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Leader (1850-1860), 20th February 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15, THE INDIAN LOAN. Never did a Government ...

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      No. 41$, Febieitatiy 20,1858.] Fhe Leade...

      No . 41 $ , Febieitatiy 20 , 1858 . ] fHE LEADER . 183

      The Indian Loan. Never Did A Government ...

      THE INDIAN LOAN . Never 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 difficulty was how to get cash at all , now the anxiety is how 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 of 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 present be obtained . 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 doubt , pour into the treasury at Leadenhall-street in a few hours , if onl y 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 dail y 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 the security will be in the form of debentures having a certain term to run , during which term the rate of interest will ho fix-prl in fnr . t . that if , will be verv 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 , being the revenues of India ; the interference of the Legislature being limited to granting power to raise the loan , in the same manner that it enables railway or other commercial companies to borrow money to a limited extent . IA / a J 1 * » ~ 1 r ~" 4- ' r \ n r * e * r < n hit 4- * - * i \ T ^ r n II ^ . v % *~ . ^ rll Id TA / " \ 1 T % r iiuo

      * *^ * » r u lUAiln xu ulv ; looliijr lu uvicu ia ^ wix < ^ j \ jlllvj 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 inlor tne

      opportune measure transierring government of India from the merchant princes in Jjeadcnhallstreet 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 trust will not aDlc to

      tins account , ees ue pmco any moneys settled by deed in the new loan , as it will not come under the designation of a 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 1 *¦» w «~» 4 K / i « ii b- *^ ^ v % tj-t * -r < i /< 1 1 / i 4 * -t » "i I n a * ti *¦«¦ 4 ' iii r \ a t ^ s" \ o if nriT m iuiu iu xii in

      * *** * ^ imviiiy iiiuil niuin ;^ puiujuiy u ^ jiudii " » h » tho joint-stock banks ; they will not ' givc 40 s . per cent , premium for Exchequer Bills , which will no doubt nave the interest lowered next month ; and Consols at 97 and upwards are too high for investments of a temporary character . The new l ' oau 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 xinemployed .

      Approaching Settlement Op The Kansas Que...

      APPROACHING SETTLEMENT OP THE KANSAS QUESTION . We offer a very heart y welcome 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 character and position . ' ¦ f 'llV * ' Ani-i' ( mvt » Aiinnkf ' i '( ' ' ^ WJiX nm ftii 1 Ann v ^ Wiii ^ ' « . IVf 7 ^ lT- * lTft a

      . WU . I V-iUlll . UHIJJUlUl J la WlUllg UII Ullli JIUII 1 I ,, \ V * ll < Jll HUO passed out of notice , though it is of tho greatest , importance . It endeavours to givo a recapitulation of the history of the Kansas Settlement , to explain how the present position lias happened , and it is quite corrcot in sayinc , " The fuel , of tho nutler is , time froiw'tho flrat settlement of Kansas Micro liuvo boon two factions , each ready to shed tho other ' s blood . " What follows is not so correct : — " It scorns beyond a doubt that' tho mnjorlty 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 dis-^" i ^ -i nl t r \ r \ ho 4 nrnati 4 * T *« 4-ti-i-i rt / Mitron ^ i / s « f . ir />»* r r > l ir * U 4-tUU

      VXXLKsl , l . \ JLX UUUVf ^ ^ U I ' > l U UUIlVLliMUiiO j V ^ l . J Oil ^ LlLj 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 . ' De apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio' —those who do not make their appearance st considered existentand in

      muoe as non- ; me 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

      populabAUiA llliAjr kj \? UUI 111 LIUII iU ) LL DLUtC j \ JLl Lilt * UUIlJtlllll vl U properly constituted Convention . Now , even allowing that tho Convention which framed the JLecompton 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 tho 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 course . He shows that it is an inherent right of a torritory to meet 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 are waiting also for admission , and Kansas , which has waited longest , ought to bo disposed of lirst . " Yet it must not be supposod that Mr . Buchanan is anxious that Kansas whould bo a Slave state . Ho merely says that tho Constitution which tho Convention has

