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________LORD ST LEONARDS'S…
LORD ST LEONARDS'S WILL. Another illustration has been given of an old proverb. The first real-property lawyer 3f his time made his own will, and placed it in his own box, with the result which has been this week exhibited in the Probate Court. If he had exployed a solicitor, a draft of the will would have been extant, and although the deposit of willa in the Registry of the Court is a modern invention, it was always possible to execute a will in duplicate, and place one part at a bank, while retaining the other in one's own custody. It may be added that, if an ordinary client consulted a solicitor on the preparation of an eighth codicil, be would probably be advised to embody all his testamentary dispositions in a new will. If says Lord St Leonards in his Handy Book, I were a devisee of a living testator, I should like to know that the will was in the new depository. The expense and difficulty occasioned by the deposit would deter many men from capriciously altering their donations." He appears to have over- estimated the expense and difficulty thus incurred His own will was dated 13th January, 1870, and the last, of the series of codicils was dated 20th August, 1873, and without suggesting that his dispositions were capricious, it may be said that they were inconve- niently numerous. Like other teachers of mankind, he might have warned his hearers to be guided by what he said, and not by what he did. I am unwilling," he says to the imaginary recipient of his letters, to give you any instructions for making your will with- out the assistance of your professional adviser." A testator who consulted a lawyer every time he made a will or codicil would be unlikely to execute nine testa- mentary instruments within four years. It being necessary to prove the contents of the will from memory, it would have been difficult to find a better witness than Miss Sugden. The purchase of the Cingsdown estate by the testator was completed in Dec. 1860, and next month he made the will himself, read it slowly to his daughter, and then executed it in the presence of two of his servants. He had made no secret of his inteniion to give the Kingsdown estate to his second son, and when he became alienated from his grandson, he avowed his determination to make Mr Frank Sugden the head of the family. The testator, said that the witness, was much averse to his grandson's marrying, not only because of his youth, but also on account of the trouble which the necessary settlements would involve. It may be remarked that one of these objections to marriage was temporary, but the other permanent. It has been said that, if law will not adapt itself to society, society must adapt itself to law and Lord St Leonards evidently considered a marriage settle- ment more important than marriage itself. In one ot those passages which he supposed suitable for popular reading he combats the objection which has been made to the complicated and expensive machinery" of a settlement. He aaks who ever complained of the cam plex movements in a well-finished watch, and he evi* dently thought the parallel complete and satisfactory. The grandson might have retorted that a watch would I cost less money than a settlement, and might be bought at a minutes notice within a quarter of a mile of Lincoln's Inn. If this great master of English law did not think it the perfection of reason, that was perhaps because be knew that it had been partly made or marrod by certain decisions of Lord Brougham. But w« may assume that tbia comparison of a marriage settlement to a watch was satisfactory to his own mind. We admire the connexion of its parts depending on each other. and all necessary to furm the combination which produces the desired results." The question whether conveyancing as practised in England ia a good in itself or a utecostiry evil never presented itself to the mind of Lord St. Leonards. "Wby," he asks, "should we oomplain of a well. digested settlement ?" We m,,y at least tdtbit that the troubles of ownir.g property in England aro less than those of owning none. But it it a new and strange version of noblesse oblige to hear that the young heir to a peerage must not marry because tne indispensable settlements would be tronbiMome. Settte?eotf," aayathe ?aM? ?oot, "are the result of &be hnpro?e- ments of centuries they meet the wishes and wants of mankind, and art open to no sensible inconvenience." A carefully drawn will might with equal justice be compared to a well-finished watch, aud it might be added that both are liable te be lost. This eminent conveyancer doubted wnether to admire more Fines and Recoveries or the statute which abolished them. On inspection, he says, we shall find how great a debt we owe to our leg- ancestors for the very forms of which we complained. Thev were invented to obviate the injustice of prior ltwo, and have led to the system under which we have flourished. Whether the pros- perity ot this country was attained by or in spite of ita system of property law was a question not considered hy Lord St. Leonards. But as be was fond of mechani- cal illuitrations, he might have compared that law as be knew it in bis own professional life to an ing>-nioas loek of which the key had been mislaid, and therefore it wa* necessary to pick it. The clear evidence of Miss Sudgen removed much of the difficulty of this case. She was present at the execution of all the codicils on each occasion she saw the will, and she read it twice or thrice. When the last codicil was made, the testator locked up the will with the codicils in bis will box and said, I have done the last earthly thing I wish." The box was placed in its uaual position on the floor of the room in which the testator sat and wrote. On his illness Miss Sudgen took charge of the box, and retained it until her father was able to leave his room. It was then replaced by her in its old position, and remained there until Mareh or April 1874, when her father being again confined to his room by illness, she again took charge of it, and retained its custody until the testator's death in January last The box was opened after the funeral by Mr Trollope, solicitor, and when lie announced that the will was not in it, Miss Sudger wrote out, at the suggestion of Mr Trollope, and without referring to any document, the provisions of the will as she remembered them. Her father declared that it was the duty of every man so to arrange his affairs that there should be no possi- bility of dispute as to the disposition of bis pro- perty after his death, and in his last illness be fre- quently expressed satisfaction at having -io settled his own affairs. The cross-examination of the witness only confirmed her evidence. She bad several ideas" on the subject of the disappearance of the will, but she had been told, she said, to adhere to facts. Other witnesses deposed to hearing declarations by the testa- tor of his intention to give, or of his having given, he Kingsdown estate to his son the Rev Frank Sugden, and of his having suitably provided for his unmarried daughter. Mr Frank SugJen stated tbat after his father's death he found in an inner drawer of an escritoire used by the deceased a duplicate key of the will-box, and there were five keys in the house with which the escritoire could be opened. Some editor of the Handy Book may perhaps venture to add to it a suggestion that, if you do keep your own will, you should endeavour to make it more safe than the tea or sugar of an occupant of furnished lodgii gs. Mr Sudgen has bad many offers from Spiritualists to furnish tidings of the missing will, but he baa not availed himself of their assistance. We assume, however, that the reward of E500 is as much open to be earned by a medium" as by anybody else. The rule of law is that, if a will, traced to the posses- sion of the deceased, and last seen there, is not forthcoming at his death, it is presumed to have been destroyed by himself, and that pr sumption must have effect unless there is sufficient evidence to repel it. But this presumption, which is raised by facts may be rebutted by other facts which raise a higher degree of probability to the contrary. The onos of proof of such facts is on the party propounding the will. The argument of council against the will aimed at show- ing that this onus had not been sustained, and probably this argument assisted the Court to an