President Hayea's recent speech on finance, delivered in Minne- sota
on September 5th, contains some good news, both for English holders of American bonds and for all other friends of America. The President declares that in August, 1865, the Debt of the Union, including a large amount of unadjusted claims, amounted to £600,000,000. The Government has adhered, how- ever, for thirteen years to its policy of reduction, and the total Debt therefore is now £407,000,000, a decrease of nearly one- third, and the largest ever made in any country. This policy, moreover, has so increased the credit of the Union, that the Treasury has been able to " convert " much of the Debt, and the total payment for interest, which on Aug. 31, 1865, was 230,200,000 a year, is now only /19,030,000, a decrease of nearly £11,000,000 a year. Had the Income-tax been retained and the members of the Whisky Rings hanged, the reduction would have been still more rapid. Contemporaneously with this reduction, there has been an immense increase in the number of native holders of the Bonds. In 1871, at least 2160,000,000 of the Debt was held abroad, whereas at present, all but £80,000,000 is held at home. That is most satisfactory, as the Greenback and Repu- diation parties have therefore to reckon with native holders of property worth £320,000,000. It must be remembered, however, that England enjoys the highest credit in the world, though Consols are scarcely held at all in a conscious way by the body of the people.
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