The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-11-01
(From the Petersburg Post.)
Facts and EXAMPLES Of History

In recent address of Mr.. Seawri2ht, q
candidate for the legislature in Augusta
county on the reimbursement ticket, he gave
lis the following among other interesting
scraps OF English history:
Another precedent bearing directly upon the
question OF REIMBURSEMENT we nave from the same
source. England. after an eXhaustinS war, found
her finances i'll the same crippled condition in
which we did Ours. The Prime Minister, Mr..
Pelham. proposed scheme for the reduction of
the British debt. Due notice was given to every
body. The scheme was simply to issue new
bonds, bearing three per cent interest to be of
fered to the creditors in exchange for the bonds
they held, bearing four per cent che creditors
agreed readily to the terms offered, except the
great corporations-the Bank of England, East
India Company. and the South Sea Com pany
Time was given them. Mr.. Pelham in the mean
time had ascertained that he could borrow money
at three per cent, enough to pay off ana redeem
the debt held by those corporations. He offered
to pay them Off principal and interest. when they
too came into the scheme. There no talk OF
Reputation them on the contrary, Mr. Pelham {,
success, it was said, astonished all Europe ana
excited the admiration OF all christendom.''
In attempting to break the force of this
pointed fact in the financial history of so
great II nation as England, the Stauntoil
Findicator completely stultlies its own po-
sition as follows:
Mr.. Seawright evidently does not know the
terms on which the public debt of Great Britain
exists. The government when it borrows mo-
ney, reserves the right to pay it when it pIeases
II 1t is paying five per cent, and the money mar
ket is three per cent, it can borrow any amount
OF money at that rate, and pay off as much OF its
debt as 1t wishes, and it can accomplish its object
often as speedily by merely threatening to pay
the principal II the bondholderS do not take a
lower rate OF interest, She has often made these
threats, and sometimes carried them out, until
the interest she pays is three per cent. She
has frequently, not as Mr.. Seawright thinks, .as-
toniShed all Europe but irritated her creditors
by forcing them to reduce their rate of interest
or take their money back.
Mo- tTo.c
debt of England existed. 1t was no doibt
as honest debt as that OF Virginia, and us
such England had no more right to ssread-
just" it by intimidation and '.force'' than
has Virginia now. And yet the Vandicato1
admits that England has "often" accom-
plished its object eli reducing its rate of i'll :
terest to "three per cent? BY making
''threats" which so ''i17itated her creditors
as to s..force tbem'' to reduce their interest
| from five and six to three per cent Was il
any more honest in England 10 s'irritate her
creditors and to force them into her
terms by frequent ''threats'' than it woul,i
be for Virginia to ask 'readjustmcnt" and a
| reduction OF her interest to per cent? And
did England lose any OF her honor Or credit
by thus dealing with her creditors in mo-
ments of great financial distress and press
ure? We think not.
lHGlC NClC uiiiS tniCc h'lftlC5 NflU NcIC
''irritated'' by the threats Of England or her
terms, anG they were mammoth joint cor
porations, namely: the Bank of England.
East India Company, aud the South Sea
Company. All of her other creditors came
into terms at once.
The only parties who are now ''irritated'+
at the idea Of REIMBURSEMENT in Virginia
and reduction Of interest, who denounce it
as 'repudatlon' and q reflection upon the
''honor and credit" of the State, are q few
spectators and dealers in coupons, while
the great body of our people ana the great
mass of our honest creditors, like those OF
England, would to- morrow be glad to have
Il s'readjustment" OF the whole debt and the
question forever removed from politics.
When the next legislature of Virginia
shall have perfected REIMBURSEMENT" as it
will do, these coupon dealers and shriekers,
like the East India and South Sea baubles,
will most readily come INTO terms, and
swear they never did have any other senti-
ment and We're the original opponents of
the Funding Bill.