immediate decision on the case. It is a good help to a judge to find that an able and experienced advocate has little to say in support of his client's jase. A most reasonable theory" propounded by defendant's council ii;, that the deceased on looking over his will, secing the state in which he had left it by obliterations, interlineations, and the disposition of the several codicils, destroyed it with the intention of making a new one, and that fail- ing health and energy prevented him from carrying the intention in'.o effect. If we accept this as the most reasonable theory which its authors could invent, W9 may be tolerably satisfied with a decision adverse to their clients. Lord St. Leonards was not only a great lawyer but a man of strong common sense, and it is incredible that be would have destroyed an old will before be bad made a new one. There is. said the Judge, great danger in adopting evidence derived from the recollection ot any witness, and more especially when that witness is an interested party. But there would also be great danger if, when, through fraud or accident, a will could not be produced, the Court were to be precluded from receiving such evidence. If these remarks and others which followed appear commonplace, we must remember that the case presented no difficulty commensurate with the interest it has excited. Indeed the cause of that interest has been, not so much facts as surmises, with which the Judge could have nothing to do. He regre ted that he had not the assistance of a draft of the will in question, and we have already remarked that this was the consequence of the testator being his own law- yer. It seems that he wrote out this will from a previous one, without making anything that could properly be called a draft. The evidence of a professional man would have been more satisfactory, said the Judge, than that given by a lady. But this was a mere conventional opinion, and it may be doubted whether he really thought so. If Miss Sugden understood the Handy Book, she must be the equal of many lawyers, and when next the question is mooted of admitting ladies to professions, we shall feel rather pressed by this example of capacity. Ladies have been distinguished in mathematics, philosophy, and medicine, but we do not remember an historical nor even a living American example of a female lawyet, and those which occur in fiction are not flattering, although possible, creations. It can hardly be doubted that Miss Sudgen was able to understand and remember the limitations of the Kingsdown estate, and it is not probabte that the testator gave himself the trouble of writing out unnecessarily verbose or com- plicated clauses. Although a settlement or will drawn by a lawyer is not so beautiful as a work of art as Lord St. Leonards thought, yet he bad done much in his long and laborious life to improve the practice in which he delighted, and he was not a lover of prolixity for its own sake. To the suggestion that the testator bad destroyed the will the Judge answered that he could find no assignable motive for that proceeding, He could not think that the testator would destroy the instrument, and thus throw all his affairs into confusion and bring about that litigation which be was so anxious to avoid. His opinion was that that the testator died in the belief that the will was in existence. It is almost a disappointment to find that the Judge has nothing more to say than this, and that critics of his judgment can only agree in it. It seems, too, that the case will hardly bear further litigation.- Saturday Review.
THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT AND…
THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT AND THE SUEZ CANAL. We have to make a somewhat startling announce- ment. The British Government has bought from the Khedive ah are*- of the Suez Canal to the amount of £4.000,000 sterling, and the Egyptian Govern- ment if authorised to draw on Meaara. Rothschild at sight for the account. At event like this will rouse cnrioeity to the utmost, and let loose the flood of con- jecture and speculation. There is an audacity about it which we do not generally e«sociate with the act. of a Brit in b Ministry, We seem to trace in the business the hand of Mr Disraeli. While people are looking towards the East in doubt nod apprehension, diaoerning nothing but darkness and trouble, political confusion and financial collapse, while they are wondering what is to be the end and how far Eig'and will be perforce con- cen ed id thp. Queen's Government resolves on an act which wi'l at once fix the regards of the world. No waiting fi r Par iament, no feeling of public opinion, nu mysterious hI ilL" to prepare the City and the country for rfuiirkHhle The nation awakes one morning to find that it has acquired a heavy stake in the security It I,I wsll-lMiiig IIf another distant land, and that it will be held by all the world to have entered apon a new phase of Ea"tern policy. The opportunity for this important step has been given by events which are bat too well known. Ismail Pasha, the fourth Ruler of his House, and a man eredited with a g >od understanding, a liberal temper, and a. remarkable spirit of enterprise, has brought Egypt. into serious financial difficulties. His prede- cessors were all, more or less, given to combining the art of government with private financial operations—a practice to which submissive character of the people gives large opportunities. It is needless to dwell upon the processes by which the Kne five baa concentrated in himself almost all the enterprise of the country, and laid upon a population a little more than five millions Of souls that prodigious debt the value of which has been lately the spor of every rumour. It is sufficient to say that, whatever may he the ultimate result of the operations in which the Kbédive, with the aid of his numerous advisers, haa embarked, he is for the present in want of ready money. The resources of Egypt may atill be great—" pratcally illimitable" used to be the phrase in such cases. But the Egvptian Government has been going so fast during the last few years, and the speed has lately been so alarmingly accelerated, that some opportune help from without has become necessary. The ordinary agricultural resources of the country cannot be further drawn upon at present, and the Khedive had to look round and see what he pos- sesses which is at once valuable and presently dis- posable. He has found it in the great work of M. de Lesseps. While so much else in Egypt which can bring money has been overworked and anticipated, the Suez Canal has remained intact. Its success as a scientific construction and aø a channel of maritime intercourse is assured, and its financial proapects have of late perceptibly brightened. We now know that the traffic with tbe vast Empires of Asia will take this route, and that the increase of tonnage must in the nature ef things be rapidly progressive. The two gteat Stiats of the human race, the European Continent and tbe regions of Southern and Eastern Asia, are only now being brought into real connexion with each other intercourse and trade are yet in their infancy. What- ever the traffic, it must pass through the Canal of M. de Lesseps, tor a rival enterprise is scarcely possible. So tbe Kh6dive, in his difficulties, has found thia investment at least a good solid property. For the last fortnight or more it has been rumoured that bis Suez Canal shares, if not in the market, were at least likely to be pledged in order to procure indis- pensable funds. But that they would be sold outright, and tbat the British Government would be the pur- chaser, bad no place among the conjectures of the time. However, tbe two parties have come together, and the business has been promptly completed. We may be sure tbat thti Khedive has done better in dealing with a first-class Government than in negotiating with this Or tbat combination of Continental speculators, and it will probably prove no misfortune to him that, instead of mortgaging bis property, he has sold it outright. He holds 117,000 out of the 400,000 shares of which the Capital of the Suez Canal Company consists, and these he has offered to the British Government, as has been said, for the sum of four millions sterling. The offer has been accepted, and when the formal sanction of Parliament shall have been given the British State will succeed to all Ismail Pasha's immense interest in the