Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1848-08-25
From the National Fra
SKETCHES OF GREAT BRITAIN


: features, her fertile agriculture, the million
which flow into her Golfers from her colo
NAL possessions, are sufficient, were sh
free from debt, and her government econo
mcally administered, to make her every
son and daughter affluent. But her hug,
national debt, and her immense annual ex
pendltures, crush her laborlng mass es be
tween the upper and neither milstones o
remorseless taxation and hopeless poverty
Her debt sits upon the body polite like the
nightmare of Erebus, almost stopping the
circulation of the ''ital fluids. Like Other
high born Eankrupts, she is proud as wei
J as poor. She maintains the most lavish
and expensive Government in the world
Though the interest Of her public debt eats
out the substance of her people, and the ar
my, the navy, and the church, cling like
Ieeches TO her monetary arteries, she annu.
ally throws away immense sums in the
shape of pensions and sinecures to worn
out heroes and civilians, TO generals, admir-.
ais, ex chancelors, Judges and dipIomatists,
to decayed mobiles and knights, and every
KIND OF ttled nondescript, noodle and non
!
dilapidaled hospitals, schools, and charita-
bic institutions, whose sole recipients ofthe
bounty are the dryer branches OF noble fam
lies, with long titles and short purses,
whose control over the establishments is a
sheer slnecure. She heaps bounties on nu-
merOus squads Of imbeciless, whose blood
is of that pale, watcry kind supposed to in
dlcate royalty, spending, in recent year,
more than 100000 upon the nurseries,
stables, and kennels of her Maiesty's ba>
bles, horses. and puppies. She pays large
annual tribute to her universities, that the
sons of her nobility and gentry may riot
on good living and bad latin. She quarters
at deaths doors a myriad army of starving
paupers, that her landlords may maintain
monopolies in the soil, the grain, and the
game of the kingdom. Fond of fight and
feathers, she hires the sons Of her poor at
thirteen shilings Il month to sail and march
round the world, and bully and kill all who
oppose their progress, while she keeps
their fathers at home to work out the en-
penses al shilling day. She lays open
The whole kingdom as foraging ground for
ravenOus church establishment, whose
wardens 1.-THE not only mint, anise, and GU
min. but all " weightier matters :. and
whose wolves " clad in broadcloth, hunt
foxes at $4,000 per year, and hire curates
to look after the sheep for ESQ. In word,
the pockets ana patience of the larger share
OF British subjects are so heavily taxed by
these imports and impositions, that loyalty
itself cries out in tones of vexatiOn and ag-
snv, "Though Kings can do no wrong,
they have a very expensive way of doing
right"
At the accession of William and Mary,
in 1859, the national debt of Great Britain
was 4G6f.000. At the close OF the French
war in 1863, 4l3S, 100000. At the close
of the American war in 1888, 4250,000.-
600! AT the commencement of the Cont
mental wars, in 1893, 424O,000,O00, AT
their close, in 1915, 4S4O,O0O,O0O. Thus
ThCs il cost England 460O,OO0,0 200 TO put
down Napoleon ano restore the Bourhons.
Some 44O,000.0OO having been paid off
during the last thirty years, it now stands at
4S00,0O0,O0O. The population of the
United Kingdom is 24,000.000. COnse-
quently the average debt of each man, wo
man, and child, is 9335, or about SlG3.-
The adult made population, with such fe>
males as are indie pendent property holders,
does not probably exceed 100000, TO
discharge the debt, it would be neccss airy
that those persons should pay, on an aver
age, about $500. This debt may be repu-
dated; bu' can it ever be paid!
Looking only to the records, the debt is
owing TO some 100000 persons. 1t would
seem, then, that 100000 of people are
taxed to pay the interest on this
vast debt to this small number of creditors.
The British Go yernment is always laying
anchors to windward. Forty years ago,
when tins debt was rapidly accumulating,lt
saw that if n revolution should occur, and
the issue be made up between the tax
payers and the tax receivers, the former
could easily trample down a class with
whom they had no sympathy, and repudi
ale the debt Accordingly. il has been the
policy of the government during these for.
~ years TO induce the middling and poorer
classes TO invest money in The public funds,
through the medium of savings banks, cha |
rltable institutions, and friendly societies -
Not long since, there was found TO be
standing IN the names of the commissioners
of those associations some 425,O0O, 900 OF
the public debt, belonging to about $780,
600 individual depositOrs and Is 900, asso
ciatlons-the latter representing probably |
| 100000 of people. Thus the debt is
owing TO 100000 of people, I
three iourths of whom are of the middlng
and lower orders of .ociery--the very class
that would he likely, if any, TO foment
revolution of the Government. So long as
this state of things exists, it is safe to pre-
srme that the public debt of Great Britain,
will never be repudiatcd. even by revolu
ton.
The taxes upon the people of ,hat king
dom exceed those of any other nation on
earth. The annual average of direct tax
paid TO the Government bv each man, wo-
man, and child, exceeds SO. 1t is paid by
lest than one fifth of the population, max
ing about SlCo, on an average, for each tax
payer, rich and poor. Nearly the whole,
ultimately, comes directly or indirectly from
the poorer classes, not in money solely,
but IN hard work, high rents. mean fare,
low wages. These taxes are levied on
land, meats, drinks, glass, malt, soar, spr-