The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 25, 1853.

THE TURKISH BUDGET OF 1850.

taken to establish this budget upon a firm and regular
basis ? These measures are indicated by the nature of
the obstacles which it is the question to overcome, and
which it remains for us to enumerate.
Among these obstacles we must reckon in the first
rank the existence of the Vakoufs. They call by this
name all the property consecrated to the mosques and
religious foundations, whether they have proceeded
from pious legacies or have been confided to the admi-
nistrators of the mosques by virtue of a convention.
Free property takes the name of mulk. It is well known
that the desire to contribute to the support of the
mosques has not been the sole motive for these dona-
tions, of these faithful stewards. The real end of the
proprietor has most often been to ensure one portion of
his fortune against the caprices of tyranny. The
chances of the reversion to the profit of the mosque,
and the annual rent which the depositor pays to it,
are not considered too high a premium, when the
question is how to avoid either a confiscation or a
forced sale at the suit of impatient creditors. What-
ever be the reason which may have determined pro-
prietors to put their lands into the hands of the admini-
stration ofjthe Vakoufs, this administration is the nomi-
nal proprietor of three-fourths of the real property in
the Turkish empire. Nevertheless, the annual revenue
of the administration of Vakoufs is not valued at more
than 20,000,000 piastres. There is one fact still more
strange the budget of the State is obliged to furnish
12,500,000 piastres for the support of mosques and
charitable establishments. This apparent contradiction
is explained by the small rent stipulated at the begin-
ning in money of which the name has not changed, but
which has twenty times its value now ; by the frauds
common in the declaration of prices at sales ; by pre-
cautions taken to avoid the case of remainder ; and,
lastly, by concessions made to relations for the redemp-
tion of titles where cases of remainder are presented.
Without changing the system, it is evident that some
well-devised measures might produce great benefit to the
Treasury ; but results much more important would be
obtained if they were able to disinterest the mosques,
and to give to the actual tenants new titles, which would
render them real proprietors. This reform is generally
desired. There is nobody who, in order to re-enter upon
the full property of his real estate thus engaged, would
not give willingly a right of mutation, and consent fur-
ther to pay annually to the Treasury fifty times the
value of the rent now due to the mosques, so true is it
that property in Turkey no longer fears a return either
of spoliation or violence. It has been calculated that,
by increasing to 50,000,000 piastres the sum which the
state would allow the mosques in exchange for the
32,006,000 which they now receive, and without taxing
the income derived from real property at more than five
per cent., the Treasury would realise a benefit of more
than 60,000,000 piastres. From this single result we
may obtain an idea of the influence which this reform
would have in the end. Being made general, it would
embrace all properties, till at last it would become the
natural principle of a land tax, and would give security
to the finances of the empire.

The following will be found interesting at this
moment, as it is the last account, so far as we are
aware, of the condition of the Turkish finances :
[FROM THE REVUE DES DEUX MONDES OF 1850.]

Turkey has entered into a period of calmness and peace,
which would perhaps have been remarkable at any time
when the attention of Europe had been perfectly free.
If we except the movement in Mohio-Wallachia, which
is a country absolutely western in ideas, nothing has
occurred for the last two years in the Ottoman empire
which at all resembles the agitations just now so fre-
quent elsewhere ; for it is impossible to regard as serious
the troubles so promptly repressed, which for a moment
disturbed Bosnia and Bulgaria. The Turkish empire is
at peace just at a time when formidable insurrections are
staining neighbouring countries with blood. The only
grave difficulties which it has had to endure came to it
from without, but, by the policy which it owes to the
energy as well as to the prudence of the men who govern
it, it passed through them happily. The Divan may,
therefore, now freely pursue the work of progress with
which the prosperity of the empire is identified.
If the Ottoman race have not hitherto manifested that
impatience for improvement which distinguishes the
other people of Europe, and the Latin races principally,
they have not been curbed so much as may be thought
under the yoke of a blind fatality, expecting benefits
from the caprices of time and chance. They have per-
fectly comprehended the conditions of political existence.
They have begun to feel that God has devoted man to
effort, and that life henceforth is the price of labour,
just as in the times of conquest it was the price of
courage. The instinct of command has never been
wanting in the Osmanlis. But they have very rarely
been permitted to acquire the taste and the science of
administration ; and it was not an ordinary enterprise to
destroy, among a people accustomed to live,under the
tent, their native repugnance for the work of the econo-
mist and the administrator. One of the. principal ob-
jects of the charter of Gulhane was, it is known, to re-
form the old Turkish Administration, and to create a
new one, in which the experience acquired by modern
nations might accord with the peculiar genius of the
people of the East. This object, we may be sure,
was not attained without difficulty, if we remem-
ber the exhaustion of the State, the ignorance of
the greater part -of the functionaries, and the
ill-will of the majority of the Pachas, who felt their in-
dependence menaced. The reform is still far from being
finished. It was in the nature of things that it should
proceed slowly; it has, however, progressed year by
year, the-Turks are fond of saying, and we ought to do
them the justice of acknowledging it. The charter of

