The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-05 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

Worcester, deceasekthe mayor and commonalty of
the city of Coventry, and William Waltham, clerk.
In money paid to the said prior, in the names of
the persons aforesaid, by the hands of Thomas Fal-
coner, by assignment made this day, and 3001. in
discharge of 5001., with 2001. released by the said
prior, in the names of the said persons, to the King,
for payment of the said 3001 lately borrowed, as
well of the said prior as of other persons above
named, by Henry late King of England, father of
the present King, to prosecute a certain voyage
in the third year of his reign, viz., from the
said bishop 3001., from the said prior 50
marks, from the said mayor and commonalty
200 marks, and from the said William 50
marks, as by the letters patent of the said late
King thereon made to the said persons more fully
Both appear ; for which 5001. so borrowed from
them the said late King pledged to them his great
collar called Ikelton Collar (during the time he was
prince), garnished with four rubies, four great
sapphires, 32 great pearls, and 53 other pearls of a
lesser sort, weighing 36/ oz., then valued at 5001.,
as security for repayment of the said sum so bor-
rowed ; which said collar the said prior, for this
purpose fully empowered, &c., delivered to the
treasurer and chamberlains, &c., for the King's
use, by writ of Great Seal, &c., 3001."
These loans appear all to have been repaid with-
out interest. There are also many similar instances
of repayment of sums borrowed where no form of
security is stated. For example :—On 22d Novem-
ber (1420), in the 7th Henry V., "To Richard
Whyttington, citizen and alderman of London, in
money paid to him by the hands of Richard
Kuyghtley, in discharge of 2,000 marks which he
lent to our Lord the King at the receipt of his Ex-
chequer on the 12th of June. in the sth year, as
appears by the 'roll of receipts, &c., 3331: 6s. Bd."
Other large sums were also advanced to the King
by Richard Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of
London.

On the 11th of May, 1857, Viscount Goderich
(now the Earl of Ripon) moved in the House of
Commons for certain returns " of the whole amount
of the national debt of Great Britain and Ireland
(including any foreign loans which have been con-
sidered as formin:;• part of the national debt of
Great Britain), funded and unfunded ; also of all
annuities for terms of years, and also of the charge
for management of the national debt from the year
1691 to the sth of January, 1857." These returns
were printed on Saturday last, and form a very
interesting volume of state papers, covering 105
closely printed pages, and containing many millions
of figures.
It appears that in the year 1691 there was no
funded debt either in Great Britain or Ireland, but
the unfunded debt, consisting of loans raised by the
Sovereign in anticipation of duties receivable by
the Crown, amounted to the modest sum of
3,130,000/. The first appearance of a funded debt
was in 1694, when a debt of 1,200,0001. was con-
tracted with the Bank of England, bearing interest
at 8 per cent. The funded debt remained at
1,200,000/. untill7o7, when it was increased by the
creation of 5 and 6 per cent. annuities to 5,064,263/.
The unfunded debt in that year stood at 10,180,036/.,
of which 7,377,1681. was raised in anticipation of
duties huthorised by Parliament. In 1709 the
funded debt rose to 7,239,2911., and the unfunded,
by the issue of Exchequer and Navy Bills, to
11,694,048/. The charges of the management of
both funds (including life and other annuities,
717,3961.) amounted to 1,850,6301. The Irish debt
is first entered in 1717, as 46,153/., which consisted
of 7 per cent. annuities. In the following year the
debt of the United Kingdom amounted to
43,371,864/. The first issue of South Sea stock was
in 1712, when it was issued at 6 per cent. to the extent
of 9,177,9681.,and subsequently increased (in 1715) to
the round sum of 10,000,0001. The first consequence
of the issue of this stock was to raise the interest on
the unredeemed capital from 674,596/., in 1711, to
1,302,1741. in 1712. In 1726 the funded debt was
49,093,295/., and the unfunded debt 3,457,5021.
For the next 15 years a vigilant eye appears to
have been kept upon the national expenditure, as
the tensiency to increase the funded debt was
checked, and in 1741 a saving was effected of more
than 6,000,0001., the debt in that year being only
42,740,0241, against 49,093,295/. in 1726. But from
the latter year until 1768 there appears to have
been no Joe Hume in the House of Commons, for
the expenditure gradually increased until, in 1768,
the debt had reached 130,322,486/., of which Ireland
owed 609,231/. The unfunded debt then stood at
2,264,9181., being a diminution of 1,500,000/. as com-
pared with 1726. In 1769 the debt fell to
128,567,2551., and continued falling until 1775,
when it was represented by 123,763,000/. During
the next quarter of a century many large increases
were made on account of war; and on the 31st of
Dec., 1800, the debt was returned as 447,147,163/.
The unfunded debt on the same day was 23,747,117/.,
making a total national debt of 470,894,2801., of
which Ireland owed 121,001,6981. The interest on
the unredeemed capital then stood at 15,050,0031.,
and the annual charge on account of the national
debt was 18,572,9501. The history of the national
debt during the first half of the present cen-
tury may be said to be substantially the history of
progress. The increase from 1800 to the peace of
1815, was at the rate of from 9,000,000/. to
65,000,000/. per annum. The addition to the na-
tional debt in the year in which Waterloo was
fought was no less than 63,451,035/. In the year
1801, 50,000,0001. were added to the national debt ;
and the return of the Emperor from Elba may be
said to have cost the United Kingdom, in round
numbers, at least 200,000,0001. The treaty of Paris
reduced the national debt of England, in 1816, up-
wards of 20,000,000/. ; the funded debt having
fallen from 816,311,941/., in 1815, to 796,200,1911.
in 1816. The debt continued gradually decreasing
until 1833, when it stood at 751,658,883/. unfunded,
and 28,071,4961. funded—making a total of
779,729,279/., against a total of funded and unfunded
of 861,000,000/. in 1815. It then fell until 1852,
when it was 761,622,7041. In 1853 a reduction
was made of 6,310,003/. in the funded debt, and of
1.700,000/. in the unfunded debt. The expenses
of the Crimean war, however, again occasioned a
rise, and increased the permanent burden of the
country by 23,000,0001. of funded, and 12,000,000/.
of unfunded, debt, making a total increase of
35,000,000/.
The position of the national debt in 1858-9 is
stated to be as follows :

