Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-05-25
The National Debt Of EngIand---Its Origin,
History and Management.
From Afacaulay's History of Englal

On the i0tn OF DcteHlDer, 1892, the HOuSt
of Commons resolved itself into a Committe,
of WAYS and Mean. Somers took the chair
Montague proposed TO raise million BY wa
of Loan; the proposition was approved anc
It 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 mo1eyed men were glad to have an Cd
portunity of investing what they had boarded
The landed men, hard pressed bv the load
of taxation, were ready TO consent 10 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 q third time, carried up to the Lords by
SOmers and passed by them without any
amendment.
By this memorable law new duties we're
imposed on beer and other liquors. These
duties were to be kept in the Excheuuer sep
arate from all other receip ts, 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 After
that time whatever fell in was to 90 TO the
public. 1t was, therefore, certain that the
eighteenth century would lie far advanced
before the debt would be finally extinguished.
1.
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-
safe him for the risk which he ran. 1t was
not impossible that there might be a counter
revolution, and that those who had lent
money William would lose both interest and
principal
Such the origin Of that debt which
has since become the greatest prodigy that
ever perplexed the sagacity and contour ded
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
NV was finally terminated by the peace OF
Utrecht, the nation owed about ESQ 600, 900
and that debt was considered not merely 10y
the rude multitude, not merely by hunting
squires and coffee-house orators, but by acute
and profound thinkers, as all incumbrance
which would permanently cripple the body
polite. Nevertheless trade flOurished,
wealth increased, the nation became richer
and richer. Then came the war of the Aus
tSt,
100000. 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 L we
satisfied observant and rejecting men that a
debt of ESQ, O00, 900 was less to the England
which was governed by Pelham than a debt
of e50,O0O,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 VII
liam Pitt, the debt rapidly swelled to GAO,
100000. As soon as the first intoxcation 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 cur madness
had exceeded the madness of the Crusaders
Richard C9ur 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
debt of tI40,O0O,O00.
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 30 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, minister eminently diligent and
practical, LOOK Oh our ula0Cial situation. Inc
nation must, he conceived, sink under a debt
of el4O, 900, 900, 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
4 gain England was given over; and again
the strange patient persisted in becoming
stronger and more blooming in spite of all
the diag1ostics and prognostics Of state ply
sicians As she had been yisibly more pros
porous with debt Of EI4O,0O0, 900 than with
a debt of e5O, 100000 so she was visibly
more prosperous with a debt of e24O, 900, 600
than with a debt of eI4O,OOO, 900. If the most
most enlightened man had been told in 1892
that 1915 the interest Oh $500, 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 1t was in truth a gigantic, a
fabulous debt; and we can hardly wonder
that the cry of despair should have been
louder than ever. But again that CIV was
found to be as unreasonable as ever. After
a 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