The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-30 00:00:00

"In the financial report which, at a similar epoch last
year, I had the honour to submit to your Majesty, I
stated at the end of the year 1852 the total of the de-
ficits of the budget would be 758,000,000 f., including
the 78,000,000 f. which the State reimbursed to fund-
holders in consequence of the conversion of the Five per
Cents. In these deficits the portion of the year 1852
was, by estimate, set almost 28,000,000 f. Facts, how-
ever, have exceeded ' zity hopes. The deficit of 1852
will not attain 26,600,000 f., which will reduce by
2,000,000 f. the total of deficits previous to the year
1853. Thanks to the happy results which I have just
pointed out, the yew: 1853 will add nothing, or almost
nothing, to these deficits ; it will not leave any charge
on our financial situation. The Emperor knows that
the existence of a large deficit, far from being an em-
barrassment for the Treasury, is for it a necessity, on
account of the obligation under which it is and must be
to receive the funds of the savings' banks, public estab-
lishments, and several other current accounts. In ordi-
nary times, with these 'obligatory current accounts, the
Treasury is' sometimes exposed to having too much in
hand. At present, although some of these sources are
becoming dried up,. • although the dearness of food
diminishes the deposit% in the savings' bank, and although
the communes are withdrawing a part of their funds in
order to give work during the winter, the Treasury has
still sufficient resourcers on hand. We have just paid the
half-year's dividend of 3 percent. ; we are in the month of
the year in which the collection is the least considerable;
and yet the sum in- Snd is 34,000,000 f. The portfolio
contains, besides, in cithmercial bills, Customhouse
draughts and bonds of the, indirect taxes, in the bills and
bonds of the purchases of the wood and of cuttings of
wood, and in neotiable bonds of railway companies,
157,000,000 f., of which 80,000,000 f. fall due in 1854,
and the—greater part of them' within a short time ;
33,000,000 f. in 1855, and 44,000,000 f. in 1856, and the
following years. The Treasury may then dispose, on
the day it 'spay requirftof very important resources,
which are at (resent 6r WO be immediately in hand.
" THE YEAR 1854.
" Fixed by the law of the 10th Juno, 1853, the budget
of 1854 has been established with a surplus of 3,500,0001.
(3,467;640f.) Unforeseen wants have already made
themselves felt ; but we may calculate on an increase in
the receipts, since, in the year 1853, the indirect taxes
gave a sum superior to that at which they were esti-
mated for 1854.±

" THE YEAR 1855.

"The Council of State is at this moment examining
the budget of 1855. It presents an equilibrium. The
budget of 1851, that which preceded your accession, left
a deficit of 101,000,000 f. The deficit of 1852 has only
amounted to 26,000,000 f. ; that of 1853 will be only
about 4,000,000 f. This progress will, I hope, continue,
and, except in the case of extraordinary wants for 1854,
the equilibrium will become customary in our finances,
as it should be the rule of them.
"I have concluded, sire, the account of the financial
situation of the empire. This statement is not less satis-
factory than that which, at a similar period last year, I
had the honour to submit to you. 1852 and 1853, two
memorable years in the political history of France, will
be also remarkable in her financial history. During these
two years, at the same time that the Emperor re-esta-
blished order and authority, he has re-established the
public and the private prosperity ; without new taxes,
or a new charge for the country, the Emperor has main-
tained the reduction of the salt-tax and lessened the land-
tax ; without a loan, your Majesty has executed in two
years extraordinary public works to the amount of
150,000,000 E—the expense of which works might, how-
ever, have been cast on the future, which will enjoy the
fruits of them ; and, instead of borrowing, your Majesty
has by the conversion and paying off of the Five per
Cents. reduced by 21,500,000 f. the annual interest of the
public debt.
"To record these great results, sire, is to state anew
the profound gratitude which France feels for your Ma-
jesty, which has raised so high the prosperity and the
grandeur of the empire. I am, with the most profound
respect, &c., " BINEAtr, Minister of Finance."

( From the Times.)
Among the means employed to throw doubts on the
determination of the French and English Governments
to act with becoming energy in the present state of
affairs in the East, some use has been made of the
alleged financial difficulties of the French Government,
and the embarrassed condition of the resources of that
empire. To these statements the French Minister of
Finance, M. Bineau, replies by an official report, which
we publish elsewhere, on the financial results of the year
1853 ; and, if credit is to be attached to this document,
the Imperial Government has much reason to congratu-
late itself on the management of the national Treasury.
M. Bineau boasts that in the two years which have
elapsed since Louis Napoleon assumed absolute power
the financial affairs of the country have greatly improved.
Without imposing any new tax upon the people, the re-
duction of the duty on salt has been maintained, and
some diminution effected in the charges on land. Without
any fresh loan, 150,000,000 f. have been spent in public
works for the embellishment of the capital and the im-
provement of the territory ; and, on the other band, the
reduction of the Five per Cents. to a Four-and-a-Half
per Cent. Stock has enabled the Government to save
about 800,0001. on the interest of the fundeddebt. In
the meanwhile the annual deficit has been reduced by ahe
large increase in the ordinary sources of rteiveen
eusetimates
whole deficiency on the year 1853, from
as voted, with the addition of certain extraordinary and
unforeseen expenses, would have amount
meet ted to no less
than 4,000,000/. sterling; but, to his dfi-
ciency, there has been an increase m the receipts, over
and above the estimated revenue, of more than 3,aeodoofi,gouo
betweenr:
d.
sterling, and the greater part
.of. the remaindery is made
up by the withdrawal of certamittehmesdwiffetcrhenhe
in the estimates ; insomuch that
the revenue actually received and the actual expenditure
of last year is stated to be only 160,000/. The direct and
indirect taxes of the year 1852 produced 66,500,000 f.
(2,800,000/.) more than the preceding year ; and the
year 1853 has produced 42,000,000 f. (1,750,0001.) more
than 1852. M. Biueau asserts, with some reason, that
this increase of revenue in two years is almost unex-
ampled in financial history ; but he appears to forget
that he compares these years with a period of great
depression and calamity immediately preceding them,
and that they are not so much a positive increase of reve-
nue as a return to that state of things which the Rove-
`ution of February had for a time destroyed. The iu

crease in the revenue of France during the best years
of the reign of Louis Philippe (from 1831 to 1846) was
303,000,0001.; but this advance indicated, from year to
year, the steady progress of the country. The compa-
rison instituted by M. Bineau indicates the frightful
oscillations in the resources of a great nation, which are
the consequence of revolution. The budget of the year
1848 was ultimately closed with a loss of 560,000,000 f.,
which were provided by extraordinary resources. A
similar comparison might, therefore, be drawn between
" Pieces of 10 centime 5..........

2,986,864 f.
1,810,896
33,331
106,862

5 19

2 pf

1 PP

4,937,975 f.
+ They yielded in 1853 852,541,000f.
The budget of 1851 only eatimated them at 851,256,060 j