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    self as' an honourable bankrupt . ' He has in the meanwhile secured a reserved fund to begin again with , and does begin again , on a larger scale . It is not necessary , therefore , that a combination of high interest for borrowed capital and "low profits should lead to individual ruin . We have in our eye persons who , having been bankrupt a sufficient number of times , contemplate retiring upon the

    proceeds-It would be not impossible to bring forward distinct evidence of operations even more closely coming under Mr . Commissioner KoLitOYD ' s censure , whether in the linendrapery trade or the grocery trade . Banks have lately been discovered of which the whole capital has been a fiction . The Xiverpooi Borough Bank , representing some hundreds of shareholders , and managed by able men , turns out to have assisted in the manufacture of accommodation paper to

    immense sums . We have heard a report revived lately that some pushing firms not a hundred miles from Cornhill , are known to hold forged paper , in the vulgar sense of the word ; and although the story is an old one , we believe that it is true . We profess to be shocked at the Yankees for their-fast trading ; but Yankeeland can in no respect vie with lEurope in the magnitude of its bankruptcies . Hitherto , indeed , the whole Continent has

    been greatly behind England ; but they are a sublime people the -French , and if we" have had pur Stiiaiian , Paul , and Bates , or our British Bank , in Prance they are showing us how ' credit ' can be multiplied and swelled up , and how long a crash can be put off . There is at the present time no trade so eagerly pushed , or developed to such magnitude , as the trade of bankruptcy ; and its capital is accommodation paper , the largest manufacture of the day .

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    THE ROUMANIAN UNION . When last autumn the settlement of the Danubian Principalities was an agitated question , we represented that the opinion of Moldavia and Wallachia was emphatically in favour of a political union . That view was rejected in several quarters . It was thought that only a particular cliquo , including . M . Bratiano , had adopted the Roumanian Idea ; but the point , is now placed beyond dispute . The Wallachian and Moldavian Divans , elected to express the sentiments of all classes of the population , have demanded the consolidation of the two provinces under one Government . Perhaps they are not likely , at present , to obtain their wishes ; but , on the other hand , no Paris Conference can definitively settle the destinies of the Uoinnanian race , in contradiction of its expressed desire . It appears that a diplomatic compromise lias been determined upon . AVhut example have we of such a compromise permanently fulfilling its object ? It would bo perverse , of course , not to admit the difficulties in the way of the union . If Turkey bo firmly resolved * against it , and has a right to withdraw the matter from the decision of a conference , and if she be supported by Great Britain and Austria , the liouman nation cannot hope to prevail against a league of plenipotentiaries . The negotiations aet on foot in order to guarantee the Porte could not well end in coercing it . Besides , France is supposed to have given way—if ever , indeed , her professions were sincere—and Russia , with no more than the doubtful concurrence of Prussia and Sardinia , could scarcely anticipate the triumph of her own opinions . But , whatever bo tlio judgment of Europe , the rights . of tho Kouiunu people ought to he remembered . They are not , and never have been , Turkish subjects ? . They are as much tho ' natural judgea' in their own case as the

    Turks are in theirs ; for it is not a question of sundering a province from an empire , but of loosening a political tie contracted conditionally by mutual consent . They have always had a nationality , recognized by treaties with the Porte , and while they have fulfilled all their engagements with Turkey , Turkey has broken every one of hers with them . Therefore , the claims of the Porte are by no means natural and indefeasible . Moldavia and "Wallachia are not integral

    portions of the Ottoman Empire . The Turks know this . Consequently , they have endeavoured to corrupt the population , and have failed . If M . Togorides , who banqueted at the Mansion House on Wednesday , could venture to be candid , he might tell the public how his relations oil the Danube obeyed the inspirations of Lord Clakendon and M . Mtjstjrtjs . M . Musuuus himself is the last man who should talk of patriotism or public duty . As well might a Finsbury Greek claim to be the kinsman of Aeistides . The Vog-o . bides family have performed , perhaps , some of the most humble tasks to which ' princes' ever stooped . The Roumanians are justly incensed . They perceive that they are about to be sacrificed to a fiction , and that fiction the integrity of Turkey , with its debauched administration , its alloyed currency , its hopeless debt , its unsuccessful loans , its universal demoralization and decay . And the fiction is upheld by those who condescend to the dirtiest intrigues . " Whatever iufluence has been at work seems to have been successful at the French' Court ; or , rather , it begins to be demonstrated that official France has

    not , and cannot have , the slightest practical sympathy with any nation aspiring to independence . But if the Houmauians are to be suppressed in the interest of diplomacy , the reasons must be clearly understood . It is no argument to say that they are incapable of self-defence ; the ' Turks , at least , have not proved capable of defending them . -Nor is it quite correct , as leading journalists affirm , that J&oumania . is a flat country , and naturally indefensible ; ifc has the Carpathians—as high as-the Alps ; it has many rivers ; it has a frontier of forests . Frequently as it has been invaded , it has never been conquered since the days of Tjiaja >\ As to H-ussian influence , the most conspicuous fact connected with ifc is that , after the passage of the Pruth , lloumanian exiles hastened to Constantinople to offer their services to the Turks . But if wo desire to foster llussiah . sympathies , we have only to oppose the Union , and convince tho people th . ifc , when they are in waut of friends , they must Jiud them in the North .

