The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-30 00:00:00

" 111.

"Allow me now to ask your Majesty's permis-
sion to explain upon what basis the ordinary and
extraordinary budgets of 1864 have been established.

" Your Majesty had expressed the desire that the
ordinary budget of that year should be maintained,
as far as possible, within the limits of the credits
accorded for 1863. This budget will be presented
with an excess of receipts exceeding 4,000,000 f. ;
and, moreover, it will leave available a sum of
20,000,000 f. for the benefit of the extraordinary
budget. This latter sum will be deducted from the
liquidation allowance, which, carried entire to the
expenses of the ordinary budget, will appear among
the receipts of that budget with a reduction of
20,000,000 f. only.
" As to the estimate of receipts, they have been
calculated upon the principle which served as a basis
for the estimates of 1863—viz., according to the
known results of the last 12 months expired ; that is,
from the Ist of December, 1861, to the Ist of De-
cember, 1862. This regulation, which the Corps
Legislatif has approved in the most explicit manner,
offers complete security. Everything justifies us in
expecting, that, with the continuance of the order
and of the internal tranquillity which we enjoy,
the progress of the Treasury receipts will not
diminish. At the end of 24 months—viz., at the
end of 1864—this excess of the public revenue can-
not fail to represent a considerable total.
" The most delicate part of my task has been to
establish the extraordinary budget of 1864. I had
reckoned, in aid of that budget, upon a portion, at
least of the excess of the estimated receipts for 1863;
that excess being required to meet the expenses of
the Mexican expedition, prudence commands me to
prepare other resources.

" The demands of my colleagues were in the first
place to have been confined within the limits of the
extraordinary budget of 1863, which amounts to
121,000,000 f.; but that sum exceeding the estimated
resources, your Majesty has reduced the extraordi-
nary budget of 1864 to the level of the sum avail-
able, that is to say, to 104,000,000 f The receipts
of this total are composed as follows :

"Payments by the Lyons and Orleans Railway
Companies, 3,000,000 f.; for reserve of the liqui-
dation fund, 58,500,000 f.; liquidation allowance
deducted from the ordinary budget, 20,000,000 f. ;
payment by the city of Paris for land, 3,500,000 f. ;
fourth annual payment of the Chinese indemnity,
7,000,000 f. ; sale of a part of the Bois des Dunes,
12,000,000 f.; total, 104,000,000 f. To obtain this
last sum of 12,000,000 f., I propose to put up for sale
in the course of 1863 4 a part of the resinous woods
of the Duns, and to specially apply the proceeds
of the sales to the extraordinary works of 1864.
Tho plantations along the coast have created a con-
siderable source of wealth which is increasing.
There is not less than 90,000 hectares of wood, of
which 19,000 may be disposed of. In fact, one of
the consequences of the American war has been to
quintuple the price of resin. The landowners in
the maritime departments eagerly ask for the sale
of the resinous woods, as they are able to purchase
them, and in their hands they would be more pro-
ductive than in those of the State. These sales,
which would not confer the privilege of clearing,
would in no way compromise any interest, and
would be a real service to the trades in which resin
is employed.