American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-09-20
An EngIisIaEnan's Edea Of This
Country and Hts Debt.

At the dinner as the McHenry House.
in Meadville, to Sff Morton Pete and
his English friends, on tour of iRspec
ton of the Atlantic and Great Western
Railway and the country in general, that
gentleman made aspeech. Hesaid there
was-there shoul be-nothing but mutu-
al interest between America and Great
Britain, "There is nothing 30 much to
bo deplored, nothing SO much to be av i'd
ed as the slightest-alenation between the
two peoples but, sir, the frank, manly
and outspoken manner in which you did
us the honor last night to speak on with
out The slightest reserve
He then went on to say
You have made great salifces for your
country. You have expended treasure
and blood in support of the great prnci-
pies of human freedom, and believe that,
deeply as we may deplore the blood which
has flowed, the result of the struggle will
be to cement bond of union which no
future time will eyersev Loud cheers. /
The world says you have accumulated "a
mighty debt Well the figures do look
large but it may be some consolation TO
know that your debt is not so large as
ours, the figures being as eight hundred
million pounds sterling to six hundre
million pounds sterling. The Interest al
preasent will be at agreater rate Of charge
in your country than our own; but suea
is the enormous extent Of your territory,
and such its rapid development, aud such
| believe, the self-reliant attitude of your
people, that no difficulty will arise iii you
meeting the annual charge.
Our own progress as anaticn was shown
to be so great, in recent speech by Mr..
Gladstone since the adoption by us oil a
| free trade policy, that by the showing OF
the people themselves in their income tax
and property returns, the increase in ten
years has exceeded the total value of our
entire national debt. Let me adopt a
familiar explanation: Suppose each Amer.
lean spent on his dinner one shilling a
day for year, your people would con
sumo as much as the entire national debt,
and yet it has been subscribed mainly by
foreign capitalists during the period oil
your struggle, and the receipts show it
to be a highly remunerative investment
Again, let me refer to another fact =
We pay in London on cab hire and omni-
bus hire yearly, in that single city, as
much as the income and property tax OF
our entire kingdom; aud when look tC
the enormous development and rapid in
crease of the population aud wealth 81
your country, when look, Tor instance
at the oil districts over which have pass.
ed to day, where | saw evidences of un,
examplcd wealth aad prosperity on every
side, and where | saw in one place where
on the lst Of June last not single shan
ty had been erected, at the the present
time, on this 9th of September, four hun
dred houses finished and inhabited, tive
churches built, six banks established two
telegraph stations, and the extension o.
the Atlantic and Great Western Railway
began only four months since; within &
month of its completion-I say, sir, wher
| see such facts as these, there is nothing
in your debt which need create anxiety
or make yol feel that you have incurred
responsibility which you cannot houora
bly, meet. | say, sir, though we cannot
too much deplore all the blood shed anC
its lamentable consequences, there is moth
ing for you to deplore in your future
You have only to base your taxation equi
tably, fairly, and in such transparently
honest way that every class may see tha
none are excepted aud none are unfairly
treated. BE true to yourselves, and tn,
world will not be slow to appreciate you
position and do you full justice Louc
and prolonged cheering.-Er.