The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

THE FRENCH BUDGET OF 1854,

The following is the expose des motifs of the French
Budget for 1854 :
" Gentleman,—We have the honour to submit to your
deliberation the bill which fixes the receipts and expen-
diture for 1854. The Government has the satisfac-
tion of presenting you this financial project in a
much better condition than those of previous years.
To those anticipations of considerable though decreas-
ing deficits which successively amounted to 92, 63, 54,
and 34 millions, and under which our last four budgets
were fixed, has at length succeeded the well-founded
' hope of an equilibrium which is to come to the aid
of public credit, encourage the spirit of enterprise, and
restore confidence in the resources of the country, as
well as in the wisdom of the Government. The prin-
cipal basis of this new anticipation is, it must be con-
essed, particularly founded on that remarkable law of
progression in the indirect receipts which so constantly
testifies the favourable influence of a strong and stable
authority over the movement of transactions and the
development of consumption. Thanks to this influence,
the year 1852 attained the amount of the produce of
1846, which was the most prosperous of any which pre-
ceded the revolution of 1848.
" France, therefore, is, we flatter ourselves, about to
commence from next year a fresh upward movement.
The indirect revenues of 1854 have been estimated by
the Government at 851,756,050 f. This amount exceeds
by about 42 millions the produce of the indirect revenues
of 1852. But experience has shown that the produce of
this kind of receipts increases in times of security and
quiet. The produce of the indirect revenues rope, for
instance, from about 569 millions in 1833 to 828 millions
in 1846, or at the average rate of 20 millions a year.
The calculation of improvement which we have reck-
oned on is therefore borne out by the experience of
the past. The extreme probability of its correct-
ness may be seen when it is considered that the com-

mencementof 1852 was subjected to the influence of the

political crisis connected With the events of the 2d of
December. The produce of the indirect taxes during
the interval from the Ist of March, 1852, to the Ist of
March of the present year amounted to 821,286,000 f. In
order to arrive at the anticipations which we have
adopted relative to 1854, it will be seen that it is only
necessary to suppose an increase of 15 millions a year,
and it is difficult to entertain a more moderate hope than
that which, in a pacific state of things, supposes such an
increase. The ensemble of the receipts for 1854 being
estimated at 1,520,039,572 f., and the expenditure at
1,519,250,942 f., the general budget presents a surplus
of 1,388,630 f. This surplus would even have amounted
to 2,734,957 f., if we had not placed among the expenses
the annuities regulated by the vote of the bills for the
re-purchase of the different canals. Such a result is the
more advantageous, as it is to be attained without ,the
aid of any new taxes, and also in taking a large part in
the construction of railways, which, although they have
become a periodical element of our budgets, constitute,
as regards the development which is given to them, a
somewhat transitory charge on our public expenses.
"We had the honour last year to speak to you of
sacrifices to be consented to for the development of
those public works which, directed with prudent acti-
vity, would have the happy result of placing France in
that respect in the eminent rank which civilisation had
already assigned to her among European nations, and
which revolutions have hitherto prevented her attaining.'
You have joined in this idea of the Government, and you
will soon see the happy fruits of it develope themselves.
The capital of France will be shortly united by railways
to the most important points of the seas which wash our
coast, and the countries which join our frontiers. Great
wants which have been long felt will be satisfied, and
this state of affairs will, with the aid of time, allow of
others being satisfied which are more recent, but not less
deserving of interest.

" We are pleased to hope that the equilibrium of the
budget which is calculated on in the bill now submitted
to your deliberations will not be materially changed by
the opening of ulterior credits, if, as there is reason to
desire, the supplementary credits should disappear from
our budgets for the future, except in exceptional cases,
such, for instance, as in 1854, the establishment of the
lines of Transatlantic packets, or the insufficiency of the
credits voted for the bounties'allowed on goods exported.
The power of transfer from one chapter to another,'
as the Minister of Finance said in the document white
we have before quoted, will suppress almost all the
extinctions of credit, and it must therefore also suppress
in the same manner almost the whole of the supple-
mentary credits.' These are words to the authority of
which it would be difficult for us to add anything, but
which we are happy to quote in consequence of the in-
tentions which they manifest.
"The ensemble of the financial situation resulting from
preceding estimates has already been, on the part of the
Minister of Finance, the object of explanations so ex-
tended that it is unnecessary for us to add anything on
the subject. We shall merely say that the floating debt,
which when the report was made, on the 7th of February
last, amounted to 690 millions, was on the 15th inst.
646 millions, including only, it is true, the part reim-
bursable in 1853 of the Treasury bonds given to the
bank as a guarantee for the loan of 75 millions. The
ordinary expenses at the charge of the State voted in
1852 by the Legislative Body for the general service of
the Ministries during 1853 amounted to 674,254,177 f.
In the present budget they are 639,142,161 f. A part of
this difference is, doubtless, due to the transfer to the
charge of the public debt of the grants made to the
retiring pension funds of the different Ministries. But
independently of this transfer, you will remark on
several points in the preparation of the budget of 1854
the application of an idea of economy, the results of
which show the care evinced by the Government not to
increase the burdens of the people, and its desire to keep
the public expenses within the closest limits consistent
with the exigencies of the service. As an example of
the efforts of the Government on this subject, you will
observe that the sums devoted by a Presidential decree
to the completion of the Louvre during 1853 have been.
reduced from six millions to five millions. The budget
of the Ministry of the Interior and of Agriculture has
also undergone diminutions of a certain importance.
You will remark also with saticfaction, in a financial
and political point of view, that the credit of the
War Department, voted last year to the amount of
324,232,663 f. for 1853, have been brought down for
1854 to 308,386,046 f.

