There was a sharp discussion in the Commons on Thursday
as to the propriety of reducing the Sinking Fund by £2,000,000, Sir William Harcourt accusing the Government of "financial poltroonery" in throwing burdens upon their successors. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach replied, arguing that it was wrong to increase taxation in order to keep the redemp- tion of Debt at an unprecedentedly high level, but the debate was not serious, the country being little interested, and there was no division. There is, we fancy, no doubt that the over-rapid paying off of Debt is forcing Consols to an unnaturally high level, and that the subject as a whole should be taken up separately by the chiefs of both parties. There is something to be said yet for the utility of a moderate public Debt, which acts as a barometer of national credit, and enables the Treasury to invest with safety and without suspicion of jobbery. We regard the proposal to allow it to "widen the area of its investments" with intense suspicion. We shall have cities bought by the dozen with offers of Treasury loans at the lowest rate.
Previous page
