Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/130

 ¬" To begin then the series of my inquiries, let me ask how much you have added to your public debt in the prosecution of your late glo- rious war, and what is now the proportion of the whole of it taken together to the tangible con- vertible property of your nation — or, to simplify my question by dividing it, what proportion does your debt bear to the precious metals, which with us, as with you, are accepted by all nations as the universal representative of wealth ?" Movven could not help smiling at this first proposition, and answered, (in jest as I at first supposed,) that it had increased tint fold, and amounted to more than all the precious metals that had been dug from the bowels of the earth since the discovery of the countries which contained them, and that if all nations were to empty into the treasury of Armata every coin in circulation amongst them, laying at her feet in bullion all that had been fashioned from gold or silver into vessels and utensils for luxury or use, tearing from the brows the diadems of all princes, and throwing down into the fur- nace ¬