THE BRITISH DEBT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 177, 26 May 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BRITISH DEBT.

Discussing the ability of (!reat liritain to pay its debts, principal and interest, H. H. Suplee, writing to the Xew Y'ork "Times," quotes Maeaulay, the Uritish historian, un some long past results of large British borrowing, '"fcucii (the borrowing in IGH2 of £1.000.000 to pay the expenses of wars with Louis XIV.) was the origin oi that debt which has since become the greatest prodigy that ever per plexed the sagacity and confounded the pride of statesmen :ind philosophers. At every stage in the growth of that debt the nation has set up the same cry of anguish and despair. At every stage in the growth or thai debt it has been seriously asserted by wi::e men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand. Yet still the debt went, on growing; and still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote as eve:-.

"if the most enlightened man had been told in 171*2 that in 181 a tno. interest on eight hundred millions would be duly paid to the day at the b.'ink, ho would have been as hard of belief as if he had teen told that Government would be in possession of the lamp of Aladdin or of the purse of FortunatUH. It. was, in truth, a gigantic, a fabulous debt; and we, can hardly wonder that the cry of despair should have been lender than ever. But again that crywas found to have been as unreasonable as ever. After a few years of exhaustion Euglnnd recovered herself. Yet, like .Addison's valetudinarian, who continued to whimper that he was dying of consumption till he became so fat that he was shamed into silence, she went on complaining that she was sunk in poverty till her wealth showed itself by tokens which made her complaints ridiculous. The beggared, the bankrupt society cot only proved able to meet all its obligations, but while meeting these obligations grew richer and richer so fast that the growth could almost be discerned by the eye. I.u every country we saw wastes recently turned into gardens: in every city ivc saw new ttreets, 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 'embosomed In its gay little paradise of lilacs and roses. While shallow politicians were repeating that the energies of the people were be'ng borne down by the weight of the public burdens, the first journey was performed by steam on a railway. Soon the island was intersected 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 on viaducts-, tunnels, embankments, bridges, stations, engines. Meanwhilo taxation was constantly becoming lighter land lighter; yet still the exchequer was full. It may now be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that we find it as easy to pay the interest of eip.ht hundred millions as cur ancestors found it a iontur> ag< to pay the interest of eUfy millions. " it can hardly U' doubted that there must iu>- I'een some great fallacy in the not : "■••.- of those who u'.tered and of ■.' <re wfci believed Uri« loin; suceess'en ci confident predictions so s'.;-v.!'\ •"alsiliecl by a \~> ;- Et'cccrsion n r < fcputarle iarts. n> point cut tba; laliary is the office - !' the historian I< r e it is sutneient to say that the nice, ets ot evil »■«••> undo/ i clou'. l : d- iitsicn. They wlonuous j- mi •.-.•: • tit:;' tncre was an ssact a.i'"..'y L;e'.». - en the case of an indivi 1 ill 'Alio =• ';i den; to auothei If.iividu::! and tie <: - c of a soi ietj which is r dolt •• •. part of itseli'; fiid this ruu'logy I'd them Into emless m s*aives :. >. it the system ;>'' fending. 'J 'if-y v.fre under un error iot less ForiG" :: i unfiling the r•resource o r Vo » u ntry. They made no allowance Icr the effect proauced by the incessant progress of ever) experimental science and by tr.p incessant efforts of every man to get on in life. They saw that the debt grew, and they forgot that othc things grew as well rs the ueot. "A long experience justifies us in believing that England may, in the twent eth century, he better able to pay a debt of sixteen hundred millions than she ia at the present time able to bear her present, load. Bat be this as it may. those who so confidently predicted that she must sink fust under a debt of fifty millions, 11:e;i under a debt of eighty millions, then under a debt of a hundred and forty millions, then under a debt of two hundred and forty millions, and lastly under a debt of eight hundred millions, were beyond all doubt under a twofold mistake. They greatly overrated the pressure of the burden; they greatly underated the strength by which the burden was to be borne."