en- terprise, and become the chief proprietor, with an in- fluence predominating over every other. The sum to be paid is large even for the wealthiest of nations, and as an investment it must be based upon very favourable estimates of the future traffic. But the public, both of this and of other countries, will look at this important act of the British Government rather it its political than in its commercial aspect. It will be regarded as a demonstration and something more; a declaration of intention* and a commencement of action upon them. It is impossible to separate in our thoogbts the purchase of the Suez Canal from the question of England's future relations with Egypt, or the destiny of Egypt from the shadows that darken the Turkish Empiie. For months Europe has looked on Uneasily at wbpt has been passing in the Northern Province* of Turkey. Tbe insurrection in Herzegovina is ominous, whatever view be taken of it. If it be spontaneous, it bears witness to the hatred engendered by a tyrannical Government and an intolerant Creed; if it be the effect of external instigation, it is tbe more menacing, since it suggests a settled policy of ambi- tious neighbours. The insurrection has been well timed to effect its purpose, whatever that may be, for it has brought down the ruinous edifice of Turkish credit and left tbe State without friends or the resources to make them. Month after month the insurrection goes On, the Turkish troops seem to make no way against enemies who disperse only to come together again, and of late the insurgents seem to have become more thoroughly organized, and to have inflicted severe defeats on the Sultan's troops. As the winter closes in the prospects become more gloomy. There is an im- pression that the last few weeks have been a period of anxiety in the official circles, and since Mr Disraeli spoke at the Guildhall in a tone of political confidence all sorts of disquieting rumours have been abroad. The world Will interpret the act of the British Government by the circumstances of the time. It will fancy it discerns the apprhensions of the statesman in the transaction so suddenly completed. On this subject exaggeration is possible, yet it would be useless to contend that political motives have nothing to do with our acceptance of the Khedive's offer. The purchase must be iooked upon primarily as an act prompted by the very natural desire to take a share when offered in a very useful enterprise, which promises to be profitable in itself, and which is beyond a doubt of the highest importance to British commerce. Three-fourths of the whole ton- nage passing through the Canal are British, and this proportion is likely to increase rather than diminish. This is the foundation of our interest, but undoubtedly, in the present circumstances of the East we cannot bot desire to have a position of greater security on the great highway to the East. We have no desire for an extension of territory we do not covet the land of the Nile, even with the magnificent extension into unknown regions which it has acquired through the courage and endurance of British travellers. When Egypt was conquered by our old continental rival, we wrested the conquest from her only to restore it to its former owner. Our policy has not essentially changed since that time. We are quite content that Egypt should retain its present connection with the Ottoman State, should the Ruler of that State continue in a position to exercise the Suzerainty. Since the Firman ot 1873, which gave the Khedive the right of treating independ- ently with foreign States, the Egyptian Government has little to complain of, and may fulfil its duties untram- meled by Stamboul. In this settlement we desire to make no change. But should insurrection or intrigue, aggression from without or corruption from within, bring a political as well as a financial collapse to the Turkish Empire, it might be necessary to take measures for the security of that part of the Sultan's dominions with which we are most nearly concerned. The acquisi- tion of so commanding an interest in the Seuz Canal, an interest which must inevitably tend to increase, will lead the Government and people of this country to concernjthemselves habitually with Egypt; and we trust the effect will be to arrest the financial mismanage- ment of the Province, to introduce order and economy, to husband its resources, and to elevate its submissive and oppressed population.—Times. The Daily News observes that the purchase by the British Government of the Khedive's shares in the Suez Canal Company is a bold and timely act, which is for all the world a notification that, at a time when some imagine that our interests in the East are meuaced, we commit ourselves with alacrity to new engagements for their consolidation and defence. The transaction cannot remain isolated, though all its con- sequences may not be immediately apparent. It is plain that, having obtained so large a share in the ownership of the Suez Canal, we shall acquire a de- cisively preponderating power in its managoment; but, as it is a principle of British policy not to claim advant- ages exclusively for ourselves in matters of commerce and navigation, this is not a result of which any Government will have reason to complain. Indeed, there is not one of them that will, on examination, find itself entitled to make representations to us on this subject. What we have acquired by this purchase in Egypt is not a part of the Khedive's territorial sovereignty, but a mere proprietor's interest in a joint- stock undertaking. Our Government has bought nothing that is not strictly saleable at the same time, the transaction must be taken as asign both of tbe thoroughly good understanding which exists between the Governments of Great Britian and Egypt, and also of the interest which we take in the security and pros- perity of the Khedive's dominions. The Post remarks that the action of the Government has without doubt created a profound impression on the public mind. At any time it would have excited vivid I interest, but with the world awakened to the portents of I the Eastern Question, with Turkey and Egypt on every ■ tongue, the matter assumes naturally an aspect of peculiar importance. It is, of course, the ensuring of v the power to make use of the canal at times of political convulsion and war that forma the kernel of the queation. Have we, then, bettered our position in this particular respectf Public feeling seems to aay Yea But it mus t be remembered that it is on the faith of treaties, supported by ironclada and bayonets, and not on shares and ooupons, tbat tbe integrity of the water highway across the Isthmus of Suez most rest. Another pre- vailing idea seems to be that in some mysterious way the part-proprietorship of the Suez Canal will permit ot a radical change in our Eastern Queation policy. We may depend upon it, however, that the purchase leaves tbe Eastern Question very much indeed where it was. The English Ministry years ago knew what they were about when they declined to barter Constantinople for Egypt. Toere is one possibility connected with the matter that cannot be overlooked altogether. Some foreign Power or Powers may not approve entirely of the action of our Government, and when tbe political atmosphere is in so electrical a condition it would not take any very great exciting cause to produce a storm. Still the country should understand that the acquiring of an interest in tbe canal is strictly in accordance with the best traditions of our foreign policy. The Times says an act so prompt and opportune as the purchase of the Khedive's interest in the Suex Canal will gratify the country not only on account of the ultimate material advantages promised, but because it gives assurance that we have a Government of spirit and initiative. Though both tbe late and the present Cabinet have been presided over by men of whom courage and a vigorous will are characteristics, yet we cannot imagine the late Government taking such a resolution as the present. The courage of Mr Disraeli has also been shown in home politics. But the traditions of bis party and the present sentiment of the public do not permit any bold strokes of domestic policy. At the same time the state of an empire for which we have shed our blood and spent our treasure is such as to force upon us the consideration of our foreign rela- tions. It is well that in this particular phase of our history