The Express.
London, England, 1863-03-04 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(nom ova OW ooßsisroxpurr.)

PARIS, TUISDAY EVINING.

The budget committee, in a report signed by IL
Segris, on the supplemental credits demanded for
the year 1862, gives it clearly to be understood,
although in very civil language, that the govern-
ment is in fact asking for a bill of indemnity in
respect of the large sum of 25 millions of francs,
appropriated without any legal warrant whatever
for the prosecution of the war in Mexico. The fol-
lowing is the ministerial defence of this little
"irregularity," as set forth in the report :

The ministate told your committee that in the months of
August and September, two months after the close of the
legislative 'maim, the government found it necessary to
augment the effective of the expeditionary corps in Mexico ;
that this augmentation of course involved expenses beyond
the estimates for pay, provisions, transports, Sc., but that
this was one of those altogether exceptional cease
of rut major which always supersede ordinary rules, and in
presence of which a government would fail in its duty if it
did not act upon its own responsibility. Three alternatives
were open to the government. A decree of tiresome (trans-
fer of funds from some other bead), an adjournment, oven
extraordinary convaostion of the chambers. A rim:sent was
not possible, beanie there was no surplus available in any
other department. Delay was out of the question, because
the soldiers were suferiog for want of reinforcements, and
rather than permit this it was better to act at ones and
trust to a bill of indemnity. As to the last alternative—
that of an extraordinary session of the Senate and Corps
Legislatif —the government was guided by these swami-
derations : the ordinary session had only very re-
cently closed ; the money required wee not, strictly speak-
ing, a new expense, because the Corps Legislatif
had already, by its patriotic votes, sanctioned the principle
of subsidies for this war; and, moreover, an extraordinary
convocetion of the legislature would not have failed to pro-
duce a painful emotion in the country, and imagination,
exaggerating the truth, would have aggravated the unfortu-
nate state of things caused by the manufacturing crisis.
The committee listened to these explanations
with "great interest," but was not convinced by
them ; and although it grants the bill of indemnity
demanded, expresses a belief that means might
have been found to get the necessary supplies in a
manner conformable to the recent aenatua cosetatum,
and M. Fould's emphatically expressed principles.
It takes comfort, however, in the fact that minis-
ters agree with the committee in the interpretations
of the senates consuitues, and admit that there is
an "irregularity."
The following is the pathetic history of the
Budget of 1862, as set forth in the report :

According to the original estim►ts the budget showed
an excess of four millions. When it was voted as amended,
with a special credit of 13 millions for the expedition to
Mexico, the equilibrium seemed to be assured. The same
hops were persistently encouraged so lately as October last,
and DOW it turns out that there is a deficit of more than
34 millions.

So much for the practical consequences of the
Emperor's renunciation of the right to decree sup-
plemental credits which inaugurated M. Fould's
assumption of the finance ministry.
. . .

Even the France does not think the ministerial
excuses sufficient, and hazards the opinion that
rather than break the law it would have been
better to have told the country the worst at onoe,
and convoked the chambers to sanction the credit
required.
All the papers say that the French army
" intends" to capture and send to the Invalidee
two guns now in Puebla which were taken by the
Spaniards from Francis L at the battle of Pavia.
These curious pieces of artillery were the other
day in the fort of Perote, but the Mexicans suc-
ceeded in carrying them off when they evacuated
that place.
The Pays, in an article signed by the "secretary
of redaction," and probably semi-official, com-
plains that the English government has given a
very "cold" reception to the proposition of France
to act together diplomatically in regard to Poland.
I have heard in other quarters that the two govern-
ments are not exactly pulling together.