Gulhane dates from 1839; and since 1844 the work of
' centralization begun under that charter has borne its
first fruits. The army and the navy have received a
regular organization ; the post•office has been put into
operation along the principal lines of communication ;
lines of steam-packets have begun to unite the different
ports of the empire ; useful results have sanctioned the
adoption of the new system of quarantine ; the Medical
School of Galata-Serai, and the military schools, have
fulfilled the promises which they held forth ; and lastly,
manners have been sensibly influenced by the conciliatory
principles which animate the Government. Prodigiously
irritated, lately, against the Christians by the crusade of
1827, attempted under the name of Christianity, the dis-

The tax called vergu, formerly salian, corresponds to
the English income-tax. It varies according to locality,
from 10 to 25 per cent. It is a tax raised upon the pre-
sumed fortune—real, personal, or commercial. It is
placed indifferently upon all the subjects of the Grand
Seignor, Mussulmans or Rayas. The municipalities
which exist everywhere in Turkey are charged with its
apportionment and its collection, and they turn over the
produce to the financial agents of the Government.
This intervention of the municipalities in financial ques-
tions is one of the principles of their organisation in the
East; but this principle supposes in the municipalities
enlightened and equitable views which are not always
met with. There are some in which the patriarchal and
fraternal spirit of the earliest times is preserved ; the
fortune of each, consisting generally of land and cattle,
is of public notoriety. The distribution of the tax
is easy, and its collection is effected without reclamations
or resistance. In some communes of Asia Minor jus-
tice is not so scrupulously applied. Although munici-
pal functions are elective they are too often the prize of
intrigue, and the privilege of great influence, from which
it follows that the great fortunes are not always those
which have to bear the highest tax ; the small ones
suffer, and the Treasury with them. Without attacking
the organization of the municipalities, which have been
in periods of oppression the safeguards of individual

position of the people appeared at first to be opposed to
the sentiments of tolerance with which the Government
wished to ,inspire them ; but they have yielded to the
councils of a policy attentive to respect every form of
worship. They have ceased to inflict capital punish-
ment upon those who abandon Islamism in order to em-

brace some other faith ; the exactions and the arbitrary

conduct formerly practised upon Christians have ceased

by degrees in the neighbouring provinces of Constanti-
nople ; and, at last, without renouncing their T?sition
as the governing race, the Turks have admitted Christians
to undertake, with them, a certain number of public
functions, like, in this respect, those aristocracies which
know how to open their ranks to merit.

