"For the advertisements in the Times, through Mr. Sampson, and later on in the Index, concerning the payment of the coupons, we shall do the needful."
Thus we learn, from the statement of D'Erlanger, that the Times, upon which John Bull pins his faith, was not only by sympathy, but through interest, the advocate of the loan and of the slave-lords' Confederacy. Its financial articles and its leaders were written to the order of D'Erlanger. By the aid of the Times, a Parisian Jew, taking advantage of the sympathy expressed for the South by lords, members of Parliament, bankers, business men, and adventurers, and of the general gullibility of the British public, was able to secure a subscription of forty-five million dollars,—or thirty million in excess of the loan! On page 532 we have seen that the Liverpool correspondent of the Times had been quieted by a commission of £6,500 ($30,000), not for services rendered, but to secure his interest, as explained in D'Erlanger's letter to Memminger, written on the 8th of July, 1863. The banker says:—
"When our loan contract was coming back from America, this gentleman [Mr. Spence] wanted to interfere in the matter, by all means, and claimed a partnership to the contract of one sixth, under the pretence that he was the financial agent of the Confederate government in England, and that our making the loan had put him out of business which he might otherwise have transacted for the South. We knew that Mr. Spence wrote frequently for the Times, that as a public writer he could do a great deal of harm if not any good. We succeeded in escaping his intrusion, and when I had made arrangements to bring out the loan in England, I followed his invitation to arrange matters with him in Liverpool, and went down there myself. I gave him £50,000 of the loan at seventy-seven, taking them back at ninety, which gave him a commission as profit of £6,500."
These extracts from D'Erlanger's correspondence will serve to show the American people that the London Times was in the service and pay of Jeff Davis during the Rebellion.
On the evening of the 23d Lord Campbell called up the American question in Parliament, making a speech in favor of recognizing the Confederacy. He spoke of the remarkable success of the loan as a proof that the English public were ready to aid the South. The loan being thus bolstered up rose to four and a half per cent premium.
Mr. McRae having arrived in France, there was a meeting of distinguished Rebels in Paris on the 4th of June, at D'Erlanger's banking-house. Mason, Slidell, and L. J. C. Lamar, who had been purchasing supplies in London for the Confederacy,—and McRae were present. The object of the meeting was to consider the financial condition of the Confederate government in Europe. The indebtedness of the Confederacy abroad, for cannon, arms, ships, and supplies, at that time, was put down at £1,741,000 ($8,705,000). "At the same time," reads the correspondence, "Ermile d'Erlanger & Co. furnished the meeting with a full statement concerning the loan. According to which, £1,850,000 ($9,250,000) of the loan is in circulation; a part of which is full paid, having been subscribed for by the creditors of the government."
The balance of £1,150,000 was in the hands of D'Erlanger for disposal. In a letter written two days later, on the 6th, by D'Erlanger to Memminger, we learn how there happened to be so large an amount of the stock on hand. Unfavorable news from America caused a feeling of uneasiness, and speculative holders began to sell at depreciated rates.
"An arrangement," says D'Erlanger, "was thereupon entered into with Mr. Mason, and heartily approved by Mr. Slidell, which enabled us to buy for the government £1,000,000 of the stock; but so eager was the speculation, that this did not suffice, and the sum had to be extended to £1,500,000. This operation had its effect, and better tidings helped the market."
Upon this amount purchased by D'Erlanger to sustain the price of the loan, 35 per cent had been paid in by the subscribers.
"We would not," writes the banker, "have recommended the course of buying back part of the loan for the government, but for its peculiar character. The first Confederate loan was as much a political as a commercial transaction, and we have done everything that it may be regarded in both ways.... We, as well as our friends Messrs. Schroeder, are happy to have been able to lend our names and credit to the first financial operation of the South."