The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-05-10
GREAT BRITAIN.
The Debtia and the Resources OF Eng
Innd---Is Her Prosperity Permanent
go, IS 'Io,,.,o,,, =, 1,i,,e. AVA 10.

The Debt and the Resources OF Eng
Innd---Is Her Prosperity Permanent
or Transient sou aAs9 eEcE
From the Lo,.cso,, 7G,aes, -A1orit 10
We ought in this unparalleled half
century to have reduced our great war
debt to something less than $4,000, 600
a year, not much less than 81 a head on
the whole people of these isles. Itcan-
not be said that experience encourages
us in this recklessness, for we have en-
tered on war without counting the cost
to our very great loss; and, what some
feel more, we have counted the cost and
not gone to war. In all human I1robG-
bItity 11e shall have at least one great tDGT'
before the close of the century, and that
tcdT, 1Chen It comes, G0ilL hdUe to be fought
as the FederdLS i1l A1leried fought, more
NTH money than men. But we must
look beyond the centnry In three
generaIions-thati is, ,-in'the days of our
children's children-we are told that all
the coal of these islands that lies within
1000 feet of the surface will be exhaust
ed, If we go on increasing our con-
sumption at the present rate. Coal Is
everything to us. Without coal
our factories will become idle, our
foundries and workshops be still us the
grave; the locomotive Will rust in the
shed, and the rail be buried in weeds.
Our streets will be dark, our houses un-
inhabitable. Our rivers will forget the
paddle-wheel, and we shall again be
separated by days from France, by
months, from the United States. The
post will lengthen its periods and pro-
tect its dates. A thousand special arts
and manufactures, one by one, then in
a crowd, will fly the empty soil, as boon
companions are said to disappear when
the casS is dry. We shall miss our
grand dependence, as a man misses his
companion, bis fortune, or a limb, every
hour and at every turn reminded of
the irreparable loss. Wise England
tOiLL then be the silly Virgiil lCitIsOHt OIL in
her lamp, We shall be surrounded and
overwhelmed by the Improbable lum-
ber of buildings and machinery that
we cannot use, and even cities we can
not occupy. For who viii care to i've
in Manchester? Who will be able to
difficult to inquire the state we
shall return TO, for 1t takes
only n middle aged man TO
remember 1t. They would be sorry to
be called old who can remember
large towns lighted with oil lamps, the
first steam vessels, timidly creeping
round our shores or up our rivers, and
rumored, but hardly credited. But
the process of unlearning will be s1bw,
and neither easy nor pleasant. 10 be
sure, as coal becomes scarce and dearer,
we shall learn economy. We shall
warm our houses more scientifically
and improve our machinery. But,
meanwhile, our descendants will wit
ness another process equallyexhaustive.
Thepopulation willfoliow coal wherev-
er it is to be found whether on foreign or
on colonialsoil. Our manufacturers will
be beaten by those who then have this
advantage over us, and the working
classes will acceptth invitation OF the
master that bids the highest. That is
what they must do, for it is the law of
existence. 1t is not easy, or at all pos
sible, to forecast any point at which the
various conflicting causes may fix the
future of English labor, but we may as
we'll expect a large population in Sal
isbury Plain as a Manchester, a Liver
pool, a Sheffield, or a Birmingham,
without coal-and cheap coal, too.
Unless our statesmen, and the whole
generation, are content to cut u sorry
figure in history, as men who came on
n vast mine of sudden wealth, and
other splendid Opportunities, but WAS
ted dlthem most selfiShly, we ought to
make an effort to pay off our huge
debt. Weall profess to feel the indebt-
eCiness, vet we do not pay, except in
the in the meresL drfbbles. The next
generation may not even have our feel
Ing on the subject, and in that case win
certainly have more excuse for taking
the debt easily. As the member for
Oxford observes, it is proposed to en-
franchise the working classes, men
hitherto taught to regard themselves
as out ofthe pale of the Constitution,
and denied n voice in the making of our
laws. IheU may easily be taught by
certain SchooC of .fndncierS that they are
not bound to pay IN SokId coin a deot
contracted IN paper. We are chang
ing the whole constituency-that is,
changing its members and its iden-
tity may be questioned. Will all
the burdens and obligations of the old
hayeholdersi pass to the new2 There Is
a well known line of business in this
metropolis in which responsibility is
sacrifice of identity. But the moral is
for ourselves more than for those who
may stand in our place. Nothing SO
mnch contributes to that sense of ma
tionaI identity which Is in the very es-
-sence of national honor, and all
tional greatness, as u sresolute and en-
ergetic discharge of national RESPONSE
bilities of every. kind. Are we, then,
showing this quality in this simple,
business-l like affnir-this enormous
debt of ours? This is tile question which
Mr.. Mills puts to the conscience OF the
nation, and if the. nation has a con-
science It will listen. 1t may, perhaps,
seem rather invidious to set this respon
sibility against the relief to be obtained
by any particular fiscal remission. But
it must be considered that we have ar
rived at a certain intelligible resting
point in our taxation. We have few, II
any, taxes left which press severely
upon commerce, or cripple that produc-
tive industry upon which our very
ability to discharge our public obliga-
tions depends. We only tax luxuries,
OF course. in wide sense of the term.
The question, then, is whether we will
pay our lawful debts, 0r indulge in
things we can do without. Now, or
never, is the time TO make the clioice.
1--we do not make the better choice
now, we never shall. -'s