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Leader (1850-1860), 16th February 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 156

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      general struggle , by which . European politics have been confused and landmarks trampled down . That of Vienna was convened for " the settlement of every point in dispute , and the restoration of order throughout Europe . " The Holy Alliance , retaining almost all the unnatural conditions introduced by Louis XIV . and Catherine II ., was a Congress of geographical and political partition , assigning Hanover , Malta , and the Ionian Islands to England ; Warsaw and

      the Lithuanian , Volhynian , Podolian ,. and Ukraine provinces to Russia ; Norway to Sweden ; Holland to the old Austrian Netherlands ; the Lombard-Venetian Kingdom to Austria , with Venetian-Dalmatia , and extensive contiguous dominions ; Tuscany , Modena , Parma , and Placentia to branches of the Hapsburgs j half of Saxony , Posen , the Swedish provinces of Pomerarda , a portion of Westphalia and the Lower Rhine to Prussia ; establishing the Grerman

      confederation , and distributing the smaller states . This was a real Congress , not only to make peace between belligerents , but to determine the limits of em pires and the political constitution of Europe . Even that of Verona , in 1822 , was an European act , controlling two Mngdomsi Naples and Spain . That of London , in : 1 . 8 S 1 , created the liberal monarchy of Belgium . rkjf the Conferences at Paris remove the actual

      grounds of contention between Russia and the AllieSj they will accomplish as much as can be hoped . But to establish a political settlement , to giy « repose to Europe , and to settle the portentous questions agitated between governments , dynasties , and nat ^^ ^ is not the present task of the Plenipotentiaries . Before that great judgment of diplomacy is pronounced , the opposing elements must have been brought into collision . As it is , the war has not elicited one result that touches a principle , or that concerns the lasting interests of mankind .

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      of the two great commonwealths , than England is connected with Downing-street itself . When , therefore , we know that the two publics lave taken up the subject of peace or war , we know that they will prevent official meddlers creating some points of honour out of ridiculous treaties from embroiling them in a conflict which would burn the cotton warehouses of New York and bring down our factories . It has been said that the Americans intend to bully us ; this is untrue . The journals from the other side

      would prove how glad the public is at any appearance of pacification on this side . Journals , however , always try to keep up excitements . Tt is from the private letters that one looks for the real feeling , and we speak of the feeling in states less immediatel y involved in the excitement than New York , Philadelphia , or Florida . Thoughtful Americans , who are yet thoroughly national , speak with satisfaction at the tone of the press on both sides , as softening towards each other . The best-informed Americans

      believe that their Government is acting in good faith , and is doing its best to prevent filibustering in Nicaragua . The confusion in Washington—which the Government might end in a moment , if it pleased , by allomng Congress to elect its own man—has really not interrupted public business , and creates impatience rather than s ympathy . The public certainly looks to business .

      It is true that our Government has offered to refer the Central American question to arbitration ; true that an apology-was made for the enlistment ; but if members of our Parliament desire to impose an effectual check upon our Executive , they will ask to see the terms in which the arbitration has been proposed ; and they will ask to have a report upon the

      circumstances that have occurred respecting the apology . But , since an apology was made , why was it re-opened ? Knowing as we do the real desire of the Americans to close that question ; knowing that the United States Government is affecting no trespass in Central America , we cannot but believe that a full explanation would make our public understand the matter better . The difference between the two

      GoOTrB . RELATIONS WITH AMERICA . B *; good fortune the public , both in the United States and in this country , has taken up the subject of peace or war between the two , and that fact constitutes to us the guarantee for peace . It is also the guarantee for justice . The two peoples of England and America cannot desire to injure each other . We * will not say so much for the two Governments , although it is an undeniable fact , that the Government of the Union is more under the command of public opinion than our own . " We ai * e not

      aware that any material interests would be injured in Downing-street by a war between England and America . The only result would be , that Lancashire being reduced to bankruptcy at a blow , would be at rebellion in a week , and Downing-street would explode . But it is difficult to make them believe , in that exalted region , that the American interest has any real influence in this country . The joint interest of the two communities is not

      expressed by the amount of imports and exports between the t ^ cg ^ reat as that is . It is not exhausted , when wo remember that the Union not only contains a section of our own family , but comprises multitudes of our brothers and sisters who have recently left our homes . It is the gyeat Protestant constitutional commonwealth laws the as

      wh ^> se are sam e ours ; opinions in ^' ,-iWain , ; the same ; objeots in lift ) scarcely different ; and abiding interests so identical , tM&Mp , any great convulsions of the globe , ¦ America ytwxte sustain England against the united despotisms , of the old world . England , in tact , is * n # n ^ tely more bound to the United States b ymbstantiol interests , by family connexions , class connexions , and the heartstrings

      vernments in Central America , is this : Adventurers are trespassing upon quondam Spanish States on both sides ; the United States Government repudiates the trespassers , and tries to check them ; our Government countenances the trespassers , and claims the right of protecting them . That really constitutes the whole of the difference involved in the technicalities of the Cla . yton-Bul . wtsr treaty . "Why does not some member get up in the House of Commons and insist upon a complete exposition of the whole matter , even a 3 wo had out the real state of affairs in the Crimea ?

