The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, _LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 9, 169.

THE UNITED S7A2ES DEBT.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

We have become so accustomed to the careless
writing of English papers on American subjects that
it occasioned no surprise to read the article in the
Times of Tuesday following the telegram from 'Wash-
ington, dated Feb. 28—" The Senate has passed by
30 votes against 16 General SCHENCK'S Finance Bill
amended. The bill now declares that all the national
obligations shall be payable in coin, unless the law
under which they were issued specifies payment in cur-
rency. The bill also legalizes contracts containing
special provisions for contracts to be made in gold.
The Senate rejected the article of the bill which
proposed to prohibit the payment of bonds before
maturity, unless currency should have previously
been rendered convertible into coin at par. The
bill returns to the House of Representatives." On
the next day this was followed by a leader, wherein
the subject was thus discussed :--" These views,
however, will be hardly compatible with General
SCHENCK'S Finance Bill; it contains a stipulation
that the bonds of the United States, though ruled
to be payable in gold and not in greeub ,cks,
should not be paid off at all till greenbacks and
gold shall represent equivalent values. It would
follow, in fact, that the whole currency question of
the Union must be successfully settled before
payment of the public debt on that footing
could so much as begin." The writer evidently
had not read the telegram, which showed that the
very clause he had taken as the subject for discus-
sion had been stricken from the bill by the Senate,
though the intelligence had been published in his
paper of the previous day; and it was not till Tlaurs•
day that Reuter announced that the Representa-
tives did not concur in this amendment, and
asked for a conference, which ended in the dis-
puted clause being retained. Nor is the argu-
ment justified by it, for the words "before ma-
turity" ate overlooked. The Times is much im-
pressed with the report of Mr. FORD, the British
Secretary of Legation at Washington, on the
Financial Condition of the United States, who
alleges that " The majority of Americans would
appear disposed to endure any amount of sacrifice
rather than bequeath a portion of their debt to
future generations." This must necessarily, he
continues, long constitute America as it is at pre-
sent one of the dearest places of residence in the
world, and in this the Times agrees. It asserts that
however widely President JOHNSON and Secretary
M'Cleeeocit may differ, they are of one mind in
refusing to recognize the debt of the United States as
are those of Europe, a permanent burden, adding
that " so far as our own observation goes, no Ame-
rican statesman has suggested that the country
should content itself for the present with paying
interest on its debt, and leave the principal to be
dealt with in easier times." Now it is because the
observation of the Times goes but a very short dis-
tance that it makes such au assertion. Indeed had
its observation extended even as far back as last
summer it would have known that strenuous efforts
were made in Congress by more than one American
statesman to lower the rate of interest by very ma-
terially increasing the period over which the bonds
were to run, grounding the calculation on this prin-
ciple that the longer the time the lower ought to be
the semi-annual percentage paid. While recognizing
its truth we pointed out that it might go to the ex-
treme of a vanishing point ; for some of the argu-
ments used would have reduced it to this absurdity,
that by making the debt permanent the interest
should cease altogether. We believe the financiers
of the United States to aim at raising the national
credit till the Federal Bonds go above par in gold,
with the object of pursuing the system adopted by
Great Britain in paying the holders of the Six per
Cents. off who will not take Five per Cent. Bonds on
a longer term, and eventually reduce the Five per
Cents. to Four as the debt diminishes and the credit
of the country rises to what it ought to be. These
English conjectures as to what Americans are going
to do are grounded on the false supposition that they
will do what no other people would de, something
eccentric, opposed to reason, and founded on spread-
eagle sentiment. This is farcically enough asso-
ciated with a firm belief in the shrewdness and in-
telligence of the people. If they be shrewd and in-
telligent is it not reasonable to conjecture that they
will act an intelligent part, which many in Europe
seem to doubt; though why can be easily explained.
As a rule those who write thus are ignorant of the
real bearings of the question; arguing front false pre-
mises they arrive at erroneous conclusions, while filled
with the happy conceit that they are showing an
obstinate and vain people the way they ought to
go—who, however, knowing the road better, go
another way, and are pronounced to be eccentric.
When the circumstances are really understoo 1 in Eu-
rope, and the argument. is just, they suppose the course
they indicate will be avoided, as the people are thought,
like Irish pigs, to insist on taking the wrong road ;
and perhaps theyconsider it " pure cussedness" when
they see them on the track pointed out. NO coun-
try so rapidly grows as the United States, and the
heavy burden of to-day will be the light load of
to-morrow. If it be wise to leave the debt till the re-
sources of the country enable the citizens with
ease to expunge it, that most likely will be the
course pursued , ho wever strong maybe the sett ti mental
objection to saddling posterity with such a load. The
system of taxation has lately been modified in ac-
cordance with this policy, and a vast proportion of
the Internal Revenue imposts removed. The Times
is mistaken in considering the public expenditure
to be growing like that of England in all directions.
While granting that it is four times the sum re-
quired before the Civil War, the reductions in all
departments have been very large within the last
fiscal year, and although it may be necessary to in-
crease the salaries of the Civil servants, in view of
the important interests now confided to their care,
and the immense advance in the cost of living, yet
the most vigorous efforts at retrenchment have been
and are being made. It will not do for the country
to continue as the most expensive on earth, for two
injurious effects will quickly follow; the one that
families with realized means will leave it to reside
in Europe, just as English families did when Eng-
land as the dearest of lands, contrasted strikingly
with the cheap living of the continent ; the other
that it must deter immigration, causing an exodus
of employers, and checking an influx of the em-
ployed. America has no right to be an expensive
country, nor will this artificial state long con-
tinue. Why should the land of corn and meat
be the dearest? Why should the land of cotton and
sugar, rice and tobacco, bacon and eggs, be the most
costly to dwell in ? Why should the birth-place of
invention and the home of contrivance, where forests
spread in their primeval growth, and prairies stretch
in boundless extent, the one giving the material for
houses, the other the supply of the larder, be the
dearest of countries ? Ought the neighbourhood
of a river swarming with fish, and a lake covered
with wild fowl, to be expensive as a place of resi-
dence ? The fact is, that society in America has
not yet settled down from the artificial state created
by the war, and prices are maintained, it is asserted,
and with good reason, as we showed last week—by
speculators. The Times may make itself easy about
the course likely to be pursued by America with
regard to the future payment of the debt; but as
yet it is too great and Lew a subject to have
been so thoroughly discussed and considered as
to enable the people to make up their minds.
If they were as averse to a permanent debt, as
the Times and Mr. FORD appear to think, some of
the individual States would be less ready to raise
loans and more anxious to pay them ; and although
fburden,rnnted
with 7 tahne
unexpected
liability, a the Union might feel under the unaccustomed
family 8u d 1
eynel ayr ne inn;
desire to get quit of it, yet the Republic is no
more likely to damage its estate than wont! the in-
dividual blindly to sell off at any sacrifice to rid
himself of an encumbrance out of which his pro-
perty would grow if only carefully managed. We
hold to the belief we have always expressed, that
the United States will, when able, fund the debt at
a reduced interest for an increased term, the main
object of the people being to get hack to a less
costly rate of living, when the States will again be-
come, as they not long ago were, the cheapest
instead of the dearest place of residence in the
world.

