“O, make haste and tell these things to your rich men; and they will plan how soon this monstrous charge may be got rid of.” “There is a great deal to be done first, my dear. We have first to convince them that this debt is not a very good thing.—As long as they escape paying their due share of the interest, and are aware that the liquidation must, in a considerable proportion, proceed from them, there is no lack of reasons, convincing to their minds, why a large national debt must be a great national blessing.” “It attaches the people to the government, perhaps. Is that what they say?” “Yes; as if the people will not always be the most attached to the government that most consults their prosperity. What can they think of a government that——” He stopped suddenly as Marie put her fingers on her lips, and appeared to be listening. She ran to the door and threw it wide open,—in time to hear a shuffling down the dark stair-case. “I am sure there was somebody at the door,” said she, hesitating whether to shut it again. Her father shrugged his shoulders as the cold air blew in. Henry observed that if the people of the house wanted anything, they would come again; and Marie therefore, after calling from the landing and receiving no answer, returned to her seat as before; observing that it was not the first time she had believed some person to have remained outside the door. Her husband was writing down to her father’s dictation about fallacies in regard to the debt;—such fallacies as that the parchment securities of the public creditor were an absolute creation of capital; whereas they were only the representatives of values which were actually sunk and lost;—that the annual transfer of the millions required for the interest was so much added to the circulation; whereas this very sum would, in the absence of the debt, have been circulating in a more profitable manner;—that the public funds afforded a convenience for the prompt investment of unemployed capital; whereas there would be no lack of good investments for capital if industry were left free;—and, finally, that the stocks are an admirable instrument for the ascertainment of public opinion; whereas a very small amount of debt would answer this purpose as well as the largest. Nobody would object to retaining the 664,000_l._ of the revolutionary times for this simple object.