Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-05-26
The National Debt of Engiand---Its Origin,
History and Management.
TFrom MaeaulaY,s nistory OF England

vi lIlC 1Dtu vi december, 1907, the House
of Commons resolved itself into Committee
of Ways and Means Somers took the chair.
! Montague proposed to raise d million b. waY
| OF loan; the proposition vas approved and
II was ordered that bill should be brought
in. The details of the scheme were much
| discussed and modified; but the principle
| seems to have been popular with all parties.
The moneyed men were glad to have an op-
| portunfty of investing what they had boarded
The landed men, hard pressed by the load
| of taxation, were ready to consent to any
thing for the sake of present ease. Nomena-
Der ventured to divide the House.
| On the twentieth of January the bill was
| read a third time, carried up to the Lords bv
| Somers and passed by them without any
| amendment
By this memorable law new duties were
| imposed on beer and other liquors These
duties were to be kept in the Exchequer sep
arate from all other receipts, and were to form
fund on the credit of which million was
to be raised by life annuities. As the annui-
tants dropped off, their annuities were to be
divided among the survivors till the number
| of survivors was reduced to seven After
that time whatever fell in was to 60 to the
| public. 1t was therefore, certain that the
| eighteenth century would be far advanced
| before the debt would be finally extinguished
| The rate OF interest was to be ten per cent
| till the year 100, and after that wear seven
| per cent. The advantages offered to the pub
| lie creditor by this scheme may seem great
| but were not more than sufficient to compen
safe him for the risk which he ran. tt was
not impossible that there might be counter
revolution, and that those who had lent
| money William would lose both interest and
| principal
Such was the origin of that debt which
has since become the greatest prodigy that
ever perplexed the sagacity and confounded
the pride Of statesmen and philosophers. At
every stage in the growth of that debt the
nation has set up the same cry of anguish
and despair. At every stage in the growth
| OF that debt it has been seriously asserted
| by wise men that bankruptcy and ruin were
at hand. Yet still the debt went on growing ::
and still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote
| as ever. When the great contest with Louis
XIV was finally terminated by the peace of
| Utrecht, the nation owed about $50 900, 900:
| and that debt was considered not merely by
| the rude multitude, not merely byfox-hunting
| squires and coffee-house orators, but by acute
and profound thinkers, as an incumbrance
which woald permanently cripple the body
| polite. Nevertheless trade fourished
wealth increased, the nation became richer
and richer. Then came the war of the Aus
| trlan succession and the debt rose to ESQ
| 10000. Pampheteers, historians, and Or
| ators pronounced that now, at all events. the
case was desperate. Yet the signs of in
creasing prosperity, signs that could neither
be countertelted nor concealed, ought to have
satisfied observant and rejecting men that
debt of fS0,000,00O was less to the England
which was governed by Pelham than debt
of f5O,OO0,000 had been to the England
which was governed by Oxford. Soon war
again broke forth and, under the energetic
and prodigal administration Of the first Will
liam Pitt, the debt rapidly swelled to el4O.
100000. As soon as the first intoxication of
victory was over, men Of theory and men of
business almost unanimously pronounced that
the fatal day had now really arrived. The
only statesman, indeed active or speculative,
who did not share III the general delusion was
Edmund Burke. David Hume, undoubtedly
one Of the most profound political econo
mlsts of his time, declared that our madness
had exceeded the madness of the Crusaders
Richard Occur de Lion and Saint Louis had
not gone in the face of arithmetical demon
stration. 1t was impossible to prove by fig-
ures that the road to paradise did not lie
through the Holy Land; but it was possible
to prove by figures that the road to national
ruin was through the national debt 1t was
idle, however, to talk about the road we had
reached the goal; all was over All the rev.
enues of the island north Of Trent and west
Reading were mortgaged. Better for us to
have been conquered by Prussia or Austria
than to be saddled with the interest of a
debt of el40,000,000.
And yet this great philosopher, for such he
was, had only to open his eyes and to see i'm
provement all around him-cities increasing,
cultivation extending, marts too small for
the crowd Of buyers and sellers, harbors in
sufficient to contain the shipping, artificial
rivers joining the chief inland seats of indus
try to the chief seaports, streets better light
ed, houses better furnished, richer wares ex-
posed to sale in statelier shops, swifter car
riages rolling along smoother roads. He had,
indeed, only to compare the Edinburgh of his
boyhood to the Edinburgh of his old age
His predictions remain to posterity, memo
rable instance 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 it and
thrive under it in a way that nobody could
have foreseen. But he warned his country
men not to repeat so hazardous an expert
ment. The limit had been reached Even
small increase might be fatal.
Not less gloomy was the view which George
Granville, minister eminently diligent and
practical, took of our financial situation. The
nation must, he conceived, sink under debt
of el40, 100000, unless portion of the load
was borne by the American colonies. The at
tempt to lay portion of the load on the
American colonies produced another war.
That war left US with an addition 91OO, OOO,-
600 Of debt, and without the colonies whose
help had been represented as indispensable.
Again England was given over; and again
the strange patient persisted in becoming
stronger and more blooming in spite of ali
the diagnostics and prognostics of state ply
sicians. As she had been visibly more pros
porous with debt Of el40,000,00 than with
a debt of ESQ, 100000, so she was visibly
more prosperous with a debt Of e24O OOO, 900
than with a debt of el40, 900. If the most
most enlightened man had been told in 1892
that 1915 the interest on 100000, 900 would
be daily paid to the day at the bank, he would
have been as hard of belief as if he had been
told that the Government would be in pos
session of the lamp Of Aladdin or of the purse
of Fortunatus. 1t was in truth gigantic,
fabulous debt; and we can hardly wonder
that the cry of despair should have been
louder than ever. But again that cry was
found to be as unreasonable as ever. After
few years of exhaustation England recover
ed herself Yet like Addison's valetudnarian
who continued to whimper that he was dying
of consumption till he became so fat he was
shamed into silence, she went on complain
ing that she was sunk in poverty till her
wealth showed itself by tokens that made her
complaints ridiculous. The beggared, the
bankrupt society not only proved able to
meet all its obligations, but while meeting