Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1848-11-17
From The National En-
The British National Debt.

Great Britain is the richest and poorest
nation Of modern times. Her sca.sweeping
commerce, her varied and vast manufae.
lures, her fertile agriculture, millions which
flow Into her Golfers from her colonial
possessions. are sufficient, were she free
7 from debt, and her Government econom-
cally administered, to make her every son
and daughter aiiluenl. But her huge ma
iionnl debt, and her immense annual ex.
pendiiures. crush her laboring masses be.
tween the upper and neither millsiones Of
remorseless taxation and hopeless poverty.
Her debt sits upon the body polite like the
nightmare Of Erebus, almost stopping the
circulation Of the vital fluids. Like other
higli-born bankrupts, she is proud, as well
as pour. She maintains the most lavish
and expensive Government in the world.
Though the interes, Of her public debts
eats out the substance Of her people, and
the army, the navy and the church, cling
like leeches to her monetary arteries, she
annually throws away immense sums in the
shape Of pensions and sinecures TO worn
out heroes and civilians, TO generals, ad-
mirals, ex-chancellors, judges, and diploma
lists, 10 decsyed mobiles and every kind OF
titled nondescript, noodle and nonenity.
She lavishes munifcent gifts on dlapidated
hospitals, schools, and charitable ins,iiu-
iions, whose sole recipients OF the bounty
are the dryer branches Of noble families,
with long titles and short purses. whose
control over the empty establishment is
sheer sinecure. She heaps bounlies on
numerous squads OF imbeciles, whose blood
is Of that pale, watery kind supposed to in.
dictate royalty, spending, in recent year,
more than 100000 upon the nurseries,
stables, and kennels OF her Majesty's babies.
horses and puppies. She pays large annual
tribute 10 her universities, that the sons Of
her nobility aud gentry may riot on good
living and bad Latin. She quarters at
deaths door myriad army Of starving pau
pers. that her landlords may maintain mo-
nopolies in the soil, the grain. and the game
OF the kingdom. Fond OF fight and feath.
ers, she hires the sons Of her poor at thir.
teen shilings a month. TO sail and march
round tie world, and bully and kill all
who oppose their progress, while she keep:
their fathers al home to work out the ex.
penses at a shilling day. In word, the
! pockets and patience Of the larger share Of
r British subjects are so heavily taxed by these
imposts and imposiiions, that loyalty iisel
cries out in tones OF vexaiion and agony
: "Though Kings can do no wrong, they have
> very expensive way Of doing right"
Al the accession Of William and Mary
. in 1859, the national debt OF Great Britain
!. was sf664 ,00s Atihe close Of the French
war in 1868, SI3s 100000. Al the clos,
of the American war, in 1888. $3.50 900,
Il 600. Al the commencement OF the Con
!. tinental wars, in 1898, E24O 600 900. a
o their close, in 1915. Gs40 10000 Thus
n it cost England S600, 000, 900 to put dow
n Napoleon and restore the Bourbons. Som
d Gao, 000, 900 having been paid off durinI
e the last thirty years, il now stands at EsOO
!, 000, 900. The population of the Unite
!. Kingdom is $4,000, 900. Consequently
II the average debt Of each man, woman, an
II child, is .f33 l.3, or about Sl63. The adul
y male population, with such females as ar
IS independent property holders, does not pre-
,r badly exceed 100000. To discharge III
m debt, II would be necessary that these PEI
s. sons should pay. on an average, about $s0t
a. This debt may be repudiAied but can
H. ever be paid
a Looking only to the records, the debt
ID owing TO some 300, 600 persons; il woul
= seem, then, tina, "a ,000. 900 of people al
n, enormously taxed to pay the interest O
lis this vast debt to this small number Of cree
ID itors. The British Government is alwaJ
al laying anchors 10 wndwa Forty yea
I'd ago, when this debt wss rapidly account
d. laiinp, il saw that if q revolution should o
he cur, and the issue be made up between Il
ID. tax payers and lax receivers, the form
could easily trample down class wi
We whom they had no sympathy. and repudia
To- the debt Accordingly, it has been Il
lar policy OF the Government during these for
rk years to induce the middhng aud poor
1t. classes TO invest money in the public fund
Nv through the medium Of savings banks, cha
IL. ritable institutions, and friendly societit
Ily Not long since, there was found 10 be stan
its ing in the names Of the commissioners
is. those associations some E25 ,000. 900 Of I
10, public debt, belonging TO about s0O, 600
tut diyidual depositors and 10000 association
on The latter representing probably 1000, o
ok Of people Thus the debt is actually o
ID. ing to 1000, 600 OF people, three fourlhs
nd whom are Of the niddling and lower ordt
he Of sociely--lhe very class that would
at likely, ifany, to loment n revolution of I
is Government So long as this state
zen things exists, it is safe to presume that
cd, public debt of Great Britain will never
The repudiated even by revolution.
1y, The taxes upon the people Of that kin
ass, dom exceed those Of any other nation
nd, earth. The annual average Of direct
~ paid 10 The Government by each man, =
II ! man and child, exceeds three pounds
) at is paid b, less than one-6ilh Of the popu
his ton, making abou, 800 on an avera
for each tax payer, rich and poor. Nea
no the whole, ultimately, comes directly I
'ur- indirectly from the poorer classes, not
money solely, but in hard work, high ret
mean fare, and low wages. Those ia
the are levied on land. meats. drinks, gil
rite malt, soap, spirits, windows, servants, hor.
ter carriages, dogs. stamps, &C.. TO the
and syllable of The record Of human wants ;
ma uses.
sses A writer in the Edinburgh Review q
pa. a graphic sketch Of this all.pervnding
thus TEN OF taxation. He says il involves -
S. es upon every article which enters
a;.o | ,h. c,ou,b or covaFa the hack or is MIA