The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-03-24
From the N. Y. Sun.
THE POSITION AND POLICY OF THE BRI-
TISH GOVERNMENT.

The Government Debt of England is commonly set
down in round numbers at "a 600 100000; sum
that would load with dollars train OF wagons loUO
miles in length, supposng each wagon to occupy Tour
rods and 10 carry one ton
As the industry OF England, most unfortunately
has not sufficient change IN Its pocket to pay on
at once this huge mortgage on ITS bones and sinews
1t IL forced pay the whole amount every thirty years
IN the shape Of interest, without lessenlng the debt
fraction Ii is forced raise yearly four thou
sand big wagon loads OF dollars as a nemento of the
wageJ by the arisocracy Ut Great Britain against
the democracy of France and the United States
To load with coined silver 400 wagons
train that would extend more than half way hom
New York to Phlladelphia-tor great nation to do
this snce occasionally is easier than some might
suppose but to do year after year forever hard
problem in finance
There Is but one way in which nation having no
gold silver mines fairly obtain these mel ais-
and that To buy them with the products OF lheir la
boz. Consequently the taxpayers OF Great Britain
in order to aise said 1000 OF dollars per annumfo
the fund holders neccssitated TO sell goods 10 tha
amount the worlds market every year, before they
can think of spending cent IN SAID market even iof
stock to manufacture.
Ii il not necessary however, that the English
should extract the anhoe their yearly tribute the
fund holders from other nations. They lind market
for much of their labor among The fundholders them
selves If suppose The latter to expend one half Of
their income in purchasing such luxuries and valu-
abIes British toll and skill produce II follows
that other nations need send EN- only about EOOO
tons of silver per annum; which would little more
than load train of wagons reaching from Crown
Point to Ticonderoga-a train that mig ht easily pass
one door q single day.
Thus crcumstanced, England may be excused for
entertaining most ardent desire that other nations
should buy largely OF her manufactures and that they
should buy high prices also. Nothing less save
her from a revolution
The reigning arsiocracy Of Great Britain have long
employed very ingenious method OF e6ecting both
these objects. BY adroitiy stimulating the paper ma
nia they have managed depreciae the currency Of
nearly every country in the civilized wurd at the
time that they restricted their banks from emit
ting notes Of lower denomination than 1925 They
have thus established small sized measure of value
abroad by. and large ICED at home
to BUY by.
The operation of this policy in enriching Eng land
and ID lmpovershing this country, may be seen by
mere glance at our table OF imports. From 1880 TO
l04O ten years our gross imports amounted to $l,-
5OU, 542, 454. Allowing our prices to have been
doubled only during this period by the expansion of
our currency from the OF bank paper (and all
know prices than doubled from thi
cause) follows that paid $3.50 III 227 more than
we should have paid foI the goods provided our
currency had been purely OF silver This vast sum
Qus TO ~, 5UO tons OF sllver-Was therefore, SO far
went To pay for British goods, clear gam TO the
British money powe. dead los, to "a loss which,
divided among the QUO 600 families of the United
STATES, amounts S2t6 66 for each
w hen we consider these simple tacts-when we
consider how necessary the continuance of this game
Is to the very existence OF the British oigarchy-we
cannot doubt that that oigarchy will not only
all its subtley, but, it needfu all its force, to pre-
vent US from abandoning the ruinous financial policy
we have been pursuing almost since birth
nation. II Was the opinion, years ago, OF some of
our ablest statesmen, that if England could pre-
vent the establishment OF the specie policy here by
other means, she would, in to involve us in a
national debt, and thus create strong necessity for
expanded currency in these States, force us into
bloody and expensive war. Such was at bottom a
leading of her last war against us; and we are
unlikely soon the same motive reproducing
the same criminal results England's greatest diff
Guilty in pursuing such policy at present will be to
keep her starving population quiet while her
my Is sen. abroad TO butcher ours. To obva,e this
difficulty, she will pretend to her pundered subjects
at home that she ravage fields and burn
dwellings from pure philanthropy-trom a holy
love of freedOm-from disnterested sympathy for
the negroes she stole from Africa and sold to our
fathers and she may find men in this world
silly enough to believe hel But the real governing
motive of policy she has adopted toward this
country is simply this she desires that should buy
largely Of her n4fdctures-and buy them at high
PRICES.