It is fortunate that the Turkish Government is deriv-
ing encouragement from the success of that which it has
itself undertaken. If it has done much, there remains
not less for it to do yet ; and, if we had not confidence
in the intentions and in the energy of the men who now
direct it, we should have reason to be uneasy at the sight
of so many important questions still waiting for solution.
General reforms are sterile when reforms in detail are
not made to complete them ; and it is this new path, the
financial system, which must in the foremost place occupy
the attention of the Turkish Government. Money, it is
said, is the sinews of war. It is, by the same rule, the
sinews of peace. There can be no real justice where
taxation is not regularly established ; there can be no
proper means of action where there is not adequate taxa-
tion. The power and prosperity of a State depend, if
not exclusively at least principally, upon its system of
finance ; but nothing is more imperfect than the organi-
sation of the finances of the Ottoman empire. It is not

liberty, the Government ought more narrowly to super-
intend their acts. This intervention would no longer
facilitate, as formerly, tyranny and exaction, and the
Government would be able to protect itself in some
municipalities against the very plausible pretext of re-
ductions which have been in their favour. The munici-
palities are no longer at the charge of lodging for military
and employes on travel, and forced labour is suppressed,
which too frequently impoverished the population. The
Government may then, without much scruple, undertake
to verify the labours of the municipalities in the distri-
bution of the tax.

The tenths are not the verge, the most productive
branch of the revenue of Turkey. They are collected
upon all the productions of the earth, fruits, and cereals.
In Roumelia, they extend to sheep. It is the same in
some localities in Asia Minor. In others, immunity is
compensated by a surcharge upon the tax. With the
view of receiving money instead of the produce of na-
ture, the Government has recourse to a disastrous expe-
dient, which is one of the principal vices in the financial
legislation of the empire. It puts this tax to auction
the same as the Customs of many cities. The purchasers
effect their reimbursement by means of special agents,
with the concurrence of the municipalities and of the
representatives of the central authority. We may
easily conceive the inconveniences of this system. But
altogether, vicious as it is, it is a step in the way of pro-
gress, if we call to mind the times when governors of
provinces, farmers of tenths and of all the other taxes,
used and abused their power without limit, and ground
down the population in a thousand different ways.
For some years the principal functionaries of the Go-
vernment have presented themselves at these auctions,
and have become purchasers either in their own name or
under that of some Armenian bankers (surrafs). These
bankers are their sureties with the Treasury, their part-
ners in the profits, or their brokers to re-sell at a profit.
We are tempted, with reason, to exclaim against such
an anomaly. It is necessary, however, to remember
that the spirit to gain is not at this moment the only
motive which instigates Turkish functionaries to endea-
vour to obtain the farming of the tenths. They obey,
at the same time, the idea of the Government, which
wishes to establish on this subject the most serious com-
petition. Thus the price of these purchases has been
considerably augmented, and the Government knows
much better the extent of its resources. It is, in every
case, a minimum result, if we compare it with the immo-
rality of the speculation, with the waste which the sys-
tem provokes, and, in a word, with the enormous losses
thus caused to the people and to the Treasury, to the
profit of the fortunate. farmer of the tenths and the Cus-
toms. The inconveniences of this system are perfectly
appreciated by the Government itself. The farming,
already condemned by the hatti-cheriff of Gulhane, has
just been the object of consideration by a committee ap-
pointed to examine some financial questions ; and the
opinion of this committee, composed of some of the prin-
cipal functionaries of the empire, was, that Government
agents ought not to be authorised to present themselves
at auctions. This is a decisive step towards the corn-
plete abolition of this ruinous system ; let us hope that
it may not be long before it is attempted.
The capitation tax (haradje or djizie) extends only to
the rayas—that is to say, to the non-Mussulman sub-
jects of the Grand Seignor. Every male adult is liable
to the haradje, which is divided, in proportion to their
fortunes, into three classes. The most rich pay 60 pias-
tres annually ; the middle class, 30 piastres ; and others,
only 15. Generally this tax is considered as compen-
sation for military service, to which the rayas have
not hitherto been subject. For a long time the
haradje was collected by special agents, who spared
the rayas neither gratuituous humiliation nor exactions.
Although these abuses have disappeared, it is only
just decreed that the mode of collection shall be
changed, but in the meantime there is no doubt the
character of the impost will be modified. Here-
after the Patriarchs, heads of the different Chris-
tian communities, as well as the Khakale-baelci, or chief
of the Jews, will be the intermediaries between their co-
religionists and the Treasury. It is difficult to believe
that this new mode of collection can be more profitable
to the Treasury than the former—at least until, by a sys-
tem of subscription, the state is able to guarantee a fixed
sum to itself. The tax appears less onerous upon the
population ; this, perhaps, is the single advantage to be
expected from the innovation.

