Year: 1864

had been represented as indispensable. Again
England was given over; and again the
strange patient persisted in becoming strong
er and more blooming IN spite Of all the d.
agnostics of State physicians. As she had
been visibly more prosperous with debt of
one hundred and forty millions than with a
debt of fifty millions, so she was visibly mere
prosperous with a debt Of two hundred and
forty millions than with a debt OF hundred
and forty millions.


Sncn however the wars which sprang from
tue French Revolution, and which far ex-
ceeded in cost any that the world has ever
seen. tasked the powers of public credit to
the utmost. When the world was again at
rest the funded debt of England amounted
to e ght hundred millions. If the. most en-,
iighsened man had been told, in 1872, that.
in 1915, the interest on eIght hundred mil
lions would be duly paid to the day at the
Bank, he would have been as hard of belief
as if he had been told that the government
would be in possession Of the lamp os Aad-
din or of the purse of Fortunatns. 1t was in
truth gigantic. a fabulous debt; and we can
hardly wonder that the cry of despair should
have been louder than ever. But again that
cry was found to have been as unreasonable
as ever. After few years Of exhaustion,
England recovered herself. Yet, like Addi-
sons yaletudnarian, who continued to whim-
per that he was dying of consumption till he
became so fat that he was shamed into sill
ence, she went on complaining that she was
sunk in poverty till her wealth showed itself
by tokens which made her complaint ridicu-
lous. The beggared. the bankrupt society
not only proved able to meet all its obligations
bu', while meeting those obligations, grew
Licher and richer so fast that the growth could
almost be discerned by the eye. In every
county. we saw wastes recently turned into
gardens in every city. we saw new streets
and squares and markets, more brilliant
lamps, more abundant supplies of water in
the suburbs of every great seat of industry.
we saw villas multiplying fast, each embos-
omed in its gay little paradise Of lilacs and
roses. While shallow politicians were re-
peating that the energies of the people were
horne down by the weight of the public bur-
dens, the first journey was performed by
steam on railway Soon the island was inter-
sected by railways. A sum exceeding the
whole amount of the national debt at the
end Of the American war was. in a few years
voluntarily expended by this ruined people
in viaducts, tunnels. embankments, bridges,
stations, engines. Meanwhile taxation was





e.; yet still the Exchequer was full 1t may
be now affirmed without fear of contradiction,
that we find it as oasy to pay the interest of
eight hundr of millions as our ancestors
foun1 it, a century ago. to pay the interest of
eighty millions.


1t can hardly be doubted that there must
have been some great fallacy in the notions
of those who uttered and those who believed
that long SUCCESSION sf confident predictions.
So signaliy Eiisified by a long succession of
indispntable facts. To point out that fallacy
is the off ce rather of the political &c nomist
than of the historian. Here it is sufficient to
say that the prophets of evil were under IL
double delusion. They erroneously imagin
ed that there was an exact analogy between
the case of an individual who is in debt to
another individual and the case Of society
which is in debt to a part of ITSELF and this
analogy led them into endless mistakes about
the effect of the system of funding. They
were under an error not less serious touching
the resources of the country. They made
no allowance for the effect produced by the
ncessant progress of every experimental sci
ence, and by the incessant efforts of every
man to get on in life. They saw that the
debt grew; and they forgot that other things
grew as well as the debt.


A long experience justifes us in believing
that England may, in the twentieth century,
be better able to bear debt of sixteen hun
drel millions than che is at the present time
to bear her present load. But be this as it
may, those who so confdentialy predicted
that she must sink. first under debt of fifty
millions, then under debt of eighty millions
then under debt of hundred and forty
millions, then under debt of two hundred
ami forty millions. and lastly under debt
of eight hundred millions, were beyond all
doubt under two-fold stake. They great
" overrated the pressure of the burden they
greatly underrated the strength by which the
burden was to be borne"