The amount of the national debt unre deemed on the 5th of January, 1816, was stated to be as follows in the fourth Report of the select committee of the House of Commons on public income and expendi ture :— 3 per cent. stock . £580,916,019 3i 1, 10,740,013 4 PY 75,725,504 5 PP 148,930,403 -- Perpetual annuities 816,311,939 Terminable annuities, 1,894.6121., equal to an estimated capital of 30,080,347 Unfunded debt . . 38,794,038 Total of unredeemed debt . . . . £885,186,324 The annual charge upon which was :— Interest upon perpetual an nuities . . . . £28,278,919 Terminable annuities . 1,894,612 Interest on unfunded debt 1,998,937 Charge for management paid Bank of England 284,673 Total annual charge £32,457,141 Experience has now proved that the only important relief from the pressure of debt to be obtained, even during a pro found and long-continued peace, will probably be derived from the lowering of the rate of interest. The price of 5 per cent. stock at the beginning of 1822 was advanced to 6 or 8 per cent. above par, and advantage was taken of this circum stance to induce the holders to exchange each 100/. of 5 per cent. annuities for 1051. of 4 per cent. annuities. On this occasion 140,250,828/. of 5 per cent. stock was cancelled, and 147,263,328/. of 4 per cent.. stock was created, the an nual charge being by this means reduced by the sum of 1,122,000/. In 1824 a further saving of 381,0341. per annum was effected by reducing to si per cent. the interest payable on 76,206,882/. of 4 per cent. stock; and in 1830 a further abatement of one-half per cent. was ef fected on the 4 per cent. stock created in 1822, whereby the sum of 700,000/. per annum was saved to the public.
Some little progress has been made since 1816 in the reduction of debt by the employment for that purpose of actual surplus revenue. An addition was on the other hand made to the debt by the grant of 20,000,0001. voted by parlia ment for compensation to the owners of slaves in the British colonies who were emancipated by the act of 1833. The un redeemed funded and unfunded debt which existed on the 5th January, 1845, and the annual charge thereon, were as follows : 3 per cent annuities . £519,303,960 3 J, PO248,701,379 2,630.769 5 22 433,749 -- – Perpetual annuities 771,069,858 Terminable annuities, 4,025.210/., equal to an estimated capital of 67,509,670 Unfunded debt . 18,404,500 Total of unredeemed debt £856,984,028 The annual charge upon which was:— Interest on perpetual an nuities . . • . . .£23,719,14e Terminable annuities 4,025,210 Interest on unfunded debt 552,135 Charge for management 94,886 Total charge £28,391,379 The following tables show the state of the National Debt at different periods since 1827: 1. Unredeemed Funded Debt and Ter minable Annuities in each of the follow ing years, exclusive of the loan raised for compensating the Colonial slave-holders: 1827 £777,476,892 4E2,610,754 1830 757,486,996 3,297,375 1834 743,675,299 4,028,777 1840 746,200,100 4,012,146 2. Amount and charge of the Public
Debt, supposing the Terminable Annuities were converted into equivalent Perpetual Annuities: Capital. Interest.
1827 £822,778,347 £27,085,8771830 811,278,253 25,984,893 1834 799,583,378 25,560,285 1840* 815,250,634 25,994,702 3. Funded and Unfunded Debt; also Funded and Unfunded Debt including the value in capital of the Terminable An nuities.
Funded and Debt Unfunded Debt. andAnCanPiuresised. 1827 £805,023,742 £850,325,198 1830 784,758.646 838,549,903 1834 773,201,900 829,109,978 1840 788,642,775 837,521,684 1845 789,474,358 856,984,028 4. Annual Interest of the Unredeemed Funded Debt.
1827 £25,500,326 1830 24,102,200 1834 23,603,502 1840 24,283,940 1845 23,719,148 The diminution of the annual burthen in the course of twenty-three years, from 1816 to 1839, was 3,150,7101., at which rate the total extinction of the debt would not be effected until the year 2053. The slow progress made in this direction stands in striking contrast to the rapidity with which the load was accumulated, the en tire diminution effected during twenty three years of peace being scarcely equal to the additions made during some of the individual years of the war. In 1844 a portion of the National Debt which amounted to 248,701,3791. on which 34 per cent. was paid, was converted into a per cent, stock. This rate of interest is guaranteed until 1854, after which pe riod 3 per cent, interest is guaranteed for twenty years. The immediate saving amounted to 625,000/. per annum. After 1854, the annual saving will amount to 1,250,000/.
It will be seen on comparing the above statements for 1815 and 1845, that the terminable annuities increased from 1,894,6121. to 4,025,2101. By the act 48 Geo. III. and several subsequent acts, the commissioners for the reduction of the National Debt were empowered to grant annuities, either for lives or for certain terms of years, the payment for such an nuities being made in equivalent portions of permanent annuities, which were there fore to be given up and cancelled. By this course, which it will be seen has been acted upon to some extent since the peace, some future relief will be obtained at the expense of a present sacrifice. This plan, provided it be not carried so far as to in terfere with the onward progress of the country, through an overload of taxation, appears to be dictated by sound prudence. A part of the terminable annuities (1,294,1790 will expire in 1860; in 1867 a further portion amounting to 585,740/. will also expire; and after that time portions will rapidly fall in. " If," says Lord Congleton (` Financial Re form,' p. 204) "all the loans which have been raised since the beginning of the war of 1739 had been borrowed in annu ities for ninety-nine years, their extinction would already have commenced." Dr. Price observes, that an annuity for one hundred years is nearly the same in value as a perpetual annuity.