At a later period, in the earlier part of the reign
of James 1., there are many instances of the repay-
ment of loans, where no form of security is men-
tioned, with interest at the ordinary rate of 10 per
cent. The reduction of interest to 8 per cent. was
directed by statute in 1623, the 21st year of James
1., but did not take effect till 24th June, 1625. In
the meantime the following entry appears in the
issue roll :—" 11th June, 1624.—T0 Sir Robert.
Anstruther, knight, to the sum of 3,5001., in dis-
charge of the interest of 300,000 rix dollars, bor-
rowed and received by the said Sir Robert to his
Majesty's use and for his occasion, in the defence
of the palatinate of the King of Denmark for one
year, to end 22d July next coming, for the interest
of 6 per cent., 3,5001."
A very ancient mode of anticipating revenue,
distinct from the ordinary practice of borrowing,
was by the issue of tallies of pro or of assignment.
They are also called tallies of anticipation. The
tallies of pro were instruments of payment, and
distinguishable from the tallies of acquittance,
which were instruments of receipt, and. were some-
times called tallies of sob It appears to have been
the constant practice in early times to issue these
tallies of pro from the Exchequer in payments for
the public service. They were, in fact, formal assign-
ments of specified amounts of anticipated revenue.
At the period of the revolution in 1688, the whole
amount outstanding on tallies of loan, excluding the
bankers' debt, did not exceed 84,888/. 6s. 9d..
issued in anticipation of the duties on French
linens, &c., under the Ist James 11., c. 5. This
amount constituted the whole of the public debt at
that time; but there were also some arrears due to
the army and navy, amounting to 300,0001. The
amount of ordinary revenue was
.1,580,0001. per
annum, and the average annual expenditure, in the
reign of James 11., was 1,700,000/.
From the commencement of the reign of King
William 111., continued war expenditure neces-
sitated the raising of large sums by loans, in addi-
tion to increased taxation. At first these loans were
raised in the ordinary mode, by tallies of loan
charged on and in anticipation of various duties
under the several acts. In consequence, however,
of the large amounts required this resource soon
failed, the several kinds proving wholly insufficient
to meet the charges upon them, and the tallies fell
to a large discount. At the close of the year 1696
the total deficiency of these funds to discharge the
tallies due upon them was not less than 5,160,000/.,
for which provision was made under the Bth and
9th William 111., c. 20, called the first general
mortgage.
The Exchequer department has appended to
these returns a variety of interesting information
with reference to the various forms of the public
debt, its .origin and progress.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 5,. 1859

