The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-08 00:00:00

THE Stift, LONDON, THeRSDAY EVENING!, JUNEI%-8, 1865.

LAW INTELLIGENCE—This Day.
COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Registrar Hazlitt.)
IN RE I. P. ANDREWS-A CHASE TO AMERICA AFTER A

brokers based the full charges under the Act of Parliament
on the tenants.

Mr. Partridge—ls the rent under £2O ?
Mr. Branwell—Yos, sir.
_ _

Mr. Partridge read several clauses of the Act of Parlia-
ment, and said the words were very large. He granted
the summons.

THE END OP MY HOLIDAYS.—WiIIiam Bebby, a labourer,
was charged with attempting to commit suicide.
William Brown, a waterman, of No. 1, Rosby's-rope-
walk, Limehouse, saw the prisoner walk into the Thames
at Limehouse-hole, and proceed until the water reached the
top of his chest. , He thought the prisoner was having a
bathe with his clothes on, to cool himself this warm
weather, but he suddenly threw himself on his back, and
was floating down with the tide, and would have been car-
ried under the swim of a barge and drowned, if he had not
got into a boat and pulled him out of _the river. The
prisoner said, "This is the end of my holidays," and was
drunk, or he would not have acted so foolish as he did.

The prisoner said he had been holiday making, and was
intoxicated when he went into the water.
The prisoner was remanded for a week.

Forests in France.

40--

In a highly interesting paper addressed to the
French Academy of Sciences, M. Becquerel examines
the subject of forests both as to their commercial
importance and as to their irfluence on climate.
For this purpose he casts a rapid glance at the
effects produced by the destruction of forests from
the remotest ages to our time. Forests existed on
the globe long before the appearance of man, a fact
proved by the immense coal deposits which are to
be found in every part of it, even in the polar
regions. These deposits consist of Equisetacea,
Sigillaria, &c., &c., particularly also of ferns of
the size of trees, instances of which are now only
to be met with under the tropics. In most parts
of the old continent the primitive life of man was
passed in forests, and increase of population was
the cause of the first attacks upon them ; but the
greatest devastations only date from the periods
when great conquerors cut down or burnt the
forests in which the peoples they wanted to
subdue had taken refuge. From the Gauges to the
Euphrates, from that to the Mediterranean, an ex-
tent of ground 1,000 leagues in length, and several
hundred broad, was ravaged by wars during the
lapse of thirty centuries. Nineveh and Babylon,
so celebrated for their civilisation, Palmyra and
Balbeck, renowned for their opulence, now offer
nothing but ruins to the exploring gaze of the tra-
veller, in the midst of deserts and swamps once
covered by luxuriant forests. From the time of
Sesostris to that of Mahomet 11. Asia Minor was
a constant scene of unrelenting wars leading to
similar results. The laud of Canaan, so highly
praised in the Bible, is now little more than a
desert, and the whole coast of Africa along the
Mediterranean tells a similar story. Turning from
historical considerations to the present state of
forests in France, the learned author tells us that
from official statistics it appears that France has a
surface of 52,768,610 hectares (2i acres each). Of
this, 8,804,550 hectares are covered with forests ;
pasture-land comprises 21,729,102 hectares, and the
ground not devoted to tillages and therefore covered
by towns and villages, 2,920,217 hectares. In 1860
the domainal forests were reduced to •an extent of
1,077,046 hectares, including 40,716 hectares of new
plantations. At present this number has risen to
1,100,000 hectares, exclusive of 67,185 hectares
granted as a donation to the Crown. From 1820 to
1864 the surface of forest-land cleared was 665,363
hectares, and for the last 16 years permissions have
been granted to clear about 15,000 hectares per an-
num. To these must be added about 9,000 hectares
cleared without permission, and with some other items
the surface annually cleared comprises about 31,000
hectares. The surface replanted does not amount to
more than 10,000 hectares, few of which have been
stocked with the more valuable kinds, such as oak,
teak, &c., these species being of much slower growth
than firs and similar sorts.