      established enacts slavory , and that Kansas must como ' into tho Union with its Constitution , and change it after- I wurde , if it pleases . Tho quoMtion of slavery was duly submitted to tho people on tho 21 st of last December . Tho Freesoilers abstained from voting , as not recognizing fho assembly which put tho question . If they had chosen to vote , says tho President , they mi ^ ht have modo 'Kansa 6-fl ~ J ' reo" 8 tato ? :-nB-thev ^ nbHtnlnfirir ^ . hnv"miiHir

      take tho consequences , and romedy tho ovil by another voto after tho territory linn become a state . Tho late judgment of the Supreme Court , which has caused such nstonishmont at homo and abroad , in cited to show that Kaunas , being United Statow territory , is from that vory / act Slavo soil . 'It has boon solemnly adjudged by tho highest , judicial tribunal , that slavery oxists in Kaunas by virtue of tho ConHtitutlon of tho United Statos . Kansas is thercforo at this moment as much a Slavo ututo 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 has 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 they will have to yield seems equally clear . 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 igain made their appearance in the Slave states . It is no wonder , therefore , if the extreme Conservatives : —the Tories of Slave institutions—should iust now be in that frame of mind which the Orange

      party have exhibited in Ireland—violent with a sense of appi'oaching 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 . Bttchana'N represents foresees a time when the industry of the Black race may be reconciled with the gradual requirement of freedom , nn f \ - % ht i + li " * f Iio nrwil-in n ci I ni'f \ CT \ ori f . V f \ T nil T . hfl RT . 51 . f " . fifl . ' wvwv

      U 11 U » ¥ A UXX l / U-V * " WJLl K / iLA . U . t * A ¦ f- ' * \ -r * J put i v 1 % ** . w »* *»*^»^ n- wb <^ South or North . Hut 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 Times should assist in enabling England and America to arrive at a better understanding .

      Lord John Russell's Oaths Bill. On Wedne...

      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 01

      there should oe no longer delay m tne closing this 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 deals with it in such a manner as to challenge as little as possible of tho Christian antagonism by which it lias hitherto been met . The course now adopted b y Lord John Russell has « A ^ fc »* 11 If mi i li /\ l \/ hl l / kl i lint 11 ' 11 ' I Ik ffc S < V t ^ I ir J " V \ r \ 1 1 XT rf ° fc I V ^

      ^ **^ * * I IJUUU LU 1 VUU 111 liUAj UUJUUI WUli 11 / ID L 11 U UIUJ ULKJ 11 IVU 1 J to be practicable at the present time . Iiis bill no longer attempts to reconcile members of different 1 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 in the Legislature / it provides a special form for tho Jews . * It is with tho Roinun Catholics that the principal difficulty lius : but Lord John Russkj-l has surely

      | given an answer to their gravest objection such as ought to suffice any but opponents pedanticall y tonacious . Wo do not seek to keep Jowa out ot Parliament , say tho Iloniau Catholics , speaking by tho lips of Mi . M / VGUiiuc ; nay , wo demand for them an equality with oursclvos : but you ask us to -8 anction , aJ : or . ln-oLoatll ^ \ vJ ^^ ch _ will . »»«} i «^ yi ^} 7 _& : & L „_ _ will maico

      tostant who takes it bo fors \ vorn , lor it him affirm his b < fllof in that which tho Catholics know to be nut true , luunoly , that tho Poi'H has no spiritual authority in this oouutry . Lord Joun IlussKLiv « uaw ( ji'u this casuistry : — ' I nui » t miy Unit I do not aou any difficulty in a , ProtoHtunt doniariiiK H » ut " •> Coroign prince , potentate , or power , Iiiim , or ought to Imvo , any-power or jurisdiction ,, ( spiritual or tcmpornl , in thouu runlmtj . I inako no ro-Norvntion wlion I take tlmt oath . I accept tho word

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 20, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20021858/page/15/