It is to be wished that Chancellors of the Exchequer
would sometimes remember the exceeding ignorance of other people. Mr. Lowe is going to borrow the Permanent Suitors' deposit in the Court of Chancery, of about 2.56,000,000, at 2 per cent., and make it yield the State 3. The advantage of that process to the country is clear, but Mr. Lowe is going to do something else, and we have not the smallest tsidea what it is. That may be very stupid, but on a point of the kind the probability is that if, after careful study, we do not understand the operation, the average Member of Parliament will not under- stand it either. We extract the words from the Times' report :—" We propose to invest this money in the purchase of stock, and to convert that stock into terminable annuities of ex- actly the same value: The surplus of the yearly annuities, after payment of the interest due to suitors, will be re-invested in fresh stock, which will again be converted into terminable annuities. By this means we hope td convert at the exact value a large por- tion of stock into terminable annuities, and thus in time make a sensible impression upon the National Debt."
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