The amount of the National Debt unredeemed 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 expenditure :— The experience of the last fifty years has proved that the only important relief from the pressure of debt to be obtained, even during a profound 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 circumstance to induce the holders to exchange each 100/. of 5 per cent. annuities for 105/. of 4 per cent. annuities. On this occasion 140,250,828/. of 5 per cent. stock was cancelled, and 147,263,3281. of 4 per 'cent. stock was created, the annual 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 34 per cent. the interest payable on 76,206,822/. of 4 per cent. stock ; and in 1830 a further abatement of one-half per cent. was effected on the 4 per cent stock created in 1822, whereby the sum of 700,000/. per annum was saved to the public.
Some progress was made after 1816 in the reduction of debt by the employment for that purpose of actual surplus revenue. An addition on the other hand was made to the public burdens by means of the grant of 20,000,000/. voted by parliament for compensation to the owners of slaves in the British colonies who were emancipated by the act of 1833. Down to the commencement of the war in the Crimea in 1854, a reduction greater or less had taken place every year, but that rar occasioned an expenditure that created a loan for 20,000,0001.; ndl the suppression of the rebellion in India, though the loan occa ioned by that war was charged on the Indian revenue, has prevented ny further diminution. The unredeemed funded and unfunded debt rhich existed on March 31, 1857, and the annual charge thereon, were a follows :— Annual Rate of Amount. Interest. Interest.
New annuities . . . 21 2,993,331 74,833 Consolidated annuities . . 3 393,068,382 11,852,031 Reduced annuities . . . 3 113,817,476 3,393,324 New annuities . . . . 3 213,143,113 6,391,293 Debt to Book of England . 3 11,015,100 330,133 New annuities . . . . at 240,746 8,426 431,124 21,336Total permanent debt £736,009,272 £22,078,136 The unfunded terminable annuities were— For life 9 981,253 1,030,836 For terms of years .. . . 2,710,123 867,490 Long annuities (expired 1860) . 3,008,922 1,136,744 Annuities (expire 1867) . . . 4,906,417 585,740 (expire 1883) . 2,039,810 116,000 Tontine and Exchequer English 101,718 13,639 life annuities. j Irish . 193,766 26,184 Fachmuer bonds . . . 21 418,300 11,303 Total terminable debt . £23,443,341 L3,810,036The Irish permanent debt was 93,692,145l.; the terminable debt i17,200/., and the total amount of interest payable was 1,526,793/. Ile total funded debt of the United Kingdom was 779,701,4171., the infunded debt, 24,032,541/. In 1859 the funded debt had increased o 805,078,5541., and the interest to 28,204,299/.
The diminution of the annual burden in the course of twenty-three rears, from 1816 to 1839, was 3,150,7101., at which rate the total ;xtinction of the debt would not have been effected until the year l053. The slow progress made iu this direction stands in striking :ontrast to the rapidity with which the load was accumulated, the ;afire diminution effected during twenty-three years of peace being equal to the additions made during some of the individual Fears of the war.
In comparison with the debt entailed upon the British nation by nil previous wars, the war of the French revolution, costing, in addition to a vast amount of current taxation, a permanent debt of six hundred millions, may be regarded, in its pecuniary sacrifices, the most fatal contest in which a great nation was ever engaged ; but if considered as a struggle for national existence, the cost may be thought not dispro portionate to the object gained. Of the necessity for that war, there
ere very opposite views, into a discussion of which it is not our business here to enter.
From 1816 to 1854, thirty-eight years of peace had reduced the capital of the debt seventy-seven millions. Two years of star lifted it up thirty-eight millions ; again to be slightly reduced when the short but expensive contest with Russia was at an end. The vast increase of capital and popuLation since the beginning of the century makes the interest of the debt, enormous as it is, fall lighter upon individuals. Roughly estimated, the debt of ISO], whose interest amounted to twenty millions, was a burden of 2/. per head upon each of the popu lation of Great Britain. In 1860, the debt, whose interest amounts to twenty-eight millions, is a burden upon each of the British population of 1/. 4s. per head.
We have constructed a table, out of the official abstract, which will demonstrate, beyond the possibility of cavil, that the vast national debt of this country has been created by its wars. It is not for us to argue for or against the necessity for those wars. It may be certain that they could not have been carried on by laying the load of taxation upon the existing tax-payers, at their commencement, or during their continuance ; but it is equally certain that the power of burdening posterity may be a very dangerous power, liable to plunge a nation into unjust and unnecessary quarrels; and, carried to excess, imposing a perpetual load upon every exercise of productive industry. The demands upon that industry to repair the natural consumption re quired for the ordinary wants of man is unceasing. Production, however large, can with difficulty keep pace with the extraordinary waste of war. The war expenditure from 1793 to 1815 was upon so enormous a scale, that the total amount paid and expended in one year had risen from 19,859,123/. in 1792, to 92,280,180/. in 1815, with about 35 millions extra in the two years of 1813 and 1S14. Without the facility of borrowing, this vast amount could not have been raised. Whatever may be our political views, we may therefore unite in the conclusion that a national debt may be a good servant in times of extreme need, but a bad master if its aid be habitually invoked.
It will be seen, on comparing the above statements for 1815 and 1857, that the terminable annuities have increased from 1,894,612/. to 3,810,6231., equal to an estimated capital of 23,945,341/. A part of the terminable annuities expired in 1860, and after that time other portions will fall in ; so that without looking to any redemption of debt, from surplus income, or to any further reductions in the rate of Interest, the next twenty-eight years will be productive of still further The functions intrusted to the ]Lank of England with reference to the National Debt do not extend to the transaction of any matter connected with its reduction. Such business is placed under the control of a body of commissioners, who act es officio under the pro visions of an act of parliament. This board Is composed of the speaker of the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the accountantsgeneral of the Court of Chancery, and the governor and deputy-governor of the Bank of England. The greater part of these commiasloners do not take any part In the management of the business, the details of which are attended to by permanent officers, namely, a secretary and comptroller-general, and an actuary, with an adequate establishment of assistants and clerks : the ultimate control is exercised by the chancellor of the exchequer for the time being, assisted by the governor and deputy-governor of the Bank of England.