Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-08-22

still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote as
ever. When the great contest with Louis
XIV. was terminated by the peace of
Utrecht the Nation owed about $50, 900, 900
and that debt was considered not merely
by the rule multitude, not merely by fox
hunting squires and coffee house orators,
but by acute and profound thinkers, as an
iucumbrauce which would permanently
cripple the body polite. Nevertheless trade
iourished, wealth increased, the Nation be-
came richer. Then came the war of the Aus
trisn succession, and the debt rose to ESQ.,
600, GOO. Pamphleteers, historians and ora
tors pronounced that now, at all events, the
case was desperate. let the sigus ofincreas-
ing prosperity, signs that could neither be
| couuterfeited nor concealed, ought to have
| satisfied observant and rejecting men that
a debt of $50 coo, 900 was less to the En-
| gland which was governed by Pelham than
debt of $50 900, 900 had been to the En-
gland (which was governed by Oxford
| Soon war broke forth, and, under the en-
ergetic and prodigsl administration of the
frst William Pitt, the debt rapidly sHelled
| to $40 ,OOO, ,O0O As sood as the first in
toxication of victory was over, men of
theory and men of business almost unani-
mously pronounced that the fatal day had
now really arrived. The only statesman,
indeed active or speculative who did not
share in the general delusiou, was Edmund
Burke David Hume, undoubtedly one of
| the most profound political economists of
| his time, declared that 'our madness had
exceeded the madness of, the Crusaders.'-
Richard Cour de Lion aud st. Louis had
not gone in the face Of arithmetlcal dem
oustrstion. 1t was impossible to prove by
| figures, that the road to Paradise did not
lie through the Holy Land; but it was pos
I 81. hat fha roI 60,
national ruiz was through the national
debt. 1t was idle, however, now to talk
about the road; we had reached the goal,
all was over All the revenues of the Is
| land North of Trent and West of Reading,
were rnortgaged. Better for US to have
| been conquered by Prussia or Austria than
to be saddled with the interest of a debt of
$40, 600, 900.
And yet this great philosopher, for such
| he was, had ouly to open his eyes and see
improvement all around him-cities in
creasing, cultivation extending, marts too
! small for the crowd of buyers and sellers
harbors insufficient to contain the shipping;
artificial rivers joining the chief inland
seats of industry to the chief seaports;
streets better lighted; houses better fur.
nished; richer wares exposed for sale in
stateiter shops; carriages rolling along
| smoother roads. He had, indeed, only to
compare the Edinburg of his boyhood to
the Edinburg of his old age. His predic-
tions remain to posterity memorable in
| stance of the weakness from which the
| strongest minds are not exempt. Adam
| Smith saw little, and but little further.
He admitted that, immense as the burden
| was, the Nation did actually sustain 1t aud
thrive under it in way that nobody could
have foreseen. But he warned his coun-
bar lg1VV1 nv
pertinent. The limit had been reached
Even a small increase might be fatal
| Not less gloomy was the view which
| George GreuVille, a minister eminently
diligent and practical, took of her financial
situation. The Nation must, he conceived,
sink under debt OF &l2O, 600 900, unless
a portion of the load Was borne by the
American colonies. The attempt to lay
portion of the load on the American colo
MES, produced another war. That was
left US with an additional sl0O, ,O0O,e
| debt, and without the colonies, whose help
had been represented ss Indispensable.
Again England was given over, and again
the. strange patient persisted in becoming
stronger and more blooming in spite of all
the diagnostics and proguosities of state
physicians. As she had been visibly more
prosperous with a debt of el4O, 900, 600
than with debt of $50, 600 600, go she
was visibly more prosperous with debt
of gao, ,0OO, 900 than with a debt of Gl40,-
900 900. If the most enlightened man had
had been told. IN 1892, than in 1915 the
Interest on $500, 100000 would be duly
paid to the day at the bank, he would have
been as hard of belief as if he had been
IUold that the Government would be in
possession of the lamp of Aladdin or the
purse of Fortunatus. 1t was in truth a
| Fa TabE- and
hardly wonder that the cry of despair
should have been louder than ever. But
again that cry was found to be as unrea-
souable as ever. After few years of ex-
haustion, England recovered herself. Yet,
like Addisou's valetudinarian, who con-
rinued to whimper that he was dying of
consumption till he became so fat he was
lshamed into silence, she went on COM
planning that she was sunk in poverty till
her wealth showed itself by tokens that
made her complaints ridiculous. The beg
CARED, the bankrupt society not only proved
itself able to meet all its obligations, but
while meeting these obligations its growth
could almost be discerued by the eye.
:. In every county we saw wastes recent-
Iy turned into gardens; in every city we
saw new streets and squares and markets,
more brilliant lamps, more abundant
supplies of water; IN the suburbs of every
great seat of industry, we saw villas
multiplying fast, each embsomed in ita
gay little paradise of lilac and roses.
While shallow politicians we're repeating
that the energies of the people were borne
down by the weight of public burdens,
the first journey was performed by steam
on railway, Soon the. Island was in
tersected by railways. A sum exceeding
the whole amount of the national debt at
the end of the American war was, IN a
few years, Voluntarily expended by this
ruined people in .viaducts, tunnels, en-
bankments, bridges, stations,and engines.