NATIONAL DEBT.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 339, 18 January 1861, Page 3

NATIONAL DEBT.

Whatever be the faults of the American government, it cannot be said that extravagance is one of them. The minister of the Exchequer is not called on to devise schemes of taxation to make both ends meet. liis only difficulty is a very strange one; it is what to do with the money in the public treasury! In 1853 the entire expenditure of the government of the United States was 54,000,000, and its receipts were 61,000,000 of dollais. By accumulated balances there was at the same time on hand the sum of 75,000,000 of dollars; and how this money should be disposed of was a matter of serious concern. To be sure there was a debtof 65,000,000 of dollars; but it was at a high premium, and by a sacrifice it could easily have been discharged. Portions of the debt were indeed being paid off when opportunities offered, and in a few years the whole will he extingushed without impairing the balance. At present a variety of schemes are on foot for disposing of this unfortunate overplus. All intelligent individuals of course see that the rational mode of procedure it to demolish certain branches of revenue, and so bring the draughts down to the necessary outlay. But to this there are objections on the part of the manufacturers. The Federal government levies no direct taxes on the people. Its revenue is principally from Custom House duties, which in 1853 amounted to 59,000,000 dollars. Now these duties are of a protective character. They tax the nation at large by an aggravation of prices in order to give a monopoly to certain branches of native industry; and their lemoval or considerable modification would be equivalent to free trade, which the public mind, jealous of foreign competition, is not prepared for. Meanwhile the accumulating cash in the treasury presents a dilemma of a different kind. It is universally felt to be a source of corruption and danger. Every faction is scheming to have a clutch at it. As a spare fund at command, it may induce some rash warlike expedition, or be otherwise (employed in the undue extension of the Union. A third evil connected with it is the gradual abstraction of money from circulation, in order to be locked profitlessly up in the treasury; thereby starving commerce of its proper means of support. So that if things go on as they are doing the curious conjuncture may come about of all the available money finding its way into the national exchequer, where it is not wanted, and trade accordingly being brought to a stand. Any way it can be viewed the accumulation is considered to be most pernicious in its effects both as regards administrative policy and social well-being; and the gravest politicians admit that, in comparison with the evils of the present system, an annual deficit would be v> national blessing. After all, there would seem to be worse things than a national debt.— William Chambers.