EXTRAORDINARY FOOL-RA RDINES

Probably the largest crowd that ever assembled I
at Niagt;:ra Falls was present there yesterday to see '
M. Blon din cross the Niagara river upon his rope,
carrying a man upon his shoulders. Excursion
trains were run upon all the roads leading to the
Falls, and every train was crowded. The 9 o'clock
train from this city took 12 coaches, the 1 o'clock
train had 22 coaches, and the 3 o'clock train 15
coaches, all completely filled, and many were unable
to obtain seats, making a total of 49 cars from this
city, carrying not less than 2,500 persons. The
steamer Arrow took down two loads—in all about
1,200 persons. The excursion train from Rochester
was composed of 20 cars, all full ; the train from
Lewiston, 10 cars, full ; and the Great Western
Railway brought in 35 coaches; these also were as
full as they could hold. The steamer Zimmerman,
from Toronto, brought over 1,200 persons. A very
large number of persons from both sides of the river
came down in their own carriages, and helped to
swell the numbers of those present. The Great
Western and Detroit and Milwaukie Railways ran
a special excursion train at half fare from Milwaukie
to the Bridge, and the Michigan Central Road put
on an excursion train from Chicago to connect with
the Great Western at Detroit. When we arrived on
the ground at about 4 o'clock every available seat
and look-out was secured, and both banks, for some
distance back were a mass of human beings, all eager
to catch a glimpse of M. Blondin and the man he
was to carry across on his bank. Many doubted
whether M. Blondin would attempt the feat, and
others asserted that he could not find anyone who
would be willing to accompany him. About half-
past 4 o'clock M. Blondin entered the enclosure
and proceeded to the end of the rope on the Ameri-
can side. His appearance was the signal for a gene-
ral cheering, which was responded to from the
other side of the river. He was dressed, as on
former occasions, in silk tights, bare-headed, and
had on his feet rough-dressed buckskin shoes. In
a few minutes after his arrival he ascended the
rope with his balanoing pole, and started to cross
the river alone. Before leaving he tied a pad of
papers around his waist. After proceeding about
100 feet he stopped, swung one foot and then the
other, and then, -walking along l 5 or 20 feetrstopped
and stood upon his head, resting on the balancing
pole which lay across the rope, the ends supported
upon the guy rope. He then ran along the rope,
stood upon his head, sat down, turned somersaults
backwards and forwards, and proceeded to the
middle of the river where there are no guys. He
here lay down on the rope on his back at full
length, stood on his head, laid his balancing pole
across the rope and stood upon it with one foot, and
balanced it with the other foot, his hands lying by
his side. He.then passed along the rope to where
the guys on the Canada side were fastened, and
laid down his balancing pole. He now returned
with his body suspended beneath the rope, running
along with hiS hands and feet, as an ape, to the
middle of the rope, between the guys. e here
went through all the feats attempted by tight-rope
performers, such as hanging by one foot, then the
other, by one hand, then dropping his body down
full length below' the rope and whirling round,
resting his breast upon the rope, and with arms
and legs extended, as if in the act of swimming.
He hung by both arms,. and, then passed his body
between his 'arms and the' 'rope, and in fact per-
formed all the feats ever accomplished by the most
agile tight-rope performers. He then returned to
where his balancing-pole was, took it up, and
crossed to the Canada bank, stopping several times
to turn somersaults, stand upon his head, upon
one foot, and to lie down upon the rope.
Upon his reaching the Canada shore he was re-
ceived with tremendous cheers from the crowd,
and the locomotives on the bridge and on both
sides of the river responded with their
whistles. M. Blondin occupied something over half
an hour in crossing, most of the time being spent
in his performances on the rope. He remained
upon the Canada side to rest and refresh himself
some 15 or 20 minutes, and again appeared upon the
rope. This time lie had his agent, Mr. Henry Col-
cord, a man weighing 1361b5., upon his back, and
his balancing pole in his hands. He proceeded
down the rope very slowly and cautiously as if
feeling every step, until he was aboutloo feet from
the Canada side, when Mr. Colcord dismounted and
stood upon the rope immediately behind M. Blon-
din. They here remained to rest probably three or
four minutes, when Mr. Colcord again mounted,

and Blondin proceeded, still walking very slowly
and stopping occasionally to balance himself. They
stopped five times in crossing, and each time Mr.
Colcord dismounted, and again resumed his position.
He had his arms around M. Blondin's neck, and his
legs rested on the balancing pole. He was in his
shirt sleeves, and wore a straw hat. About 22
minutes were occupied in accomplishing the first
half of the rope, and the balance in 20, making 42
minutes from bank to bank. For some seconds
before the American shore was reached the crowd
gathered round the end of the rope became very
noisy, and a good deal of excitement prevailed, and
when he reached the staging on this side safely the
vast crowd shouted with the greatest enthusiasm.
On reaching the landing M. Blondin was much
flushed and appeared very much fatigued, while
Mr. Colcord was pale, but he did not betray any
signs of fear. It was about half-past six o'clock
when he reached this side, and the trains, which
had been detained and were ready, started imme•
dintely for their several destinations with probably
5,000 persons. The daring feat was successfully
accomplished, and we understand M. Blondin will
repeat it on Wednesday of next week.—Buffalo
(hurler, Aug. 18.