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mSTOEY OE ENGLAND.

cn.\p. government would be in possession of the lamp of Aladdin or of—the purse of Fortunatus. It was in truth a gigantic, a fabulousdebt; and we can hardly wonder that the cry of despair shouldhave been louder than ever. But again that cry was found tohave been as unreasonable as ever. After a few years of ex-haustion, England recovered herself. Yet, like Addison’svaletudinarian, who continued to whimper that he was dying ofconsumption till he became so fat that he was shamed intosilence, she went on complaining that she was sunk in povertytill her wealth showed itself by tokens which made her com-plaints ridiculous. The beggared, the bankrupt society notonly proved able to meet all its obligations, but, while meetingthose obligations, grew richer and richer so fast that the growthcould almost be discerned by the eye. In every county, we sawwastes recently turned into gardens: in every city, we saw newstreets, and squares, and markets, more brilliant lamps, moreabundant supplies of water: in the suburbs of every great seatof industry, we saw villas multiplying fast, each embosomed inits gay little paradise of lilacs and roses. While shallow po-liticians were repeating that the energies of the people wereborne down by the weight of the public burdens, the firstjourney w r as performed by steam on a railway. Soon the islandwas intersected by railways. A sum exceeding the wholeamount of the national debt at the end of the American warwas, in a few years, voluntarily expended by this ruined peoplein viaducts, tunnels, embankments, bridges, stations, engines.Meanwhile taxation was almost constantly becoming lighterand lighter: yet still the Exchequer was full. It may be nowaffirmed without fear of contradiction that we find it as easy topay the interest of eight hundred millions as our ancestorsfound it, a century ago, to pay the interest of eighty millions.

It can hardly be doubted that there must have been somegreat fallacy in the notions of those who uttered and of those