The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE RUSSIAN
BUDGET.—The practice of publishing annual bud-
gets is so novel under autocratic Governments, and
so commendable in itself, as almost to disarm cri-
ticism, but it must be confessed that the document
recently issued by •the Russian Minister is more
valuable as a respectful homage to the demands of
public opinion than for any information to be de-
rived from it. Those who contemplate dealings
with the Russian Government are naturally anxious
to know how far it is habitually exceeding itsincome,
and what is the state and progress of its debt.
Nothing of this kind can be discovered from what is
called the Budget of 1865. The estimated revenue
and expenditure for 1864 are carefully compared
with the estimates for the ensuing year, but no in-
formation whatever is given as to the actual expen-
diture which has been incurred. An existing deficit
is quite as serious when caused by unforeseen, as
when produced by estimated, outlay, and it
would be interesting to know how far the
military expenditure in Poland and Cir-
cassia has exceeded the levies which it has been pos-
sible to draw from confiscation of the property of
the unfortunate inhabitants of those subjugated
provinces. It is not likely that, in a country where
the revenue is so little elastic as in Russia, the
actual deficit has been below the calculated amount,
and it is admitted that the year 1863 was com-
menced with estimates which provided an income of
about £55,500,000 to meet an anticipated expendi-
ture (including extraordinary military and naval
expenses) of nearly £63,000,000, leaving an esti-
mated deficit of more than £7,000,000. In 1865 the
the Minister hopes to fare better. By some slight
natural improvements, and by additional taxation
upon spirits, it is expected that the revenue will
' be raised to £56,000,000, while the cessation of the
drain for warlike operations will, it is hoped, bring
down the expenditure to £59,500,000, thus reducing
the deficit for 1865 to one-half of that calculated
for the_ previous year. These figures are not
very encouraging, but it is by no means
certain that they tell the whole truth,
and it would surprise no one to find that
the real excess of expenditure in the past year was
something much more considerable than the antici-
pated £7,000,000. The rate of progress of the
national debt of any country, when it can be ac-
curately discovered, serves very well to test the
annual budgets ; but it is not easy to ascertain with
exactness what the present position of the floating
debt of Russia is, and we have already said that the
Budget affords no assistance to any one who is
cnrious enough to enter upon such an inquiry. The
following figures, however, 'are believed to be not
much in error. At the beginning of 1864 the funded
debt, which before the Crimean campaign stood at
£64 000, 0007 had risen to £110,000,000, while the
floating debt, almost all of recent creation, reached
the formidable sum of £24,000,000, making the
total debt about £134,000,000. Since that time a
loan of £6,000,000 has been negotiated, and Trea-
sury bonds have been issued "to about the same
amount, and to cover the expected deficit of
1865 it is proposed to issue about £2,000,000
more. This will leave the funded debt at
£116,000,000, and the floating debt at £32,000,000,
showing an increase of debt, beyond the amount in-
curred upon to the eild -of 1863, of £14,000,000. If
these figures are accurate, there must be some im-
portant deficiency beyond the £10,500,000 calculated
for the two years by the published estimates. If we
pass from the broad results to the details given in
the Budget, we find very little to relieve the gloom
which seems to rest on the finances of Russian.
There is none of that marvellous growth of revenue
which in England and France is expected almost as
a matter of course. The land revenue is falling, as
a consequence of the abolition of serfdom. The
Customs duties are less %han they were in 1863,
either from a diminution o consumption or an in-
crease of smuggling. Some loss, too, has been in-
curred by the removal of expott duties on raw cotton
and other commodities. The licenses and fees which
gauge the state of commerce also show a diminution,
while the only items on the other side of the esti-
mate are about £BOO,OOO raised by additional spirit
duties, and some smaller sums derived from less im-
portant items of revenue. It has apparently become
obvious to the Russian Government that equilibrium
can only be restored by a reduction of military ex-
penditure. Now that Poland and Circassia are
crushed, it is proposed to reduce the army and
navy expenditure by £4,500,000, though even
this saving leaves a deficit of £3,500,000 to be
met in 1865, and will only be effectual as a
financial measure if it is followed by still more
vigorous pruning hereafter. This, however, the
Minister hopes to effect, and, in a country as poor
as Russia now is, it is the only course by which the
gravest embarrassments can be escaped. The enu-
meration of deficits, and the history of the progress
of debt, are far from exhausting the troubles with
which a Russian financier has to contend. As is al-
most always the case, the accumulation of debt has
been accompanied by the issue of inconvertible notes
to such an extent as seriously to derange the circu-
lating medium. It is argued, with some plausibility,
that the comparative barbarism of the Russian empire
exempts it to a certain extent from the ordinary con-
sequences of a redundant currency. Throughout
the greater part of the dreary regions which acknow-
ledge the supremacy ofj the Czar, the common re-
sources of credit are unknown. In the absence of
banks,:whatever passes for currency is hoarded by ig-
norant peasants and scarcely less ignorant proprietors.
All the ingenious contrivances by which a limited
amount of circulating coin or notes is made in more
civilised States to supply the wants of an almost un-
limited commerce are unknown in Russia, except
of the great. commercial centres, and the consequence
is that a very restricted trade requires a much
larger amount of circulating medium than is needed
by the most energetic commercial nations in the
world. Nevertheless, large as is the capacity of the
huge empire of Russia, the Government has long
since contrived• to flood it with more irredeemable
notes than it can absorb. The old device was begun
by Catharine 11., by an issue of no more than
£3,000,000 ; but every war has driven the Govern-
ment to resort to the same dangerous expedient,
and after the great Continental struggle in the be-
ginning of the century, Russia was groaning under
the burden of an issue of £100,000,000 of incon-
vertible notes. Confiscation, under the name of
special taxation and financial arrangements was tried
for many years as a means of reducing the un-
manageable circulation; but fresh necessities con-
tinually arose, and after the Crimean contest
there were once more £120,000,000 of notes
in circulation. Since that time a series of
half-intelligible transactions with the Impe-
rial Bank have been adopted, in the hope
of restoring the value of the paper money.
Loan after loan has been contracted, ostensibly for
this purpose ; and the last operation by which about
£6,000,000 was raised was avowedly intended to
redeem the superfluous notes. Other detnands,
however, of a more urgent character swallowed up
these resources, and at this moment the state of the
Russian currency is worse than it has ever been
before. It is said that within the last few years an
intelligent Russian officer, who was asked to accept
the office of Minister of Finance, replied that only
a genius or a fool would undertake the responsibility,
and that, being neither one nor the other, he pre-
ferred to decline the proffered honour. Whether
the actual Minister fulfils either of these conditions
remains to be proved, but as yet he had made little
head against a sea of troubles, and the only thing
to be said in his favour is that he does not seem to
be aware that rigid economy is the sole policy by
which the threatening financial embarrassment can
be averted.
THE " EXAMINER" ON _ THE LATE COLONEL
CHARRAS.—It cannot be denied that the Emperor
of the French possesses what the Spaniards, in their