The Shasta courier., 1864-10-22
The English Debt.


ty.hating, Irish despising friends of the
rebels.
The English Debt.
In the fourth volumne of Macaulay's 3 History
Of England there is a long passage relating
to the origin and growth Of the National
Debt. As this answers some of the objec
tions Of our own croakcrs and Copperheads,
we copy it in full:
om the fifteenth Of December, 1892, the
House of Commons resolved itself into a
Committee of Ways and means. Somers
took the chair. Montague proposed to raise
a million by way of loan; the proposition
was approved and it was ordered that bill
should be brought in. The details of the
scheme were much discussed and modified
but the principle appears to have bsen pop
ular with all parties. The moneyed men
were glad to have good opportunity of in
vesting what they had boarded. The land
ed men. hard pressed by the load of taxation,
were ready to consent to anything for the
sake of present ease. No member yentured
/ to divide the House. On the twentieth day
ia January the bill was read third time,
carried up to the Lords by Somers, and pass.
ed 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 a million
was to be raised by life annuities. As the
annuitants dropped off, their annuities were
to be divided among the survivors, till the
mum er of survivors was reduced to seven
After that time whatever tell it was to go to
the public. 1t was therefore certain that the
| eighteenth century would be far advanced
before the debt would be finally extinguish-
| ed. The rate of interest was ten per cent.
till the year 100, after that year seven per
cent. The advantages offered to the pub .ic
creditor bv this scheme may seem great, but
were not more than sufficient to compensate
him for the risk which he ran. 1t was not
| impossible that there might be n counter
revolution and it was certain that if there
We're counter revolution. those who had
lent money to William would lose both in
| terest and principal.
Such was the origin Of that debt which has
since become the greatest progidy that ever
perplexed the sagacity and confounded the
pride of the statesmen and philosophers. At
every stage in the growth of that debt the ra-
tion has set up the same cry IF anguish and
despair. AT every stage in the growth of
That debt it has been seriously asserted by
/ wise men that bankruptcy andkruin were at
E&(n{ Yet Still The debt went on growing
9Sl1 baMkrupfcy and ruin were as remote
lever. When the great contest of Lewis
the Fourteenth was finally terminated by the
p6Rce of Utrecht, the nation owed about if-
1millions; and that debt was considered,
DOT merely by the rude multitude not merely
hs fox-hunting squires and coffee house ora
tprs, but by acute and profound thinkers, as
an incumbrance which would permanently
cripple the body polite. Nevertheless trade
Hourished wealth increased the nation be-
tame richer and richer. Then came the war of
tbe Austrian Succession; and the debt rose TO
Eighty millions. Pamphleteers, historians
and orators pronounced that now, at all
events, our case was desperate. Yet the
signs of increasing prosperity, signs which
could neither be counterfeted nor concealed,
ought to have satisfied obaervant and reflect
Eing men that debt of eighty millions was
Ness to the England which was governed by
EPelham than debt of fifty millions had been
Ito the England which was governed by Ok
tford.
Soon war again broke forth; and, under
THE energetic and prodigal administration of
the first William Pitt, the debt rapidly swell
ed to u hundred and fnry millions. 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 really arrived. The only statesman, in
deed, active or speculative, who did not share
in the general delusion was Edmund Burke.
David Hume, undoubtedly one of the most
profound p,liticai economists of his time, de
clared that oar madness had exceeded the
madness of the CT usaders. Richard Coeur de
Leon and Saint Lewis had not gone in the
face of arthmetical demonstration. 1t was
impossible to prove by figures that the road
TO Paradise did not lie through the Holy Land
but it was possible to prove that the road te
ruin was through the national debt. It.was
idle, however, now to talk about the roade
we had reached the goal; ali was over: all
! the revenues 0. the island north of Trent and
west of Reading were mortgaged Better for
j US to have been conquered by Prussia or Aus
tria than to be sadded with the interest of a
hundred and forty millions. And vet this
great philosoper-for such he was-had only
to open his eyes, and to see Improvement all
around him, cities increasing, cultivation ex.
tending, marts too small for the crowd of buy
ers 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 furnish.
ed, richer wares exposed to sale in statelier
shops, swifter carriages rolling along smooth
er roads. He had, indeed, only to compare
the Edinburgh Of his boyhood with the Edin-
burgh of his old age. His prediction remains
to posterity, memorable 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 a
way which nobody could have toreseen. But
be warned his countrymen NOT TO repeat 81
hazardous an experiment. The limit had
! been reached Even small increase nigh
he fatal. Not less gloomy was the view
which George Grenvile. minister eminent
ay diIigent and practical, took of our financia
IetHation The nation mast he conceived
sink under debt of hundred and forty mil
liens. unless portion of the load were borne
by the American colonies. The attempt tt
Lay portion off the load on the American col
onies produced another war. That war lef'
Eos with an additional hundred millions o