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 erf 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 pert 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-
❑ary 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,
7,000,0001. ; sale of a part of the Bois des Dunes,
12,000,0001.; 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 Dune s, and to specially apply the proceeds
of the sales to the extraordinary works of 1864.
The 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.

" IV.

" The receipts of the extraordinary budget of

1861 will be, in spite of this resource,— less
by 17,000,000 f. than those of the extraordinary
budget of 1863. I can only hope that this diminu-
tion will be merely temporary ; that the advantage-
ous disposal of the woods, the sale of which will be
ordered, and the decrease of the reimbursement of
the expenses of the Mexican expedition will allow
us to restore to tho extraordinary budget of 1864
all, or a part, of these 17,000,000 f.

'But it was indispensable to begin by conforming
with the sanitary regulation established by the
Senatus Cousultum of the 21st of December, by
which grants are measured by the resources really
available. By enjoining us all to respect this rule,
your Majesty insures goad order in the finances,
and the stability of credit, while putting a stop to
the continuation of deficiencies.

"I have already made known to you Majesty, in
my report of the 6th of October, that the total
of the former deficiencies amounts to 848,000,000 f.
With respect to those of 1861, which amount to
158,000,000 f., they are balanced by the result of the
conversion, which has produced an equal sum. But
for the extraordinary expenses which have weighed
upon the current year, and the effects of which will
continue to be felt during 1863, it would have been
possible to return to a completely normal position
at the commencement of 1864 ; this desirable result
is ohly adjourned. Besides, the total of the fresh
deficiency within the limits in which it is now em-
braced does not exceed the resources that can be
furnished by the floating debt, without that debt
exceeding the proportions it has several times at-
tained during the last six years. We may, then,
dismiss all idea of the necessity of appealing to cre-
dit. It is an assurance that I repeat with confi-
dence to your Majesty, and which will be welcomed
with satisfaction by the country.
"I remain, Sire, with respect, your Majesty's
most humble and very obedient servant and faithful
subject,

" The Minister of Finance,
"Paris, Dec. 27, 1862." " ACHILLE FOULD.

THE MARSHALL HALL PHYSIOLOGICAL TEST
FOR STRYCHNINE.—It is related of Dr. Marshall
Hall, in his biography, that at one time the number of cri-
minal poisoning cases, and the conflicting evidence in re-
gard to the employment of strychnine in some of them, set
him thinking on the subject. His long series of experi-
ments on the nervous system had rendered him well ac-
quainted with the action of strychnine upon the frog, and
it occurred to him that the extreme susceptibility of this
animal to the influence of strychnine would constitute it the
most delicate test of its presence, thus substituting a physi-
ological for a ohemical test. Aided by Mr. Bullock, of
Hanover-street, he performed a series of experiments, by
which it was at last satisfactorily demonstrated that a young
frog night be rendered tetanic by the 5,000 th part of a
grain of strychnine ! These experiments were communi-
cated by him in detail to the Lances in 1856. This ingeni-
ous suggestion of our great English physiologist has re-
cently been acted upon at North Shields in the post mortem
Examination of Mrs. Gillespie. It is stated in the Times of
Nov. 8 that a drop of an acidulated solution of the residue
from the stomach and duodenum brought into contact with
the skin of a young frog produced violent convulsions. Three
or four additional drops were applied, with intermissions,
and it died tit the expiration of half an hour.--Lancet.