The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-07 00:00:00

UNITED STATES DEBT.

The following is a statement of the Public Debt of the
United States on the Ist of Dec., 1866:
Debt bearing Coin Interest.
Five per cent. Bonds $198,091,350.00
Six por cent bonds of
1867-68
Six per cent. bonds of
1881 283,740,000.00
Six por cent 5-20 Bonds 861,649,300.00
Navy Pension Fund 11,750,000.00
_
$1,371,068,591.80
Debt bearing Currency Interest.
Six per cent. Bonds • $10,302,000.00
Three-year compound
interest notes .
Three-year 7-30 notes 699,933,750.00
Total
Matured debt not presented for payment 22,605,794.71
Debt bearing No Interest.
United States notes.... $385,441,849.00
Fractional Currency 28,620,249.93
Gold certificates of de-
posit
Total

T 3 tal

19,636,500.00

433,698,598.93

Total Debt 52,684,995,875.44
Amount in Treasury
Coin
Currency
Total
Amount of debt., less cash in Treasury
on Dec. 1, 1866 52,549,631,238.22

The foregoing is a correct statement of the Public
Debt, as appears fiorn the books and Treasurer's returns
in the department on the Ist of December, 1866. ,
Iluau M'Curtocu, Secretary of the Treasury.
Public Debt, November Ist, 1866
Do. December do.

Decrease in month 51,678,767
Do. since August 1, 1865

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--Within a month of the French Revolu-
tion of 1848 the agitation for a radical Reform of the
House of Commons on the basis of universal suffrage
took a form which was considered dangerous to the
public peace. Then, as now, Ireland was unsettled,
traitors threatened the supremacy of the Crown, and
made preparations for a popular rising. Their dele-
gates or chiefs repaired to Paris, and solicited the
aid of the new Governors of the French nation. In
England Mr. Feargus O'Connor and his associates
announced that the hour had come for enforcing on
a hostile Legislature the rights of the people. They
argued in the assembly which they brought toge-
ther, and for which they claimed the name of a na-
tional Parliament, that the House of Commons had
hitherto treated with contempt the remonstrances
of the people, and that the ordinary Constitutional
resource of petition would be useless, unless it were
shown in some unmistakable manner that the peti-
tioners were resolved that their requests should be
granted. Reams of paper and thousands of signa-
tures would, according to these agitators, be useless
to convince the house that the petitioners were in
earnest, or, if in earnest, were strong enough to
make theirconvictions prevail, unless the signers and
those who agreed with them displayed their num-
bers by an imposing procession to the doors of Par-
liament. This notion took the fancy of the Chartists,
and it was soon proclaimed that the monster peti-
tion of the unenfranchised classes, consisting of we
know not how many hundredweights of paper,
would be taken to Westminster by an army of work-
ing men, and there received and presented to the
House of Commons by Feargus O'Connor himself.
The immense multitude was to assemble on Ken-
nington-common, to be harangued by the leaders
of the agitation, and then to march over Westmin-
ster-bridge to the seat of the Legislature. This
menace led to the demonstration of the 10th April
--a memorable political incident, which is still fresh

in the memory of all but our younger readers. The
Chartists did, indeed, meet on Kenington-common

in large numbers ; but, on the other hand, a far
more imposing force, numbering 150,000 preservers
of the peace, was ranged on the other side. For a
fortnight the London magistrates were engaged
all day swearing in special constables—men of all
classes and conditions, and of every variety of
political opinion, except the one opinion that it
is lawful to attempt to sway the deliberations of
the British Parliament by a demonstration of phy-
sical force. Every respectable man in this great
capital gave his support to the Government, which
determined that the Chartist army should not be
permitted to approach the spot where the House of
Commons assembles. Lord John Russell's Cabinet
communicated this resolve to the leaders of the agi-
tation, and military preparations were quietly but
efficiently made to enforce it. The 'Chartists were
told they should not pass the bridges, and that if
they attempted to do so they would have to take
the consequences. They were wise in time, and the
10th of April passed off quietly. But the event re-
mains as a constitutional precedent, and decides
that when Parliament has reason to believe that any
body of men desires to coerce its action, even under
the guise of the right of petition, it will call upon
Government to use all necessary powers in its de-
fence, and that Government will be supported by
the nation in giving protection. We trust the les-
son of that memorable day will never need to be
repeated. Since that time the evils that spring from
tumultuous gatherings have been sufficiently proved
in those continental countries which the Chartists
-of 1848 then looked upon with admiration. The
spirit and the achievements of the Parisians in the
cause of freedom were then held up as examples to
the more sluggish and submissive people of these
islands, and yet within a twelvemonth of the fall
of Louis Philippe a future Emperor was installed in
power by the vote of millions Is ho dreaded or re-
sented the turbulence of the capital, and France was
virtually subjected to the government of the army,
a rule which it has never since shaken off. It is
needless to speak of the other States in whose capi-
tals popular movements were made after the fashion
of Paris. It is sufficient to say that to the excesses
of that time Germany has owed years of political
misfortune, which it is only now beginning to sur-
mount. A generation of agitators seems, however,
to have arisen in this country which remembers not
these things. Disregarding the fact that the revo7
lutionary turbulence of the old Chartists and of their
Irish brethren, the followers of Smith O'Brien and
Mitchell, was among the chief causes of that Con-
servative reaction which set in then, and has pre-
vailed more or less ever since, the chiefs of the Re-
form League and the self-constituted leaders of the
working men seem disposed to revive the old mis-
givings and the old animosities by means of the old
follies. Even with proofs of their incapacity af-
forded by the recent Beaufort-house Demonstration
we were unwilling to believe that they meditated a
reproduction of Feargus O'Connor's sorry exploit.
But some notices just published show that on the
opening of Parliament we must prepare, if the Re-
form League is to have its way, for just such
another unconstitutional and illegal proceeding as
was reproved by the loyalty of the metropolis nine-
teen years ago. From .a notice, issued by
the Reform League, we find it has been resolved
that individuals in favour of the programme of the
League should be advised to prepare separate peti-
tions to the House of Commons, and to deliver them
personally in Westminster-hall upon the day after
the Demonstration, Mr. John Bright, Mr. John
Stuart Mill, Mr. Peter A. Taylor, Mr. Thomas
Bayley Potter, and other " advanced Liberal mem-
bers," being invited to receive them, at a fixed hour,
for presentation to the House of Commons. " The
petitioners, if as numerous as expected, would by
this means make an effective and constitutional
Demonstration." From the programme it would
seem that at seven o'clock, and consequently at a
L , time when the House of Commons has ceased to