NATIONAL CALLERY. 



NATIONAL (lAI.LEKY. 



S90 



war occasioned an expenditure that created * loan for 20,000,0001. ; 

 and the suppression of the rebellion in India, though the loan occa- 

 siuoed by that war was charged on the Indian revenue, hat prevented 

 any further diminution. The unredeeoied funded and unfunded debt 

 which existed on March SI, 1857, and the annual charge thereon, were 

 M follows : 



Annual 



Interest. 







74,833 

 ll.8ii.0il 

 3,!93,524 

 6,194,201 

 330,153 

 6,426 



New annuities 

 l"onolidtetl aanuitie* 

 KrJuerJ annuilus . 

 New annuities . . 

 Debt to Bank of England 

 New annoitlM . 



Rate of 

 Interest. 



1J 



3 

 3 

 3 

 3 



Amount. 







2,993,331 

 393,008,383 

 113,817,476 

 213.M3.I13 

 11,013,100 

 240,746 

 431,124 



II, i I 



Total permanent debt . 736,009,272 35,075,130 

 The unfunded terminable annuities were 



For life 9,084,553 1,030,850 



For terms or j- can . . . 2,710,12i 867,490 



laog annuities (expired I860) 3,008,922 1,150,744 



Annuities (expire 1807) . . 4,906,417 i85,740 



(expire 1885) . 2,059,810 116,000 



Tontine and Exchequer f English 161,718 15,639 



life annuities. (Irish 195,766 26/84 



Exchequer bonda ... 2} 418,300 11,503 



Total terminable debt . 23,445,341 3,810,056 



The Irish permanent debt was 43,692,1 451.; the terminable debt 

 517,2007., and the total amount of interest payable was 1,526,7931. 

 The total funded debt of the United Kingdom was 7 79,701, 41 7/., the 

 unfunded debt, 24,032,541/. In 1859 the funded debt hod increased 

 to 805,078,551V., and the interest to 28,204,2991. 



The diminution of the annual burden in the course of twenty -three 

 yean, from 1S16 to 1839, was 3,150,7107., at which rate the total 

 extinction of the debt would not have been effected until the year 

 2053. The alow progress made iu this direction stands in striking 

 contrast to the rapidity with which the load waa accumulated, the 

 entire diminution effected during twenty-three years of peace being 

 scarcely equal to the additions mode during some of the individual 

 Jttn of the war. 



In companion with the debt entailed upon the British nation !> .-ill 

 previous wars, the war of the French revolution, coating, in ml 

 to a Tart amount of current taxation, a permanent debt of six h 

 millions, may be regarded, in it* pecuniary sacrifices, the most fatal 

 contest in which a great nation was ever engaged ; but if considered as 

 struggle for national existence, the cost may be thought not 

 portiunate to the object gained. Of the necessity for that war, there 

 are very opposite views, into a discussion of which it is not our 

 business here to enter. 



From 1816 to 1854, thirty-eight years of peace had reduced the 

 capital of the debt seventy-seven millions. Two years of war lifted it 

 up thirty -eight millions ; again to be slightly reduced when the short 

 but expensive contest with Russia was at an end. The vast increase of 

 capital and population since the beginning of the century makes the 

 interest of the debt, enormous as it is, fall lighter upon individuals. 

 Hon. -lily estimated, the debt of 1801, whose interest amounted to 

 twenty millions, was a burden of 21. per head upon each of tin- p. ,pn- 

 lation of Great Britain. In 1800, the debt, whose interest amonnU to 

 twenty-ei^ht millions, ii a burden upon each of the British pop 

 of I/. 4*. per head. 



