The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-12-02 00:00:00

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Oa Saseß. it I,hg.farly boar. tione4sissibi -a
Cab:ore Calmed aorp-leeld at the Fote*Allice,
attended by-a,.

Ito Lard am treaty, Earl 1111aerawby, Earl et narefpool,
fat of Wcstraorlastd, Viscount Sidraoath, Mr. Peel, Mr.
Eirl Bathurst, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
V,4count Melville, Mr. Ruhinsoa, Lord Maryborough, and
Me, Wynne,
• 'kit were all the Members hf the Cabinet Corm-
, except the Duke of 1.1.76.1,1.111GV0N, who is
'road, and Mr. BRAOGE BATHURST, who is not
London. and was considered a numerous
semblage of the members of the Cabinet at this
•••ssoir of the year, especially as Parliament is not
• ting. The Council continued in deliberation till
ar half-past six. Some of the members left at a
...latter before six. They received the summonses
• attend on Thursday night, which irere ordered
be issued by Mr. CANNING. It is supposed to
,re been held upon the matter communicated in

cent dispatcher from Verona respecting Sptiu.

We some days ago were tempted to hazard a
a remarks on the comparative credit due to the
oveniment securities of different nations, and to
iforce such principles of judgment upon the sub-
re us might, we thought, he generally and per-
iisoently relied on. Unable at once to enumerate
all the principles which ought to be taken into
view on a subject so extensive, we promised soon
to return to it, and in immune, of our intention
we are now led to the consideration of the actual
'mount of debt,.,as compared with the resources
of a nation, which may at any time exist consistently
with the security of the public creditor. Perhaps
mere has never yet been an instance of the resources
of a country being completely developed, we are
coasequruily without any decisive indication of a
caentry having attained the almost possible summit
of prosperity, and the resources of every country
way, from this imperfection of our knowledge, be
comidered indefinitely. .the want of due attention
is this circumstance has led some of the roost emi-
nent writers upou the subject of public credit, and
emoagst others the eloquent and philosophic
111.114 e, to heeled predictions respecting the Ils•
tional debt of this country, which subsequent oc-
currences have proved to be as unfounded a: they
sere incautious. But if the rupid developement of
to national resources, sided as it has been by im.
• tense itnprovsments in machinery, and by the
ingress of more liberal principles with respect to
urnmercial intercourse, has kept paste mashie!. io-
tresse of the national debt, and has thusconvicted of
error the gloomy anticipations of speculative men,
let us not therefore rush into the opposite and more
dimgerons error of supposing that the resources of
soy country can be unlimited, and that the heaviest
inortgsges upon its future revenues ought to be
sewed without apprehension. The more economi-
cal use of the precious metals for the purposes of
corrency, consequent to the adoption of a paper
circulation, in seieral of the European states, must
have had precisely the same effects as would have
resulted from the discovery of new uud rich mines ;
viz. to stimulate industry and enterprise, to
ply the quantity and increase the price of ex-
changeable commodities, and to lessen the real
'slue represented by any nominal amount of debt,
*holier public or private. This circumstance has
contributed perhaps more than any other to falsify
the predictions ti) which we have alluded ; hut it
Mould not, we thick, be quite safe to rely on it for
soy higher degree of aid than it has already if.
(sided to the pecuniary resources of nations, or
ter any 'farther diminution of the real value of
rieir debt,. On an average drawn from the actual
t'ste of the circulation in all civilized countries,
May be doubted whether paper is not upon the
%•hole mixed with metallic currency in a proper-
oo rather redundant than deficient. If it has,
however, , strained only its due proportion, it has
ell/elided ifs whole force with reference to the sub-
tet now Yoder consideration.
lu trelitingan the subject of national credit, and
particularly on' its dependance upon the relsitive
roportina.which the amount of a natinn'a debt
'jars to resources, It is impossible/ to avoid par.
hcislar mention of the financial situation of or
sera eentiory. England has incanted a debt which',
'nighty rate her resources, presses wpm diens mask
'ony. We would avoid the presumption of pro-
aecy, but this much tog be solely said, that her
tbt is running 'a most dangers** rate with her
elms, and that it is constantly doubtful
e, got, or may immediately take the lead. The
toggles which are likely to take place between the
'Remit interests of this country may. be expected,
aring their progress and is their teratinotim, to
Ion! elucidations to this subject clearer than any.
Inch lOtisuMexperisace of the world bee enabled
ato lfer.

