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both together they foretell good weather, which is a fine thing in driving."

"And they were the gods of boundaries," cried the Doctor.

"And they got people out of trouble when everything seemed all over," returned the Count, "which may also happen to our phaeton."

"And-and-and "-here the Doctor's small face fairly gleamed with a joke, and he broke into a thin, high chuckle-" they ran away with two ladies-eh, eh, eh?-Did they not, did they not?"

Presently we went into the drawingroom, and there the women were found in a wild maze of maps, eagerly discussing the various routes to the North, and the comparative attractions of dif ferent towns. The contents of Mr. Stanford's shop seemed to have been scattered about the room, and Bell had armed herself with an opisometer, which gave her quite an air of importance.

The Lieutenant was out of this matter, so he flung himself down into an easy chair, and presently had both of the boys on his knees, telling them stories and propounding arithmetical conundrums alternately. When Queen Titania came to release him, the young rebels refused to go; and one of them declared that the Count had promised to sing the "Wacht am Rhein."

Oh, please, don't," said Bell, suddenly turning round, with a map of Cumberland half hiding her. "You don't know that all the organs here have it. But if you would be so good as to sing us a German song, I will play the accompaniment for you, if I know it, and I know a great many."

Of course, the women did not imagine that a man who had been accustomed to a soldier's life, and who betrayed a faculty for grooming horses, was likely to know much more of music than a handy chorus, but the Count, lightly saying he would not trouble her, went over to the piano, and sat down unnoticed amid the general hum of conversation.

But the next moment there was sufficient silence. For with a crash like

thunder-"Hei! das klang wie Ungewitter!"-the young Lieutenant struck the first chords of "Prinz Eugen," and with a sort of upward toss of the head, as if he were making room for himself, he began to sing Freiligrath's picturesque soldier-song to the wild and warlike and yet stately music which Dr. Löwe has written for it. What a rare voice he had, too!-deep, strong, and resonantthat seemed to throw itself into the daring spirit of the music with an absolute disregard of delicate graces or sentimental effect; a powerful, masculine, soldier-like voice, that had little flute-like softness, but the strength and thrill that told of a deep chest, and that interpenetrated or rose above the loudest chords that his ten fingers struck. Queen Tita's face was overspread with surprise; Bell unconsciously laid down the map, and stood as one amazed. The ballad, you know, tells how, one calm night on the banks of the Danube, just after the great storming of Belgrade, a young trumpeter in the camp determines to leave aside cards for a while, and make a right good song for the army to sing; how he sets to work to tell the story of the battle in ringing verse, and at last, when he has got the rhymes correct, he makes the notes too, and his song is complete. "Ho, ye white troops and ye red troops, come round and listen!" he cries; and then he sings the record of the great deeds of Prince Eugene; and lo! as he repeats the air for the third time, there breaks forth, with a hoarse roar as of thunder, the chorus "Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter!" until the sound of it is carried even into the Turkish camp. And then the young trumpeter, not dissatisfied with his performance, proudly twirls his moustache; and finally sneaks away to tell of his triumph to the pretty Marketenderin. When our young Uhlan rose from the piano, he laughed in an apologetic fashion; but there was still in his face some of that glow and fire which had made him forget himself during the singing of the ballad, and which had lent to his voice that penetrating resonance that still seemed to lin

ger about the room. Bell said "Thank you" in rather a timid fashion; but Queen Tita did not speak at all, and seemed to have forgotten us.

We had more music that evening, and Bell produced her guitar, which was expected to solace us much on our journey. It was found that the Lieutenant could play that too; and he executed at least a very pretty accompaniment when Bell sang "Der Tyroler und sein Kind.” But you should have seen the face of Master Arthur, when Bell volunteered to sing a German song. I believe she

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Bell

[Note by Queen Titania, written at Twickenham.-"The foregoing pages give a more or less accurate account of our setting-out, but they are all wrong about Bell. Men are far worse than women in imagining love-affairs, and supposing that girls think about nothing else. wishes to be let alone. If gentlemen care to make themselves uncomfortable about her, she cannot help it; but it is rather unfair to drag her into any such complications. I am positive that, though she has doubtless a little pity for that young man who vexes himself and his friends because he is not good enough for her, she would not be sorry to see him, and Count von Rosen-and some one else besides-all start off on a cruise to Australia. She is quite content to be as she is. Marriage will come in good time; and when it comes, she will get plenty of it, sure enough. In the meantime, I hope she will not be suspected of encouraging those idle flirtations and pretences of worship with which gentlemen think they ought to approach every girl whose good fortune it is not to be married.

