The Sun.
London, England, 1824-04-08 00:00:00

speech :

"`Gentlemen,—Several favourable causes have raises' our.
Trifles to (Le high rate at which we now see then.
• " Among these causes, some—such as the !gate o: our
the guarantees given by our institutilns, our punctuality
in iulMling ty.•.r engagements, the continued and increasing ac-
tion of our sinlting fund—belong to us, eiall preserve
their Advantages. Others are, in part, foreign to us, and
-41(pend upn events.

" Our credit still feels the sensible effect of transitory cir-
cumstances, which, even when they shall have versed to exist,
-willieave useful traces, but Of which we must take advattage
eschen they are in all their forCe : prudence dictates that we
should take advantage of every thing accidental and transitory.
Amok; these latter circumstances,
.1 shall only advert to the
impulse given to the rate of our public funds by the success of
our last loan, the operations going on in a neighbouring coun-
try to reduce the. interest of a part of its debt, the kind of fever
for a, ride wfill has seized all the markets where the public
hinds of Enrop,e are negociable, and,finally, the mani.a for lend-
- ing, which has furnished for some time the facility of borrow-
-44 on any-s.e,.:urhy. Whatever there may be in these alleged
• causes, the facts are these : our rentes are above par ; they are
evil sold above it under the knowledge of an approaching, re-
payment, er of .a reduction of the interest to four per cent. They
would have riser: to 110 cr 115 if the frankness of the Govern-
-meet had not made its intentions known in proportion mit con-
ceived the hopes of realizing them.
• " Two special evils.would result to the public interest froin
this state of. things : the first is the daily purchaSe.by the sink-.
ing fund, that is to sayby the tax-payers, of the rentes at a
- rate above par ; the second, the continuance to the State of an
interest of five per cent., while the price of the roues would be'
such as to give purchasers only a much lower rate.
"A per lest administration must look out for the most just
and ei.leacious means of putting an end to these evils. You
would have a right to charge it with carelessness if it remained
indifferent to faots too much connected with the public interests,
and. to the des-elopement-of the public wealth, not to merit all
its attention. Our reflections on this important matter have I
convinced us, that the only means of drawing from existing Cir.
-eumstances all that is favourable, was to be able to offer •to the
holders of our public funds, bearing an interest of -5 per cent.
the rehnbursernent of their capital, or the conversion of their
stock into ese bearing a less-interest. It was likewise a part of
-our duty to ensure the means of effectually maltinga repayment
if it should- he called for, 'for the justice of the measure as well
-as its success rested on this possibility. It was, after 'having
acquired this certainty, and when we could assure you that by
the means which, we demand of you, its success is-inevitable,
-that we present ourselves before you to detail our plan, our
reasons for proposing it, and to ask; your assistance in realizing it.
". The perpetual debt of the State amounts to 197,014,892 fr..
of rentes, at 5 per cent.; but when we consider it with relation
to the proposed operation, we must subtract from it about 57
millions due to the State, to establishments endowed by the
-state, the possession of which is subject to the right of remain-
der hi the State, or of which the use is regulated by particular
tacit. It would be useless, and even impossible, to -compre--
4:2mi the c.onversion•of this portion in the general measure.-
-Ueeless, hecaose we should only operate on our own interests
=impossible, if we must cancel, by a general law, special
- laws, the discussion of which would remove us to a great clis-
tare::: .from the object in view. There remains, then, 140:
-millions of 5 per cent. rentes, which we propoxe, to you to con-
r;p 1,7.2_,13:::.Le:4A.-44 --.-7nvzs-at 3 per cent., or to reimburse
if they p-efer it, the holders of rentes, by selling to others the
3 per cents. which they shall have refused. . i

" The plan of the proposed law. is conceived in the most
simple'terms. Its tendency is to authorise the conversion of
the five per cents. intothree per cents., either by the assent of
the holders, cr by selling the. three per cents., in; ord.r to pay
off the.holders flee per cents. It lays downs the ,linlits with-
in.which the ;:•,iinister may act, a,nl whiell he must not exceed.
The first of t'lf...se limits is that for the interest of the solders.
They will all Lave the option betweerl the re.7llnbursement of
:their nominal 'capital, a: the conversion of their five per cents.
into three Pet cents. at Ti francs.

