inheritance succeeds to him through Napoleon II ., whose title was ^ regular by proclamation , though his reign was " ephemeral ; " and he tolls the foreign potentates that lie dates his reign from 1852 , without claiming any succession , and recognising all intermediate

    governments . On that showing , they admitted him . He is Emperor of the French , by the grace of ( rod , and by permission of the Alliod Powers — Slicing that they could not help it . Thus , at the very outset of his reign , he begins by obtaining , on his own . decree , a title , with consequences , which the Allied Powers had proudly refused to liiin ; and they begin their connexion with the new ISmperoi * by a flinching on their own parts .

    . His fooling is now secure . He has made hiinai'll " Kinperor with absolute power ; may choose his own alliances , without regard to the interests of Fnmc o or Europe , and with regard only to his own , ho that ho iced his country with glory . Hut what is the particular thing which ims enabled him to attain this position in spite of tho ioreign powers , and in Hpile of the . serious object-ions to him entertained at home . The ono

    thing is the . Royal system of Europe . M is ono which maintains itsolf by a complicity amongst tbo Uoyal families , their particular heads and retainers , against tho wishes ol" tho several nations subjected to it . JJeing thus precariously maintained , its supporters are opon to serious a I > prehoiiHions of any who may bring against 't _ u real national will . Austria , for example , with all lior powerHits in constant dread of

    , M a / . zini , and inaintaiiiH largo forces to counteract ; Ilio machinery which ho wields in Italy . Louis Napoleon mi " no before thorn with tho naino opportunities that Mazzini might command , —a revolutionary election , and a power << o raise whole Peoples ; but ^ then lm bad a willingness to join t-lio crowned * conspiracy an an accomplice . JIo ° Merod to bo its coadjutor and ^ iiHtnunent ; and i'iitlu > r than Hot him at defiance , tho Powers have

    adopted him . In doing so , they lent him the use of that machinery which they employed against the peoples ; and thus \& is enabled to set one power against the other . Jle can frighten crowned heads with peoples ; he can coerce the peoples by the power of the crowned heads . Had Europe been , as it once was , a mere aggregation of separate states , each main taining its own prince according to the dominant notions in the state , or old family traditions , he would not have had that facility ; but the Hoyal system , as it now exists , has furnished his crowning opportunity ; and in the use that he has made of it , we may recognise one of the worst incidents to which , that system is subjected .

    But he has not yet done ; indeed , he is only beginning his use of the Hoyal system—he is only just admitted . He is preparing , however , to strengthen himself . He is about to marry a Wasa , and there are some incidents of that connexion not without interest to the public that is watching his career . He was already- connected with the Russian family by marriage , through , bis cousin , Beauharnais , tho late Duke of Leuchtenberg , who married the daughter of Nicholas . By his putative uncle he is connected with the Austrian family . By his own marriage , he will be connected with the legitimate line of Sweden , at least in a putative sense . For there is a scandal in Vienna

    which points to the father of the fature Empress , and that father is not a Wasa , bu * an Austrian officer . However , royalty is seldom estopped by the bar sinister . Married to a- Wasa not disclaimed , on the first outbreak of War in Europe , Louis Napoleon will be able to show that his wife has a better title to the croWn than Oscar Bernadotte . Russia would not dislike any change which should wipe out a constitutional state so offensively near her own threshold . The royal career of Louis Napoleon is only just commencing .

    December 11, 1852.] The Leader. 1185

    December 11 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1185

    Robert Lowe (Xnt Limited Partnership. Th...

    ROBERT LOWE ( XNT LIMITED PARTNERSHIP . The advance of Mr . Robert Lowtf in favour of limited partnership is a political erent which our working-class readers have scarcely the means of appreciating as it deserves . Mr . Lowe is a man in every way remarkable . The simplest events of his life prove the energy and the gTasp of his intellect . He distinguished himself highly in his studies at Oxford , notwithstanding difficulties that would have excluded most rAen from any study at all . A concurrence of favourable cirstances placed him in Sydney in such a position as to obtain a seat in tlio Legislative Council , where he became the powerful advocate of the Colonial as opposed to the OiBcial interests . Returning to this country , Mr . Lowe attained a high position in the law ; and , almost afl soon , a position not less distinguished in politics . His mastery of law is known to be gi-c ^ t , and ho is ono of the best representatives of technical Law Reform in the House of Commons- Although we have had occasion to differ fron * him on account of the strictly Wow-South'Wales view which , be takes of Australian affairs , bin

    knowledge of colonial politics is unquestionable . But it in well known that ho is also a roister of political questions at large , and contributes , through tho most public of channels , to keop tho people of this country informed . That ho it * inclined to adopt a national or popular view of public , affairs , rather than a class or antiquated view , in a fortunate event ; for bis power is no great , iliiit it must contribute greatly to tho miceess of any class of

    views which ho may have adopted . Having studied tho industrial processes where they appear in their more intelligible because- less complicated form , in flip Colonies ; having mastered the general subject of Law ; having deeply considered tho practical objects of life , Hiul ( , heir reference to legislation , ho is ono of the ( litest men to comprehend the true bearing of tuuili lawH an that of Partnership .

