The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-11 00:00:00

6,587,804,834

Tatal of Home and Foreign Debt of Spain 14,517,80,834
Equal to nearly one hundred and forty.six millions sterling.
During the last period of the Calatrava and Mendi-
zabal Administration, the amount required by the sink-
ing fund to pay the dividends on the foreign and
home debt was calculated at about 3,200,0001.
sterling per annum ; now, there are four unpaid
dividends, which amount together to the enormous
sum of 6,400,0001. sterling, of which the unfortu-
nate bondholders have been deprived by the improvi-
dent and bungling ministers of this country. In
the most prosperous times the revenue of Spain
does not exceed six millions sterling per annum, and
more more than half of this sum is required to pay
the interest of the national debt ; the budget of the
Royal household amounts to about 440,0001., and the
remainder of the revenue, even in time of peace, can
never suffice for the payment of the exp 'nses of the
Departments of Foreign Affairs, Grace and Justice, the
Interior, War, Finance, and Marine, and the salaries
of public functionaries placed on the retired list.
The budget for the present year is calculated at
15,500,0001., from which, however, may be deducted
the interest on the foreign and home debt—say
3,200,0001. (not a single maravedi of which will be
paid), leaving 12,300,000/. which is to be pro-
vided for from the ordinary and extraordinary con-
tributions, but as there is no prospect of realizing these
contributions we shall have an enormous deficit at the-
end of the year, unless British capitalists come forward
in the generous manner stated by Senor Pita, and
exchange their sold for new securities. But it is
asserted here that the English government wiil gua-
rantee a lola to Spain, at least Pita's agents are industri-
ously circulating reports of this description : in such case
I have nothing to say, although it is hardly to be expected
that the bondholders will allow any class of Spanish
stock to be quoted in the London Market, unless some
arrangement be previously made in their favour. And after
what has occurred of late hi this country to induce the
British public to lend their money to the Queen's Go-
vernment ? Have the Queenites gained any victory ?
have they succeeded in capturing any Carlist fortress ?
Have they not, on the contrary, been obliged to aban-
don the operations in the North, so vigorously com-
menced by Castaneda ? Has not Van Helen, the
active and intelligent Van Halen, been forced to
retire from before Montan, a pretty fort in the
neighbourohood of Segorbe, which he invested with
six thousand infantry, five hundred horse, and four pieces
of battering artillery ? Yes, Van Helen, with his large
force has not been able to reduce a little fort garrisoned
by 80 men, and has retired to Murviedo ; yet this is
considered a proper moment to demand money from the
thrice-duped capitalists of England. "I he loss already
sustained by all those who have speculated in Spanish
stock is enormous, and I do hope, for their sakes, that
they will not now suffer themselves to be gulled by
Senor Pita, the conspirator, as he unblushingly avowed
himself in the Constituent Cortes.