sterling, had, at the accession of William the
Fourth, reached the enormous amount of
upwards of eight hundred millions, the yearly
charge on which for interest was double the
amount of the original debt of the country.
The fatal necessities of war had caused this
aggravation of our expenditure. Of the seven
hundred and seventy millions of Stock
created by loans between the years seventeen
hundred and ninety-four and eighteen
hundred and seventeen, nearly the whole had
been the consequences of the hostile attitude
of France. In one single year—that of eighteen
hundred and fourteen, in which our
greatest efforts against Napoleon had been
made—not less than ninety-three millions
were thus added to the funded debt of the
country; in the two following years an equally
gigantic amount was added.

During the early years of national loans
six per cent, was the legal rate of interest;
although in fact much more was frequently
given. We read that in sixteen hundred and
ninety-two the Government offered eight and
ten per cent, for the loan of a million, yet
could obtain but three-fourths of the required
amount. During the reign of Anne and George
the First high rates of interest were given for
the moneys required: and although such rates
have long since ceased, a practice amounting
in effect to the same thing was very common
during the late wars. It was a customary
proceeding for the Government which needed
a loan of ten millions to issue stock to the
lenders for twelve or thirteen millions, as an
inducement for them to provide the money;
hence, although only four per cent, was the
nominal interest allowed, it in fact amounted to
four-and-a-half and sometimes to five per cent.
on the sum actually raised. It is worthy of
remembrance that, in the year seventeen
hundred and ninety-six, eighteen millions
sterling were subscribed in London by way
of loan in sixteen hours, with the view of
enabling the Government to prosecute the
war with Republican France. The interest
on Exchequer Bills has always been calculated
at so much per diem; this rate has of course
varied with other stock from threepence to
three-halfpence. In eighteen hundred and
forty-seven, when the Bank raised its rate
of interest from three to eight per cent.,
Exchequer Bills stood at threepence per cent
per day.

The payment of the Dividends, or interest
on the Stock constituting the Funded Debt
of this country, has been entrusted to the
Bank of England since the year seventeen
hundred and seventeen. The Bank transacts
the Government business for a fixed annual
sum.

Austria had the honour of negotiating the
first foreign loan in this country.  So long
since as the year seventeen hundred and six
half a million sterling was raised amongst
the men of "the Alley"—short for Change
Alley—where at that time the business now
transacted in Capel Court was carried on.
This was done at eight per cent., and secured
on the Silesian revenues. The example once
set, and the influence of British gold felt
throughout the continent, other nations were
not tardy in availing themselves of our
surplus capital. The wealth that accumulated
from trade and manufactures already gigantic
as compared with other countries, the
dazzling riches that poured in from our Indian
possessions, offered a tempting prize to people
who had no such resources within themselves.
It was, however, chiefly during the present
century that the great drain upon our ways
and means to foreign countries took place.
The first French loan was negotiated in
eighteen hundred and fifteen to aid the
restored Burbons. Up to eighteen hundred
and twenty-five it appears that Denmark
eased our capitalists of about three millions
and a half; Portugal took a million and
a half; Greece a similar sum; and Russia
three millions and a half. These amounts
are, however, mere trifles to the sums
abstracted from our too credulous countrymen
by the states of the New World.

We will say nothing about Pennsylvanian
bonds and Pennsylvanian repudiation: but
will confine our remarks to transactions in the
more southern states of America. The young
governments of that vast country, although
scarcely out of their leading strings, yet
evinced a capacity for loans that would have
reflected credit on any luxurious Nabob of the
East, or magnificent despot of the old world.
As the rivers, the mountains, the animals, and
the foliage of those countries of America are
gigantic, so nature appears to have endowed
their constitution with an equally enormous
swallow for British capital. Within a
marvellously short time young Brazils took unto
itself five millions and a half sterling in the
shape of English loans. Mexico, although
scarcely on its legs, contrived the disposition
of six millions and a half; whilst the states of
Chili, Peru, Colombia, and Buenos Ayres
were modest enough to be content with the
trifle of four millions and a half amongst
them; so that, in that one south-western
direction, Capel Court has contrived to
scatter upwards of sixteen millions of the
nation's property. How much of this
enormous sum will yield any permanent interest,
is a problem we should not like to hazard a
conjecture upon: as to the principal, the
sixteen millions and odd—that will, no doubt,
be repaid about the same time that the Great
Sea Serpent is caught, or when the Flying
Dutchman succeeds in getting his letter-bag
brought home.

The accidental discovery of rich deposits
of guano on the Lobos Islands, enabled the
Peruvian government, after a long lapse, to
resume the payments of interest to their
British creditors: these islands are estimated
to continue productive for about nine years
longer, at the end of which time, unless fresh