Thursday 4 August 2011

Wise Words from the Chambers


I was intrigued to see a quotation in the current edition of Private Eye taken from Chambers Encyclopaedia, "A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People", Volume 5, 1868.

It's not made up, you can see it in context at the Internet Archive here.

"The financial affairs of Greece seem to be in a state of hopdess bankruptcy. The kingdom started on borrowed capital, the three great powers of England, France, and Russia having guaranteed a loan of 60 millions of francs (£240,000), partly to indemnify Turkey and other creditors of Greece, and partly to assist agriculture and manufactures in their early struggles. The expenses of the court and government, the carelessness of officials, and the non-receipt of the taxes, have added to the embarrassment of the exchequer, so that at the present time the Greek treasury owes upwards of 300,000,000 dr., a third of which is due to the three powers, and the remainder to capitalists, principally in England."

10 comments:

Tim said...

πιο ca αλλάζει

Z said...

Timeo Danaos, dear heart, however tempting the gifts.

Rog said...

Tim: I see you speak fluent Google.

Z: I didn't realise you knew Tim's full name!

Tim said...

I don't know a word of Google. Babelfish, yes. And my full name is a shameful secret, sharing as I do a middle name with an awful person (hint: it begins with W).

Dave said...

I was trying to think of a joke about Greece to add here.

Rog said...

Tim: You need to come to an arrangement with the awful person. What about you have it on alternative weeks?

Dave: It could descend into schadenfreude if we aren't careful

Christopher said...

Babelfisch has opted out, I see, of translating 'ça'.

I'm putting my worthless drachmae on Wilson.

Macy said...

So what you're sying really is that all this stuff on the news recently, erm well, isn't really news?

Nota Bene said...

What a shame the Greeks didn't Google this...

Rosie said...

The problem's in this rubber band engine.