22 DECEMBER 1866, Page 2

These 'accounts sufficiently show that the boasting about a reduction

of the debt by 40,000,0001. in last year was a mistake. It is true that the debt 'has been nominally reduced by that arriount between August, 1865, and October, 1866, about fourteen mtitiths, but then the debt was used to pay off itself. In other words, too much had beenborrowed, and some of it was paid back without being used. The earplug of the two years together will not, ace-coding to Mr. leleCulloch's own estimate, amount to quite 40,000,0001., that is to less than 20,000,000/. a year. In future, Mr. McCulloch does not even propose to devote more than from 10,000,0001. to 12,000,000 annually to paying off the debt.