"The details of the Budget of each Ministry will en-
able you to see that the same idea of economy has per-
vaded the whole-of the public expenses. It remains for
us, lastly, to call your attention to a new article intro-
duced this yeal..in the finance law, and which has for its
object a partial modification of our law on patents rela-
tive to men working at their own houses. The weaving
trade is carried on in two different modes, which the law
on patents has differently charged. In the first place,
a manufacturer assembles in his establishment a number
of workmen who transform the raw material into a
manufactured article. In the second place, this same
manufacturer delivers over to workmen out of his
own premises the raw materials, and they work
them up by the aid of their families and apprentices,
as would have been done in the general workshop. The
manufacturer, that is to say, the general undertaker,
who speculates on the creation of the manufactured
produce, pays a fixed duty on all the looms which he
employs, whether on his own premises or abroad. The
workmen outside, who is aided only by his wife or un-
married children, is exempt from all duty. If he em-
ploys one or more apprentices or journeyman, and uses
• less than ten looms, he pays for each loom a fixed duty
equal to the half of that paid by the manufacturer for
the same looms. If he uses more than ten looms, he
pays, independently of the fixed duty, another in pro-
portion to the rent of his habitation and his industrial
premises. Such is the economy of this legislation, the
spirit of which has for its object to exempt absolutely
the labour of the family, to exonerate in a certain mea-
sure the work done within the limits of domestic life,
and to reach more completely that which takes the
character of an industrial speculation.
"But the favour this law has desired to accord to la.
bour executed at the workman's residence has not ap-
peared sufficient. The workmen of Lyons, and the com-
mercial organs of that city, call for an exemption from the
patente duty for such workmen as use less than ten
looms even when they employ workmen other than
their own children or wives ; they, in fact, ask to
extend to domestic labour the exemption which the law
conceded only to work done by members of the workman's
family. The claim appears well-founded, as it is in fact,
only equitable to favour a labour which is effected at the
domestic hearth, within the restricted circle of the family
and of some apprentices or journeymen who have not, in
most cases, as yet attained the degree of cleverness or prac-
tice which constitutes the good workman. But the exemp-
tion cannot be accorded to the workmen of Lyons with-
out leading to well-founded demands from other classes
of workmen in the same conditions of labour, such as
those of Sedan, Louviers, Elbeuf, St. Quentin, Roubaix,
Tourcoing, &c. To prevent such claims, it is conse-
quently important to generalise the measure by applying it
to every kind of industry in which workmen can do
work at their own residences. • The sacrifice which
the favour :accorded to this kind of work, considered
in some measure as domestic, would impose on the
Treasury, would not amount to more than 80,000 f.
or 100,000 f. a year, and we the less hesitate to pro-
pose it to the Legislative Body that the general
produce of the patent duty is gradually augmenting.
and follows the development of the public wealth. That
sacrifice, besides, would be compensated by the salutary
effect of a- measure which tends to moralise the work-
man, by removing him from the factory and attaching
him more closely to the family circle,
" Such are the motives which have led us to propose
the provision which will be found in the 13th article of
the present bill.

"You have, gentlemen, to vote the second law of fi•
nance presented to you since you have been elected to
seats in this house. Since that period, France, more
and more strengthened by a tutelary authority, has resum-
e her course of prosperity. You will, therefore, vote
with confidence the resources asked for at present, after
a mature examination by the Government, to whom the
country has itself confided so large a share in its destinies.
" E. D. PARIEII President of the Section of
Finance. '
", STOURM Councillor of State.
' VIIITRY, Councillor of State."
..............__

PORT Or HeanunTh Hanoverian Government
have caused a notice tog,beoelestebueed that the circumstance
Elhe, having
owingurto the recewnitllCustoms' treaty be-
ceased to
payable
beof tah e
free Port port,of H arb
tonotecoasmehapsa
be-
tween Prussia and Hanover,
of
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rumoured, cause the Stade 'duty
there.
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND AND wzyits.
in the amended votes and proceedings
Commons, printed since the adjournment, that on Mouse of
day next " Lord John Russell is to state the intentions
of the Government with respect to education in Englandb
and Wales, and to move for leave to bring in a on
the subject."