we should have a Ministry in office to which the dealing with important subjects of foreign policy, and tbe forming of decisive resolutions, are more congenial than to the earnest champions of domestic reform. The possession of the Suez Canal is now a great political power which must be considered in all discussions of the Eastern Question. It is plain that we acquire an interest in Egypt and its administration which will compel the constant attention of the Queen's Govern- ment. Everything that concerns that south eastern corner of the Mediterranean becomes of importance to England. The security of Egypt ill part of the policy of this country. This, which connects itself with the general attitude ot England on the Eastern Question, is tbe first consequence of the recent act of her Majesty's Government; and the Times feels sure that the nation will not shrink from this responsibility, but will rather be glad to know that our policy in the East will hence- forth be not merely the prompting of a vague partisan- ship, the justice of which our rivals might question, but will be based on substantial interests which we have an undoubted right to maintain. As to the effect of the business upon foreign powers, we may expect to bear a few ill-natured remarks from some organs of Continental opinion, but of these it will be hardly necessary to take account. The general feeling will be that the British Government has shown the proper spirit of a great State, and made a stroke the policy of which no one can mistake. The Daily Telegraph maintains that the acquisition of the chief proprietary rights in the Suez Canal on the part of Great Britain is a measure of Imperial policy not less wise than bold, and not less far-sighted than prompt and businesslike. The intelligence and patriotism of the English nation will beyond all question recognise in this act of Lord Derby a mark of sagacity which adds to his old reputation for prudence new proofs of political courage while Mr Disraeli's Government generally will derive from the step thus taken that just popularity which attaches to Ministers who do not fear great responsibility when the matter involved is the clear interest of the Empire. By a peaceful and legitimate stroke of stetesmanship, the problem of securing our communications with the East has been quietly transferred from the dangerous region of politics to the firm ground of the laws of property. The Standard, which ia confident that the step taken bv the Government in purchasing from the Khedive of Egypt his shares in the Suez Canal will obtain the support of the British people, will be disappointed if, not only to this nation, but to all the nations sincerely anxious tor the preservation of the public peace, tbe step does not commend itself as the simplest, the safest, the moat straightforward, and the most disinterested policy which England in the present conjuncture of affairs could pursue. It is a commercial transaction, but whether it will ever be anything more will depend I upon those who may hereafter desire to meddle with our investment. We have new a guarantee for the welfare of Egypt; and of all the Powers it is idle to suppose that there is any other whose guarantee for this inde- pendence would have been so generally acceptable. The action of the Government is unquestionably entirely at variance with the spirit of recent British policy, but it will be none the less heartily applauded because it is the first palpable sign of departure from the lessons we have been lately taught, and of a return to the paths in which the Conservative has ever won it greatest triumphs, and which are associated with its most glorious traditions. The Saturday Review observes that even the political importance of the step which the English Government has taken in purchasing a preponderating interest in the SUMZ Canal Company wiU scarcely impress the public so much as the thought of the extreme delight with which Mr Disraeli must have done what he has done. It is in his own style of gorgeousness In a moment he interferes in the East, be commits his country to a new adventure, be bandies about his millions like halfpence. He gives an order on tbe Golden Lions of the Throne of Judah, and bids a Viceroy draw at sight on Sidonia for four millions. To have lived to make a duke, which wap the dream of Vivian Grey, is nothing compared with having lived to realize the magnificent visions of Coningsby. It is im- possible not to enjoy the personal pleasure of the Prime Minister, unless we can pronounce the step taken to be a wrong one. It is not a little thing that has been done, and no one can say how far it may lead U8. The position of the English Government as shareholder in a French company is itself a curious one, and possibly we may have to buy up the whole concern. It may have been wise to pay a long price for the command of the maritime highway to India. But it is of no use to close our eyes and to call a large finaucial operation a small one. Politically, too, we must be prepared for this purchase turning out to have important consequences. Should the Khedive not be able to pay his way, there may be internal disturbances in Egypt, and we should have at least, to see security established along the line of the canal. Then, again, the Viceroy might die any day and then, without his having made default in his lifetime, troubles might ensue, and we should have to interfere, not at first or not at all to take possession of the country, but to make the canal safe. We shall soon hear what the allied Emperors think of the purchase. Perhaps they may not much regret it. In dividing the spoils of Turkey they well know that they will have to reckon with each other; but they will expect not to have to reckon with England. They will say that England has got whttsbe wants, and now they must have what they want. The field of plunder may seem open to them, and the Eastern Question to have entered on a new phase. Even, however, if this be so, it does not follow that the English Ministry has been wrong. The Spectator asserts that the Government has re- covered by a single act of far-sighted courage the reputation damaged by the many failures of the present recesss, It is no light thing for a British Minister to promise £4,000,000 sterling, and engage in an enterprise which may cost millions more, without consulting Parliament; and that the Cabinet has ventured to do this in an evidence of energy which is as unexpected as it is agreeable. The country would, the Spectator believes, applaud the act even if it were less wise than it is, in its satisfaction that the Government had acted in one foreign affair with energy, speed, and secrecy, and its content will not be diminished as it reflects on the wisdom of the act itself. Mr Disraeli has pur- chased, at a cost which to England means nothing, and which, indeed,may possibly prove to be almost nominal, the profit from the canal ultimately exceeding the low interest paid by this country for money, a predominant vote in the management of a canal which is of vital importance, not only to our commerce, though it is pro- bable that the whole Asiatic trade of Europe may yet pass through this channel, but the permanent Recurity of our Asiatic possessions. He had saved Egypt, more, from a collapsewhich might have precipitated all manner of questions with disastrous haste, and has announced, as we conceive the commencement of a novel and sound course of action in the East. There is no reason to believe that Mr Disraeli's action will offend any Power, except perhaps France and Turkey. The Imperial Powers," whatever their designs or what- ever their innocence, must long have known that whenever Turkey was shaking, England whether she protected Turkey or not, would protect the Suez Canal. The most serious protest will probably come from M. de Lesseps, who, always disinterested and always patriotic, may not find in the now assured solvency of his great enterprise sufficient compensation for the extinction of his dreams. The Economist thinks it is a most serious question whether Parliament ought not to meet as soon as poa- sible. The Cabinet have taken the most remarkable and peculiar—and probably one of the most momentous -decisions of our time; and until the matter has been fully explained the country will be in a doubt, and will not know what to think. The step is only of value on the assumption that we are prepared to take Egypt and to hold