To be continued.

T."]

NATIONAL DEBTS AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY.

BY MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT.

Ir is remarkable to observe with how little uneasiness the fact is regarded that with two exceptions every leading nation in Europe is habitually spending more than its income. If a similar fact were known with regard to individuals, no one would doubt that their bankruptcy must ultimately ensue; but few people seem to anticipate so disagreeable a fate for France, Russia, Austria, and Italy. A few months ago the financial position of France was indeed regarded as rather serious; but the manner in which the war indemnity loan of eighty millions was taken up seems to have dispelled all these gloomy forebodings. A slight investigation into the financial affairs of France will illustrate how far this confidence is justified, and will perhaps show that so far from being a token of the healthiness and elasticity of French finance, the eagerness with which the loan was subscribed may be a sign of the most serious national difficulties. It must be remembered that the debt of France, including the war indemnity, now amounts to 1,100,000,000. When Napoleon III. ascended the throne of France the debt was only 245,250,000l.; but since the accession of that sovereign, whose services to the material prosperity of France are always quoted as if they were quite undeniable, the debt of France, by continued deficits, or by wars, and lastly by the German indemnity, was raised to its present enormous total of eleven hundred millions of pounds sterling. Thus in a reign of eighteen years the average annual increase of the debt of France was more than 47,000,000. Exclusive of the war indemnity, the average annual increase of the debt under the Second Empire was 18,500,000l., a larger average per year than England borrowed during the Crimean war. From tables

published in the "Statesman's Year Book" showing the actual receipts and expenditure, from the establishment of the Empire to the year 1863, it may be seen that while the ordinary revenue increased from 59,000,000l. to 90,000,000l., the expenditure in the same time increased from 60,000,000l. to 91,000,000l. In the twelve years there was only one, 1855 (when the revenue was raised high above the average by special means), without a large deficit. In estimating the true position of French finance at the present time, it must be borne in mind that not only has the nation to bear in payment of interest of the debt an annual burden of 40,000,000l., but also that it will take some time for the national income to regain its former amount, and that the war has caused a very great stagnation in trade and manufactures. Will this stagnation be temporary or permanent? It is generally assumed as a matter of course that it will be only temporary, but the hugeness of the debt and the eagerness with which the loan was taken up would seem to indicate that the interest which it was necessary to offer in order to obtain the money was so high as to attract capital which might otherwise have been devoted to production. It must be remembered that at the end of the war and of the revolution in Paris a great amount of capital must have been lying idle. During the two sieges of Paris little or no production could have been carried on within the city; very little capital was being distributed as wages, and the ordinary industry of the city must have been quite at a standstill. For six months or more capitalists engaged in production in Paris had not been receiving any returns; and while their capital was thus lying idle, while Paris was still in a state of siege, and while the prospects of future tran

quillity were, to say the least, extremely doubtful, this loan guaranteeing an interest of six per cent was offered. What more natural than that the Parisian capitalists having been so long without receiving any return on their capital, and not being able to see any immediate prospect of employing it in productive industry, should have eagerly taken up a loan which secured to them, without any risk and without any labour of superintendence, an interest of six per cent. If this is a correct explanation of the manner in which any considerable portion of the loan was taken up, it affords no evidence of returning financial prosperity; on the contrary, by absorbing capital which would otherwise have been in a short time re-engaged in production, it indicates the perpetuation of the most serious national impoverishment. The following passage taken from Mr. Mill's chapter on National Debts points out the exact danger of the present financial position of France. Assuming that there are circumstances when a loan is a convenient and even a necessary expedient, he continues :"What we have to discuss is the propriety of contracting a national debt of a permanent character, defraying the expenses of a war, or of any season of difficulty, by loans, to be redeemed either very gradually, and at a very distant period, or not at all. This question has already been touched upon in the First Book. We remarked that if the capital taken in loans is abstracted from funds either engaged in production, or destined to be employed in it, their diversion. from that purpose is equivalent to taking the amount from the wages of the labouring classes. Borrowing, in this case, is not a substitute for raising supplies within the year. A Government which borrows does actually take the amount within the year, and that too by a tax exclusively on the labouring the labouring classes than which it could have done nothing worse, if it had supplied its wants by avowed taxation; and in that case the transaction and its evils would have ended with the emergency; while

