It Is The Old Story Of The Tailor Who Calls With His
Little Account, And Draws On His Insolvent Debtor
At ninety days.
If the insolvent debtor be not utterly gone as regards solvency he
will take up the bill
When due, even though he may not be able to
pay a simple debt. But, then, if he be utterly insolvent, he can do
neither the one nor the other! The Secretary of the Treasury, when
he asked for permission to accept these bills - or to issue these
certificates, as he calls them - acknowledged to pressing debts of
over five millions sterling which he could not pay; and to further
debts of eight millions which he could not pay, but which he termed
floating; debts, if I understand him, which were not as yet quite
pressing. Now I imagine that to be a lamentable condition for any
Chancellor of an Exchequer - especially as a confession is at the
same time made that no advantageous borrowing is to be done under
the existing circumstances. When a Chancellor of the Exchequer
confesses that he cannot borrow on advantageous terms, the terms
within his reach must be very bad indeed. This position is indeed a
sad one, and at any rate justifies me in stating that the immediate
want of funds is severely felt.
But the very arguments which have been used to prove that the
country will be ultimately crushed by the debt, are those which I
should use to prove that it will not be crushed.
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