The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-01 00:00:00

consequences are often contrary to first
appearances. The Government, therefore,

did wisely in selecting a person conver-
sant with political economy to investigate this
subject, and the result will amply repay, in use-
fulness, its cost. People must not expect to
find in the reports an account of the French
financial system in general, for the investigation
of this was not committed to Dr. BO%VItING,
but merely an explanation of the character and
working of the financial accounts of France in
detail. This he has done in great perfection,
and those who peruse the reports will not fail to
be struck with the uniformity of the French sys-
tem ; the completeness and efficiency of its ma-
chinery ; and the facility with which the whole
is made to centralize in the department of the
Treasury. The authority cited of M. LAFITTE,
who stated, " that he believed the present French
system to be scarcely susceptible of melioration,"
is doubly valuable from his double experience as a
Minister and a man of business ; and we heartily
hope to see the day when a system equally effi-
cient, regular, and clear, will be substituted for
the loose, irregular, and obscure manner in which
our public accounts are at present kept. We
subjoin some extracts from the second of these
two reports referred to :
. . .

" The system of book-keeping adopted by an indivi-
dual or a Government, though only in fact the history of
financial operations, is very closely connected with the
operations themselves. The business of receipt and dis-
bursement into which the whole subject may be divided,
will be greatly influenced by the manner in which the
operations are arranged with a view to their record in
the Books of Account. The elements of all accounts
are facts—the facts must in every case h'ave some docu-
mentary representative—and it is only when they assume
a document...y shape that they become susceptible of
transfer to those receptacles which are called the Books
of Account. Whenever Government has a claim on
another party, a demand must be made in some form of
notice or other, and the record of that demand becomes

the first element in an account of- receipts. When the
payment is really effected, the record of that payment is
the second element of account ; and these two circum-
stances, of claim and payment, which are represented by
the assessment (droits constatds), and the recovery (droits
perc•us) become the facts which a good system of book-
keeping will group in the most concise, complete, and
intelligible manner, under the d fferent heads of income.
So, in the case of claims against the Government for
services performed by parties, and of responsibilities in-
curred by the Government authorities, notice in some
shape or other must be given to Government, of the na-
ture and amount of that claim, and the responsibility
consequent upon it. The claim is either admitted or re-
jected ; if admitted, the record of the admission becomes
the first element t) be transferred to the account books.
The second stage is the order for payment, which must
be issued in some way, so as to give information to the
claimant ; and the record of such information given is
another element of account. But the transaction is not
completed till the payment is toads, and of that 'payment
notice must be given by the payer ; the record of which
notice becomes the third and final element for completing
the account of the transaction. Every stage of operation
is thus a stage of account, hearing with it its appro-
priate record. The necessity of taking cognizance of three
stages in all matters of disbursement, and of only two in
matters of receipt, in the business of public accounts, is
this—that a Government recognises no step between the
claim and the payment of its demand. It is the fact of
payment that discharges the debt ; but in the case of a
claim upon a Government, when that claim is admitted,
and the order for payment issued, the issue of the order for
payment to the individual is the discharge of the Govern-
ment as towards that individual, though in its accounts
with the public the Government, or the Department,
cannot debit the public for the amount until the amount
is actually paid. These records, then, being, according to
established usages, transferred chronologically to such
books as are employed for their reception, are the elements
out of which the public accounts are to be created ; and
the great object of inquiry is, in what manner they ca❑
be best arranged, so as to present their results in the most
satisfactory shape. To present them in their multitu-
dinous individuality, is obviously iMpracticable ; the
science of book-keeping has been applied to the arrange.
ment of them under appropriate heads, both with reference
to the time of their occurrence and their distinguishing

character ; and it is obvious that no result can be satis-
factory in which this arrangement blends facts of a dif-
ferent character under the same head, or facts of the same
character under different beads. In the one case there
would be confusion ; in the other, diffuseness ; in bath,
liability to error. Hence, it is clear, that in no case should
the facts of a claim be blended with the fact of a pay-
ment ; they are distinct circumstances, and must occupy
distinct positions. Hence again, accounts of one period
must not be confounded with the accounts of another
period ; and when the objects are accomplished, of bring-
ing every financial fact under the bead to which it belongs,
and within the portion of time to which it belongs,
by a lucid and uniform system, little will remain for the
public accountant but to centralize his materials, in order
to offer, in the most compact form, a correct tabular view
of the whole financial situation of the State.

" The important preliminary, then, to the harmonious
arrangement and final centralization of the public ac-
counts, is the registration of all the facts, in the order
and under the dates in which they occur, and with a
special regard to the character of the fact itself. No ac-
counts can be clear, which do not present the facts of
account in their real shape and regular order. No estimate
must be confounded with a receipt or a disburse ; no
contingency, with an established claim ; no claim, with
an order for payment : no order for payment, with the
payment itself. Your Lordships will have seen that, for
the purpose of keeping the different stages of the accounts
of France separate and distinguishable, the business of
examination and the business of payment are held to be
incompatible. The separation of the attributes of different
departments, leads of necessity to the separation of opera-
tions, and the separation of operations to distinctness in
recording those operations. But the business of operation
and the business of record go on together until the admi-
nistrative part is completed. The general department of
accounts of the central administration of finance then re-
ceive s the registered facts from the various sources of in-
formation, and arranges the whole so as to represent the
financial situation of the country."
" Under these different heads I shall endeavour to de-
velope the system now in operation in France.
" I have stated, that the Double Entry system has been
adopted in France as the best and completest instrument
for giving efficiency to the different principles on which
the financial records of France are grounded : and of
these principles, the power of controul exercised by the
Legislature over the whole field of service, is entitled to
the primary consideration."

The following are extracts from Brussels and
German Papers received this morning :

BRUSSELS, OCT. 27.—Pour ordinances of the King
prescribe the formation of local Boards of Health in several
towns of the provinces of Brabant, Antwerp, East Flan-
ders, and Limburg. The monetary system will be laid be-
fore the Chambers according to at tide 74 of the Consti-
tution, and that very shortly. The decimal system will be
introduced, the unit being of the value of a franc, and to
be called a livre. There will be in silver also half livres,
and no other silver coin : in gold there will be pieces of
ten and tweitty livres ; in copper of ten centimes and of
two centimes, representing our ancient liard. At pre-
sent there are to be no pieces of forty, five, and two livres,
as being less necessary.
Yesterday four mercantile expresses, all from Paris,
arrived here with despatches from Brussels, Antwerp, and
Amsterdam.
The Journal of the province of Liege sass, " It is re-
ported that news has been received to-night at the citadel
that the Dutch have made a movement in advance, and
that 5,000 men are marching towards Venloo." Neither
the Politique nor the Courrier de la Meuse mention this
fact.
Lord W. Russell, attached to the English Legation, ar-
rived here yesterday from London.
The army of the north will not be dissolved. This
army is about 80,000 strong. About 40,000 men will
remain in their cantonments on our frontiers, ready to
enter Belgium at the first summons. ' The remainder of
the army returns into the interior of France.
Our private letters inform us that the Dutch, since the
inundations they have made in Zealand, have withdrawn
all the troops, except 400 men, and have sent them to
other places; that the garrison of Antwerp has been rein-