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    GENERAL CAVAIGNAC . Tun impression produced in Paris by the death of'General Cavaignac has been decidedly partial ; but at is not on that account less worthy of study . In some circlescomposed chiefly of what may be called ' new members of society' recently brought up to the surface — strangers from below , mixed with strangers from abroad—the only question naked was , " Will there be any disturbance ? " It was easy to answer in the negative ; and then no more was thought of the matter than of tho death of a Chinese mandarin announced at the tag-end of a correspondence Iron ) Hong-Kong . Naturally these circles are strictly governmental in their sympathies , for they depend on the Empire for their existence and their importance . They form a sort of political demi-monde , in which we meet sometimes familiar faces , faces that haunt us under all regimes , for they have been seen in allatitc-clwuubers—fucew of tlisnppo in ted placehunters , who pretend lo have dived to tho world ' s hcnrt'H core , and who have formed amidst repeated disappointments the

    ingenious doctrine which now consoles so many consciences : " All Governments are arbitrary and dishonest by nature and tendency : it is a mere question of degree : how , therefore , ean we be enthusiastic ? Enthusiasm deals with , what is absolute ; and when we have analyzed Imperialism and Democracy , mafoi 1 the " difference is so slightly . ' in . favour . ' of the latter—; " and so forth . These gentlemen , who knew what enthusiasm meant when it might have been profitable , go about checking what little emotion may manifest itself within their reach by talking of the Days of June , the arrest of Gieabdin-, and the famous speech in which Greneral Cavaig ^ ac declared that ' there was an abyss' between him and Ledeu Roilin " . Wherever their influence extends , we may be sure thab by next week 'he who sleeps at Montmartre ' will be utterly forgotten .

    . ' He-who .-sleeps ' at Montmartre' is a popular expression picked up the other day in Paris from the mouth of one who never heard of PHiLiE ; It was used in a sort of triumphant spirit ; and represented a vulgar , a savage , but perhaps a somewhat excusable feeling of hatred against the Dictator of June . The middle classes are astonished at the existence of these persevering feelings in ranks which they are accustomed to consider as filled by isolated , individuals , who come and go , and have no organization , no regular process of handing down traditions . It is now nine years since those bloody days— -nine years filled by how many events that have occupied the bourgeoisie heart and soul ; so that the men who massacred insurgents in that awful time look upon it as matter of history ; , and consider themselves absolved and white washed by the mere lapse of time . To talk of retribution now would seem as unreasonable to them as it seemed to Governor Wall after he had been quietly digging his garden for twenty years . But meanwhile the people , more sparing , of its sympathiesscarcely interesting itself offcener than once in a lustre in public events—looks back to June , ! 8-i < S , as to yesterday ; and feel passions and entertain resentments which seem terrible find repulsive to those who have been letting their hearts throb daily at all manner of news from east , west , north , and south , foreign and domestic , social and military , commercial and scientific , who have identified themselves 'with the world ' s progressive life , and felt for all its disasters for-one-third of the average duration of human existence . We met not long ago a man who spoke bitterly of the massacre of Peterloo . lie did not seem more strange than a porter , a workman ,, a waiter at a cafe , a cabdriver—who may have all once stood powder and bloodstained on a barricade , but who now have the meek demeanour proper to their calling , overpowered by the police—saying , " Ah t he is dead—well , what matter ! " or brutally proclaiming , " He has gone , the hero of Juno !"

    ] 3 ut in the lower classes , this feeling of hostility is no longer general ; it is replaced often by a feeling of mere indifference ; and often by a generous admiration and regret . Dining the last elections the actions of Cavaignac were much sifted , and the result showed that to a remarkable extent he was absolved from all imputed crimes . The fact is , people now see that the violence he committed , or that was committed in his naino , was a necessity of his position ; but that his moderation after victory was entirely personal . Scarcely tiny one doubts that if he had been morel v ambitious , ho might have placed himself at tho head of any kind of government lie might have chosen . His scrupulousness , indeed , was carried almost to the extent of a crime . ' There are some situations in which .

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    No . 398 , November 7 , 1857 . ] TH E LEAi ) EE . l 06 g

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 7, 1857, page 1069, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2216/page/13/