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    danger ; General Caneobeet proclaims our imbecility in campaign ; our Ministers pitifully represent that they have done their best— this being their best ; and Russia hardens in her obstinacy . "We almost hail as & rescue the . adhesion of Sardinia— but Russia feels no corresponding alarm . It will take more than one successful campaign to counteract these impressions on the

    Continent ; and our successful campaigns , says General De ! Lacy Evans , are not to begin till 1856 . " Mr . Gladstone ' s followers tell us that we are to pay for the unsuccessful campaigns in cash down . " We must pay for armies though we have them not ; contribute to the funds of glory , though we attain it not ; endure the contempt of our allies and the confidence of our enemies ; and begin to retrieve this losing game in 1856 .

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    THE FRENCH LOAN . The partisans of Lofis Napoleon are ever in search of some proof of popularity to stimulate their faith and to sustain their adulation . They have quelled all opposition , but cannot help debating the great question in a perpetual soliloquy , through which the truth peeps out . Iiike priests who begin to doubt what they are compelled to preach , they try to silence their own objections by the loudness of their dogmatism . At the very moment when the ill-concealed joy with which

    the news of checks and reverses suffered by France in the East is received , reveals to all unprejudiced students of events that , in Paris at least ( and Paris is France ) , patriotism has become quite a subordinate feeling to hatred of the imposed dynasty—at such a moment our free and independent papers sound a chorus of exultation , antistrophicaHy proclaiming what no one dare contradict over the water , that never was the Emperor so popular- —because , forsooth , the new Loan has been completely successful .

    It is important to ascertain the real value and significance of a fact which cannot be denied . Although not disposed to take the Mbniteur for gospel , we think there is no reasonable ground for doubting that the Loan has been completely subscribed by—we will not say small capitalists , but — -by persons who limit -their-- demands . to within five hundred francs of revenue ,

    according to the suggestion of the Government . Now , the only legitimate inference to be derived from this fact , when stated in the way most agreeable to M . Fottld , is , that it is believed , that in the middle of the nineteenth century such a transaction cannot be a deliberate fraud , and that France is not about to disappear from among nations . What notable scheme can have been for a moment

    discussed we do not know ;• hence , it is dimcult to account for the extreme surprise and hilarity which the success of the transaction has created in official circles . Because certain jocular financiers may have talked of acting consistently with the principles to which they owe their existence , they should not forget that France has taken the measure of their courage as well as of their honesty .

    " What was the nature of the offer made to tlie public ? Taking the funds at the price of the day—a price to which they had artificially been forced down by sinister rumours —the Government proposed to grant a rente of three per cent , at two-and-a-half per cent , below that price . Evidently , every man who had sufficient confidence in the stability of

    things to invest money in public securities at all would accept with * alacrity so excellent a bargain— -especially as the now Loan is not to be paid up at once , but only in small instalments , one-tenth at a time . All this was dexterously arranged . Tho French are essentially a gambling nation . Since tho suppression , of the lotteries , every one dabbles

    a little in the funds- —rirom the countess to the cook , from the chamberlain to the concierge . What an excellent opportunity ! Every one who had a few francs in his pocket rushed to put down his name and pay nis deposit . At some of the bureaux the crowd continued all day and all night . The motley and dishevelled masqueraders , zigzagging home on Sunday morning from the ball at the Opera , beheld—and trembled as they beheld—long lines of fierce-looking

    Robert Macaires , who had suspended their professional occupations in dark streets , besieging the doors of the succursales , eager to subscribe a few francs , obtain the acknowledgment , and be ready to dispose of it for a prime calculated in centimes . Had these gentlemen been asked whether they intended to testify their confidence in Government , they would have grimly referred to the new police . Many of the subscribers had sold a coupon for seventy francs , in order to pay a

    deposit on half a dozen new coupons in embryo ; many , who never purchased anything in their lives , represented the great speculative inventors of this new kind of vote of confidence . One capitalist , it is ascertained , stirred up the population of a whole district to invest , and actually marched with them up to the Mairie . The officials stared in amazement at the sudden prosperity of the people , many of whom , recommended for their

    piety by the clergy , had the day before received " orders for bread ! " All , without exception , asked for five hundred francs of revenue ! Incautious speculators , will it be said—the coupons must be in the names of those who ask for them . True ; -but three lawyers had worked all right , and this worthy manufacturer of " confidence" is in possession of documents which place his clients in the alternative of giving up the coupons , or going to prison .