it—to say that it is the necessary stepping-stone to India, and that we must have it and will have it. But are we prepared to say this? We have never yet done so, and we are not sure that it is wise to say so. And, again, if we are prepared to take and hold Egypt, will this share in the Suez Canal help us in so doing P Will it not be better to take the country when it is necessary, without making public beforehand our in- tention to do so, and especially without making it public by the acquisition of a property which is of no fighting use, and which will not aid us when we want it ? For these reasons the Economist recommends its readers to suapend their judgment on this remarkable step till the reasons of the Government for taking it are fully before us. The decision is not to be taken with a "light heart;" on the oontrary, whether for good or evil, it ia of the graveat importance, and should be weighed accordingly. In an article on the financial effect of the purchase, the Economist observes that ao long as the Khedive is able to pay 5 per cent we have a good intereat for our advance and the shares are good holding property. The Khedive has now an opportunity of reforming his finances if he does so, we need not fear any loss of money but the degree in which we are concerning ourselves in bis affairs and the extent to which we are endorsing him" are very serious. The Paris Correspondent of the Times says :—" The announcement of the purchase of the Khedive's Suez Canal shares by the English Government has produced a great impression here. notwithstanding the absorbing nature of domestio politics." A newspaper which is generally very well informed on all questions relating to foreign politics, the Moniteur Universel, says :—•* The London jouruals confirm to-day's news of a serious character. The Viceroy of Egypt is said to have given up. for the sum of 100,000,0"0t. all his shares in the Isthmns of Suez to the English Government, and all that the treaty requires is the ratification of Parliament, which does not appear to be doubtful. When wo re- member the opposition which the British Government made to the establishment of the Suez Canal when we remember the persistence with which it endeavoured to injure the Canal in the question of tonnage; finally, if we compare these facts with the demonstrations of high sympar.by which the heir Presumptive to the Crown of England granted to the Khedive when he was recently in Egypt, it is evident that England has political views on the Government of the Viceroy." The Berlin correspondent of the Daily News tele- graphs The news of the purchase of the Suez Canal by the English Government, though not unexpected here, excites keen attention in political circles. In the Reichstag it was discussed among the deputies, and the evening papera all comment upon it. The North German Gazette says that tbe acquisition of the Canttl and the introduction of English officials into the financial administration of Egypt show that Great Britain has taken up her position with great prompL- ness. The correspondent of the Daily News at Vieuna tele- graphs :-The purchase by the British Government of the Suez Canal shares of the Khedive has caused con- siderable surprise here. The comments passed upon the transaction are for the most part of a friendly character. Some misgivings are, however, expressed about the future, owing to the preponderating influence which Great Britain has now secured in the manage- ment of the canal. The Nelle Freie Prease calllt the ar- rangement a masterly one, by which the Eastern Question is limited in its range, and provision made against future rivalry in Asia. The Presse is discon- tented. It predicts that the step will cause disappoint- ment. Turkey may, perhaps, some day treat her vas- sal's creditors with even less scruple than her own. The Deutsche Zeitung welcomes the event. England is now re-entering upon a foreign policy which caunot but be advantageous to the liberty of the world. The Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph is able, be says, to report the substance of a conversation with M. de Lesseps, and the opinions" hicb be has formed upon the subject of the purchase. M. de Lesseps observes that in selling his shares be Viceroy parted with ten votes only. No shareholder, according to the rules and by-laws, can have more than ten. So little importance was attached to the trust that the Khedive had on one occasion commissioned M. de Lesseps to make use of bis votes. M. de Lesseps looks upon the purchase by England of the right of way through the canal as a guarantee for the pacification of the whole world. England now possesses 7-16ths of the undertaking, and M. de Lesseps would be glad to see it in her complete possession. He considers the prosperity of his great work to be now assured, for there will be an end to the objections hitherto brought forward by English shareholders as to the manner in which the canal is managed. He trusts and believes that the news of England's purchase will put an end to all rumours of war which have prevailed. Sunday evening's Nord says :—" It is known that England loves to practise in politics a system of com- pensations which has nothing to do with the morality of M. Azai4. or with any kind of morality. But the laying of hands on the Suez Canal by the purchase of the shares of the Khedive is certainly one of the most successful examples of the kind. It is assuredly an original manner of defending Turkey, which is not threatened, and of protecting the Thracian Bosphorous by taking possession of the African Bosphorous. We understand now the reason of all the noise made by the London journals about the Eastern Question we know at last where to find the alarmist operators whose per- severing action was denounced lately and we explain to ourselves why the British press did not wish to be reassured. But, at all events, it was not worth while to take so warlike an attitude in order to compass an entHrprille which resembles more a coup de Bourse than a coup d'etat. However teeming it may be with con. sequences, we do not think the event can compromise the European peace. The manoeuvre which substitutes Great Britain for the Khedive strikes directly only the coast States of the Mediterranean, and especially France. Formerly this Power would have considered the secret observed in such a negotiation as an insult, and the despatcn of the squadron to Toulon would have immediately followed the revelation. But times are changed, and such energetic measures are not to be ex- pected from the Cabinet of Paris. England has well chosen her hour to touch her former ally in his honour and interests, and to give the last commentary on the Crimean war. The natural champion of the Suez Canal being in default, it is not to be presumed tbot other Powers will take his role. However, it appears to us impossible that the affair should pass without an international regulation. This preponderat- ing part which Great Britain acquires in the working of the Suez Canal would be equal in certain cases to a pure and simple confiscation. We do not speak merely of cases of war. With the station of Aden and that of Perim, which England took possession of as a pre- caution when she saw that she could not succeed in preventing the piercing of the isthmus with her fleets, which on the seas nearly realise to her profit the Utopia of the universal monarchy, England might have always closed the way of the Canal to her adversaries but a war of tariffs may still be more prejudicial to European commerce than a temporary blockade. With differential tariffs, the new proprietor of the canal can open or close it at his will to the navies of his competitors. Some time ago the Suez Company wished, in the in. terest of its shareholders, to modify the levying of the passage dues. It was obliged to yield before the veto of the Porte and the other Powers interested, but it is to be supposed that things would not have come off quite in this way if the company had been backed by the British fleet and arsenals. In short, if it is not desired to let this work of civilisation, called the Suez Canal, become a simple instrument of trade (mer- cantilisme) in the hands of the English nation, it will be necessary to deliberate so that the radical change which has been effected in its constitution may be, by means of solid and precise guarantees, rendered compatible with the interests of the whole world."