that the vices of legislation have led to false ideas and
erroneous theories upon the principles of revenue, or upon
the conditions of circulation and of credit. No, for it
may be said, to the advantage of Turkey, that there are
not systematic vices in its laws, though there are unfa-
vourable traditions and customs which partake a little of
empiricism. There is no unity, nothing fixed, nothing
stable. It is in these respects that the position of
Turkish finance merits at this moment all the attention
of the Divan.

In ordinary times the Government would not disturb

itself at all about the revenue, if it balanced the expenses.
Unfortunately, it has been sufficient if the harvest had
disappointed the expectations of the cultivators, or if the
produce of corn was diminished by some evil influence of
the climate, to place the Turkish budget in a deficit ; or
else there arose some diplomatic incident of a nature to
require measures of defence, and it was necessary to
augment the contingent of the army, so that again the
expenses would infallibly exceed the receipts. How
would it be if, for the want of reform, the Government
shou'd think of adequately endowing all the services
which, like that of public instruction, are still upon suf_
ferance ? In the present state of the financial legisla-
tion of the empire, the revenue depends, we perceive,
a little upon the caprices of chance. It has no certain
basis. It might, however, be increased in enormous
proportions without embarrassing the people by the
mere effect of an intelligent organisation. A rapid exa-
mination of the Turkish budget, of which we do not
pretend to embrace the whole, will leave no doubt, we
believe, as to the importance of the advantages which
financial reform would ensure to the empire.
For some years the ordinary revenue of Turkey has
not exceeded the amount of 750,000,000 piastres, and
it has not been below 650,000,000. In order to explain
this variation, it is sufficient to say that the principal
sources of income are the tenths upon the produce Of
the soil and the Customs. The expenses, which are
more easy to determine than the receipts, have reached
to 733,400,000 piastres. The details of a Turkish bud.
get are very different froth those of a budget among the
people of the West. We may judge:of this by the follow-
ing table of receipts and expenditure, which, indeed, it
is otherwise curious to compare. The expenditure is
divided in the following manner among the different

We shall now touch upon a subject of an interest not
less great, and which takes us less-from the economic
ideas of the West—the Customs, The Customs system

of Turkey is based upon treaties concluded with the
European powers. In 1838 the Porte negotiated simul-
taneously with France and England a treaty of com-
merce,
aee
merchandise
cdchse
ns widgil
sni
ei
ecdh
importedwEi
tnhg ltahneidnstfiuo
lr
tTsat
un,
ka
Ane
ydc
cFpoarr
pays
sni
ncagen
tsoh
importto
hritsl shortly
raedfaut et
duty
of 5 per cent., which is divided thus— 3 per cent. for the
import duty, properly so called, and 2 per cent. supple.
mentary duty on leaving the Custom-house, in replace-
ment of ancient traffic dues in the interior. Merchan-
dise, the produce of the soil or the industry of the Otto-
man empire, pays an export duty of 12 per cent.-9 per
cent. upon its arrival at the place where it is to be
embarked, and 3 per cent. upon embarkment. This duty
of 12 per cent. replaces many duties, which incessantly
varied, to which merchandise was subject when mono.
poly absolutely prohibited sale and importation. To lay
a duty of 12 per cent. upon the export of native pro-
ducts when the importation of foreign merchandise is
only subject to a duty of five per cent., may appear to
some minds a ruinous absurdity. The arrangement, in
fact, seems contrary to the principles which regulate
the customary relations of industrious and commercial
countries. But, independently of the political interests
which made it the duty of Turkey to sign this treaty,
two fundamental circumstances justified it in the eyes
of the Sultan. An agricultural power, he imposed
nothing upon the land ; he might then, and ought to,
impose a duty upon its products. From this point of
view the organisation of the Customs is the least pre-
pared for criticism, and it is the least susceptible in it-
self of improvements profitable to the Treasury. The
Turkish Government may at once draw from it a very
superior revenue to that which it now receives. In
what manner ? Not by endeavouring to modify its
commercial conventions with foreign 'powers, but by
encouraging production and circulation at the same
time within the bosom of the empire. Who can doubt
that upon this territory, at once so vast and so fertile,
agriculture could not do wonders, if with practicable
means of communication for conveyances between all
the great cities, and in the neighbourhood of the sea ?
On the other hand, the same advantages of transport,
more rapid and less costly, having for its purpose to
bring nearer to the doors of its population foreign com-
merce and manufactures, imports as well as exports,
would receive new encouragement and fresh develop-
ment. This is the only means of augmenting the Cus-
toms revenue, and a reform of this kind, would, with-
out any doubt, give the most happy impulse to the for-
tunes of private individuals as well as to those of the
State.

