The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-15 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 15, 1858.

serving men. For the second time within a
few years, Lord Derby and his colleagues
are the Queen's Ministers ; and notwithstanding the
bitter enmity daily manifested by the leading Liberal
journals, the Conservative party continue in office ;
and, let its tenure close when it may, a return to
power is, at no very distant day, a moral certainty.
The country accepts of the rule of the Conservative
party without alarm, and for solid reasons ; improve-
ment in the national institutions at home, courtesy
and firmness abroad, are vastly preferable to insolent
gasconading by Lord Palmerston to weak neighbours,
and mendicant subserviency to the strong, united to
promises of Reform, without the ability and power
to realize them. The political atmosphere is calm
in 1858, in comparison with any intermediate period
since the agitation for " the Bill, the whole Bill, and
nothing but the Bill." The popular fallacy that a
Conservative Government is necessarily the opponent
of progress, and of the elevation of working men, it is in
the power of a Conservative, Government to neutralize
by the introduction in due time of judicious measures
into Parliament. In the absence of extrinsic support,
in the form of some popular and usually delusive
cry, the " Liberals " are proverbially powerless.
This kind of support they cannot now readily acquire.
It has been the practice of the Conservatives to trust
to their character and position for support, without
regard to popular opinion. Under these circum-
stances, the fact of their success is the more
significant. No good reason can be given why a
Conservative Government should not be eminently
popular among all classes. It is no longer
judicious to despise popular support; in this age,
the confidence of the people is an element of real
power, which, honestly obtained and applied, is
alike creditable and useful to those who give and
those who receive. Judging from the past, and the
actual facts of the present, the Conservatives have
no reason to make light of their resources, or to
doubt of success in the future government of this
country. It has been well said by Mr. Disraeli, that
the salvation of the institutions of England depends
upon the ascendancy of Tory principles. That as-
cendancy can only be permanently acquired and main.
tained by untiring energy, and can only be nationally
advantageous by manifesting a really practical in-
terest in the welfare of the whole people.
Mr. Disraeli, in his speech at Newport Pagnell
last year, declared distinctly that "Tory principles
alone could save the nation."—l am, sir, your
obedient servant, Ella TRADE.
May 10th, 1858.

THE SINKING FUND.
TO THE EDITOR OE " THE PRESS."

Sir,—There are two objections to Sinking F ands
—the one arithmetical, the other moral. The first
amounts to this, that a sinking fund is merely an
unnecessary complication, for it comes exactly to the
same thing—simply to pay money when you have it
in extinction, pro tanto, of debt, or to set it aside
and allow it to accumulate, and then apply ir, or to
pay by stated instalments. Any man may test this
by trying to liquidate his overdrawn account on bank
A by depositing his yearly surpluses in bank B.
Whenever the account in bank B is equal to the debt
in bank A, a simple transfer will make him a free
man; but the same thing would have happened bad
be paid in his annual savings to bank A, to be ap-
plied directly to the balance against him. Disguise
it how we may, there is no magic in compound in-
terest, no arithmetical hocus.pocus whereby debt
can be sooner or easier reduced than by paying ready
cash when we have it, in the same simple direct way
as decent housekeepers pay their house bills.
The moral objections to the ordinary shape of
sinking funds are more serious ; for just as you or I,
on a pinch, would be tempted to apply the money in
bank B to some other purpose than extinguishing
the debt due to bank A, so would the State, on a
pinch, appropriate or borrow the sinking fund.
Now, I do not pretend to suggest any scheme
which can obviate the arithmetical objection—a sink.
ing fund of any kind can never be better than a
pretty puzzle allowing of a good deal of ingenious
calculation to no purpose—but I think I see my way
to a form of the sinking fund which gets rid of the
moral objection. You may ask, why suggest any
scheme which is arithmetically of no value ? I answer,
in deference to popular superstition ; for there is
throughout the world a strong belief in sinking
funds, a profound conviction of the magical virtue
of compound interest. That superstition may take
a hurtful instead of a harmless shape, and my object

s to suggest the least objectionable form of a popular,
and, I think, irradicable error.

