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

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

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 fond a very
interesting volume of state papers, covering 105
closely printed pages, and containing many millions
of figures.
It appears that in th& 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
3,130,0001. 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
1,200,0001. untill7o7, when it was increased by the
creation of 5 and 6 per cent. annuities to 5,064,2631.
The unfunded debt in that year stood at 10,180,0361.,
of which 7,377,1681. was raised in anticipation of
duties authorised by Parliament. In 1709 the
funded debt rose to 7,239,2911., and the unfunded,
by the issue of Exchequer and Navy Bills, to
11,694,0481. 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 46,1531., which consisted
of 7 per cent. annuities. In the following year the
debt of the United Kingdom amounted to
43,371,8641. 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 unredeethed capital from 674,5961., in 1711, to
1,302,1741. in 1712. In 1726 the funded debt was
49,093,2951., 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 tendency 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 49,093,2951. 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 130,322,4861., of which Ireland
'owed 609,2311. The unfunded debt then stood at
2,264,9181., being a diminution of 1,500,0001. as com-
pared with 1726. In 1769 the debt fell to
128,567,2551., and continued falling until 1775,
when it was represented by 123,763,0001. 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 23,747,1171.,
making a total national debt of 470,894,2801., of
which Ireland owed 121,001,698/. 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 9,000,0001. to
65,000,0001. per annum. The addition to the na-
tional debt in the year in which Waterloo was
fought was no less than 63,451,0351. 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 751,658,8831. unfunded,
and 28,071,496/. funded—making a total of
779,729,2791., against a total of funded and unfunded
of 861,000,0001. in 1815. It then fell until 1852,
when it was 761,622,7041. In 1853 a reduction
was made of 6,310,0031. in the funded debt, and of
1.700,0001. in the unfunded debt. The expenses
of the Crimean war, however, again occasioned a
rise, and increased the permanent burden of the
country by 23,000,000/. of funded, and 12,000,000/.
of unfunded, debt, making a total increase of
35,000,0001.
The position of the national debt in 1858-9 is
stated to be as follows :

FUNDED DEBT.
Bank of England, at 3 per cent £11,015,100
Bank of Ireland, at 31 per cent. 2,630,769
5 per Cent. Annuities
New 31 per Cent. Annuities (1853)
New 3t per Cent. Annuities -
New 3 per Cent. Annuities
New 3 per Cent. Reduced Annuities 115,227,112
3 per Cent. Consolidated Annuities
21 per Cent. Annuities (1853) • 2,988,552
Exchequer Bonds (1853)

. X 786,801,154

Total
UNFUNDED DEBT.
Exchequer Bills (Supply)
Exchequer Bonds (1851 and 1855) . 5,000,000

18,277,400

Grand total of funded and unfunded debt £805,078,554
The annual charge in respect to this sum amounts
to 28,181,2611., which is made up as follows :
Interest of Unredeemed Capital
Interest of Exchequer Bonds (1853) 11,603
Sinkin., Fund, 21 per Cent. Annuities 6,907
Long Annuities expiring 1860
Annuities for 30 years to 1885!
Life Annuities • 1,050,945
Annuities for terms of years
Bank Annuity
Exchequer Annuities
Interest of Exchequer Bills (Supply) •••••• 302,890
Interest of Exchequer Bonds (1854 and 1855) 135,000
Interest of Deficiency Bills
Interest of Ways and Means Bills

Management of Funded Debt

90,020

Total
There is no unfunded debt in Ireland, but the
funded debt of that country is returned at
43,114,8761., a very small sum as compared with
the gross national obligation of 805,000,0001. It
would seem that we were at war in 1694, when the
first debt of 1,200,0001. was contracted to the Bank
of England, and that of the 168 years which
elapsed between 1694 and 1859 eve were at war
with some Power or other during 116 of them.
Previously to the reign of King William 111.,
during which our national debt in its present form
was commenced by the,creation of a funded debt
and of life and terminable annuities payable by the
State, as well as by the first issue of Exchequer-
bills, the public debt consisted almost wholly of
sums borrowed upon the security of tallies of loan
and orders of repayment, the principal and interest
of which were charged upon various taxes or duties
granted by Parliament. This more ancient mode
of raising money by low/ was not, indeed, discon-
tinued until a much later period, the alternative
power of raising money on the security of tallies of
loan and orders of repayment, as well as by Ex-
chequer-bills, being continued in the annual land
tax and malt acts until the year 1808. The pre&
tice of anticipating revenue appears to have existed
from the earliest period of the establishment of the
Exchequer in this country soon after the Norman
conquest, and as the tally was the sole instrument
by which the receipt of money at the Exchequer
was acknowledged, it became also a security for
repayment of loans. Tallies were thus used from
a very early period, under the name of tallies of
loan, as securities for money lent. Madex, in his
" History of the Exchequer," refers to a writ issued
out of the Exchequer. to the sheriff of Gloucester-
shire in 1242 (27 Henry III.), ordering him to
bring before the King "all the chirographs and
tallies made to the Jews for debts." He quotes
also, from a roll of the 15th Edward I. (anno
1287), that " the King appointed the sheriff of
Oxfordshire to place a' chest in the town of
Oxford, and to choose certain chirographers,
Christians and Jews, and in their presence to
put into it all the charters, writings, tallies,
and other securities which they had then in their
custody." No interest appears to have been
paid upon the amounts raised on tallies of loan
previously to the time of Charles the Second, in
whose reign a more systematic mode of raising
money was established. Another instrument which
served as a security for money was termed a deben-
ture from the first word " debentur," used in its
form by way of acknowledgment of the debt. These
instruments 'in the ancient form were ordinarily
employed for making numerous periodical pay-
ments at the Exchequer up to the yeti'. 1834. Privy
seals were also commonly used as a security for
loans to the Crown. In the 35th Henry VIII. (anno
1544) it is stated that the King " had borrowed
divers sums of money of different people, giving
them privy seals for their security " Letters pa-
tent were also used as securities for loans. In the
issue rolls of the Exchequer there •is an order of
payment, in the 20th Ed. I. (ar.no 1292) :—‘"ro
the venerable father, John Bishop of Winchester,
1,000 marks, which he lent us in the 19th year of
our reign, and receive from him our letters patent
acknowledging the receipt thereof." The King's
creditors were not always satisfied with. letters pa-
tent, but required more tangible security. There
are many instances of loans upon the security of
the King's jewels in the time of Henry VI., and one
of these contains some curious and minute details
of the transaction, which may deserve mention. In
the 6th year of Henry VI. (anno 1428), Nov. 25,
there appears a payment of Richard Crosby, prior
of the cathedral church of the Blessed Mary of Co-
ventry, agent and lawful attorney to the venerable
father in Christ, Thomas Peverall, late Bishop of