Tl. re are many persona, and amongst them some
e bahos of whose mind% and the direction of
hose similes, render them peculiarly competent
form an opinion upon the subject, who deem the'
i;incial situation of England, notwithstanding her
imense debt, as by no means alarming. They
ly upon the fact of her having been able to sustain
enorrnoas expenditure of the late war as a sof&

Vint proof that hir viselike? ite`fultir aciespate to
meet the incombrances which biuo,llllrbasNilliaplY
coutrilauted to *Moil. on them., Ike ill.'lntire'llett
notorious, that Aaf#it: year elsii,i4r "6:1,14/ war the
Gill..ttolnannt borrowed to an aastousslotreater than
, the interest of her debt; so limit the actual
nt,llllllL .4 • •
pressure or the debt was postponed. and the Mt-
,aitlese moms then raised and expended, by accele.
.routs the circulation, impititnitsii artificial stimu-
lus sod a feverish viper tO 'tribe active interests
of the. State. The pectiliir character of the late
war eke, by effaseUur ,sseh Hippie *cape to the
maritime and COI.OIIIJI adssiitagei of this copittry,
enabled her, without the Immediate consciousness
of exhimation, to make the moat stupendous efforts.
When, however, on the arrival of peace, she was
deprived of the exclusive adv.itilagen she had derived
from her coavitittpremacy and her colonial mo-
nopoly; and when, on the cessation of loans, her
great burly of creditors begs!' first to realise those

destructi►e claims which the war hied crested—it
Was then, and not before, that the pressure of her
debt began really to b- felt, and it has ever since
been weighing down some one or other of her lead-
ing and vital interests. Almo►t all the oral political
evils which we have to endure nsay he ascribed to
its operation: the extravagient expenditure and cor-
rupt influence of Government eve either rendered
necessary, or supplied with their sole apology by
the popular discontent to which exorbitant taxation,
the unavoidable consequence of the debt, gives r►se,
and • blind anxiety to throw off their share of its
burden upon oilier clusses of the community, has
prompted the proprietors of find to interdict a free
commerce in grain. The conteousnce of this im-
politic interdiction, abortive es it is with reference
to its main object, and aggravating, as it Unques-
tionably does, the pressure of taxation ppou the
masse of the community, implies, nevertheless, most
clearly that, in the estimation of Government
and in that of the class intended to be favoured by
it, the country is enormously overtaxed. The inte-
rest of the debt, together with the additional go-
vernment expenditure to which it gives rise, cnanot
be conaputed.it tie low an amount as forty million,
per annum. Whoever reflects upon this astounding
amount, ■nd compares it with the numbers of our
population, and the extent a! our territory, will see
abutedent reason to hesitate ere he adopts the con-

chision that the security afforded by the Airitia Go-
vernment to its creditors is better thaw mg *doer
nation is enabled to offer.
.'
Another &axial by which our preference of the
serenity of one government to that of another,
ought to be iu some degree infliienced, is that wheu
. . _

a particular form of government is recently esta-
blished in a country, its pernissesce is lees certain,
mid the giiiiiintee it orient for the fulfilment of its
engagements less valid. Where conflicPtig parties
in a state contend for and againrt the new inatito-
lions, the danger is of course greatly increased. This
is a consideration which, however, men in general are

perhaps disposed to overrate; for it wlll generally
happen where the debt of a nation is so moderate in
its amount as net sensibly to poem upon the com-
forts of the people, that a change of the government
will be accompanied by an acknowledgment of
the claims of the public creditor. The magnani-
mity, not to say the probity of this proceedings its.
sure to render it popular; and a new governmeflV
of whatever nature it may be, is certain, at its fieatt
e►tablishntent, to be solicitors of the favour of the
people. There will generally alto, in ►uch a case
as we have suppwed, be some powerful individuals
whom the new government may wish to conciliate;
whose personal and family interests are inseparably

connected with the acknowledgment and security of
the existing debt.

The character of a people for habitual probity in
their dealings with each oilier is an element which
we would just mentit4i, as entering into any just
estimate of the comparative credit of any govern-
ment security ; fur there is no government, how-
ever absolute, which is not in some degree, sod
upon some occasions, ii.fluenced by the character
of the people over whom it rules.
Whoever reflects_ upon the various principles we
have enumerated as undeniably essential to any
just comparison between the funded property of
one country and that of another, will probably be
led to the conclusion, that there is a much greater
equality in the value of the securities offered by
the' different natant. who .have contracted debts
than is generally imagined.
If this conclusion be at all just, it is almost
needless to point out a ;queued inference which
capitalists will not fail to draw fr.►rp it; viz. that
property is better secured by being divided into
different national investments, time sties embattled
upou the security of any tiogiestak%

On Friday the Lards of the Conaeil assembled
at the Criancil Office, Whitehall. "[lsere were
present Earl PIIIIIIOWBY, Earl BATHURST. Lord
STowsu., Lord COLCIISITZI4 Sir Joule ISlictiot.,
and •Mr. fhicasrr. Their Lordships were at-
tended by the Attorney and Solicitor General.—
The'subject under discussion we understood to be
that of Mr. Serjeant Run?. which was at length
finally determined after six days discussion.
VT. CARPING has appointed his isephewt_Lord
Grouts BENT:Mac, Ibe son of the Duke of PORT-
LAU!, to be his Neale Secretary. •

Mr.Bocitnotrat acts as tinder-Secretary of
Siteror Foreign Affairs: he kaiaks. Sm. but bre
not been formally or Officially ',pointed, by being
!introduced to the link), dec.

. The Spanish Cherie d'Affaires has, "rie moder-
ated, wnhio the lasi kw deity hod frignenteen-
ferraces in Dewning-street, intiffer. CAInIIIIO.