The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-04 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, DEC. 4, 1863.

M. FOULD'S report upon the French Finances
comes rather as an anti-climax after the EMPEROR'S
reference to those Finances in his MAJESTY'S inau-
gural address to the Senators and Deputies upon the
opening of the French Leglislature, It will be
remembered that in that inaugural address, NAPo-
LEON 111. spoke thus distinctly and positively as to
the financial situation of the empire. "The session
now taking place," said his MAJESTY, " a little
later than ordinary, the report of the Minister of
Finance has not yet been published." The EMPEROR
was speaking, recollect, on the sth of November.
"It will be so (that is, published) immediately."
M. FOULD'S Report upon the Financial Situation,
now but just given to the world, being dated, how-
ever, it will be perceived, on Monday the Ist of
December—very nearly a whole month afterwards.
Reverting, nevertheless, to the notable words uttered
by the Emperor of the FRENCH in anticipation of
his Minister's report upon the inaugural day of the
Legislative session, we find his MAJESTY speaking
thus hopefully, or at any rate, encouragingly,
"You will there see," he remarked, meaning in the
report when published, " that if our hopes are nut
completely realised, the revenues of the coun-
try have still continued to advance and improve,
and that, without extraordinary resources we have
met the expenses occasioned by the war in Meiico
and Cochin China." The passage is so important,
however, to our thinking, as contrasted with M.
FouLD's actual statement, now that it has been
publishes, not immediately, but some five weeks
afterwards, that we are tempted to give here the
EMPEROR'S ipsissima verba :—" V ons y verrez que,
si nos esperances ne se soot pas completcment
realiLees, les revenns ont suivi tine marche ascen-
dente, et que, sans ressources extraordinaires, nous
avons fait face aux depenses occasionneas par la
guerre au Mexique et en Cochinchine." After
which very comforting assurance from the lips of
the Sovereign himself, comes now, rather, as we
have said, as an anticlimax, under the un-
compromising and pitiless hand of the EM-
PEROR'S Minister of Finance, the demand of
another extraordinary loan—a loan of no less than
three hundred million francs, that is, about twelve
millions of pounds sterling—really and truly in
order to meet the deficit caused by those very wars
in Mexico and in Cochin China. To meet the deficit
so caused, it is true, and to have some three mil-
lions sterling to the good, over and above it, after-
wards. For it is to be remarked that, whereas
the deficit notified by M. FOULD amounts to seven
millions sterling, the loan he asks for is for twelve
millions. In bringing forward that bald proposi-
tion, however, M. FOULD does so with no evidence
on his own part, as Finance Minister, of either de-
jection or disappointment. Ho is sanguine that
the Mexican debt will at some vague future time be
liquidated. He is especially hopeful that a rational
economy may, before much longer, be adventured
upon by France, in common with the rest of the
Great Powers of Europe, with or without the aid of
a Congress—a rational economy by means of a
general diminution of a war expenditure in
a time nominally of peace. Realise those delight-
ful anticipations of M. FOULD, and no doubt all
will become very pleasantly rose-coloured ! Let tha
Mexican debt be liquidated, let the ruinous rivalry
among the European Powers in the way of warlike
armaments by sea and by land, during this interval
of general tranquillity, cease, and the happiest future
is, no doubt of it, clearly before the French Finance
Minister, be that Minister M. ACHILLE FOULD, or
some as yet undreamt.of successor. For, the truth
is undeniably propitious in this way, both in regard
to the Financial condition of France and of England
—namely, that but for our extravagant rivalry in
warlike armaments by sea and by land the resources
of the two countries are steadily and wonderfully
on the increase, Insomuch is this the attnal position
of things on both sides of the British Channel, that,
let but there be a mutual reduction of extravagant
armaments, and the annual deficit would in each
instance become transformed into an annual
and year after year an increasing sur-
plus. This, moreover, in despite of very untoward
circumstances circumstances as untoward, for
example, and as extraneous, so to speak, in their
origin and consequences as that most deplorable
and protracted civil war in America, the results of
which are au seriously adverse to the mercantile
and shipping interests of both France and England.
Of one thing, however, 11. FOULD may rest per-
fectly well assured, while asking for this new and
extraordinary loan of twelve millions, namely, that
he will obtain it without any difficulty whatever.
Experience has shown, more than once, how impli-
citly the EMPEROR may rely upon the confidence
reposed by the French people alike in the strength
and solvency of his Government. He has had but to
ask, and his demands have been invariably granted,
upon the instant, by the nation, and granted, too,
with hands running over with substantial tributes
to him, far beyond his own immediate requirements.

It• ______ ___
l , 14 by this time pretty generally known that
tue strict
neutrality which Earl RUSSELL proposes
to observe r
ortant imp
elepecting the American War, admits of
ztions on one aide at all events. It
is true that
a of eur
principal manufactures has
been paralysed, that thousands of English work-
men and their families s ave paid a bitter price for
the mad ambition of the Northern State's out of re-
gard to our immaculate
4" ihde
but these facts do not
vreveutpendent neutrality,
balance from
I'd
being heavily weighed on one side,
°- We may ad-
mit foreign spies to pry about our.
private working
establishments from the one, although we cannot
receive accredited representatives of the other ; we
may bear with patience the dictation of
... ~ foreign
Minister, and aeccitt his continual hints and sug-
gestions as to the course most proper for us to take,
but we may not recognize the existence of that
adversary he has apparently so flinch cause to fear.
Our Ministers may stretch a point of law to the
utmost possible extent, nay they may even overstep
the limits of constitutional law as well. as of indi-
vidual courtesy with regard to an Englishman of
character and standing, but they may conveniently
overlook a direct infringement of the very same
law in another quarter. The law, which by any
reading of it, renders it illegal to export unarmed.
vessels because they mar be used for the purposes
f
ammunition
todirectooe
vier, must certainly apply with double
force to the
of exportation
ttle
belligerents,
yet
theand