Show FINANCES OF GREAT BRITAIN having a statistical turn of mind be interested in the following figures relative to the public debt of great britain which are am furnished f ur dished by the london times ames it appears that every man nian woman and child in the united kingdom owes over 85 the debt of great britain to is about double that of the united states and to is more than three times the atrio amount per capita A parliamentary return has just been issued showing at the dose close of af caf al A l each financial year from 1836 to 1889 the aggregate gross liabilities of the state as represented by the nominal funded debt the estimated capital value of terminable annuities the debt and other liabilities lit in respect of debt together with the estimated assets and the aggregate net liabilities and exchequer balances the return also gives the gross and net expenditure charged on the consolidated fund on account of the national debt and other payments pay menta in respect of debt for the ame period ier iod the return as s a continuation of the return which sir W harcourt obtained in 1887 at the close of the financial year ended the ath of january 1836 the national debt or as it is officially described the aggregate net liabilities of the state including the nominal amount of funded debt the estimated value of terminal annuities computed in 8 per cent stock at par and the debt amounted to in the following year it was reduced by about but in 1838 it stood at five millions less and a gradual decrease of from a million to four millions a year is visible down to 1853 when for the first time during the present reign the debt was brought be low MOO the actual figures on the fifth of Jar january uary in that year being in 1854 it had diminished by nearly ten millions the amount being calculated in that year to the fifth of april but in the financial year ended the thirty first of march 1855 the outbreak of the crimean war sent it up ten million 1 and in the following year it increased by a further to a total of while in 1857 the year of the indian mutiny another was tided after this year however our finances began to improve and although at first it was only gradual yet each year a substantial diminution of af the debt was effected in 1858 it was reduced by four millions and in each of the two following years it became five millions less but in 1861 the year in which the revenue estimate of the year was the largest on record up to that time the debt increased from to and in the fol following towing year it was only reduced from the latter figure by about during the next four years ye ars however the debt diminished substantially each year and in 1866 the year of the great commercial panic curiously enough when the bank rate was raised to nine per cent cem it was reduced by no less than nine millions million the largest reduction in one year during the present reign and was once mo more re brought below millions the figure being since this year nothing abnormal has occurred with the exception of one year 1869 when the abassian Abys sian war which coat coa absorbed the whole of the surplus revenue except some gome the debt has been regu barly reduced every year until the sent year when to mr goschen to ia due the credit of bringing it for the first time for many years below millions the total amount of tie te t debt at the close of the last fiscal year was aa or nearly millions less than it was at the commencement commencement of 4 the present reign the same return also gives an exhaustive hau bau stive cash account showing the total issues out of t the h e consolita consolida con consolidated solida fund for the annual service of the debt in other words its annual cost coal for interest and management and two this shows that while the charge in 1836 was this year it is only or three millions less lem lit 1 when we reflect upon the foregoing 4 U figures and in connect connection loh 1 with them consider the conditi condition oll of the bulk of the population odthe of the united kingdom and the prospects pro of a european war we may wen doubt the immediate liquidation of the liabilities of queen victoria Victor laps country what grinding of and ami suffering among the poor the payment of such public debts men means nis in countries which have no lands for sale nor other undeveloped ra sources as we have cannot be computed and it would seem that one of the consequences that must follow a european war involving any of the leading powers must be national bankruptcy the repudiation of governmental obligations and the consequent financial ruin rain of all whose means are invested in vested in that class of securities 1 A |