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      is calculated to act as a blind for sharp fellows who can get up a deposit , make a show of wealth , and come before believing shareholders as it were , with an official endorsement of their respectability . It has been effectual only for obstruction ; it is totally ineffectual as a real security . The amount and number of shares required prevented any enterprise which did * not start with a capital of £ 200 ; and however

      paltry that sum may seem in the eyes of business men , it is a large amount for members of the working class . Thus they saw themselves excluded from many most legitimate objects of associated trade , by the arbitrary will of Parliament , acting under dictation of what they considered the moneyed monopoly . Again , there niay be , and we believe there are , projects that are legitimate , that merit a decided experiment , but that do not command sufficient faith

      to call up a deposit as the necessary preliminary for the commencement of business . Why should there be any restriction upon the freedom of the subject in making his compacts and arranging his enterprise ? It would be quite as reasonable to require a man , before opening his shop , to show that he had other handkerchiefs in boxes besides those hung up in the window ; that he had sufficient cash in the till to give the customer change , to pay his wholesale dealer , to liquidate the claims of his

      butcher and baker , to pay the wages of his servants , and to keep his wife and children ; to say nothing of the necessity of bringing his marriage certificate and the baptismal register of his offspring . Those who deal with a man may like him to give guarantees and " hostages to fortune , " but we do not require them as preliminaries to entering into business . It is true that trade already exists , and that it is not desirable to make sudden compulsory changes . The citizen is protected by the law , and while he claims its protection , those who administer

      the law and live under its rule may exact . from him guarantees that he will act in conformity with its simplest rules . Mr . Lowe ' s Joint-Stock Company ' s Bill secures this gtiarantee by very simple obligations . Men who form a joint-stock company must register themselves ; that is to say , as the public has been accustomed to unlimited liability , it is able to know of particular men who depart from that practice that these men , thus associated , are henceforward to be looked xrpon as limited parties . Since the non-limitation restrains the freedom

      of entering upon trading , we are accustomed to believe that those who make a certain figure have the means of overcoming difficulties , and the bill provides against our being deceived by very summary methods of calling the limited joint-stock associations to account . This summary power is conferred on all sides —upon the shareholders as well as upon the creditors . One-fifth of the shareholders can

      procure from the Board of Trade an official , though not a public inspection ; that is , oncfifth in number of the shareholders can command such an inspection as will posith r oly secure them against heing deceived by their directors and officers . Is this no guarantee ? Then one-fourth of the shareholders can wind up the company ; so that if a mere minority has been dragged into the enterprise , and sees its money about to be sacrificed to objects of the

      Limited Liability Bills of last year proved to be a . failure ; one bill , that for permitting any man . to invest his money in a private firm , was withdrawn ; the other was so hedged in with obstructive encumbrances , that it has scarcely worked at all . The necessity of having a certain proportion of paid-up capital to register has actually hindered many enterprises , has rendered it impossible for the humbler classes to muster the deposit , and therefore to effect the registration . On the other hand , it

      MR , LOWE'S PARTNERSHIP REFORM . We believe that if the pxiblic at large understood the nature of the opposition with which $ Lr . Lowe is threatened in the prosecution of his Partnership Reform Bills , he would have a very strenuous support , from enterprising men in trade , from the very numerous class who have surplus means to invest , and who can only do so now under great risk , and albovc all , from the great body of the working class . The

      which it does not approve , ' it can dissolve tyrant majority which is using it , withdraw its investment , and then leave the tyrant majority , if it pleases , to form a new enterprise without its reluctant coadjutora . If a debt by the company remains unpaid for three weeks , the unpaid creditor can wind up the company . Is not this sufficient ? It appears to \ in that no company coxild carry on its business under these rules , unless that business were substantial and genuine , and unless its transactions

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      156 THE LEAD E R . [ No . 308 , Saturday

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 16, 1856, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2128/page/12/