d beamslede many in a state of peace, but during the former, we contracted (exclusively of what has been redeemed by the sinking fund) a debt amounting to about 800,000,000 of funded capital; near 600,000,000 sterling; and have paid during the latter during sixty-four years of profound peace no more than the paltry sum of 39,000,000 Such a system cannot continue for ever.volt must end, if we persevere in it, where it ended with the Dutch, the Genoese, the Venetians, and the Spaniards. We have always found," says Mr. Hume, where a government has mortgaged all its revenue, that it necessarily sinks into a state of languor, mactivity, and impotence.inYet, with these facts before our eyes, and with these admonitions sounding in our ears, we are preparing our minds, it should seem, to see perpetuated by a legal act the present enormous debt! We received from our fathers a burden of about 240,000,000, to which we have added, over and above all that has been redeemed, between 5 and 600,000,000 more of funded capital; and we, there is every reas son to apprehend, are about to transmit the whole to the next generation, and thus, in all probability, to lay the foundation of weakness, fuif, and contempt. Why should a policy which has never yet failed, in the case of other nations, to terminate either in national bankruptcy, or in hopeless decay, be harmless in our case? If our means are stretched to the very utmost pitch to answer the ordinary demands of the government; if the fruits of industry are squeezed to the last drop if manufactures are taxed to the highest point that will not positively discourage their production; if all this shall be done in the hour of peace, when our ships are dismantled and our army reduced, what shall we be able to do, in addition to this, when the state of Europe shall next call us to armis, to vindicate our honour, or perhaps to protect our shores? We put the question to every reflecting man who has spent one moment in thinking upon this subject: could we begin another war of ten years duration, and of equal expense with that which we have just finished, under the pressure of 800,000,000 of funded debt, and hope to get through it with success? If any one hesitates as to his answer, let him advert to the following circumstances to aid him in his decision. The net revenue of othe country cannot be estimated at more than 48,000,000; whilst the interest alone of the unredeemed debt is about 33,000,000, to which we may add 12,000,000 for the peace establishment (last year it was 27,677,0651. 2s. 3d.); from which it appears that, with our present income, not more than 8,000,000 could be applied for the maintenance of fleets and armies. And let it be remembered that no nation is safe in peace which is not prepared for war; that our victories count for nothing if they shall have disabled as from again taking the field; and, moreover, that every peace is durable only when it can be protected by arms. discharging a part of the public debt; and government in debt; and as this can only be done by creating a portion of clear revenue over and above our amis Indoctored ane si now yuo sumbai coco vove the outlay of government was augmented in a threefold degree; the funding system was extended even beyond the dreams of all former financiers; the rent of land was more than doubled; the labour of artizans was rewarded in the same proportion; and in all matters of money, indeed, we had reached a point never touched before-had risen far above the general level of Europe, and were already fast settling into a state, founded on maxims and regulated by a scale altogether peculiar to ourselves. In proof of this statement it will be alone sufficient to mention that the price of wheat, which, from 1780 till the beginning of 1794, was at an average 45s. the quarter, rose in the twenty years ending with 1813, to an average of 83s.; during the last ten years of which period the price was 92s. and during the last five years of the twenty it was not less than 108s. In consequence of this immense rise in the value of agricultural produce, land rose at first about 60 per cent.; next, the original rents were doubled; and latterly, as we are informed by Mr. Wilson, the rule, according to which land was let in some parts of Scotland, was to demand 23 of the old rent to axolod to be 10 1910 Had we continued at war, and in the isolated state from the rest of Europe into which the war had brought us, we might have continued, with present safety to the country at large, this artificial system in our home relations, and without any inconvenience to individuals, except perhaps to the money annuitant; for it must be extremely obvious that, in the long run, it will be quite the same thing whether a quarter of wheat sells for 40 or for 140s. provided labour of all kinds be paid for in the same proportion; and in fact, prior to the peace, things had so far advanced towards this equilibrium that the land-owner was beginning to be convinced that he was no richer with his newds rent-roll than he had formerly been with one not above half its s amount. All great and sudden changes in the value of the circu-to lating medium are no doubt prejudicial in the mean time to several classes of the community; and we agree with Mr. Malthus 2 that it is an error of the most serious magnitude to suppose that t any natural or artificial causes, which shall raise or lower the la values of corn or silver, are to be considered as matters of indiffer ence. Still, is very clear, that the evil attending all such changes w is only great in proportion to the suddenress with which they takesta place, and that after the values of corn and silver are again o ascertained and established, things will go on as they did before,q at least as s far as the internal nal relations of any particular countryst are concerned. The great difficulty consists in coming back to to the old standard, should a retrogade movement become necessary, and more especially in renewing or keeping up a commercialem intercourse with countries, where the prices of food and laboureda nevop to walu have not been raised. And this is precisely our situation at the present moment. Since the peace, the wall of brass no longer exists which kept us in and held our neighbours out; the traffic of Europe is no longer exclusively in our hands; our merchants are already encountering rivals in every department of commerce, and our manufacturers are about to be opposed by a spirited competition in every continental market. vd botelugey bas In such circumstances there are only two lines of policy which can be pursued, one of which we must of course adopt. Either we must, by means of corn laws and other restrictive measures, keep up the price of agricultural produce, and consequently the high rates of manufactured commodities, and the high price of labour; that is, we must adhere to the war system of a depreciated currency, and sacrifice to the apparent advantages of that system our pre-eminence as a manufacturing and commercial people; or, on the other hand, we must repeal or greatly modify the corn laws, come down considerably nearer to the common standard of Europe, in respect of prices and the value of money, and thus protect our trade at the expense, or at least, the temporary inconvenience, of the landed interest. In short, we must expose to an unequal and hazardous competition either the manufacturer or, d the agriculturist; for it is impossible that we can maintain a successful intercourse with the rest of Europe, in the way of trades on a scale of prices for food and labour so very different t from theirs; and it is equally impossible that, with the present d charges for rent, wages, and taxes, corn could be raised and sold in Great Britain so as to meet, with any chance of success, the competition of the foreign grower. We omit at present the political considerations upon which Mr. McCulloch recommends d the latter of the two systems mentioned above; a return to the or ancient standard of prices; a lowering of rente, of wages, and of taxes; and, in short, of taxes; and, in short, a replacement of ourselves, as far astel may be in the condition wherein we stood prior to the war. Suffice it to observe in the mean time, it is upon the supposition that this line of policy shall be actually adopted, that his wholes plan of relief proceeds in relation to our financial difficulties. In the circumstances now contemplated the value of money s would no doubt be greatly raised, compared with the depreciated state of it which ensued upon the Bank Restriction act, and i continued to the end of the war; and as a very considerable 28 proportion of the national debt was contracted subsequently to e the former period, and, of course, during the depreciated states of the currency, Mr. McCulloch recommends that the public t creditor should not, in the improved condition of the circulating s medium, be paid the full legal interest, or 5 per cent.; but, on a the contrary, that a calculation should be made, by a reference |