London, Thursday, April 8...
The Etoile of Monday, received yesterday, of which we present an abstract in our journal of to-day, contains mat- ter of considerable importance. First, the project of the law for reducing the interest of the public debt; and next, the addresses of the two Charmbers in answer to the opening speech. The interest of the public debt is to be reduced nomi- nally to 3 per cent., but with such advantages to the holder in the first acquisition of the new stock, that the interest upon his capital wi]l amount to 4 per ceDt.-that is, the creditor may either accept of repayment, or be may receive 3 per cent. hereafter, upon a new stock placed to his account at 75 for every 100. The Government, of course, will derive from this measure, not immediately, but (At the latest) from the 1st of January, 1826, a diminution of one-fifth of the interest payable on the. whole public debt. But when 'we find that the debt so to be reduced, only amounts to 197,014,892 of rentes, we say, happy France in this respect, and perverse legislators of England, who struggle in every possible way against honest retrenchment. The exposition of the Minister of the In- terior contains a general proposition, which, obvious as it may seem when offered to the human understanding, never appeared to occur at the period when loans were makin6' That proposition is, that the interest of a public debt miy it any time be reduced to the rate at which the improved ,redit of the State shall enable it to borrow money afresh. & Ministry may be perplexed by the magnitude and com- ?lexity of a financial operation; but if, in a precarious ttate of affairs, we had contracted a debt, paying ten per zent. at present, and we could now raise money at one per sent., to this latter rate of interest could we forthwith e luce the debt. With respect to the complimentaty addresses to the Kixr, by the two Chambers, it is amusing to observe how little the language of flattery can vary. It seems to have cxhaatt. ed all its resources in the obsequious homage offered to- BUOXArARTE on his many and splendid victories; and swr- vility can now do no more than dress up afresh for the King of FntNcE and t'he puissant son of his love, on ac- count of their conquest of Spain, the old laures which it had presented to the conqueror of Austerliiz, of Jena, and of iMarengo. Let it damp the ardour for humn apn plause in future conquerors to know, that db *hgt they may, they cannot be praised in a more adulatory strain than- the Duke of Awr.OULEME has been extolled for. the-late. contemptible expedition into the Peninsula.,: The -hamw- ber of Peers say-" Never triuph was ore complete, " never enterprise so glorious, or iich ha dofso zliucb "good to the world, so much honour to h anit. The: Deputies, in like atraiu-c To aeeompliuh;. thce; hugh "achiiveuients* there Sa nieed bQtb QfIhak q7XD oteX aAmirabMe tot itS tiscipline than its vajoilr, and of thlat "Prince whom tlhis grand proof has entirely displayed to " the country of which he is the pride and the hope." Are they men, we ask, who thus write or speak? The KING in his reply to the Deputies, chanting in their chorus the praises of the Duke of AtGOULarE, says also- "Yes, Providence has visibly protected us; and if I " wished for any other proof, I should find it, in the com- " position of the Chamber now before me." Indeed ! It is an odd Providence though, an't please your Majesty, that hasp ad any thing to do in the last election of the Chamber-that Rrovidence which for wise purposes per- mits, btt does not operate evil. Your iMajesty's Ministers are the providence that has had the making of the Cham- ber; and looking before you, it is the work of their hands whlih you perceive, not the result of the free cheice of your peo,ple. ?'lbe Minister CORBanEEs has already laid before the Chamnber of Peers the plan for rendering the Lower Cham- her septennial; and M. DAM.AS a plan for recruiting the army at the rate of 60,000 men, instead of 40,000 a year; thus making the peace establishment of France consist of `5,O0o soldiersI LONDON. THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1824.