The Chinese Customs' Establishment,

- -+-----

A report, which has been prepared by Mr. Hart, Inspec-
tor-General of Maritime Customs in China, gives an in-
teresting account of the origin and progress of a foreign
customs' establishment in China. The manner in which
native officials have been wont to transact customs' business
at the Chinese ports is this :—Chinese vessels aro licensed
for the coasting trade, and the tariffs generally amount to
about 10 per cent., the customs duties of a port would be
assigned to a person holding somo other Government office
in the locality, and so farmed as to hold him responsible
for the collection of a specific amount, with liberty to re-
tain any surplus, but in the absence of a strict supervision,
or under an established official laxity, each subordinate
having to pay for his place, lies to his superior, and makes
as good a purse as he can for himself. The merchants have
to make the best bargain they can with the officials, and
Government do not get half the duties really paid. Now
in 1854, when Shanghai seemed virtually lost to the Im-
perial Government, inextricable confusion arose in relation
to the customs, and in fact the collection of duties passed
from the hands of the Chinese for a time. Spasmodic at-
tempts were once or twice made by an officepthat was very
insufficiently recognised, but ships constantly left the port
without paying a farthing of duties, the consuls taking
from the merchants bonds, which were considered of ques-
tionable validity. Eventually it was arranged that the
office of customs should bo reopened under its proper
chief, the Taoutae, but that it should be placed under the
inspection of foreigners representing the three treaty
Powers—England, France, and the United States. This
inspectorate was in the first instance a foreign Govern-
mental measure, which relieved consuls from the necessity
of undertaking responsibilities in regard to the clearance
of foreign ships, and protected honest merchants from the
uncontrolled acts of bad men, at the same time Isecuring
the revenue for the Imperial Government. It became,
however, more and more a Chinese institution, and
when the treaties of Tien-tsin wore concluded in 1858, it
was arranged, in order to insure uniformity of treatment
for the merchants at all the ports, to extend the scheme to
all the places opened to trade. Accordingly, the foreign in-
spectorate is now represented at 11 ports, and employs in
various capacities some 400 foreigners and about 1,000
Chinese. It met with much hostility from the old Execu-
tive, who saw in it an invincible obstacle to the "doctoring"
of accounts, and it was not altogether welcomed by many
who had grown accustomed to compounding for duties and
nocturnal "running" of cargoes ; but opposition has gra-
dually died away. The inspectorate has an establishment
at Pekin, where juniors on first appointment study Chinese,
in preparation for work at the ports ; and it is now very
generally treate& as a branch of the Chinese public ser-
vice, and regarded as naturally gro;ving out of the now re-
lations in which China finds herself through the treaties
entered into with foreign Powers. At each office there is
ono inspector, or commissioner of customs, representing
the three treaty Towers, with assistants under him of
various nationalities ; at the head is an inspector-general,
appointed by the Chinese Foreign-office. This inspec-
torate has' secured for the' State funds never dreamt of
before, and substituted for corrupt and inefficient offices an
honest and effective revenue administration, placing all
and every trader upon the same footing. It has also as-
sisted the Chinese in fulfilling with -advantage to them-
selves the obligations into which they entered by treaty,
with trade at more than a dozen ports, and firms numbered
by the hundred, an interdependency of obligations has
grown up which could only be met by
the operation of such
a uniform and efficient system as the inspectorate. In fact,
without it the only resource would have been to do away with
import and export duties altogether, and then allow the
officials in the interior full swing for local taxation; and
how that would have answered is easily guessed. The more
intimate nature of the relations into which the members of
the inspectorate have been brought with Chinese officials
conduces not a little to lead those officials to understand
foreigners better, and to clear away much of the luspicion
and dislike with which they regarded them ; and thus the
tendency is to remove the position of foreigners from the
support on which it has hitherto been based— force and
might, and to place it on one that promises better for the
future, and which, though at first nothing more than a mere
assent to the existing state of affairs, may in time change
into an appreciation of, if not a welcome to, the foreigner.
The juxt-position of an honest administration is making
itself felt ; and through the inspectorate, more perhaps than
through any other means, does there appear to be an open-
ing for the introduction of sundry reforms and useful ideas.
It is gradually leading the Chinese mind in the direction of
that direction will go far to do away with the canker that
properly salaried official establishments ; and any step in
preys on the very vitals of the country, and the multitudi-
nous sufferings and malpractices that are its concomitants.
The inspectorate will have finished its work when it shall
have produced a native administration as honest and
efficient to replace it.