    Tho subject which raised the question was one of minor i ' ntoroHt to the public at jOTge , though it i ' h not insignificant in itself . A ii » vv company is in formation , called " The London , Liverpool , and North Aineri < MUi Screw Steam Ship Company , " to establish a direct mterooiH'Ho between this country and Canada . Amongst , other privileges not peculiar to Mm Company , it i & asking in tho charter which it seeks from ( Jovormuent , a clause limiting the liability of tho p luirohohlerK to thoir mi bseri bed hIum'ch . It ko Imppena that certain merchants of Liverpool almost irionopolize tlio tradte with North America , through tho

    Cunard and New York lines ; and they naturally resent the entrance of a rival into the field . There are many reasons , political as well as commercial , why it is desirable to establish concurrent routes to North America ; though we should be the last to deny the impolicy of dividing a given amount of business Tbetween too many competitors . That , however , was not the

    ground taken by the opponents of the charter on Tuesday night , when Mr . William Brown put hostile questions to the President of the Board of Trade . The ground which they took was , that to limit the liability of shareholders in this Company would be to invade the principle of " unrestricted competition . " The memorial from the shipowners of Liverpool says , " such charters have been considered in modern times as

    contrary to sound policy ; they are calculated to give a dangerous impulse to the spirit of gambling , and they greatly tend to discourage all private enterprise . " That is to say , a provision which admits a new competitor into the shipping traffic with North America , is counter to the spirit of " unrestricted competition ! " It was on that point that Mr . Lowe spoke , energetically and eloquently protesting against the fallacy . On the contrary , he showed that the principle of unlimited liability , free as it looks

    in the literal expression , is a restriction on competition . However capable a small capitalist may be to disengage a portion of his profit , and venture in . the field of legitimate speculation , he can only do so , as Mr . Lowe showed , under the penalty of prcemtmire—that is to say , the forfeiture of all his goods and substance if he should fail ; and everybody knows that the practical application of this law keeps out of the field an immense number of small capitalists , — the industrial savers , —and so limits the field of

    competition to the large capitalists . Indeed , it acts in so hostile a manner to commerce at large , that the law is necessarily suspended in many instances . " What is it , " says Mr . Lowe , " which has covered our land with railways and our seas with steam-ships and with mercantile fleets , except the power of suspending and annihilating the law of an unlimited liability ? " That is most true ; but a law that is subject to these immense exceptions refutes its own basis .

    It as said that abolition of the law would be detrimental to credit ; but no fallacy could be greater . The principle of Free-trade , duly carried out , would teach us that the public ought to have the right of giving credit in whatever form it pleases , and it could elect for itself , whether it should trust firms established on the principle of limited liability , or those established on tho

    principle of unlimited liability . Indeed , those laws which restrict the application of credit . are Open to all the arguments against any species of protection . They are laws for the protection of credit , which is thus made to rely on statuto provisions , instead of its natural elements ; tho natural elements being the known substance , tho known integrity , and the common senso of tho dealer .

    A priori , wo might argue that limited liability confers a species of credit much more trustworthy ami intelligible than unlimited liability . A , possessing 10 , 000 / ., is free to invest 1000 / . in ten several speculations , under the law of unlimited liability ; and in each of these ton speculations the creditors will supjiosc that the speculation is guaranteed , not only by tho thousand pounds which A has subscribed , but

    the other 1 ) 000 / . which he is supposed to have in re ten tin . JNow , any or all of these speculations may fail , and any or all of tho creditors may bo disappointed in the trust of that guarantee to the extent of 1 ) 0 , 000 ? . more than A over posseted . On the other hand , H divides his 10 , 000 / . between ton different speculations , under the law of limited partnership ; and in each c ; ise tho creditor *) know that H has Nubserihed for 'JOOOA and no more ,

    wherefore they calculate on no more , is not this latter the more trustworthy and intelligible species of credit H . Hut , indeed , if you refuse this kind , neither A nor J 5 will be fools enough to risk their 1000 / . where tho indiscretion of other persons might sweep away tho other 9000 / . with it . Thus , both A and . 1 $ aro kept out of ( ho market b y the penalty of praimunirc ; leaving tho market tho more opon to those great capitalints who ean insure against their own rinks by the oxtonl of their own substance ; or whoso dealings aro ho great that tluiy ean bo aclimlly bankrupt , and yet vamp up u fresh fortune by HnuUling tho

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11121852/page/13/