The Sun.
London, England, 1822-07-01 00:00:00

RUSSIAN FINANCES.

( From the " Conservateur Impartial" of St. Petersburgh.)
The Council of Superintendence over the Public Debt having
met on the 18th of this month (May), his Excellency Count
Gourieff, Minister of Finances, opened the Sitting by the

following Discourse :
GEXTLEMEN—By the Manifest of the 7th May, 1817, this
Council is charged with the examination of the annual ac-
counts, and all the new measures which relate to these institu-
tions. In your last Sitting a project was presented to you for
an Assurance Bank, and for an Office of Loans, for the Pro-
prietors of Trades and Manufactures. You have examined
them with all the attention which objects of this importance
demand; and after having made such amendments as you
judged useful, you unanimously consented to their adoption.
This happy agreement confirms me in the hope that at the mo-
ment when these regulations are put in force, after having re-
ceived the sanction of his Majesty, they will serve to consoli-
date, to extend, and to give prosperity to the enterprises of our
manufacturers. At present, Gentlemen, lam going to submit
to your inspection the accounts of the public debt for the year
1821 ; but before you examine them in detail, it is my duty
to present to you a statement of their principal operations ; the
comparison of their several improvements will show how much
we have to expect from them in future.

SINKING FUND.
The public debt is divided into three parts—that contracted
for before the institution of this fund—that which arises from
the loans made to diminish the mass of paper money—and,
lastly, that which bas been contracted for since the institution
of the Sinking Fund, in order to meet the unforeseen demands
of the different branches of'the administration,_
The first is composed, of our debt to Holland—of that for a
fixed period,—to the-chest of the Imperial Foundling Hospital,
and to other public establishments ; and debts of which the
capital is not payable but upon perpetual' annuities, as Well
from the Imperial. Treasury as from those of war anti marine.
The amount of these latter, and especially those of the 'War
Office, has not been known till after an examination which
presented great difficulties. The inquiry still continues ; and,
with the exception of certain claims, the amount of which has
not been ascertained, but which cannot be any thing consider-
able, we observe that the state of these debts inscribed on the
great book, since the opening of the Commission to the 31s'
of December, 1821, is as follows : •
The debt to Holland, remaining at the
expence of Russia -
Debts payable at a fixed
period in Russia -
Capital of Perpetual Rents

50,1.100,000 florins

3,302,025 roubles 44 c. metal
62,258,239 34 c. assig.
8,344,392 —93. meta:,
141,808,500 assig,

So that all our our debts

in the country up to

the year 1817 amount-
ed to - - 11,646,418 roubles 38 c. metal.
And - - - 204,068,739 -- 34 assig.
By the Manifesto of April, 1817, it has been ordained, with
respect to these debts, to transmit every year to the Com-
missioners of the Sinking Fund thirty millions of assign-
ments on the Bank, as well for their redemption or repay-
ment as for the discharge of the interest of the tentes.
This interest demanded for the first year a sum of more than
20 millions (as much as 20,190,764 roubles); there remained,
therefore, for the liquidation of the capital, less than 10 mil-
lions, of which about one million (making 500,000 florins) is
destined for the repayment of the Dutch debt : the rest has
been assigned to debts contracted in the country.
Those of which the payment was not fixed at precise periods,
have been converted into perpetual mites, of which a part has
been made redeeniable; the rest not redeemable or unalienable
at the will of the creditor.
The first have amounted originally to
A capital of -
The second to

117,581,000
24,227,500

In all - - 141,808,500
For the redemption of the first, a Sinking Fund of two per
cent. on the amount has been created. It is annually increased
by the rentes redeemed. These debts had been reduced on the
let of January, 1822, to the following capital sums :
Debt of Holland - - 48,600,000 florins
Debts at terms - - 8,063,080 metallic currency
23,110,904 paper

Perpetual rentes in metallic
roubles _ " _