A new paper is to be started in Chicago, entitled
The British Mail. It will be made up of
.clippings front
English journals.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

TEE OPPOSITION AND THE BILL.

The rumours are that the Government will have a
majority of from 100 to 120 on the second reading
of the Irish Church Bill. There is some hope among
the Conservatives that they will materially reduce
this in committee. They mean to make a strong attack
upon the proposed compensation to Maynooth, which,
they say, is a violation of Mr. Gladstone's promise.
The money is given really, not to establish,
but to disestablish Maynooth; and if compensation is
not given out of the Irish Church surplus fund, it
must be paid out of the consolidated fund, an
arrangement which English and Scotch and Welsh
taxpayers will scarcely approve. It is hoped by the
Ministerialists that the bill will reach the Lords by
June 1. At present the Lords have not yet
determined what course they will take. They wait
in the hope that the Commons will insist upon amend-
ments which Mr. Gladstone will not be able to
accept.

The Dublin correspondent of the Times notes, with
some surprise, that although the Ministerial scheme
has been made known, "no general movement has
been made on the part of those who are deeply inte-
rested in the maintenance of the Established Church."
The opposition journals are, indeed, full of letters,
written in the strongest possible language. Yet
nothing is being done, and the only practical
measure suggested is to hold prayer-meetings.
A declaration against the Government mea-
sure is being promoted by the Protestant
Defence Association, and is signed by forty-two
noblemen and some M.P.'s. The Dublin Mail, the
organ of the Orange party, apologises for the present
inaction, and draws from the rejection of Mr. Faw-
cett's Election Expenses Bill a faint hope that the
Irish Church Bill may be rejected by the present
Parliament. As the Government have resolved to
devote the Church funds to a religious purpose,
and there is, therefore, no opportunity for raising the
cry of sacrilege, the snot d'ordre of the Opposition is to
complain that too large a sum is to be given to
Maynooth.

not see why the _tree Church should 8e canea to
give up, perhaps, 2150,000, which it had employed
towards the education of the country, without receiv-
ing any compensation. It seemed to be a matter for
general congratulation that the Duke of Argyll, a
Scotsman, who proved by his speech that he well
understood the Scotch system, was to have the
conduct of the bill.

The Standard is admitting correspondence to its
columns in which the religious question, the con-
science clause, &c., are being discussed, in some respects
unfavourably to the measure. Virtually, however,
we believe a conscience clause is not needed for
North Britain, as it is carried out under the present
system.