PROFICIENCY IN THE INDIAN LANGUAGES.—The
usual donation of 800 rupees has been made to each of the
following junior civilians for having passed in two of the
vernacular languages of India within six months from the
date of their arrival in this country :—Messrs. Beachcroft,
Manson, Gordon; Gardiner, Fryer, and Thorburn. To Mr.
Stogdon the Governor-General has also granted a donation
of 800 rupees for having passed in two languages in four
months from the date of his arrival ; also a gold medal for
a certificate of high proficiency in the Urdoo language.—
Allen's Indian .Mail,

THE FRENCH CORPS LEPISLATIE

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)
REBATE ON THE BUDGET.
PAnIS, June .6.
The general debate on the Budget was continued
to-day.
M. TRIERS expressed his regret that, on enteri.i•;g
into this grave discussion, he was unable to reply at.
once both to the reporter of the commission and to
one of the representatives of the Government ; but
was willing to give place to the Minister if one of
their number desired to speak before him.
M. VUITRY, President of the Council of State,
replied that at that moment the Government had
nothing to add to what had been so well said during
the last sitting by the reporter, in defence of the
propositions of the commission, which were those of
the Government.
M. TIMES said that after this declaration it was
to the • Government as well as to the commis-
sion that he was about to reply. The reporter
had endeavoured to show that, in point of fact, the
division of the budget into ordinary, extraordinary,
and rectificative,under the appellation of supplemen-
tary credits, had existed formerly as well as at the
present' time. That was true, but what was formerly
admissible to a certain extent was no longer so in a
different degree. Yes, there had been formerly an
extraordinary budget, but not in its present form.
In 1840, under grave circumstances, the vigilance
of the country was directed towards the means of
national defence ; moreover, this was the time when
the railway mania carried away the European public.
Hence numerous works were undertaken in order
to fortify Paris, Lyons, and Cherbourg ; to insure
supplies by sea, and to satisfy the desires of the
country, which demanded large lines of railway ;
but at that time, in place of creating a separate
budget, it was found sufficient to open in each par-
ticular budget a special head termed extraordinary
service. There was nothing at all similar in the present
extraordinarybudget destined to relieve the ordinary
budget of excessive burdens. As to the rectificative
budget, it was also true that it existed formerly,
under the name of supplementary credits, but these
were far from possessing the importance they had
acquired since. It was likewise true that this was
not the first time redeemable loans had been con-
tracted for the profit of extraordinary works, but
here again it was a question of extent. The fault he
found with the great works of the present day was
their exaggeration and their precipitancy. To per-
severe in such a course, herepeated, was advancing,
not precisely towards bankruptcy, but upon a course'
which would render it impossible to fulfil the en-
gagements of the country. After reverting to the
past, which he did, not as a party man, but as a
representative of the country, jealous of her honour
and prosperity, M. Thiers reproduced in de-
tail the questions he had brought forward
at a previous sitting. Was it true or not
that they had budgets amounting to two milliards
and two or three hundred millions ? Did they pos-
sess the necessary resources to meet that expendi-
ture? No, all the regular resources at their com-
mand consisted of 1,950 millions arising from
taxation, to which had to be added every year from
250 to 260, sometimes 300, millions, proceeding
from the liquidation of more or less disguised loans,
or from what had been already termed chance re-
sources. M. Thiefs then went on to examine these
different resources, and concluded by saying that
repudiation or " Mexican Money" was a method of
settlement unworthy of the budget of France. All
this would definitely resolve itself into the floating
debt. Now, the floating debt would already amount
next year to 900 millions. So that, after all, it
would be in the great book that all this would
have to be entered. But it was said he
pointed out the evil without indicating any re-
medy. The speaker then called to mind that he
had specified four sources of possible reduction—
viz., redemption, the army, the public works, and
the Mexican expedition. If they liked he would
give up the question of redemption, but must per-
sist in his doubts as to the possibility of effecting
great savings in the army. It was for the Govern-
ment to explain itself clearly upon that point. But
with respect to the public works and Mexico, he
still believed that prudent and important resolutions
might be taken. The power of the country reposed
upon two bases, its finances and its army, to defend
which he (M. Thiers) had devoted his life. With
rapidity and energy, it would be always possible to
meet the military requirements of France, but good
finances could not be improvised. It was, there-
fore, towards the financial situation that the solici-
tude of the country should be directed.
N. Vuitry, Minister, President of the Council of
State, replied that when he heard M. Thiers speak
of his love for the two great elements of the power
of the country, the finances and the army, he
thought it impossible to avoid reverting to the
glorious use which had been made of these two
powerful resources by the Imperial Government for
the last 12 years. A Government which was able
to appreciate to that extent what they were worth,
and what they could produce, could always hus-
band those resources.