THE COMMUNE. I
THE COMMUNE. I It has become one of the received maxims of the French Government since the close of the German war that all dirty linen shall be washed in public. The shroud of secresy has been removed from the misman- agement of the Empire, and from the errors of the Government of September. The shortcomings of French generals have been sufficiently revealed by the dis- closures of the Bezaine trial, and evidence has been heaped on evidence to show how inefficient most of the defenders of Paris were, and how inefficiently they were commanded. Probably those who judged that it was wise to set the truth before France in this ample way were right. It is true that Frenchmen are specially apt, having owned their mistakes, to forget that these mistakes were made; and in a country so overridden with officials, and so little accustomed to look to the practical carrying out of the changes which it thinks desirable, these revelations do not seem to produce much immediate effect. But the attention of some few competent persons is awakened, the good intentions of the better class of officials are stimulated, and a sense of improvement being a good thing is implanted and may gradually gain strength unless very adverse circumstances make it wither away. A finishing touch has now been put to these revelations by the publication of General Appert's official Report on the Commune and on the fate of the captured Communists. This in- teresting document gives a sketch of the history of the insurrection, and of the proceedings taken with regard to the very numerous prisoners after the insurrection was suppressed. It is a melancholy passage in the history of France but there can be no doubt as to the expediency of giving a record of it to the world. It is very desirable that Frenchmen should realise to the full the wickedness and the folly of those who were for a time masters of France, and the greatness of the danger through which the country passed. It is even more desirable that the Government should account to the nation for the enormous mass of prisoners that came into its hands. More than thirty thousand Frenchmen came under the jurisdiction of military tribunals, and it was necessary that those to whom very wide and extra- ordinary powers were confided should explain how they had used them. Under a Government like that of the Second Empire as many persons would have been shot or imprisoned or transported as the Government thought necessary to iLspire a wholesome lesson, and no one would have known the details of what happened. As things are now, this is impossible. The Executive has great power, but it at least condescends to say how it employs its power and that France has really gained something of indisputable value by the fall of the Empire could not be better proved than by the publica- tion of a Report like that of General Appert. Marshal MacMahon has perhaps, like the Emperor, to see that things are safe. But the whole system of the Emperor forbade it to be revealed boa things were made safe; whereas now the story of what ia done is told with a considerable amount of frankness. The sense of respon- sibility thus engendered may be set down as an un- questionable gain, if it if a good thing that a govern- ment should answer, not only for the ends it purooes, but also for the meana it adopts. Future historians will find very valuable materials in that part of the Report which gives the history of the insurrection, as General Appert goes into many statia- tical del ail. which have been pieced together with great care and detail. But the general story of th" insurrection was already well known, and General Appert baa little to add to its outlines. That part of the Report will therefore not attract much attention now, and may be dismissed, except that it is interesting to notice that the complete returns now at the command of the Government show that the men serving, or sup- posed to be serving, under the Commune in the rank- of the National Guard exceeded 200,000, and wer- commanded by 9.000 officers. Fortunately the CDP.D and the officers were for the most part equally ign >rant of war and unfit for it, but the greatness of the tiutnbert4 opposed to the Government murt be taken into account when a judgment is passed on the efficiency of the efforts made to suppress the insurrection. It is part of the Report treating of the fortunes of the Communist prisoners that is really interesting. Immediately after the revolt was at an end M. Thiers announced that punishment would be rigidly administered, but that it would not be administered without a strict inquiry into the circumstances of each jase. No fewer than twenty-six Councils of War were appointed to carry on the investigations, and it may fairly be saÙJ that every effort was made to provide enough tri- bunals to do the work, and to prevent the prison- ers lingering on in uncertainty. The tot,,1 number of prisoners were 38,000, including 5,000 soldiers, 850 women, and 65C children or young persons of sixteen years of age or under. The number of persons arrested at the time of the defeat of the Com- mune was 26,900 the rest had either previously fallen into the bauds of the Government troops or were ar- rested after the Commune bad fallen. To deal with so large a number of prisoners was a great difficulty, and they were no doubt, packed together very closely indeed at Versailles until they could be conveyed to the seaports, where most of them were kept until they were sent back to be tried. General Appert thinks it worth while to show precisely how the prisoners were fed, and what arrangements were made for clothing tbem. At first there were several deaths, which was not unna- tural, as many bad li red for weeks in a state of seiui-in- toxication, and bad been through what may be mildly termed a very agitating nervous crisis. But things soon improved in this respect and in the ten months following the 1st of August, 1871, there were only 79 deaths, although there had been 150 in the previous months of June and July. The prisoners were allowed to communicate with their relations, and access to religious services was provided for that inconsiderable fraction of the lowest section of a Paris mob that could be supposed likely to take advantage of them. The general result of what General Appert reports seems to be that the prisoners were humanely treated, and were brought to trial with a reasonable amount of rapidity. The great difficulty of the police and the prose- cution was to find out anything about the prisoners. Many of them had led a vagabond life, and it was hard to say who they were, or where bad they come from, or what they had been doing. Against a very considerable proportion no evidence could be col- lected sufficient to lay before tribunals which, like the Councils of War, were instructed only to pronounce sentences justified by satisfactory evidence. About 1,000 were released almost immediately after their arrest, and by the middle of November 1871,10,000 more were set at liberty-of whom, General Appert thinks, perhaps 1,500 had been wrongly arrested, while against the remainder no sufficient evidence was forth- coming. By the month of March 1872 it had been ascertained that about 9,000 men more might be released, either because there was no chance of convict- ing them, or because the offences with which they could be charged were of too slight a character