An annuity of three and a half per cent. for sixty-
six years is precisely equivalent to an annuity of
three per cent. for ever. The addition of a half per
cent. would therefore suffioe to convert Console into
sixty-six years annuities. Now, since the National
Debt amounts to eight hundred millions, it would
only require an addition to the national expenditure
of tour millions to secure the extinction of the whole
National Debt by the year 1923—that is to say, an
income tax of fourpence submitted to for sixty-six
years would hand over England to our children free
of debt. Of course, this principle admits of an in-
finite variety of applications. Instead of trying to
pay the whole debt, we may be content with providing
for the extinction of one-half, in which ease two mil-
lions per annum wouldsutlice; or if fourpence income
tax is not too much for our patriotism, and we never-
theless wish to secure some benefit from the opera-
tion to ourselves, we might content ourselves with
converting a portion of the debt into annuities of
thirty or twenty-five years, and at the end of either
of these periods we might sweeten our untaxed tea
with untaxed sugar, and the consciousness of having
done some good to posterity.

This scheme seems to me to be free from the
moral objection I have alluded to, and which has
hitherto made all sinking funds sinking funds not
in name but in reality. Under my scheme there is
no aocumulating surplus to tempt a needy Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer ; and, supposing the conver-
sion once effected, it would be exceedingly difficult to
revert to the old Three per Cents., even supposing the
patriotism of the people not to be worth four millions
per annum ; and there would be in this case what
there is not in any other scheme of a sinking fund,
a specific obligation to the national creditor to pay
him a certain sum annually, which would practically
go towards the extinction of the capital of the debt.

I have almost written myself into the belief that
the scheme I have thus propounded is not simply
harmless, but positively beneficial. I will, therefore,
notice one objection which I anticipate will be made
to it—namely, that the landholders would not. accept
the new securities. I believe they would not if the
one were precisely of the same value as the other ;
but give a shade difference in favour of conversion—
make it the interest of the fundholders to take the
annuities, by a fraction however small, and of course
they would take them.
I, therefore, through the medium of your paper,
beg to offer this scheme for paying off the National
Debt to the consideration of the first Chancellor of

the Exchequer who may be embarrassed with a
surplus.--I am, &c ,
J. A. G.

THE INDEPENDENT LIBERALS held a second meet-
ing on Wednesday in the smoking•room of the House
of Commons. Between fifty and sixty attended. A
general desire was expressed for thorough union
among the Liberal party, and a motion was made by
Mr. James Clay in favour of the withdrawal of Mr.
Cardweli's resolution after the resignation of the
President of the Board of Control. This motion
gave rise to much discussion, and was strongly
opposed by several members present, though a
strong feeling was evident against doing anything
that might conduce to the return of Lord Palmerston
to power. General views were expressed in favour
of Lord Derby's Government, but no final decision
was come to, and the meeting was adjourned till
yesterday, before the introduction of Mr. Cardwell's
motion.

THE ANNUAL DINNER or THE NATIONAL CLUB
took place on Wednesday at the Clubhouse, 1,
Whitehall-gardens, the Earl of Roden, chairman, N.
Kendall, Esq., M.P., vie&ohairman. Among those
present were the Earl of Bandon, Lord Berner% the
Bishop of Cashel, the Hon. Sidney R. Curzon, Major
the Hon. H. L. Powys, R. Spooner, Esq., M.P., C.
N. Newdegate, Esq., M.P., G. Macartney, Esq., M.P.,
the Right Hon. John Wynne, Sir B. Bridges, Bart.,
M.P., G. A. Hamilton, Esq., M.P., J. B. Hordell,
Esq., M.P., James Macgregor, Esq., A. G. Stapleton,
Esq., the Rev. C. Lane, the Rev. Mr. Bull, the Rev.
Mr. Caulfield, the Rev. Mr. Straton, the Rev. S. Min-
ton, the Rev. W. Adams, the Rev. T. Blackburn; A.
Spottiswoode, W. H. J. Mackworth Dalben, and J.
Bateman, Esqs.; Major Pawney, J. Braithwaite, J.
Dagmore, W. H. Peters, W. (1. Habershon, and J.
Hayward, Esqa., Jo. The report which was read
before dinner gave an encouraging statement of the
progress the club had made denting the past year of
its finance and prospects. The toasts given and the
speeches made were of the usual loyal character, and
expressed the full determination of the members to
persevere in the principles which the club was
founded to uphold, namely, Protestant Christianity
as the basis of government, and the best sidegnard
of the liberties and of tie moist lapti■ra- at the
people.