The debate had now reached a point when it was
necessary to cinumscribe the questions and draw
them within a narrower compass.

M. Vuitry first examined the critical remarks
which had been made upon the present division of
the budget into several special budgets. Was this
division, then, a complication, as had been said?
Why, a few simple additions of the receipts and
expenditure would suffice to give the true financial
situation of the country. That discussion was in
the nature of things. Was the object thereof to
conceal the exaggerated expenditure ? What inte-
rest could the Government having in so doing ? The
speaker then went on to advocate the necessity of
this division of the budget into budgets ordinary,
special, extraordinary, and rectificative, but denied
that there was any fifth budget, that of liquidation.
It had no existence. Relative to the redemption of
the debt, after calling to mind that the reserve of
the redemption instead of being allowed to accu-
mulate, had long before the existence of the present
Government been appropriated, at least in part,
either to the great public works, or to the ordinary
budget. The speaker declared that the Imperial
Government did not dissimulate this irregularity and
temporal nature of a2f3 redeemable loans which had
been contracted, and that it', was the desire and aim
of the Government to arrive pt a situation A
whereby a surplus of receipts would adi2it of re-
storing the redemption to the regular routine. The
speaker next went on to explain in detail the real
state of the two budgets, which might be termed
the budgets now in course, namely, those of 1864
and 1865. That for 1864 would only show a
deficit of from 22 to 25 millions, and that for 1865,
according to the results of the first quarter, would
probably present a surplus of receipts of about two
millions. In comparing the ordinary budgets for
the last four years-1862-65—it would be found
that the amount of ordinary receipts had exceeded
that of the ordinary expenditure by 93 millions,
whereas the increase of ordinary expenditure had
only been four millions. Was that, therefore, a
position to call for uneasiness as to the future? The
Government had been asked if it considered it pos-
sible to make reductions in the army. To this the
Government would frankly reply that, in its opinion,
the interest of the country did not permit of the
effective forces being reduced to less than 400,000
men. On comparing the extraordinary budgets of
the last four years, it appeared that the extraordi-
nary expenditure had been continually diminishing.
With regard to the resources furnished by Mexico
to the budget extraordinary, he (M. Vuitry) de-
clared that it was the desire of the Government to
be able to recall their troops in that country, but
that they would not recall them until the work of
order and pacification they had undertaken had been
accomplished, not wishing to give to an enterprise
which had been maturely reflected upon a character
of inconsiderateness which M. Thiers would be
afterwards the first to censure in cutting terms.