The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-13
MONEY LOST FOREVER.
ABOUT 8 PER CENT. OF ENGLAND'S
 NOTES DISAPPEAR.
No One Knows What Becomes of 'he Money,but Presumably Mtsers hoafu 1t Away and 1t Is Never Recovered

put an interesting question to the chancellor of the exchequer. He want ed to know officially what the percent age was of Bank of England notes and Brntish consols that had been lost or were unaccounted for by redemption since 169O It appears from the reply furnished by the British treasury de- pertinent that only about eight per centum of the securities of the realm have absolutely disappeared since the first issue This refers mainly to Brit- ish consols or consolidated stocK, as English state securities are called. The words Consolidated stocks are used to denominate this debt, because the present indebtedness once represented three or four issues of bonds, or stocks, as they are called in England, bearing interest from four to seven per cent. There were refunded during the frst half of the nineteenth century into se- curity bearing three per cent mus the funded securities of the realm are uniform in their rate of interest.
 There is another class of securities the principal of which never becomes due. They are called debentures ana bear three and one half per cent. inter- est. They are called in whenever the government has considerable surplus which it doesn't just know what to do with. This has not been the case Of late years. England's colonies--except Australia and New Zealand-are a mighty luxury. They all required help from the mother country up to very recent period. They have put limited banking system, and their banks issue only small quantity of promises to pay. The British government-Very wisely, too--has kept the fnanclal sys- tems of her colonies well in hand at home. This has prevented them from becoming the prey of shreWd ana uh- scrl1pulous financiers who went out to the colonies flor what there was in 1t, to use very expressive bit Of Amerl- can slang.
 But to return to the subject. For over two hundred years the losses III Bank of England notes and consols have been only about eight per cent'' and old notes and bonds are constant ly turning up in the most curious man ner Not very long ago clergyman whose parish was in the country not far from Sheffield, came into the bank with ten notes, each for fifty pounds They had been issued from 179O to 1ooS and were found in two small drawers III an old eight-da tall hall clock that had been standing in the hall of a prominent local country magnate's mansion from the last decade in the eighteenth century until the time or t. yxrnr redeemed in notes of the present tllhe' The Bank of England's largest notes were for one hundred thousand pounos' But two of these were ever paid out. One was given to the firm of Kemp Grote Cave & Co.,, once an old ana great London banking firm, and the other was paid to the banket-poet' Rogers, who had it framed ana hung it up in his private office for a long time. But his heirs had no sentimental notions about money. So they sent this promise to pay for five hundreu thousand dollars to the Bank-the word bank. when spelled with capital $ Ill England, always means the Bank oi Fngland-and got it's promise to pay practically tested. What tinally De- came of 1t is not known.
 England's debt, as represented py consols and bank notes, is from $o,5oo,- 100000 to s4,OO0 O00,O 900. MT. Chamber lin's little Advertisement in the form o1 the Boer war has already cost any where from s20o, ,000,0 ,000 to S25oO0O,o 900 not to speak of the loss in valuable lives. the demoralization of the British army, and the pitiful disclosure of in in the hiQheS nlaces. An election would sweep Lort Salisbury and his following out O power by such majority as has no been seen since the days of Beacons field and Gladstone
 The national debt of the French re public is about five billion dollars The population of the nation upoi whom this tremendous load of debt | < laid is between thirty -eight~and fort. million dollars. It is a debt of almos two hundred dollars per head. Were not for the fact that this great load debt is mainly in the hands of the peo ple of France themselves there Woul' eventuate from it revolution Una would exceed that of 1793. The govern ment has the utmost difficulty as It l in raising revenue to meet the heaV' interest charges and pay it's own eX penses. And there is no possible wa in which retrenchment is possible. Tn army cannot be reduced man, an the navy Is really not as strong as should be. Of course, the main caus of this debt Is the heavy indemnity lev fed by Germany on account or th Franco-G German war.
 How the debt of France will be re duced passes the understanding Tn army is 525,711 strong. It cannot D made smaller. It's reduction cannot b attempted. It is maintained by rigi conscription. If the number Of youh men that are now in the army Wer adding something to the wealth of tn state. there might be a chance fc France to get out of debt. The inter est charge is too large. It is four an one-balf per cent. The debt cannot foated at a smaller rate. The Frenc neasant insists upon having all he ca qet for his hard-earned money, ana I he owns the principal, why, the toWr and villages are under his horny tnun , 4,ie ,,oo++er How they will ever g' out no man living can see.
 The population of Germany IS 4b'Soo 7O4 souls. There are 22,933,6o4 man and an excess of nearly one million
 the number of females over the male The funded debt of Germany IS
 large. compared to its population.