:

by the circuitous mode adopted, the value exacted from the labourers is gained, not by the State, but by the employers of labour, the State remaining charged with the debt besides, and with its interest in perpetuity. The system. of public loans in such circumstances may be pronounced the very worst which in the present state of civilization is still included in the list of financial expedients." The only excuse, he adds, which such a system admits of is hard necessity; the impossibility of raising an enormous annual sum by taxation, without resorting to taxes which from their odiousness, or from the facility of evasion, it would have been found impracticable to enforce. It is probable that this excuse of sheer necessity may with justice be urged in defence of those who are now at the head of the government in France; and it must also be remembered that only that part of the loan which was raised in France is open to the objection that it will tend to perpetuate the stagnation of industry in that country by absorbing the funds destined to be again productively employed. That part of the loan which was raised in London, for instance, will not have any depressing influence on the revival of French commerce; nor will it produce any ill effect on England's prosperity unless it can be shown, which is highly improbable, that money was in this country withdrawn from production in order to be invested in the loan. But notwithstanding all the extenuating circumstances that may be urged in defence of the loan, the fact remains that in so far as the money raised in France decreased the sum destined to be engaged in production, a corresponding influence is exerted to prevent the revival of industry in that country.

As France at the present moment leads the van of indebtedness, so during the reign of the ex-Emperor did she set the example of reckless expenditure in war and warlike equipments, which has proved so mischievous to the finances of nearly all the leading European nations. The continued series of deficits in a wealthy country like France, may be ac

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Germany Russia Austria

Paying off fast.

£ 800,700,000 From 1853 to i870 £18,500,000.1 | 550,000,0001 170,900,000

£

148,242 15,060,237 404,192 17,384,961

419,836 14,494,222

269,100 10,336,762

Italy Spain Turkey

11,556,500

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From 1854 to 1869 £11,500,000. 300,000,000 1,000,000 21,656,052 Since 1849 £9,000,000.

310,000,000

From 1861 to 1869 £22,000,000.| 285,000,000
From 1861 to 1870 £9,000,000 237,000,000
From 1850 to 1870 £5,000,000 . 104,000,000
1 Exclusive of the war indemnity.

Mr. Dudley Baxter, in his work on National Debts, shows that within the last twenty-one and a half years, the total indebtedness of the world has increased by 2,218,000,000l., or at the rate of 103,000,000l. per year. Within the last twenty-two years, France has increased her debt by 370,000,000l.; Austria, by 185,000,000Z.; Russia, by 200,000,000Z.; Italy, by 250,000,000l.; Spain, by 114,000,000.; the new German Empire, by 120,000,000l.; and Turkey, by 100,000,000%. "These amounts only include 65,000,000l. borrowed for the Franco-Prussian war; and omit more than 100,000,000l. borrowed by other nations during 1870, but not yet appearing in their official accounts."1 They also omit the amount to be paid by France as the war indemnity. It has been calculated by Mr. Baxter that only 12 per cent, or one-eighth of the total of the national debts of the world, has been raised for productive purposes, and that the remainder, 88 per cent, has been spent in war, warlike preparations, and other unproductive purposes.

Excluding for the present any consideration of the indebtedness of Eng1 "National Debts," by Dudley Baxter, M.A.

196,100

84,290 3,310,174 148,680 6,000,000

land and Germany, the foregoing table, and the figures which succeed it, show that all the countries referred to are, in time of peace as well as in time of war, steadily spending more than their income; that this extravagance is in a great measure due to the example set by France in her military expenditure, and that in fact these nations are ruining themselves in order to be ready at any moment to fly at each other's throats. We often hear the present century spoken of as one of great enlightenment and civilization. If the extensive armaments of continental countries are necessary, in order to secure them from the rapacious designs of their neighbours, no boast should be made of the progress of civilization; if on the contrary these armaments are unnecessary, and the military expenditure is just so much money thrown away, then surely no boast should be made of enlightenment.

In a former page the condition of these heavily indebted nations was referred to as if they were already on the high road to bankruptcy. We did not mean by this expression to imply that France, Prussia, and Austria, &c. would go through an international bankruptcy court, and pay so many

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