It remains for us now to describe the difficulties
which 'constitute a deplorable clog to commercial de-
velopment and financial progress. We wish to speak
of the coin of Turkey, and of the enormous difference
which exists between the intrinsic and the nominal value
of the greatest part of its circulating medium. The
necessity of arresting the depreciation of the piastre has
provoked the organisation of an ensemble of operations
called at Constantinople "le system du maintien des
changes." It is useless to add that the efficacious-
ness of these measures is as iinFortant to European
commerce as it is to Turkey. Commerce is no
longer possible where a bargain for time, the stipu
lation being in piastres, may, by a sudden deprecia-
tion not unexampled, be attended, to the seller, with a
loss of 50 per cent. Admitted that commerce may be a
Proteus sufficiently skilful to find other means of ex-
change, it is manifest that the transition cannot be ac-
complished without some great financial catastrophe.
As to the Turkish Government, in the position in
which the nature of its riches and commercial treaties
place it, it ought to be able to pay for the products of
Europe with European money, instead of losing at a
single coup all the difference which there is between the
real and the nominal value of the Turkish piastre.
For more than a century the Ottoman Sovereigns,
perceiving the amount of their extraordinary expenses,
have adopted the ruinous and immoral practice of alter-
ing the standard of the Mint, leaving to their successors
the unmerited chastisement of an improvident abuse of
their absolute power. The Turkish piastre corresponded
at the first in value to sf. 20c, Since its last alteration,
at the time of the war against Russia in 1828, it has be-
come, under the form of beehliks, or piece of five pins-
tres, a coin of a standard so reduced that in cases where
its current value, if regulated by the real value, shoule
be eight piastres, it will pass for only lf. The two ex-
treme terms then are, the piastre before the year 1710
was worth more than five francs; while the piastre of
1828 does not correspond to twelve centimes. It is esti-
mated that there are 400,000,000 piastres of this coin is:
circulation. These pieces, with notes (Kayines), con-
stitute almost alone the original Turkish money in the
Ottoman empire. The other coins current in Turkey
are, with the piece of six piastres (altilik) of an altered
standard, which formerly contained about 462 milliemes
of pure silver, the ancient gold pieces of 20 piastres,
the new gold pieces of 100 piastres, and of 50 piastres,
the new silver pieces of 20, 10, 5,2, and 1 piastres,
which contain, in gold or in silver, a proportion equal to
the quantity admitted into the fabrications of money by
the European Governments. It is estimated that about
200,000,000piastres is about the value of the money struck
in these coins since 1844. Unfortunately, they have
by degrees completely retired from circulation, by
reason of the speculations which they have caused. To
this enumeration of coin of Ottoman origin must be added
foreign coins, the number of which varies according ,to
the rise or fall in the prices attributed to them. The
following is the tariff established in 1844 by the Turkish
Government, for the principal foreign moneys in the
Constantinople market :
Good Spanish piastres 22 piastres 32 punts.
Talaris of Austria 21 „ 30 „
Five-franc pieces 21 „ 10 „
Carboranz Russes 16 37
Ducats—Holland, Venice,
and Austria 50 „
There are 40 paras in the piastre. Unfortunately this
official tariff never has been, and is now still less likely
