Lord Derby, in a speech at Liverpool on Tuesday, expressed
some apprehension as to the future of national bondholders. He said Europe now owed £1,000,000,000 sterling,—that is, she paid £160,000,000 a year " to the descendants of her creditors." She must either pay her debts or repudiate them ; and while he trusted that Britain would be honest, he evidently apprehended that the Continent would repudiate, and was urgent in his advice that this country, and especially the local bodies, should borrow less. We have always felt a doubt as to the safety of these great local loans, and thought Manchester wise in selling life annuities, even at extravagant rates ; but we are not sure about the National Debts. They are held on the Con- tinent by the men who hold the bayonets ; and it is ques- tionable if repudiation would bring even temporary relief. The destruction of all credit, all banks, and the whole saving class, would bring on frightful social misery.
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