The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1857-01-22
Debt and Expenses of Great Britain and
she United States.

sne CnIt0Q StateBs
The public debt of Great Britain ia 81 600 OOO.
600, and tIe annual amount required for the sup-
port OF government S3OO,OOO,OOO Whilst rail
roads in the United States S35 600 per mile in
England they cost $ll4OOO per mile, but then the
road 10 as superior to the United States roads al
the price. the public debt If The United States
amounts to $50 tn, OU0, and the annual amount 1e
CURED for the support of government to S64 600.
COZ. The PUBLIC debt OF the several States amount.
to $50 $4,000.
TINS certainly is, at first blush, a very captiya
ting contrast, but, with Southern contemporary
agree that 1t is the inducement to an exceeding
ly in.idivus idea, and proceeds upon the false as
sumption that the governments of Great Britain
ana the United States are proper subjects of com
parison, whereas they are two different and dis.
tinet political existencies In England as our con
temporary justly observes, government is the
pack noiso f,r every thing; it is made to do no,
alone what is proper 10 be done by the govern
ment OF The United States, but what is to be done
by the several States themselves, and MANY subor
dinate muaicipai corporations; it BEARS therefore
the Indebtedness that has accumulated not alons
in is Gice IT military and diplomatic agent for tbs
people Of Great Britain in foreign intercourse but
the further indebtedness which has accrued from
It's performance OF the offices undertaken here nv
ntates AID counties. In addition to this il bears
the charge, by way CT interest, upon an indebted.
ness accumulated through tie eAigencies of a HIS.
tory ten times as extended as our own and il ms y
be, therefore, that II has larger debt and heav:.
er burthen q annual taxation by many times
without sfordiDg ground for the ASSUMPTIONS
either that the Government Of the United States
can DO indefinitely projected upon its present pas
without mourning the difficulties of a similar ;,
debtedness, or that the people of the United Sta.es
are not, and i'll not be subj cted to equal burtben,
In the way of taxation.
la addition to this, when we take into view the
increase Of the expenses of our Federal govern
ment from $l3 100000 in 1880, to $50 OO0 0oO in
1856, and calculate what those expenses must he
ii Increased in the ratio it is not dieicn,t 70
foresee that they must ere long transcend all or
binary sources of public revenue. The immense
domain of public land with the sales CT which orr
treasury is now gorged to repletion will pass from
the possession of the government; the stream If
foreign immigration, whose want OF foreign eoods
has helped TO swell our revenue, will gradually
diminish; and the life blood of the treasury hs
sucked away ny those vast schemes of public
plumber which are even now causing il IN b,ood
AT every pore. ihen, we shall be on the high
way to debt as heavy as that of Great Britain
and that before we have arrived at the tenth of
her period CT national existence, or can show a
tnousaIoth part Ct the value CT the copsidera
lion for which she has expended her money,
Ii should also be remembered that while the on.
vernment of the United States is brancbino ON,
into enormous expenditures, and may ultimately
transcend It's revenue from imports, and therefore
be compelled to come down upon the people in
some other form, the people are supporting attn
heavier taxation in their State expenses, in their
support OF judicial and executive officers thar
puoIio buildings and public works which, in Eng
land, falls directly upon The Crown.