NATIONAL DEBTS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 862, 16 September 1871, Page 3

NATIONAL DEBTS.

At a moment when Mr Lowe's rigid economy is clamouring for a larger Budget than has yet been granted by a British Parliament, taxpayers should clearly understand to what degree the present national liabilities contrast with those of other countries, and judge how far Mr Lowe, who would increase them, is fitted to free the country from its burden. There is no lack of sage economists who regard a monster debt as a legitimate source of pride just as .they look upon a monster ship or metropolis. Have we not, again, Mr Disraeli, to whom our National Debt is a " mere fleabite ?" To these reasoners our nine hundred and sixty-three millions of debt ring bravely, to the tune of "Eule Britannia." To them the Financial Secretary must seem an apostle—if not a saviour; but the mass of the people have their creeds and convictions. It is difficult to twist the common sense of common folk to oblique vision and paradoxical theories. They may maintain for many generations that debt cannot constitute wealth; that the nation which owes most cannot justly boast of the best

financial position. The fact that out of the fifty-two civilised Btates and colonies, there are but three—Servia, Bolivia and Siberia —which are wholly free from liabilities, would doubtless do little in itself to bear out these commonplace pleaders in their opinions. But the example of the great German Empire is of heavier weight, and is wholly on their side. It proves a fact that should need no proof to honest thinkers; that a great nation needs no gigantic debt to be prosperous and secure; that it is great in spite, and not because, of its burden. Just issuing from the fiercest and most costly war in the memory of living man, the German nation is to all intents and purposes untrammelled by any pecuniary bond whatever. More than this, it will shortly be in a position to lower the present rate of taxation, which is by no means high; and to conserve a surplus sum, for use in future wars or other emergencies. In 1873 the whole of the states now comprising the German Empire, owed no more than £170,900,000, which in eluded the debts incurred by the Confederation in 1867, and those of last Jul} and December. But the German statesmen have expended their borrowed wealth with a wisdom which we have seldom imitated. Nearly a third of the sums borrowed have been laid out in railways and public works'; and thus made to yield a percentage in lieu of involving an annual expense. In Prussia, for instance, the profit proceeding from railways and the public mines is equal to the interest of the National Debt. The part of the debt which brings in no profit—the English part, in short—will be removed by the indemnities exacted in France. In proportion as the wealth of our probable enemies increases, that of our only ally is ebbing and waning. The £550,000,000 owed by France fn 1870, will very probably swell to £1,000,000,000, when she shall have paid the cost of her defeat. If we compare our own position with that of the two great nations of Europe we connot but consider it beneath both—having neither the disadvantage of the one, nor the excuse of the other. France, our inferior in manufacturing and industrial wealth—inferior, too, in the respect of having sustained a great defeat, is hampered with a debt that exceeds our own by an unimportant sum; Germany, after paying the cost of victory, and suffering the throes of a new international organisation—has no debt whatever! In addition to those two nations—the only European competitors to be feared—the United States have eclipsed us in tho matter of a National Debt; and have thus an augmented chance of eclipsing us in other fields. Mr Baxter says : "The people of the United States have taken up the idea of paying off their debt with the pertinacity with which they embrace all ideas tending to the greatness of their nation, and they are aided by an extraordinary rate of national development that will diminish the pressure of debt at double, and soon at treble, the diminution of that of England."

Thus the German Empire and the United States will, in future, be the two industrial rivals of England. The taxpayers of the country should force the question upon Mr Lowe : Is it right to enter into competition with a heavier burden than our adversaries ? Will such measures as he has lately put forth raise the people to an equality of prosperity with Germany and America ?