The New York herald., 1866-05-18
YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, MAY IL, 1855

IN II w O1UA 11HIAAlv,
| Mr.. Gladstons's hook fnto the Failure
| England and the United States.
The speech Of Mr.. Gladstone. in the British
House Of Commons, on the Sd inst, on the ma
tional budget the national debt and the national
resources, and especially in reference to the
present commercial ascendancy and future
prospects Of England, is speech which marks
its author as one Of the foremost statesmen of
the age From budget of the most interesting
facts he weaves the most convincing argu-
ments and presents the most startling conclu-
sions ever submitted to the British Parliament.
Reduced to single sentence, this comprehen-
sive speech is an appeal to the Commons to
provide without delay for the payment of their
national debt because, from the drain upon
her coal mines-the sources Of her strength
the day may be predicted when England, even
under the most favorable circumstances Of q
continuous reign Of peace, will be shorn Of her
locks and reduced to q second or third rate
Power.
In regard to the national debt, Mr.. Glad
stone says:-"We have effaced the results Of
the Crimean war, and the debt thus stands at
the very place which it occupied at the COM
mencement of the year 1S54;" and seven hun
dred and ninety-nine million pounds, or say
four billion dollars, in round numbers, is the
figure at which it stands. A pitiful reduction
Of two or three millions year in times Of peace
may well alarm the Chancellor, in view of the
inevitable drawbacks of protracted war.
Meantime on the Continent " the chapter of ma
tional debts is assuming painful and bane-
full prominence as a social and political fact of
modern experience" From this reflection he
exempts The enormous debt of the United States
of three billion dollars, for be does not believe
that it "will constitute any difficulty for the
American people, But, as under all the 3D.
vantages of peace the European States gener-
ally, great and small, have been heaping up ma
tional debts during periods of war, there appears
TO be hardly one among them, except Prussia,
aud perhaps France, that the pressure of actual
war would not speedily reduce to bankruptcy.
Hence the shocks Of the Paris and London mo-
ney markets from the reports that Austria and
Italy are arming for war. The great dangers
from war of any magnitude in Europe are q
universal financial revulsion, political revolu-
tions and reputation. Nor can these dangers
much longer be avoided under a reign Of
peace without great reductions Of those costly
military establishments required at present to
watch Napoleon and each other. This is o SUBJ
ject upon which Mr.. Gladstone might probably
employ an hour or two in an appeal for Eu-
ropean Congress-.
But the main feature Of the argument before
US Is in the national debt of Eugland and her
prospective resources for meeting it. Mr..
Gladstone says that the external commerce of
the United Kingdom, with Its thirty millions Of
people, is equal now to that Of France and
America (the United States), with their seven
| ty millions. But he modestly omits the people
| Of her Majesty's colonies and dependencies,
! from the one hundred and thirty mill .ons OF
| India, and thence eastwardly around the globe
to the people, of the West Indies, the Canadas,
&C., all of whom contribute to England's COM
merce But this omission does not materially
weaken the fact that the strength of England is
in her coal fields and that the British empire
must fade away with their exhaustion.
1t is her cheap production Of COAL as Mr..
Gladstone graphically presents the facts, that
gives to England her overshadowing industry
and commercial supremacy. Suppose, them"
he asks, "that pre-emincnce in the cheap pro-
duction of coal should be carried from us away
across the Atlantic Ito the United States, with
thirty seven times the coal fields of England),
what Will happens There will be decline OF
rents, decline Of property, a decline of wages"
And then labor and capital will inevitably
drift TO the cheaper production of coal. Here
is the dificulty and as, ffom careful estimates,
this transition epoch may dawn upon England
within the next fifty or hundred years, provis.
ion for her national debt meantime be-
comes an urgent question. How is she to
meet it, Not by increased taxation, for
| she Is taxed already to the verge Of
| safety. She can only meet it by such
| retrenchments, reforms and concessions to tho
masses of the people as the House of Commons
has never yet dreamed Of The costs of the
royal family, the Church, the high Offices of
State, the army and navy, and Of an overgrown
and suffocating arstocracy, might probably to
| the State be reduced from twenty to fifty or
seventy-Gve per cent Thus Mr. Gladstone, in
| a single bill, may obtain surplus Of fifty or
hundred millions year for the liquidation
of the national debt, without an increase Of tax
| alton.
The danger to England which ne has pointed
out, though visible, is remote. His remedies
we have still TO learn. He Is anxious to save
highlands posterity from burden which they
cannot bear; but does he recognize the fact
that this burden is England's landed aris-
tocrscy' Unless the pruning knife be here
applied NJ. Gladstone will not have to walt
for decline in bis coal fields before witness
ing the total eclipse Of England's glory by the
rising sun Of the United States. rs IN
Mn. Fox's PLEASURE TRP.-When Il was irst
Il 61--.--..s- l. n