They saw that the debt grew; and they forgot that other things grew as well as the debt.
A long experience justifies us in believing that England may, in the twentieth century, be better able to bear a debt of sixteen hundred millions than she is at the present time to bear her present load.

But be this as it may, those who so confidently predicted that she must sink, first under a debt of fifty millions, then under a debt of eighty millions then under a debt of a hundred and forty millions, then under a debt of two hundred and forty millions, and lastly under a debt of eight hundred millions, were beyond all doubt under a twofold mistake.

They greatly overrated the pressure of the burden; they greatly underrated the strength by which the burden was to be borne.
It may be desirable to add a few words touching the way in which the system of funding has affected the interests of the great commonwealth of nations.

If it be true that whatever gives to intelligence an advantage over brute force and to honesty an advantage over dishonesty has a tendency to promote the happiness and virtue of our race, it can scarcely be denied that, in the largest view, the effect of this system has been salutary.

For it is manifest that all credit depends on two things, on the power of a debtor to pay debts, and on his inclination to pay them.