income with the present debt. What happened to that as a burden during
the 100 years just gone by? If it was alleviated, to what was the
alleviation due? I would not burden you with a mass of figures, but I
would just give you one or two selected periods. You can find more
details in my recent book on _Wealth and Taxable Capacity_. We had a
total debt of--

850 million pounds in 1817
841 " " " 1842
836 " " " 1857
659 " " " 1895
800 " " " 1903

and before this last war it had been reduced to 707 million pounds. In
1920, of course, it was over 8000 million pounds. Such incidents as the
Crimean and the Boer wars added materially to the debt, but apart
therefrom you will see that there is no tremendous relief by way of
capital repayment to the original debt. Similarly, in a hundred years,
even if we have no big wars, it is quite possible we may have additions
to the national debt from smaller causes. Yet the volume of the debt per
head fell from £50 to £15.7, so you will see that the increasing
population made an enormous difference. The real burden of the debt is
of course felt mainly in its annual charge. I will take this, therefore,
rather than the capital:--

In 1817 the charge was 32 million pounds
" 1842 " " " 28 " "
" 1857 " " " 28.8 " "
In 1895 the charge was 25 million pounds
" 1903 " " " 27 " "