THE NATIONAL DEBT.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 85, 31 March 1883, Page 3

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

A Home pnpor, in an article headed "The National Debt in Gold and silver — in Weight find Length.'" says : — Its weight in cod would be 6282 tons ; in silvnr, 120,000 tons ; its transport in gold would require 2G ships of 250 tons each ; 12,58 i horse carts, each carrying halt a ton, and forming a procession of 25 miles in length, or 281,869 soldiers, each carrying 50 lbs; ia sovereigns, piled one upon another, they would be 710 miles in height: laving them side by side and touching each other, they would form a chain of gold of 11,048 miles in length, or nearly twice the circumference of the moon ; the same amount in one pound notes, sewed together, wou'd carpet a turnpike road 4-ofeet broad and 1040 miles long, or iro.n Land's End to John O'Groat's and half way back again ; if sewed together end to "end, they would form a baudage reaching four tim^s round the world, or sixteen times round the moon ; divide the debt equally among the inhabitants of the world, and each person, man, woman, or child of every color, would receive as their share IGs. It would require 476 ships of 200 tons each to transport it in silver from M* xico (provided the mines in that country could furnish it), and after reaching Kngland 240,000 onehorse carts, carrying half a ton each, mtikins: a procession of 677 miles long, or 5,000,000 ot men carryhg OOlhs each, to deposit it in the vaults, prior to its usp tor the redemption of out standing pledges.