We have constructed a table, out of the official abstract, \\hii-h will 

 demonstrate, beyond the possibility of cavil, that the vast n 

 debt of this country has been created by its war.<. It is not fin 

 argue for or against the necessity for those wars. It may bo certain 

 that they could not have been carried on by laying the load "ft 

 upon the existing tax-payers, at their commencement, or ilurin:; their 

 continuance ; but it is equally certain that the power of bui 

 posterity may be a very dangerous power, liable to plunge a nation 

 into unjust and unnecessary quarrels ; and, carried to excess, imposing 

 a perpetual load upon every exercise of productive industry. The 

 demands upon that industry to repair the natural consumption re- 

 quired for the ordinary wants of man is unceasing. Prod 

 however large, can with difficulty keep pace with the extraordinary 

 waste of war. The war expenditure from 1793 to 1815 was upon so 

 enormous a scale, that the total amount paid and expended in one 

 year had risen from 19,859,1237. in 1792, to 92,280,1807. in 1815. with 

 about 35 millions extra in the two years of 1813 and 1814. Without 

 the facility of borrowing, this vast amount could not have been 

 r.iised. Whatever may be our political views, we may theivi'. .p- 

 unite in the conclusion that a national debt may be a good servant 

 in times of extreme need, but a bad master if its aid be habitually 

 invoked. 



It will be Men, on comparing the above statements for 1815 and 1857, 

 that the terminable annuities have increased from 1,894,0127. to 

 8,810,6237., equal to an estimated capital of 23,445,3417. A part of 

 the terminable annuities expired in 1860, and after that time other 

 portions will fall in ; so that without looking to any redemption of 

 debt from surplus income, or to any further reductions in the rate of 

 interest, the next twenty-eight years will be productive of btill further 

 relief. 



The functions intrusted to the Bank of England with reference to 

 the National Debt do not extend to the transaction of any matter 

 connected with its reduction. Such business is placed under the 

 control of a body of commissioners, who act ex njKriu under the pro- 

 visions of an act of parliament. Thin board is composed of the speaker 

 of the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the 

 accountant-general of the Court of Chancery, and the governor and 

 deputy governor of the Bank of England. The greater part of these 

 commiMioners do not take any port in the management of the business, 

 the details of which are attended to by permanent officers, namely, a 

 secretary and comptroller-general, and an actuary, with an adequate 

 aUl/lihment of auisUnU and clerks : the ultimate control is exercised 

 by the chancellor of the exchequer for the time being, assisted by the 

 governor and deputy governor of the Bank of England. 



NATIONAL UALLEKY. The credit of founding a National 

 Gallery of painting* u due to the government of Lord Liverpool. 

 OfUn as the importance of such a gallery had bacon urged, it was not 

 till 1823 that the intention was seriously entertained by the govern- 



ment The subject waa in that year first formally brought before 

 parliament by the Hon. George Agar Ellis, afterwards Lord Dover, but 

 the merit of the suggestion is ascribed to the king, Oeorge IV. It was 

 announced that Sir Oeorge Beaumont, one of the most influential art- 

 patrons of the day, was willing to present the more valuable portion of 

 his own collection to the nation as soon ai it should bo decided to 

 commence the formation of a national gallery ; that a favourable oppor 

 tunity ottered for the purchasing another choice collection; and that 

 the two would together form an excellent nucleus for a great public 

 gallery. Parliament approving, Mr. Angerstein's c< ! pur- 



chased for 57,<><>ip/ , anil the purchase, with the addition of :i.otid/. for 

 the expenses of the establishment, was sanctioned by the usual vote in 

 April 1824. 



By a Treasury Minute of the following July, a committee 

 trustees was appointed the superintending body over the gallery ; the 

 active management being intrusted to a keeper, under whom was an 

 assistant keeper and secretary ; and this, with slight im.dili.ut ii.n, mn- 

 tinned to be the arrangement until the reconstitutiou of the gallery in 

 1855. 



The Angerstein collection was opened to public inspection at Mr. 

 Angerstein's house in Pall Mall on the 10th of May, 1824. Sir < 

 Beaumont's pictures were not added till somewhat more than 

 later. The Angerstein collection consisted of 38 pictures, of which '2'J 

 were by the old masters, and 9 by British painters. The purchase wai 

 in every respect an admirable one. Most of tho pictures were of a 

 I high class, unquestionably authentic, and of a kind to secure the public 