to be, the measure of foreign values. In commercial
transactions the Carboranz is received for 18 piastres,
the ducat for 52, and so on for the rest.
From 1828, the date of the last alteration in the
piastre, to 1834, the exchange—that is to say, the prac-
tical relation between the piastre and the pound sterling
—has varied from 60 to 08. It has not since exceeded
these figures, although by reason of the intrinsic value
of the pieces of five piastres, the piece of English gold
had a real value of 225 piastres. We may conceive what
disastrous fluctuations resulted from this to European
commerce in Turkey.
In 1834, when Turkey received from Greece, as the
price of her cession of territory, the sum of 18,000,000
piastres, the idea was conceived of a banking operation
to prevent further great disasters. This operation con-
sisted in furnishing to the merchants established in Turkey
all the paper which was necessary for them to make their
returns to Marseilles, Vienna, Paris, and London. They
succeeded in effect in maintaining the exchange at 981
for the pound sterling for about two years. After some
fluctuation it rose to 1271. In 1843, the Divan again
put in force the system of maintaining the exchanges,
combined with a gradual emission of a coinage of good
alloy in replacement of the altered mouey, which they
should have demonetised at the rate of 7,500,000 piastres
per annum. The operations commenced, and they have
not been interrupted ; only they have renounced too soon
the demonetisation of the beehliks.
This time they took for the basis of the real value the
ancient gold piece of 20 piastres, and they fixed at 110
the relation of the piastre to the pound sterling. At the
same time an imperial ordonnance interdicted the circu-
lation of all foreign money, and of all the ancient foreign
money which bad induced so much speculation. These
were received and changed in the Mint. As to the
foreign moneys the exchange was facilitated by transac-
tions with Europeans. The subjects of the Grand
Seignor, however, were prohibited from receiving them
in payments. These resolutions, notified to all the em-
bassies, and put into force did not excite any serious re-
clamations. All the financial agents had at their disposi-
tion the necessary funds to operate the exchanges.
Abuses re-appeared in proportion, and with the conse-
quences of political commotion in Europe there was in
the end a financial crisis disastrous to Turkey. Such
are at the present moment the consequences of the abuse
of foreign money. Constantinople is not only the patrintie
ci.-
pal entrcpot of the commerce of Turkey, but ite i
colonial I
s
same time the point through which pass all th
produce, and all the manufactured articles intended
for Persia and the states of Western Asia. The stuffs
ORDNANRCENRIFLE MUSKET. Captain Sir Thomas
and the fabrics of England penetrateexteiided equally by
means of a very active
an official visit to
the Caucasus, and Hastings,thetoard
;:dannd Gunner, Esq., two
_ officer! of
trade into the provsinsces andof
' All this merchandize is of 0 Ordnance,
celebrated
ci for
fir some
m o
f dcaiT
vs
eps as to into the heart of
. makers, Birmingham, relative to an order, issued bythe
paid for in Russian Carboranz. Every time this Russian
higher than its
Master-General, for the immediate supply' of 20,000 rifle
gun-
money obtains at Constantinople a rate
real value, there is an affiux of them ; and what hap-
muskets, of a similar bore to that hitherto made for the
pens . Why the Turkish Government is reduced to , use of the Ordnance corps.—Kentish licrcury.

