Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-05-28
The National Debt Of England---Its Origin,
History and Management.
From Macaulay's nistory.of England

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 OPP
portunity 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. No mem
Der ventured to divide the House.
On the twentieth of January the bill was
read a third time, carried up to the Lords by
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
a 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. Alter
that time whatever fell in was to go to the
public. 1t was, therefore, certain that the
eighteenth century would be far advanced
before the debt would be finally extingaished.
The rate of interest was to be ten per cent.
till the year 100, and after that year seven
per cent. The advantages offered 10 the pub
lie creditor by this scheme may seem great,
but were not more than sufficient to compen-
not impossible that there might be a 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 COMPOUNDED
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 O,O00, 900;
and that debt was considered not merely by
the rude multitude, not merely by fox hunting
squires and coffee-house orators, but by acute
and profound thinkers, as an incumbrance
which woald permanently cripple the body
polite. Nevertheless trade hourished,
wealth increased, the nation became richer
and richer. Then came the war of the Aus
trian succession; and the debt rose to ESQ,
100000. Pampheteers, historians, and or
ators pronounced that now, at all events, the
case was desperate. Yet the signs of in
be counterfeited nor concealed, ought to have
satisfied observant and rejecting men that
debt of eSO,000,000 was less to the England
which was governed by Pelham than debt
of f50,000,000 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 e140,
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 in the general delusion was
Edmund Burke. David Hume, undoubtedly
one of the most profound political econo-
mists of his time, declared that our madness
had exceeded the madness of the Crusaders
Richard Ceur 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 el40,000,0O0.
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 a little, and but a little, further
He admitted that, immense as the burden
was, the nation did actually sustain it and
thrive under it in 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 a
small increase might be fatal.
Not less gloomy was the view which George
Granville, a minister eminently diligent and
practical, took of our financial situation. The
nation must, he conceived, sink under debt
of el40,00O,0 600, 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 100000
900 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 all
the diagnostics and prognostics of state ply
sicians. As she had been visibly more pros
porous with debt of el40,000, 900 than with
debt of e50,000,000, SO she was visibly
more prosperous with debt of f240, 900, 900
than with debt of el40,000 700. If the most
most enlightened man had been told in 1892
that 1915 the interest on $4,000 900 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. IL 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 Addisons valetudinarian
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
those obligations grew richer and richer so
fast that the growth could almost be discern
ed by the eye.