Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1859-10-21
from the Richmond Examiner j
Public Debts Of EurODeo

AT this time, Belgium, Denmark, Portu-
gal and Sardinia, severally, owe more than
500, 100000, The public debt of Prus-
STA is $152.00Gu 600; Of Russis, $4S3,-
coo, 600 ;.of SPAR, ,$769, 900, 900; Of Aus
tia, 81, ESQ, O00, 0OQ; Of France, $l.5l6,
900, 900; and of Great Britain, $780,
o0O;000.* . b.
The snnaal interest of the British debt g.
mounts TO $125, 100000, and absorbsi more
than. half the annual. re,yenue.., The apnual
INTEREST," 90 the national debt off, France is
$55s 900. QQO,- The debt Of. France. in
creased immensely during the reign Of Louis
XIV, and at his death the ppblic>debt was
estimated at 4180,00O, 900. Spain was
deeply in debt before the close of the 10Th
century. and Yearly 100 years before Eng
land o9ed,a dollar. The. public debt Of
Great Britain was less than FL 900, 900,
when the change of dynasty occurred in
1858. In I740 the debt was ESQ. Qeg.-
0Qe, and at the commencement of the A
merican Revolution. in l776, Great Britain
owed .Gl36, 100000. She expended near
9100. 900 900 in her, fruitless, efforts to
subjugate her colonies, and when she re-
cognised their independence,' IN 1888, her
public debt was 9238, 500, 900. From the
period Of Napoleon accession To power un-
til his downfall in 1918, the public, debt of
Great Britain efpaAdsq. rapidly and i'm,
merseiy IL. Fer historian, Alison, acknowl-
edges that the financial embarrassments of
Great Britain are "irremediable, and that
their remote but certain cause is to be found
;;''in the perilous facility Of borrowing. =
Alas! how often has the facility Of borrow
ing proven ''perilous'' to States as well as to
Eindividuals
Well might Edmund Burke say, 10 1850
that nations are wading deeper and deeper
into an ocean Of boundless debt. Public
debts, which at first were security to gov
ernments, by interesting many in the pub :
lie tranquility, are likely. in their excess to
become the means of their subversion. If
Governments provide for these debts BY
heavy impositions, they perish BY becoming
odious to the people If they ,dcHos rrcvide
for them, they will be undone BY the efforts
Of the most dangerous. Of ait paftes-3.:II
mean an extensive, dfsccntented Eaonied
interest-injured.., and .nct destroyed"'--
Many years after ,Bu,rrhe's. death, Sydney
Smith (throlgh the Edinbuyg Rsgisw) DE-
scribed SOME Of the frrit Iroduced by tbs
public debt Of Great Britain il tie following
language ~,
"T.Ies d pen every article which enters
into the mouth, or covers the back, or is
placed under the foot; taxes upon every
thing it is pleasant to see, hear, feel smell,
or taste taxes upon warmth, light, and To-
comotion; taxes upon everything that comes,
from abroad, or is grown at home taxes
on the raw material !; taxes on every fresh
value that is added to it BY tie industry Of
man ! taxes on the sauce which pampers
mans appetite and the drug which restores
him to health on the rope which hangs the
criminal and the ribbons which adorn the
bride; 1t bed or board, 6ouchant or lecdnt,
we must pay. The school-boy whips his
taxed top the beardless boy manages his
taxed horse with a taxed bride, on taxed
road. The dying Englishman pours his
medicine, which has paid T per cent, into a
spoon that has paid Is per cent; makes his
will on an S-pouhds stamp, and expires in
the arms of an apothecary who has paid a
hcers, of ohs hahdred pounds fol- the privi-
The asgregats pab ,iills debt. c'iMe1co and the
several States Of South America amount to upwards
OF $6Oo 600 900 and it recent statements raia-
BILE, these debts, when added to the aggregate debt
owing by the. several European nations, make the
satiFs ar.eult xesrsy $fs,Soo o00,0sG