though still laborious, is become easier than it was in
die first days of reform, and the men who have taken,
with the Sultan Mahmoud and his young successor, the
initiative in these innovations, have too much patriotism
to stop half way.

STATISTICS OF THE FRENCII NAVY.

A report on the French navy by M. Ducos, Minister
of Marine, has appeared in the Moniteur. The Minister
shows that, with a budget of 40,000,000 f. less in amount
than in the time of Louis Philippe, he has increased the
power of the French navy to an extent that was never
before witnessed in the same period of time, and has
nevertheless a surplus of 10,000,000 f. on the budget of
1852. He proposes to return half that surplus to the
Treasury, and to apply the other half to the present
budget. The following is an analysis of the report :
The budget for the navy, it states, was fixed for 1852
at 117,225,778 f., and for 1853 at 117,181,001 E, being
less by 40,000,000 f. than the budgets of 1847 and 1848.
The following are some of the advantageous results ob-
tained :-Ist, the previsions of the budget only applied
for 1852 and 1853 to 130 armed vessels, but 160 have
been kept at sea. 2dly, these same previsions only ap-
plied to 30,745 able-bodied seamen for 1852, and 27,249
for 1853, whereas the average number has been 33,675 ;
3dly, France possessed only one squadron of eight
line-of-battle ships, whereas at present she possesses
two squadrons, composed of fourteen ships of the
line, exclusive of a proportionate augmentation
in the number of frigates and steam corvettes ;
4thly, the French navy did not comprise any steam line-
of-battle ship, completely terminated, but the Napoleon
has been finished, and for the last year has formed part
of the Mediterranean squadron. Mthly, the navy pos-
sessed no mixed line-of-battle ship, whereas at present
it has four completely finished, and nine others in the
course of transformation, and the engines of which are
on the point of being delivered. These nine vessels can
be put to sea at the end of the year. 6thly, six new
steamers on the model of the Napoleon have been laid
on the stocks ; by the end of the present year they will
be urged on to the 12-24ths of their completion, and will
be launched at the end of next year. 7thly, the greater
number of the steam frigates which were disarmed leave
been placed in commission de port." Bthly, the penal
settlements of Guyana have received their first establish-
ment, and nearly 3,000 convicts have been sent there,
9thly, the works in the port of Cherbourg have been
urged on with great activity, a sum of 4,000,000 f.
having been accorded to them from the present
budget. 10thly, the works at Castignau, which are
to complete the port of Toulon, have been under-
taken with the ordinary resources of the year,
and have already received a first sum of 1,000,000 f.
llthly, a careening dock was wanted at Rochefort ; it
has been commenced, and has already received a first
credit of 200,000 E ; and 12thly, a number of matters
connected with the navy have been undertaken without
any extra resources, such as the reconstitution of the
reserve, the augmentation of the pay of the non-commis-
sioned officers, the amelioration in the quality of the
bread for the navy, &c. The expenses of all these im-
provements have been defrayed from the ordinary re-
sources of the budget ; and far from the sum appropriatedley
to the purchase of stores having been augmented,
have left a sum of ten millions disposableroml,Bosl.
That sum arises from three several causes—
the postponement of several important contracts, delayed
by the circumstance of force majeure.
causes—first,
the value of
Steam
engines,
tools, and large supply of stores,
to
3,800,000 f., which were to have been delivered. in the
last months of 1852, were not sent
until 1853 ;
bysurveillance s of
secondly, from reductions effected inarroiouus s branches of
the service ; and, thirdly, them and over the rigorous
various
exercised by the ministers at all momenta,
minutest details of every department
of the ten millions by
of the navy. The
report then proposes to dispose
restoring
five millions to the treasury, and carrying over
the other five millions to the budget of 1853. IV means
01 this la' ter sum t h report
to 3s
declareso o
otll
fe. engagements
• de-
frayed ;
g
alluded to above,amounting
also the increase in the price of \,aittuesxstetonrteos
such i
wines,
otherto .5,000,000 f will serve to.
meet the expense caused by the creation of a second
squadron,
whichhas been rendered necessar by the
complication
complication of events in the east. By the ap ropria-
tion of the 10,000,000 f. remainin r over from 1852, . -
will be .1.)1(, r°lll
1852, the
minister declares that lie
ex-
penses, ordinary and ex to meet all the tra.ordina'ry2of his department,
without making any new
vdemand on the public treasury.
Tire report is followed by an Imperial decree, carrying
out the suggestions of the minister.