Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1862-03-29

Il figures that itheHnad to Paradise didtnO
lie through thAsqHoly Land; bntbit wa
possible to prove by tigures- that the Ioat
to national ruin was through the ,natioha
debt:si Il was idle, GhoHeyer,- posWs itoS tall
about the road I've, had reached, the goal
all was over all tLeiregepueg oftthe Islant
north pfa Treat and west Of Reading were
mntoIrtgagedg Better for as. to .hlaYeJibeer
conquered by Prussia or, Austria than e
be saadled With tie Interest Of q hundred
and fifty millions. Aud Yet. this greal
phi!osopherNf0r such he wasAhad only
to open his eyes, and to see improvement
ton, extending, marts too small for the
crowds of buyers and sellers, .hprbors in,
sufficient to contain the shipping, artificial
rivers joining the chief inland seats ol
Industry to The chief sesports, streets
better lighted, houses better finished
richer wares exposed to sale In statelier
shops, swifteF carriages, rolling along
Smoother roads,, He had, indeed, only ID
comPate the EdinbutgH Of his ibpyhood
With hnthel lEdinbutgh OF his old age. ei His
prediction remains to ip0steFity memora-
BILE instance of the weaknessi from which
the strongest minds are not exempt. Z lAd.
am Smithisaw little aud but q iittle fur
Their He admitted that, immense as the
burden was, the 1dtion did actually sustain
1t and thrive underitind WayMhich nobody
could have fOreseen.=sBut he warned his
countrymen not to- repeat SO hazardous an
experiment. The limit had been reached,
Even small increase might be fatal. Not
less fatal waS the view which George Gten-
vile, minister eminently Ciligent' and
practical, took of our financial C ondition.
The nation must, he conceived, sink uudeE
a FNf N1a,Fl
less portion of the load were borne by
the American colonies.i Theaattemps to
lay a portion of the load on the American
colonies produced another war. That war
left us With an additional hundred millions
ofdebt, and without the colonies whose
help had Represented as ssindispensa-
BILE, Again England was given over, aud
again the Strange patient persisted in be-
coming stronger and more blooming in
spite of all the diagnostics and prognostics
of State ysicians. AsIshe had been visl
IDLY more prosperous with n debt ofialhuu-
dIed and forty millions than Withla debt
OF htty millions, SO she was visibly more
prosperous with a debt of two hundred
and1fOrty millions than with debt Of a
hundred and forty millions. Soon, how
ever, the wars which spraug from the
French Revolution, aud which far exceed
ed in cost any that the world had ever
seen, tasked the powers of public credits to
the UTMOST. When tho world was again at
rest the funded debt of England amounted
toeight hundred millions. HIfithe most en-
lightened man had been told in 1892, that,
In 1915, the interest on eight hundred mil
lions would be duly paid to the day at the
Bank, he would have been as hard of be-
liefasiif he had been toldithat the govern
mentwould be in possession of the lamp OF
Aladdin or the purse, Of Fortunatus. 1t
was In truth a gigantic, fabulous debt,
and we'cans hardly Wohdtt that the cry Of
despair should have been louder than ever
But again that cry was4found to have been
as unreasonable as ever. After a few
years of 2. exhapstiou,- England recovered
herself Yet, like Addison's Valetudinari-
an, who continued to Whimper that he was
dying of consumption till he became so fat
that he was shamed into silence, she went on
complaining that she was snnks in poverty
till her wealth. showed itself by tokens
which made her complaint ridiculons.-
The beggared, the bankrupt society not
only proved ableltO meet all its obligations
but while s,meetiug those obligations grew
richer and richer, so fast that the growth
could almost be discerned by the cye.-
Willie shallow politicians were repeating
s01S Vi IuG pEUple UOEues
down by the weight public burdens, the
irst Journey was made oni'a railway by
steam. Soon the land was, ifntersected. by
railroads. A sum exceeding the whole
amount of the national debt nt the close
OF the American war was in a few years
expendedFby this sfpeoplein vidduCtsi t1n-
nels; embankments, ,abridges, stations and
engines Meanwhile taxation was, becom-
ing lighter and lighter, yet still the exche,
quer was full. II may be now affirmed,
without fear Observation-Disclosures; that we find
It as easy to pay the interest OF eight hun-7
dred millions US urauCestors found 1t, a
century ago, to paJ the interest on eighty
millions. 1t can hardly be, doubted that
there must have been some, great. tallacy
in the notions of those who Gttered and
those who believed thattl0bg Succession of.
confident predictions, $50 signally falsiied,
by 9, long succession of indisputable facts.
To point out that f4llacy, is the Office rn-,
ther Of the political ehconomist than the
historian Here tits sufficient to saygttat
the prophets of evil Wersi1nder ia i6oubls
delusion. They enormously imagined that,
there was an exact analogy between the
case OF nn, ndividnal who in debt to, am,
other individual, and the case of,a, society
who is in debt to a part OF itself, aud this
Rnalogy led them into endless mfstakes
sbontlthe effect Of tho system of fahding.
They were under an error not less serious,
FtOuching tue resources of the couptry.-
They made 40 allowance for the effect pro. q.
duced by the inceSsant progTesS'of every
science; and by tte incesjant
Efforts Of every man to get ohiin life. They
saw that. the debt grew and they forgot
that other thipgs .gEewias we'll as, the debt,c
Along experience jpstiies US in believing
that England may, ii the twentieth centu-
~ be better GbIeuo bear a debt of sixteen
hundred millions than u'shsisbat theipres-
ent tue to bear her pFesentload.
Itmay be desirable to add n few words.
toucbing. the way in which the. systsm.of
funding, has affected the great comn9n-
wealth Of nations. Ifit be true that what,
ever gives to intelligence an advantage
over brute force, and tosshonesty an ad.