It must be kept in view, however, that from a peculiarity of phraseology, the enor mous amount of the national D. is partly fictitious, the whole sum neither having been borrowed nor being virtually due. When capitalists have advanced money, they have been content with a small percentage-3 or 3i—but they have often insisted that for each £100 advanced by them, they should have more than £100 of actual stock. If the condition of the market were such that the capitalist wanted 44 per cent, and the interest or annuity obtained by him was only 3 per cent, he would insist on having stock to the extent of :C150 for his £100. If 5 per cent interest were paid on the nominal amount of the national D., it would be a charge of more than 40 millions a year—the actual burden is between 26 and 27 millions. Such is. however, the reliance on the national credit, and the convenience of having the stocks for investment, that the stockholders are content with little more than 8 per cent interest, the right to an annuity of £3 being actually to be procured for somewhere about The literature of the country has teemed with projects for getting rid of the incnm brance of the national debt, many of which go far wide of the mark, from the supposi tion that the debt is the incumbrance. In fact, the incumbrance is in the expenditure —the sacrifice of the nation's capital which has caused the debt—i-the debt itself is merely the shape in which that loss presses, and it must press iu sonic shape. The millions have been exploded in powder and shot, and in other extravagances, and can never be recalled; all that we can do is, by industry and frugality, to make new millions, and replace the loss. Hence it is the supremest folly to suppose that the nation would profit by abolishing or wiping off the national debt—by repudiation, as it is called. Such an event would only be ruin to a large number of people who are in the position of being the nation's creditors, and would perhaps bring ill-gotten gain to a small num ber. It would be difficult to estimate precisely how such a calamity would act. In the first place, if it were seen to be in prospect, the funds would go rapidly down by the holders selling out, so that as long as the chances of stability would induce any one to buy at a very reduced price, the circle of sufferers would be, as it were, widening.
The poorest of those interested would be the chief sufferers in the awful scramble. The working-classes, besides any savings which they might have directly invested in the funds, would lose about 40 millions, which they have invested through savings-banks and friendly societies. Widows and unmarried women with narrow fixed incomes would be the next sufferers. It is unnecessary to go further; for the general paralysis of capital and stoppage of manufacturing industry, along with loss of national reputa tion, would be incalculably disastrous. There is no way of reducing the national debt, except by saving up through taxation from the expenditure of the country. The pro cess of reduction in this form is, however, always met by the consideration, whether the repeal of a disadvantageous tax, or the reduction of the interest of the D., is the better alternative. One thing is very clear, that from the progress of general wealth and increase of population, the national debt, assuming it to remain at its present amount, is always pressing with less and less severity on the country, and is therefore becoming more and more manageable. Sonic persons, looking at only one side of the matter, have gone the length of saying that, as a ready and safe means of investment, the national 1). is a kind of blessing; though the slightest consideration would have shown, that it can never be advantageous for the community at large to be taxed to pay interest to a limited number of individuals. Whatever be the incidence of taxation to pay the interest, now amounting in the aggregate to about £27,000,000 per annum, it is the proud boast of England that she has ever kept faith with the national creditors— never, under all her embarrassments, repudiated a farthing of her debt. As a natural consequence, the British funds are sought as a secure means of investment by people of capital in all lands. On the reduction of the D., see the article Firm.