The New York herald., 1865-06-26

ONDAY, JUNE %, 1855.
place little later In the season ws woulo %
enabled TO show France and England wat kind
Of metal our iron-plated navy b made Of A
little practical knowledge on this subject mishS
do them good.
The Hinanciai History or Great Britain
from lsl2 to ls2B.
We publish to-day Q companion picture to
that which we gave . few weeks ago In IN
epitome Of the history Of the finances Of the
United States from 1919 to 1925. The present
vessmn< comprehends the most eventful period
in the financial history Of England, and the
lessons Of history, be It remembered. are not
without instruction.
The suspension Of specie Payments In that
country began in 1797, and from that time TO
l82l-an interval Of moro than twenty
years-its transactions were based upon an
irredeemable currency. Az early a. 1912 Bank
of England notes were twenty-one per cent
below par, while government bonds were
twenty per cent below those, or forty-one
per cent below tho gold standard. Tho dnan-
cial prospects, of the kingdom were. gloomy;
there was great prostration Of trades md popu-
lar Allsfaelion, which manifested itselfin tts'
iierilsd kxaots: The loans Of the government were
negotiated with didienl&1 s& ibis rste Of dspre-
ciation. and n specie became scarce the gov,
eminent credit declined and public distrust IN
creased. Subsequent loans were, therefore,
negotiated at q further sacrifice a. the gold
premium continued to advance. On the return
Of Napoleon from Elba, early in 18NS, when
England, after short lull Of peace, was up in
arms again, there was . general commercial
panic, which resulted in sixty failures In one
week In March, and consols fell from 81 TO Sc.
In tho same time year the government nego-
tiated loan of es6,OoO,OOO at discount
of thirty per cent for Bank of England notes,
the total amount Of securities which 1t
gave in exchange for the notes amounting to
s65, ,440000 os
After the war with France was over there
was great outcry among the laboring portion
of the population against the heavy taxation
which the government found 1t neces-
sary TO levy in order to meet It's
large current expenditures, far exceeding
the revenue and the interest on its debt
Mobs collected in the streets Of the principal
cities, and petitions were sent to Parliament
for reduction Of the burdens which the peo-
pie were forced to bear. In 1919 considerable
distrust Of the public credit was manifested,
and the prospect of national bankruptcy wss
! discussed by the leading newspapers. More
| mobs and riots disturbed public tranquility,
and there were further loud calls for repeal
of the taxes Some of these riots led to blood
shed, and there was such general disturbance
| OF trade that large number of commercial
] failures took place.
In 1921 the Bank of England. with an out
standing circulation Of s23,oooOoO, returned
to apecie payments, consols rose to 7s%, and
trade began e flourish again. A period
of speculation set in which lasted
till 1926, when the mist violent panic
known in commercial history swept the iand'
and the government was equally rr"Weriess
with the Bank of England to avert or mitisste
~ effects. Forty-Hve country banks stopped
payment, and eleven hundred mercantile fail
tires occurred in the month of December In
that year.
This was the recoil from the imitation which
had preceded the resumption of specie pay
ments. The abundance Of paper money slim
u!ated new enterprises and encouraged over
trading, and the hollowness Of the foundation
was not discovered till the bubble of specula-
tion had been blown 30 far that there was no
escape from collapse. We are just now
in q somewhat similar position to ttat
of England after being saddled with a
debt of more than eight hundred and
thirty-six millions Of pounds sterling. We
are floating on the high tide Of That seeming
prosperity which highly inflated currency
never fails to produce. We have debt Of not
far from three thousand millions, and volume
Of currency aggregating nearly thousand mill
lions. All this Mr.. Jay Cooke would mako out
to be Bstional wealth. Bot u il exactly the
reverse. II is an incubus upon property and
prosperity, and taxation Is evsg placed upon
national and individual progress Tho debt
was the necessary result Of q task that we were
bound 10 accomplish; but let no man fall into
tho error Of mistaking national debt for
national wealth, nor Aatter himself that
we shall escape the troubles inseparable
from debt and taxation Of such magnitude o.
ours. All wills doubtless 60 well with US in
the end, but meanwhile we must experience
the recoil and be prepared for more than We
have as yet experienced. The nation has TO
undergo a coume of liquidation, and it is
well for us 10 be- prepared TO pass through the
ordeal which sooner or later must be submit
ted TO us by the logic of events.
ErvECrs OF PEACR-REvIvAL OF THE IsM.-
The war killed out or squelcbed for the time
being most of the fancifhl theories by which
the Northern mind had been previously occu-