to make it worth while to try them by Councili of war. Out of the 850 women arrested only 200 were sent for trial, and 80 children or young persons of out 651. The Councils of War began by trying those who were considered to be the principal offenders, amounting altogether to about 3,000. At first the Councils, being occupied with the more important trials, and not yet established in sufficient number, made slow progress; but when their organization was perfected they got to dispatch 2,000 trials a month. By the 1st of March, 1872, they bad given directions that 1,100 more prisoners should be released, they had acquitted about 2,000, and con- demned about 8,500. Only 350 then remained to be tried, and their trial was delayed either because they were ill, or because, as they bad been recently arrested, their cases were not ready for trial. Thus in nine months all the prisoners who could be tried had been tried, and General Appert justly considers this result as highly creditable to the authorities. The sentences of the Councils of War were subjected to the examina- tion of two Councils of Revision, and about 5 per cent of the sentences were annulled. Further, a Commission of Pardon was appointed by the Government in con- currence with the Assembly, and many of the severer sentences were mitigated by this body. On the whole, it cannot be said that the punishments were cruel or wantonly severe; 23 men and 8 women were executed, but those only were executed against whom some very special crime was proved. The only sufferer wbose fate could provoke the slightest pity was Rossel. He bad taken no part in any of the more heinous proceedings of the Commune, and he was executed only on the ground that be was a deserter from military service. None of the leaders of the Commune, or of the Inter- national, or of those who had instigated the people to the insurrection were executed, unless the had added to this offence some signal special crime, such as the murder of the hostages. Out of the 10,000 condemned, two-thirds were sentenced either to simple trans- portation or to imprisonment without hard labour It most be remembered, however, that a consider- able poportion of the leaders of the insurrection es- caped into foreign countries, and the number of those who could be severely punished was so far lessened. Still the result remains that the punishments did not, as a whole err on the side of severity; that in the treat- ment of the prisoners there was no effervescence of blind resentment, or secret cruelty that the authorities worked exceedingly hard to give the prisoners a speedy trial; and that the history of what was done, now published, is one that no Government need be ashamed to place before the world.-Saturday Review.
STROUSBERG.I
STROUSBERG. Strousberg-it is quite absurd to call him Dr Stous- berg, or Herr Strousberg, or Mr Strousberg-bas failed, and the English public, so far as it knows anything of him, is meeting him out hard measure. It classes him remorselessly with the "financing" rogues who have ever since the foundation of the Second Empire have been trying in Paris, London, and New York to make great fortunes, by speculating in shares which they can send up or down at pleasure, and who have succeeded at last in so discrediting joint-stock enterprise, that Great Britain is at her wit's end to know where to put her accumulations. Very few of them have made solid fortunes, while their operations" have involved heavy fines on almost every country, and city, and mineral district honoured with their attentions. We should like to know, for example, how much a year America is now paying in the shape of extra interest for railway and mining capital, which, but for the discredit flung on American speculations by half-a-dozen swindlers, she would never have been compelled to offer. Strousberg did not belong to this gang at all. We are not about to defend his pecuniary character, which may be indefensible, for anything we know, and certainly can be defended satisfactorily only by the only man who has the key to his astounding enterprises —that is, by himself,—but the facts on the face of his record, and especially the facts related by Her Delietz, the special Commissary appointed by the Berlin Civil Court, do not justify all the harshness of English opinion. For aught that appears in evidence, Strous- berg may have been an unsuccessful Brassey, and he was certainly not a man who intended merely to dupe the publio. He was a sort of Napoleon of Contractors, and was ruined, like Napoleon, not so much by ambi- tion, though, of course, that helped, as by a fatal disparity between his supply of energy and of foresight. Strousberg was uo Stock- Exchange man, but a gigantic speculator of the contracting and not the financing class, a man who had conceived the idea that sudden and enor- mous wealth might be realised out of perfectly honest en- terprise, if only the enterprise undertaken wereof sufficient magnitude. His theory obviously was that if money can be made out of a railway sub-contract for half-a- mile, it can be made as eaaih, and in larger amounts, out of a contract for a thousand miles; that if a car- riage company can make money by engine and carriage building, so can an individual, if only he can rise to the height of the big businesses which a company can undertake. That theory is true, granted two condi- tions, that you can secure sufficient trustworthy agency, and that you have capital enough to stand the consequences of a misfortune. That Strousberg secured the first condition would appear certain, from the bare facts of his career. He did build his Railways he did supply his carriages by the thousand he did work his mines and to do all these things he must have secured agency of a kind which it requires a great know- ledge of men of very different capacities to have obtained. It was in securing the second condition that he broke down, and this mainly because his affairs had been so extended by his remorseless energy that no foresight could cover the whole area of the circumstances which might affect them. His plan was to build Raiways in districts which wanted them, and take payment as the work went on in shares, interest on those shares, in his first operations at all events, being guaranteed by a government. The fairness of that business depends, of course, solely upon the question whether or not the public who buy those shares know that they have been paid for in work, instead of capital, a point which the Commissary in this case does not explain. At all events, Strousberg succeeded at first; he built or nearly built a system of guaranteed Railways, the Roumanian, and made so much money th-t he thought himself able to carry through any number of similiar enterprises. And he might have ben able, as far as his own energy and ability werti concerned, bat he widened his area of enterprise till his foresight waa insufficient for the demands on it. He undertook railways in Ronmania. in Russia, in Hungary, to Hanover, io Prussia Proper, and in Posen, built the Berlin cattle-market and Plaugviter- houses, organised immense ironworks at Neuatadt and Dortmund, and commenced lading out a new town at Antwerp, and drove in ail these immense under- takings at one and the same time. So great was his energy, and so successful was he in discovering com- petent sub-contra;toro and other agents, that all he undertook went