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—TAUNTON, MARCH 29.
(Before Mr. Justice Crompton.)
CROCKER V. MOORE.—BREACH OF PROMISE.
Mr. Slade, Q.C., and Mr. Karslake, were for the
plaintiff ; and for the defendant, Mr. Sergeant Kinglake
and Mr. M. Smith. The defendant had pleaded that he
had made the promise under the belief that the plaintiff
was a person of chastity and virtue, but had found that
she was not, and that she had had an illegitimate child.
Mr. Slade briefly opened the case to the jury, observe
ing that he did not put it before them as one of blighted
affections, but as that of a young woman who had been
shamefully abused and deceived. She was a person of
very humble circumstances in life, being the daughter of
a glazier, living in the forest of Exmoor. The defen-
dant was a wealthy farmer of the same locality ; and in
1849 the plaintiff went to live with him in the capacity
of a servant. It would be shown that the defendant
exhibited great partiality for the plaintiff, and that he
manifested considerable jealousy towards a person named
Rawel, with whom it was thought the plaintiff
was keeping company, and that he at length pre-
vailed on her to withdraw her company from *awel,
and to bestow it on himself. He was continually visit-
ing her when she was at her father's house. He got her
father to write letters to her, persuading her to accept
him as her suitor ; and although there were not many
of those amusing letters which usually enlivened cases
of this description, he should be able to produce two or
three, which would distinctly show the relations existing
between the parties. It would also appear that the de-
fendant was in the habit of following the patriarchal
custom of having his flocks and herds driven before the
plaintiffs father's door, and telling her that all these
should be hers if she would be his. By these means the
plaintiff was induced to return to the service of the de-
fendant (which she had temporarily left), and in the
spring of 1852 she became pregnant by the defendant,
and bore a child ; and he had now the audacity to throw
this fact in her teeth, and to endeavour to take advan-
tage of his own wrong doing. After some further
remarks, the learned counsel proceeded to call witnesses.
John Crocker, father of the plaintiff, deposed to various
facts mentioned by Mr. Slade, in his opening speech,
adding, that after his daughter was confined, the defen-
dant promised several times to come and see her, and
asked how she was getting on, but he never came to the
house afterwards.
In cross-examination, it was elicited that since plaintiff's
confinement, witness had seen her drinking spirits and
water with Rawle, the man alluded to as a former lover.
Mary Crocker, aunt of the plaintiff, deposed to having
seen the defendant frequently with her niece. He paid
her every attention, and witness had heard him say he
intended to make her his wife.
Two letters written by the father to the plaintiff, at
defendant's request, were then put in, and two other let-
ters written by the defendant to the plaintiff, were also
read. In one of them he says :
" Elizbeth Crocker, my dear,
I love you, dear, true and sincere ;
I cannot express my mind,
But my heart is truly thine."
" I tell you as plainly as man can speak
I love you as true as my life,
And I shall never be easy, my dear,
Until you become my wife.
If you object to me, I never will ask woman again
For one year, two, or ten."
In the other letter defendant repeated his protestations
of love.

Clarissa Crocker and Richard Crocker were called to
prnvc that the defendant had probised plaintiff marriage,
and that he had recognised her child.
John Bryant, sexton of Minehead, proved that an ap-
plication was made on the part of the defendant respect-
ing the price of a licence ; and a silversmith was called
to state that the plaintiff had looked at some wedding
rings.

Mr. Serjeant Kinglake having addressed the jury on
behalf of the defendant, a great number of witnesses
were called to prove unchastity on the part of the plain-
tiff, among others the man Rawle, referred to in Mr.
Slade's speech.
Mr. Slade made a forcible reply, and the learned judge
having summed up, the jury found for the plaintiff=
damages 3001.
The case lasted till past 9 o'clock.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS—March 30.

(Before Mr. Sergeant Adams, Assistant Judge.)

Timothy Mahoney was indicted for having stolen two
bottles and three pints of porter, the property of the
London Dock Company, from their dock.
This case rested on the evidence of a cooper employed
in the dock of the name of Dickens, who deposed to
seeing a person, whom he was certain was the prisoner,
who was an extra labourer, leave a part of the premises
where he had no business to be, and that he pursued
him. He only saw the back of? the person he was fol-
lowing, but he was able to identify him by the " jumper"
or smock-frock he had on, and to say that it was the
prisoner. The person finding he was pursued threw
down two bottles of porter, and got out of sight. The
witness went to the foreman of the gang in which the
prisoner was working, and picked him out.
In cross-examination Dickens said he was in principle
a Quaker, though he was not actually a member of the
Society of Friends. He had taken the oath, and consi-
dered it binding upon his conscience ; but he had been
examined without taking the oath, before the Commis-
sioners of Customs. He had made complaints before,
and on one occasion a person whom he charged was
committed for eight days.
Mr. Duncan, for the defence, urged that the evidence
of Dickens did not prove the prisoner's identity beyond
doubt, and that the witness had shown a strange zeal in
making charges against his fellow-workmen. The learned
counsel observed that there was also something strange
about the witness professing the principles of a Quaker,
and at the same time taking the oath, declaring that
was binding on his conscience, and admitting that pre-
viously he had given evidence without taking the oath.
The jury found the prisoner not guilty, and the fore-
man said they were not satisfied with the evidence of the
first witness, Dickens.