Off-topic, but speaking of large, long-running debts Britain didn't fully paid the debt caused by compensating slave owners after slavery was abolished until 2010s. Also I believe debts caused by the South Sea Bubble aren't fully paid to this day.
In contrast, France, as already stated above, largely paid Ancien Regime's debt by nationalizing and auctioning massive (and I mean really massive) church properties.
The British equivalent I guess would be (hypothetically) a hard-left Labour government auctioning off Balmoral, Sandringham, etc.?
