It has already been seen that, whenever a war is one of long continuance, the British Government may at first borrow at par, and ends by being compelled to sell its stock at the rate of fifty per cent of its nominal value; which gives for the whole of the war loans an average of about 75 per cent. In point of fact that Government received in the year 1812 less than 55 per cent; for the money actually received consisted of bank notes, which had then depreciated twenty per cent; so that the money lenders gave only that which was equivalent to forty-four per cent, in gold or silver, of the nominal value of the stock which they received. Besides receiving the interest on the nominal amount of the stock till the principal shall have been paid, they might shortly after the peace, and may now, receive from ninety-seven per cent to par, in gold or silver, for that same stock for which they gave but forty-four. Thus, assuming the public debt of Great Britain at eight hundred thousand pounds sterling; not only was the whole of that capital destroyed by the wars; not only are the British people subject now, and it would seem for ever, to a burthen of taxes sufficient to pay the interest on that debt; but of the eight hundred millions thus consumed, only six hundred were received by the public, and the other two hundred millions made the rich capitalists, who had advanced the money, still richer. There is another class of men who may occasionally derive wealth from a war. Privateering consists in robbing of their property unarmed and unresisting men, engaged in pursuits not only legitimate but highly useful. It is nothing more nor less than legalized Piracy. For this the United States are not responsible; and it must be admitted, that the practice of all nations justifies them in resorting to those means, in order to make the enemy feel the calamities of war. But the necessity of resorting to means immoral in themselves affords an irrefragable argument against precipitating the country into war for slight causes, indeed against any war which is not purely in self defence. It is equally untrue to assert that the poorer class of people, by which must be meant all the laborers, or generally those who live on their wages, have nothing to lose by the war.