rapidly forward to completion, and in 1870 it waa believed that he bad 70 millions sterling of contracts oo hand, and that be might win at least a fair per-ewntage upon the whole amount. Contractors run great risks, and although, from the way they are paid, they do not need, while prosperous, very great supplies of capital, they expect very Urge returns; but five per cent upon bill undertakings would have left Strousberg, after less than ten years of work on the great scale, in the front rank of the working capitalists of Europe. There are larger fortunes, rn douM, but the man who can lay his hand on £ 3,000,000 sterling of his own, and actually available, can mttetidpt any contract, and almost compel any enterprise to succeed. Strousberg's under- takings. however, bad widened till he hn-1 reached the point at whicn politics bewan to influence thtO profits of industry, ..nd about politics he probably knew nothing. He bad no more calculated out Bismarck and Napoleon III., than Napoleon I. had calculated out the Russian c.,Id. The war of 1870 broke upon him unexpectedly, and the blow, III Commissary Delietz's opinion, was fatal. Accumulation stopped throughout the Continent, or if it went on, the people took to hoarding their money till t)m"s grev more settled, and the va-t masses of shares on which htrousberg depended as cavitlil were saleable only at ruinous sacrifices. He fought on, however, with unabated courage, sold every property that would sell, the Berlin cattle-market, the Hanover engine-factory, tbe Neustadt iron-works, tbe Hungarian North Eastern line, parted with his picture-gallery, mortgaged his rea l estates, and still drove on the remainder of his railway works. With part of the moneys thus obtained be even commenced a new and gigantic business, which seems to have had in it many of the elements of success. He would supply the continent wit.h rail way-carriages. He purchased an estate covering a county in Bohemia, and erected works on such a scale that he had thirty-seven miles of rail- way on his own ground merely to connect them that his workmen filled a town be had built, and that he could venture to take a Russian contract for 2,000 carriages to be delivered almost at once while he was ouilding a Hungarian railway for X600,000, which. says the Commissary, when completed, will pay the deben- ture-holders hotvilv and securing a gigantic con- cession, that of 5.50 miles of French railway from Paris to Narbonne. His credit, however, bad been shaken in 1871 by a refusal of the Roumanian Government, whose railway system he had built, to pay some disputed guarantee his need of capital was incessant, he mortgaged every acre of real property he possessed- including, of course, his Bohemian emt-ates -and at last, on the refusal of a Russian bank to make some advances, he collapsed, and was arrested. His-whole property would appear to have been sacrificed in the effort to carry on his works-the personality not being worth £ 11,000—and the unsecured creditors scarcely hope for a dividend and yet so powerful is the character of the man, that members of the highest Austrian aristocracy went bail for him, and that even the Commissary expressed his belief that the only hope for everybody was to place Strousberg once more in control of his own affairs. We have no moral to draw from the story, as we have said, we know too little of the transactions in- volved to decide whether Strousberg was a great indus- trial speculator ruined in spite of his best exertions, or a dishonest man trading upon a fictitious credit. His utter fall suggests that he fought fairly and made no purse for himself, and the main fact on the other side, the magnificence in which he lived, was, the scale of his operations considered, rather ridiculous than extra- vagant. But there is an intellectual lesson to be derived from his story which has been forced on observers of late years by a good many events. The limits of men's capacity for fortune-making would appear to have been reached. Industrial speculation has assumed, year by year, more of a grandiose character, till at last it has begun to demand faculties which no man, or at all events no man found oftener than once in a century, can undertake to find. The great secret of fortune making has been said to be, that it is just as easy to deal with millions as with hundreds of thousands, with a hundred agents as with ten, with a dozen countries as with two but that is not the case. There is a point at which the mind of the speculator is found to be insuffi- cient. The able banker who can place ten millions so well, finds that be cannot place thirty millions safely that his risk increases not in arithmetical, but in geometrical proportion that his mind will not carry the history of so many borrowers; that the chances of an accident are increased not threefold, but by an in- definite multiplier. His range may be ever so wide, but he most reach its edge at last, and over that edge he is as powerless as a blind man. The great speculator can combine up to a certain point, a point quite beyond the little speculator's ken but be has his limit too, and that once reached, he is as unable to grasp and provide for all the circumstances which may affect him as the most ordinary observer. A great business is distinguished from a little business mainly by the more frequent repetition of the same transaction, and up to a certain point, the qualities which suffice for the suc- cessful management of the little affair suffice also for the successful management of the large one but that puint is not indefinite, but is strictly limited by the limit of mental power. A juggler who can keep up two balls can by incessant practice keep up ten. but let him add one more ball than his eye is quick enough, or his brain steady enough, to follow, and the perform- ance ends at once in the fall of a shower of gilded pellets. The man who tried to manage the com- merce of the whole world would find that he made no profit, even of the business he thought he understood best. It has long ago been shown that the most dangerous of operations is to es- tablish a monopoly of any natural product, for no man's knowledge suffices to make him certain that more can- not be produced anywhere in some one of the countries of the world, and the man who extends industrial speculation over too wide an area is under precisely the same liabilities. Hid knowledge, in fact, which is the basis of his skill, is exhausted sooner than his energy, and once exhausted, he is as liable to ruin as the feeblest sub-contracter. His capital may enable him to pay losses, but it will not help him to prevent losses. No brain could understand clearly and provide against all the incidents of a business like Strousberg's, and be was as liable to be overwhelmed by accident as the specular who risks a hundred pounds in shares he knows nothing about. We shall see big businesses succeed yet, perhaps bigger businesses than any yet attempted, but that monopoly of business of which many dreamers have dreamed is as far off as ever. Omnipotence in the shape of capital and energy needs omniscience to guide it, in fact as well as in poetry, and omniscience is refused. There is far more energy and power in mankind than there is in foresight, and when the latter is over-taxed, the former is of exceed- ingly little avail.—Spectator.
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