"However we may differ about other things," said Mr. Seymour, "one thing all men must agree to, that there is an amount of debt which will lead to national bankruptcy. One man may fix the sum at two thousand millions, another at three, or another, perchance more sanguine, at four thousand millions; but all men, I care not what their political views may be, whether "I assert that the people of the North are as deeply interested in preserving the constitutional rights of the South, as the people of the South themselves are. You can have no peace in the land while onethird of the people feel themselves wronged, and injured, and trampled upon Suppose we spend more money, and blood, and treasure; suppose we encounter all the hazards of a prolonged war; suppose we are so fortunate-indeed so unfortunate, as to be able to subjugate the South-what then? I tell you such a peace as that is no peace in any sense of the term. Such a peace, if it be not a mockery and a snare to call it a peace, means what? That the people of the North are to maintain great armies, to send for ever their sons under one perpetual conscription to hold their bre thren of the South in subjection. "Day after day we have new theories of government put forth, and we are now invited to plunge ourselves into the bottomless pit of discussion on questions touching our Government which have been settled by eighty years' experience. We hear it said not unfrequently, that one of the ends and objects of the war must be to make this Government (that of Washington) strong, and to centralize power.... I insist upon it that the strength of this Government depends not alone upon the powers that have been given to it by the Constitution, but its strength, above all, depends upon the powers that are withheld from it by the Constitution. Why is it that this war is so strangely prolonged? Why is it, that in detriment and injury to the rights of the people, it still rolls on? You may judge for yourselves. Every man who is in favour of centralization, every man who is in favour of consolidation, finds a motive for the continuance of the war, for it is by the virtue of arms and armed force that power is consolidated and centralized at the seat of VOL. LXII.-NO, CCCLXXII. The practical deduction from all this is, that the discontented Northern States hold themselves ready to disown a debt contracted not for the purpose of serving them, but of ruining them-not to defend, but to abridge their liberties. Thus, the doctrine of Repudiation has been boldly started, under a political guise so fair-seeming, that no twitchings of the moral part of the nation will prevent the design from being carried out. A demonstration so suggestive of further disintegration rather than of fusion, is an emphatic comment on the hypocrisy of the pamphleteer, who makes 66 reunited Relight of the debt of a public," by assuming that the Northern half is the whole responsibility, and that the yoke of taxation will be borne with a willing neck. By coming to the details, even as we have them in the questionable shape of the official financial report, we shall see the grounds the Democrats have for apprehending general and inevitable insolvency at an early date. The subjoined table is declared to be a statement embracing "all ascertained and adjusted claims upon the Government, for which requisitions have been issued by the other departments all bonds, all notes, and other evidences of debt issued by the Treasury, including temporary loans and certificates of indebtedness to public creditors." to public creditors." This catalogue may seem full enough to include every possible liability; and the period to which the account is brought down is May, 1863. But a little note lurks in the neighbourhood of the statement which it is the duty of "remorseless criticism" to bring into the foreground-"The floating or unascertained debt is not given, nor can it be even approximately estimated, for at one time only the maturing claims for supplies and services are outstanding; at another, ship-building and other heavy items are under contract, with larger or smaller amounts in that sense due, that they wait only to be ascertained or settled before payment is made.' It is but fair to let Mr. Chase put this in his own soft way; but having done 48 so, the fact must be clearly perceived that these reservations invalidate the return, and suggest more than a suspicion that it is "cooked." Let the Washington financiers, however, expound their own case. Here it is, extracted from the official papers: 4 per cent. Temporary Loan, these issues will be ascertained. Mr. Chase still throws them off as fast as his presses can work; but the Government get for them only half their nominal value-a fact of which his eulogist is conveniently oblivious, when he rejoices over the circumstance that they form so large a proportion of $27,672,518 the total debt, and "bear no inte77,394,521 rest. Under these circumstances, it is hardly necessary to repeat, no 41,600 estimate except a very wide one, a mere guess, can be made of the 67,221,591 139,996,950 national burden, existing or probable. It is far more likely that Governor Seymour's three thousand millions is 394,920,956 the figure, than Mr. Chase's eleven 50,000,000 hundred millions. 