Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1853-11-02
THE sINEws OF WAR.

THE SINEWS OF WAR.
If money is the sinew of war, the want
of it is a strong security for peace. The
pecuniary element is in fact the most m1-
terIal of all, in any calculation respecting
the issue of the present Eastern difficult
ties. We may lely upon it, that what
ever the Four Powers can do to avert war
they will do. To two of them-England
and Prussia--war is most exhausting
debt to the other two-France AMI Aus
tria-it is absolutely bankruptcy,
france has debt of over one thousand
millions of dollars. To pay the interest
on her national debt--to support her
standing army of three hundred and fifty
thousand men, and navy Of three hundred
and thirty vessels-and to meet the cur
rent expense of civil government, France
has to raise au annual revenue of three
hundred millions of dollars, which is more
than one.fyfh Of the annual amount Of all Of
the united Income Of the people. France
now, even in a period of peace, is not far
from that extreme limit Of taxation, when
any attempt to increase the amount levied
in the country would fail b. the imposts
becoming unproductive.
Austria is worse off still. She has
debt of eleyen hundred millions of dollars
and revenue of only one hundred and
twelve millions. For the last fifty years
she has been suffering all the evils Of f.
uanclal embarrassment but the revolu-
ton of 1848 added over one hundred mill
lions to her liabilities. In I847 how de-
finite was Seven millions of tlorins, in l848
forty .tfVe millione, in 1918 one Huu.Lred and
teCenty millions in 1859 .forty,ttge millions,
in 1851 Sirty-t1UO millions and in 1852
htty-three millions. She has II forced pa
per currency OF about two hundred mil
lions Of dollars entirely vulueless outside
her territory. and greatly deprecated
within. Since the Hungarian war she
has had to contract three loans, one of
some fOrty-three millions of dollars in
1851, one of seventeen millions i'll 1852,
and one of forty millions in 1858, the last
of which it will be remembered was ne
gotiated with extreme difficulty. Nothing
IS more certain than that Austria cannot
engage in another serious war without be-
coming utteIly insolvent.
Prussia has debt Of one hundred and
MirtyJiys millions of dollars. The events
of 1846 cost her thirty millions She is
deeply in debt and still living beyond her
means. War then must be 10 her
great calamity.
The English debt every body knows
1t would crush any nation but England,
and the world sees how it grinds her gi-
gantic energies. We would not under-es-
innate her financial abilities. Adam
Smith said even in his day that the debt
would never be extinguished except by
bankruptcy. 1t is just as certain that il
can never be augmented by another long
period of war without making its burden
So iusufferable as to necessitate some such
legislation direct or Indirect as that of
France 1877, when she abolished two
thirds of her national debt. We have
seen to what degree the mere appre-
hension of war; combined with other eau
ses, has disturbed the financial condition
of England. Last year the Three per Cent
Consuls Of England were at par they
now are nearly FIVE per cent below par
Then the rate of interest at the Bank of
England was twO per cent, now 1t is four
and half per cent. If England has grea
ter resources than any other nation in Eu-
rope, she also has more at stake !; and no.
thing but the most overpoweriug necessi-
ty will force her to exchange her present
security and prosperity for the untr;ed
consequences of general European war
No continental Power save perhaps
Russia, has extensive credit. The abso-
lutIst governments have borrowed money
TILL the necessity of extrinsic support has
nearly become settled law of their exis-
tence. But capitalists have had too strono
a lesson of the ruiuous effect of this system
in the untold losses they have sustained
by Spain, Mexico and the South Ameri-
can Republics, to shut their :eyes to the
consequences of supplying States with
means to do what they are unable to do by
their own positive resources. Besides
everybody knows that every throne on
the Continent rests on foundation more
or less precarious. They are liable to be
overthrown in any year by population dis
content, and this insecurity necessarily in
no small degree weakens their credit.
The financial condition of the four Pow