[The New Sardinian Loan.—
The Impending French and Indian Loans]

London, Aug. 14, 1860

The new Sardinian loan of £6,000,000 has been closed, and three times the sum required is said to have been subscribed. Thus it appears that the bonds of the new Italian Kingdom are rising in the market at the very time that Austria is struggling in vain with a debt whose magnitude ought to be measured not by the resources of the country, but by the weakness of its Government, and while Russia, mighty Russia, having been driven from the European loan market, was forced to recur again to its own paper-money machinery. Still, even in regard to Sardinia, the new loan reminds us of the ugly fact that in modern times almost the first act in a people's struggle for freedom or independence seems, by some monstrous fatality, to consist in contracting a new servitude. Is every public debt not a mortgage saddled upon the industry of a whole people, and a curtailment of its freedom? Does it not give rise to a new set of invisible tyrants, known under the name of public creditors? However that may be, if the French, in less than a decade, have almost doubled their public debt in order to remain slaves, the Italians must be allowed to incur the same liabilities in order to become freemen.

Piedmont proper, exclusive of the provinces newly added[333], was in 1847 taxed to the amount of £3,813,452, while this year it will have to pay £6,829,000[a]. It has been stated by English papers, The Economist, for instance, that the commerce of Piedmont, consequent upon the liberal changes introduced into its tariff, had also greatly increased, and in illustration of this progress we are treated to the following figures:

Now, I beg to remark that this increase is more apparent than real. The leading articles of Sardinian export consist of silk, silk manufactures, twine, spirits, and oil; but it is generally known that during the first three quarters of 1857 the prices of all those articles had assumed a most bloated aspect, and would, consequently, greatly swell the sum total of the Sardinian commercial returns. The official statistics of the Kingdom give, moreover, the values only, not the quantities of the articles exported and imported, so that the figures for the year 1857 may be altogether exceptional. No public accounts for the years 1858-60 having as yet been issued, it remains to be seen whether or not the commercial crisis in 1858 and the Italian war in 1859 have checked the industrial progress of the country. The following tabular statements, showing the official estimates of the revenue and expenditure for the current year (1860) of Sardinia proper, afford evidence that part of the new loan will be employed to cover the deficit, while another part of it is wanted for new preparations for war:

Comparing the expenditure amounting to £10,017,588 to the revenue of £6,829,828, we find a deficit of £3,187,760. On the other hand the newly acquired provinces are estimated to yield an annual revenue of £3,435,552, and to cost an annual expenditure of £1,855,984, so that they would leave a clear surplus of £1,600,000[c]. According to this calculation, the deficit of the whole kingdom of Sardinia, including the newly acquired provinces, would be reduced to £1,608,282. It is only just that Lombardy and the Duchies should pay part of the expenses Piedmont has incurred in the Italian war; but, in the run of time, it might prove a highly dangerous experiment to charge taxes upon the new provinces, almost twice as large as their cost of administration requires, with a single view to relieving the exchequer of the old provinces.

People conversant with the undercurrents of the Paris money market continue to give out that another French loan is looming in a not remote future. The only thing wanted is a specious opportunity for raising the wind. The emprunt de la paix[d], as you know, has proved a failure. Partant pour la Syrie[334] has till now been rehearsed on too small a scale to justify a fresh appeal to the enthusiasm of the grande nation. It is, therefore, presumed that, should nothing new turn up, and the prices of corn go on increasing, a loan will be raised on the pretext of providing against the possible disasters of dearth. In connection with French finances it may be remarked as a curious fact, that Mr. Jules Favre, who dared to predict in the midst of the Corps Législatif the impending crash of the Imperial Exchequer[e], has been elected Bâtonnier of the Paris Bar. The French advocates, as you are aware, have from the times of the old monarchy saved some tatters of their ancient feudal constitution. They still form a sort of corporate body, called the Barreau, the yearly elected chief of which, viz., the Bâtonnier, represents the order in its relations with the tribunals and the Government, at the same time that he watches over its internal discipline. Under the restoration, and under the following regime of the citizen King[f], the election of the Paris Bâtonnier was always considered a great political act, involving a demonstration for or against the Ministry of the day. Mr. Jules Favre's election must, I believe, be considered the first anti-Bonapartist demonstration ventured upon by the Paris Bar, and consequently deserves to be chronicled among the events of the day.

In yesterday's sitting of the House of Commons, before a House hardly large enough to make up a quorum, Sir Charles Wood, that true pattern of the genuine Whig place-hunter, carried a resolution[g] empowering him to contract a new loan of Three Millions Sterling on behalf of the Indian Treasury. According to his statement, the Indian deficit was in 1858-59 (the financial year always beginning with and ending in April) £14,187,000, in 1859-60 £9,981,000, and is estimated for 1860-61 at £7,400,000. Part of that deficit he promised to cover from the yield of Mr. Wilson's newly-introduced taxes—a very questionable prospect, after all—while the other part was to be provided for by the new loan of three millions. The public debt, which in 1856-57, the year before the Rebellion, amounted to £59,442,000, had now increased to £97,851,000. At a still more rapid rate the interest on the debt had grown. From £2,525,000 in, 1856-57 it had risen to £4,461,000 in 1859-60. Although the revenue had been forcibly expanded by the imposition of new taxes, still it could not keep pace with the expenditure which, even according to Mr. Charles Wood's own statement, was increasing in every direction, save that of Public Works. To make up for an outlay of three millions on fortified barracks, there has been put during the present, and will be put during the following year, "almost a perfect stop to public works and public buildings of a civic character." This "perfect stop" Sir Charles seemed to consider one of the beauties of the system. Instead of 40,000, as in 1856-57, there are now kept 80,000 European soldiers in India; and, instead of a native army of hardly 200,000, one of above 300,000 men.

Notes