1,925,300 878,450 142,761,441 64,386,400 $967,199,727 They further admit an average outlay per diem of close upon one million dollars and a quarter; so that, on their own showing, adding the amount expended since the 1st of May last, an interval, up to the last day of November, of 214 days-that is to say, about 260,000,000 dollars more-the total would now be 1,227,000,000 dollars, or, in round numbers, £245,000,000. It is probable, however, that Mr. Chase is spending at a higher rate than this, since he is paying the interest on his earlier loans by contracting fresh debt, not by the imposition of taxes. He is multiplying the debt by compound interest. The interest of the old or ante war debt only has been met, since 1861, from the ordinary revenue receipts. We cannot assume, then, still taking the Treasury account as a basis, that the debt in May next-the limit the Americans appear to have agreed in fixing as the duration of the warwill be less than fifteen hundred million dollars; and, as we have seen, Mr. Seymour has no certainty that it may not be double that total. In fact, the largest item of the account may be set down at anything. The public may have a check upon the amount of bonds and certificates issued, but they can have none on the "green-backs." It is only when the crash comes, that the extent of But it must be borne in mind, too, that the loans and bonds of the Northern States bear a much higher interest than the debt of European powers. To bring the apparent rate of interest on the debt down to 32 per cent., the Washington pamphleteer includes the debt which he considers is not bearing interest, and so strikes his average. For obvious reasons this mode of calculation must be rejected. The American loans, in fact, have been contracted at rates of interest varying from 5 to 7% per cent. The two largest sums have been only obtained at 6 and 7 per cent.; so that, as national burdens to be dealt with in the future, this gigantic pile of debt is much more serious than it looks if the total of the principal is only regarded. The average rate of interest on interest-bearing loans, in May last, is admitted to have been six per cent.; and Mr. Chase has been driven to the reckless issuing of paper, merely to escape the responsibility of raising money at so ruinous a price. The visions of the Government financiers as to the repayment of their debt of, say, ultimately £500,000,000, sterling-a low computation with £300,000,000 sterling bearing interest at six per cent., are as wild as their boastful comparisons with England, and their song of triumph over the absence of taxation. They talk of extinguishing the debt in twelve years and eight months, and at the very farthest, in twenty-one years and eleven months. It must be manifest that, even if this computation were wellgrounded, it would suppose a politi cal stability in the residuary States which there is no reason to expect. It would also require moral qualities in the American nation that they are known not to possess. The maintenance of the Federal bond in the North, with Democrat and Republican tugging in different directions, for a quarter of a century, is an improbability so great, that the world can build nothing on a hope so delusive; and it is equally an improbability that, even if the bond were preserved, the taxes would be borne by a people who have only to excite a popular clamour to get rid of them. In the first season of depression affecting the trading and operative classes, they would be swept away. But how much would require to be raised yearly? The friends of Mr. Chase say 189,500,000 dollars would carry on the Government, pay interest on the debt, and provide for its extinguishment in the period already specified. Let us see how the matter stands. The total peace expenditure was 133,000,000 dollars. With 56,500,000 dollars, therefore, the debt is to be appeased, and finally wiped off. If there were really such a surplus, no doubt a great deal could be done. But if the tax-bearing resources and willingness of the Northern States stand at the limit of 189,500,000 dollars, there will be no such remainder to apply to the purposes of the debt. There is an obvious fallacy in calculating the future expenses of the nation by the