    All this seems very extravagant—it is true , nevertheless ; so that the public now knows exactly what to think of the rush of " small capitalists" who are supposed to have eagerly testified their confidence in the imperial Government . We do not for a moment deny that there are a good many lond jide subscribers , attracted by the opportunity of .. ^^ , __ . ^_ . _ ... _____ . ^ . g _ g __ -jggjj - a a time when they can turn it to no advantage whatever , subject to the alternative of placing

    it in the hands of Government , or of burying it unproductively in cellars , or in old stockings sewn into mattresses . No doubt , if it were generally believed that a revolution was about to take place to-morrow , the case would have been different . After the revolution of February , people hid their money and their silver spoons—just as they put away their consciences for a better season after the coup d ' etat . But in the former case the alarm was only momentar \ r , because based on no reason

    whatever . At present it cannot be said that there is any general belief that tho Bonapartist dynasty is established for a perpetuity meantime , people cannot help carrying on the business of life , just as the South Americans persist in building cities that arc shaken down every dozen years by an earthquake . There is nothing wonderful nor perplexing in this ; or , if thero be any great lesson concealed in so simple a fact , it is that France

    at length begins to understand that her own future rests in her own hands ; that the various Governments by which she has been pestered are mere accidents ; and that , after all , thero is not likely ever to bo a rSgimc less prepared to meet its engagements than the present . Public faith is even now under tho guardianship of public opinion . Investment is a necessity . What to-morrow is to bring forth cannot be known ; but this is certain—security can only increase .

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    DARK DEEDS . Justice is said to be bUiid , but might more properly be said to squint . She often inflicts her punishments upon the right person , for -wrong reasons ; though it seldom happens vice iiersd . Baethelemy . was tried for the murder of ComiAbd , and was hanged for the murder of Mooee , which was not proved , and the motive of which was unknown . It

    is assumed that the ruffian committed that crime deliberately , with a weapon taken for the purpose ; whereas , probably he found the weapon on the spot , and possibly he committed the act under an impulse . He had pistols : it is likely that he always had them . Having killed the man , his only chance was to escape ; Collabd barred his way ; he shot

    his captor in " self-defence , " but he was already a murderer , and he was proved to have killed Collaed . It aggravated his crime that he was a French democrat , reputed to be an infidel . If you were to say that Babtheiemy was a reckless , daring man : that he set himself against the world : took his chance of life or death : lived for a time , and then died in the natural course of his

    audacious career , with some rough justice in the vengeance inflicted upon him for violence done—the story would be correctly told . But how would English law be satisfied with thai version ? Yet , if Baexhelemt was not sacrificed for the satisfaction of English law 3 he was sacrificed for the satisfaction of our minds . It would be desirable if justice could do her work accurately ; for while she bungles as she does , she renders it difficult for the

    unlearned to distinguish correctly between right and wrong . Mr . Edwabd Gbaham Austin , an under-graduate , is travelling in . a railway carriage ; a fellow-traveller , William Smith , an ex-groom , offers to bet upon , a common trick with cards , after the manner of ft thimble rig . " Mr . Austin understands that it was a trick , and " regards it as fair , " —so he said in the police court— "if any gambling is fair . " Nevertheless , he prosecutes the man ; and the Magistrates

    confiscate the proceeds of the bet . " Volenti non fit injuria" is a rule reversed in favour of young men of the world who gamble with ¦ f ] feir ' ~ s ~ ~ n ^ prosecute their companions if they had won . Another case stands before us , which is as yet entirely unproved . According to the tale , Mrs . Payne , of Chipping Catnden , a lady who was left a widow at twenty-five , in 1842 , had been for many years in a state of illhealth ; and for years she was attended by an established physician of the neighbourhood .

    He retires from business , and is succeeded by a Mr . Cooksey . Reports get abroad concerning the lady ' s illness fatal to her character . She applies to her medical mau for a certificate , negatively testifying to the nature of her malady . He writes out the certificate , and offers to give it her , upon condition that she will be " his . " Supposing the rumours against the lady are true , how can a medical man stand exculpated for so taking advantage of his position , unless indeed he can totally falsify the whole tale ? tins

    It would be difficult to bolievo that m day educated men can be guilty of conduct so base , if we had not rather a remarkable instance of tho deeds which well-informed men can contemplate as possible . Mr . Cobdicn believes that- tho preaont Government have concluded a peace with Eussm , but have roused tho popular feeling m favour of tho war , nro ashamed to declare what they havo done , and intend to let the etprming of Sobastopol go forward as a popular entertainment ! Mr . Cobden deplores by anticipation tho wanton effusion of blood , and threatens to denounce " a deed bo dark .

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    [ Janttabt 27 , 1855 . ] TH E Jr E AD E B > . 85

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 27, 1855, page 85, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2075/page/13/