standard of former times. The American States of the North are entering upon an entirely new existence, and no one can undertake to define what its conditions and necessities will be. It is absolutely certain, however, that its expenditure will be more in keeping with European than American precedents, and we cannot see ground for assuming that the nation's resources will go on augmenting in the same ratio as in the earlier periods of the history of the United States. Not only must an army, and probably a very large one, be maintained, in order to protect an arbitrary frontier, and to prevent surprise, but that army will itself create political difficulties, and involve we know not what in the way of trouble and outlay. It may create war by a democratic insolence which there will be no proper power in a popular Executive, distracted by quadrennial contests for the Presidency, to repress. Conflicts with the South, with Canada, or of one State with another (most likely of all), will break in rudely upon the amiable and honest scheme of the men of the past for the annihilation of the National debt. All calculations as to its redemption in twelve years, or in twenty, are, in short, a delusion. Americans-the Northern nation and the Southern both-are henceforth to be saddled with a National debt from which they cannot shake themselves free, except by revolution and dishonour. The madness of the North has introduced the people of the residuary States to the permanent disgusts of grievous taxation, and imposed upon them necessities which seem to involve a radical change in their principles of Government. What the Northern America of the future may be, no American, any more than Englishman, can tell. If it continues a Republic, the modification of the Republican principle will probably be serious. The central authority will become more powerful, resting on a powerful military, and the several States, in losing their distinctive rights, will acquire a hatred of the taxation which supports their oppression. Erroneous as we regard the fabricated statements respecting the amount of indebtedness to be, we consider the political difficulties in prospect a much more serious evil than any amount of debt. It is through these, in fact, that anything like "ruin" is likely to occur. Every American who speaks dolefully of the evil time coming, however he may be staggered by Mr. Chase's necromantic finance, has the internal maladies of the body-politic mostly in view. And it is to apprehensions on this score that the low estimate we are obliged to form of the value of the resources of the Northern territory as the subject of taxation, is owing. The Western settlers have, doubtless, made a rich country of what was but a few years ago a terra incognita, and we allow all that the Federal writers say of the extent of the unoccupied fertile soil, and the minerals that underlie it. But nations will no longer be "born in a day" on the outskirts of Ameri can civilization. The attractions of the country to Europeans are seriously diminished. Time must rub out the impressions made upon the Old World, with respect to American character, before any class of persons, in large numbers, superior to the Irish cottier-tenant or smaller farmer, will deliberately resign their position in these countries, and bring their families to the wilds of the Federal border. All the chances, besides, are, that the West and North-west, instead of pouring the fruits of their labour into the lap of the Eastern States, will set up on their own account. Such language as the subjoined, therefore, occurring in the pamphlet put forth by the Washington Government, is only a less offensive sample of that insane glorification of the "eternal Union," which has blinded Americans to facts and events of a significance almost as distinct as if a heavenly messenger had announced it. "Under our greater rate of growththreefold greater in the last decade, we will not venture to say how much still greater in the next twenty years-what will be the burden of a debt of twelve or fifteen hun dred millions upon the wealth that shall spring from our mines, our fields, our workshops, and our commerce? Their acquisitions (England's) are the small profits extorted by ill-paid labour from sources limited in quantity and variety to a trifle in comparison;-ours are practically unlimited; measured, not by miles and acres, but by degrees of latitude and longitude, and varied by every shade of influence that the sun rains on civilized mankind; stored with every species of wealth that the world knows and wants; lying all along and covering the historic zone of civilization; measuring an area equal to all Europe, Russia excepted, and offering one-half of its tribute gratuitously, while with the other half it rewards industry at full fourfold the rate of profit known in the old world. "May we not now conclude that a people so situated, so circumstanced, may not only bear, but quickly discharge a debt relatively no heavier than that which they extinguished in less than a score of years, a whole generation since, with this important difference between them, that in the poverty of our national infancy the principal and the profits of our loans went away from us into foreign hands, but now we are our own creditor; having all the advantage in the liquidation of our comparatively small debt that enables England to support her immense In the language of one of their best writers and thinkers, "The money collected and expended at home, equalizes itself and acts only as a force to increase activity of circulation.' one. "This is sound doctrine. The business prosperity of the passing year is a demonstration; and we may assure ourselves that so long as, this burden rests upon us, its profits to the lenders will return to the treasury in abatement of that burden-a perpetual circulation, replenishing the treasury as the rivers feed the sea, and reflowing upon the people as the sea refreshes the land." "Ill fares the land" where statesmanship gives way to poetry, and a vulgar and boastful sentiment gilds mere recklessness with a show of patriotism, faith, and genius. The Democrat's picture of Northern America may be too dark-deepened for a political purpose-but the Republican's is wholly deceptive. It is in the highest degree heinous, as a partisan representation, entirely lacking the element of truth: it is beyond conception mischievous as prolonging a war in which rivers of blood are poured forth to no purpose, and all kindly sympathies of race, all moral considerations, and religious principles, have been trampled out, with a sanguinary fanaticism unparalleled in the history of the world. INDEX TO VOL. LXII. Actors, Irish, of the Last Century,-De- Ancient Ireland, Life and Character of, 483. BELLA DONNA; or, the Cross before the Name. A Romance. Book the Second Chap. III., The Lovesick Curate; Chap. IV., A Visitor Unlooked for; Chap. V., Jenny at Home; Chap. VI., The "Scour Valley Bill," page 101. Chap. VII., Jenny's Help; Chap. VIII., The Story of a "Fine Woman;" Chap. IX., Jenny's Persecution; Chap. X., More of Jenny's Thoughtfulness, page 168. Chap. XI., Jenny as Secretary; Chap. XII., The New Guest; Chap. XIII., A Defiance, page 287. Chap. XIV., A Surprise; Chap. XV., Jenny returns; Chap. XVI., The Party at Greyforest; Chap XVII., Jenny's reception; Chap. XVIII., The Little Exile's "Game," page 406. Chap. XIX., Jenny's Morning; Chap. XX., The Smoking-room; Chap. XXI., Jenny's Evening Work; Chap. XXII., Jenny Wins, page 536; Chaps. XXIII. to XXVIII., and Conclusion, page 656. Beranger-Lines to Passy, 56. Beyrout, a Spring Day at, 222. Cæsarean Rome, Glimpses of, 275. Catullus, Part III., with Original Translations, 67. Convict Systems, English and Irish, 112. Couple of Indian Recollections, A, 350. Crusading Days, 282. Cymric Studies in relation to English History and Literature, 243. Dancing, Irish, at the beginning of the Century, 429. Delane, Ryan, and Moody, Irish Actors, Educational Statistics, Irish, 596. Festivals, Irish, Fifty Years since, 581, Financial Position of Federal America, The, 708. Fireside Gossip about Ghosts and Fairies, 691. Fish, A Chapter on, 354. Fragments of Scandinavian Legend, 552. Great Essayist of France, The, Part II., 44. Hibernian Country Pastimes and Festivals Fifty Years since, 581. History, An Episode in English.-The Assassination of Mr. Perceval, 177. Icelandic Lore and Scenery, 459. Last Century's Irish Actors, 3. Life in China and Mantchuria, 95. Notes on Eloquence, 296. Oratory, Notes on, 296. Pagan and Early Christian Times, Old Irish Life-Pictures of, 194. Pastimes, Hibernian, Fifty Years since, 581. Pan, a Poem, 227. Pentagram, Dr., on Divers Things, 210. Perceval, Mr., Assassination of, 177. Petrarch-Sonnet, 117. To the Nightingale, 137. Political Pasquinade and Comic Literature, 363. Progress of Criticism, 158. POEMS:-Petrarch-Sonnet, 117; To the Nightingale, 137; Hawise: a Shrewsbury Legend, by Mortimer Collins, 189; Pan, 227; My Aunt's Spectre, 405; Sonnet on Shakespeare, 428; The Cedars, 499; Crusading Days, 282; The College Gate, 310; Songs of Ulster, 100 and 334; The King of Thule, 350; Beranger-Lines to Passy, 56; Translations of Catullus, 67; Petrarch-Sonnet, 94; The Gondola, 111; A Game of Chess, 700. REVIEWS:-"Les Aventures de Maitre Renart et D'Ysengrin son Compere." Paris: Techener. 1861, page 123; "Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas," by Sabine Baring - Gould, M.A., 459; "Letters from High Latitudes," being some ac |