• The secncd is alio a
,truarantec for the hohlers—thet the
Illinistzt shall negociate tne three per cents., which they have
-refused only at the-sarne rate of 75f.; and a guarantee for the
State, that the operation shall only take place in so far as it
.shall present, as a result, the reduction of a fifth of the interest
on the debt conv:•rted or paid off
" The last limit laid down is commanded by necessity. The
benefit of the reduction to the pttblic Treasury shall not be de-
layed beyond January 1, 18.24.
" We see nothing in the present state of public affairs which
can impede the progress of this operation, if you give it your
as.sent. The following are the reasons which have induced us
to praer it to all others :

To diminish the public burdens by reducing the interest of
-our debt to a rate at which our credit enables us to make new
;loans without injuriag its developmient,-but, on the contrary,
.to its advantage. Such is the happiest result which we can
-draw from circurnstances7L-the desirable point which we aiin at
reaching. - •

" The measure which we propose will procure a reduction of
• 20 or 3h millions, without diminishing the power of the sinking
•fund—without aggravating the conditions of new loans, which.
-extraordinary wants may subsequently render indispelasable
finally, ty effectiag from this momenta realucV,on of the clearge
-of the public' debt to-the rate of 4 per cent., and f)y issuing a
stock may improve in capi+al till it only bring an interest
of 3 per cent., kri;hout being limited in his course of improve-
ment by the fear of being paid off anew. This measure, there-
fore, appears to contain, in the manner the most complete, -all
the elements of prosperity which can be found in a financial
.arrangement. . - • •
" But these advantages ought to he rejected if the right of
the State to relieve itself by repaying the capital were disput.
able—if this repayment. were unjust towards any class of credi-
tors : finally, if it was not a means of rendering actual circum-
stances advantageous to the people, who support, in the long run,
all the public burdens; if there were, I say, another mode of at-
taining the same object, without reducing the interest which we
pay to the fundholder, and without depriving our credit of the
force of continuing to minister to the extraordinary demands
which 'a State like France should always be prepared to meet.
Is a proof required of the right which we-possess to pay the
capital of our consolidated debt ? Let those who doubt coa-
salt the ancient laws ; let them read the edicts issued
for their establishment, the securities issued in virtue of those
edicts, and they will find this right always reserved to the State.
Let them inquire into the new laws, and they will find that the
civil code has formally sanctioned it. Let them consult the
language used in making contracts. The title by which. they ,
have been sold is five per cent. Why state the capital, which
e never,demaralable, lanless for the purpose of acknewledeiLg
that it may be paid off at that rate ? Above all, the happy
Obligation, so to speak, which they have.impoaed upon- us at
-the date of our greatest loans, to endow a sinking fund to 're-
-deem our rentes, would prove -that they not only recognised our
topay:oaToui debt at.par, tut eves that of redeeming it,

as far as we could, at a rate below that cf the nominal capital
at which it was constituted.

" Besides, would the idea of a sinking fund, richly endowed,
be reconcilable with the impossibility of a general re-imburse-
ment, when the power of its action has raised the funds to par ?
Let the partisans of this opinion remove the difficulties which
new present themselves, .and' which Would be felt differently,
since the rentes would. lid higher, if we had not announced our
intention of paying them.ofa Will they propose to us ier:anni-
hilate the stnitin.g fund? But this would be to depart froth
the system, within which they have fenced themselves ; this
WOll ldbe to violate engagements entered into; this would be
to destroy the sources of credit for the future. Will they call
upon us to suspend its action ? This would be to throw dis-
order into the system—to make the sinking fund a means of
jobbing and speculation, and to deprive the State not only of
the right Of paying off its securities by returning the capital,
but eve:. of redeeming its debt in the market by paying a price
higher than' the nominal capital. This would centlemn us to
be always in debt, without ever being able to relieve ourselves:
it Would have the effect (after depriving us of the advantages
stipulated in the original title, which authorizes Us to pay off)
of annihilating the facel!y of redeeming the debt by our sink-
ing fund stipulated for in subsequent acts. The sinking fund
would have only one objecti—that of promoting the interest of
the fundholder: it must then stop the moment that it arrives
at a point of rendering a service to the State.
" The example of countries which have preceded us in the
plan of public credit, gives additional force to the proofs of the
compatibility of this right with the whole system on which it is
founded. • In England, every public fund which is not accom-
panied with an express clause that it shall not be redeemed, is
essentially. redeemable ; and the Minister of that country, who
is now giving 3I per cent. to the holders of fours, in order to
remove the fear of a new repayment, is obliged to enter into
an engagement that he will not exercise this right before a fixed
I time.

. " Thus our ancient Leta, our new laws, our engagements
with oar contractors, the example of other countries, the crea-
tion of a sinking-fund, every thing unites to render incontestable
the-right which we propose to exercise—that of offering to the
holders of our rentes the repayment of their capital, or the di.
mini; tion of interest upon it.
" But is mot the exercise of this right unjust toward some of
our creditors ? those,
for example, who have already been re-
paid two-thirds during, the revolution, and who have received
only adepreciated stack, which they could not realize except
at an enormous loss--ought they not to be excepted from the
present measure ? "
I should have various answers to give to this Objection, ac-
=ding as the exception is made an the ground of justice or
reparation.
We proposea general measure, and we may justly call it
so, although we have not the intention of eperating at present,.
except on the disposable rentes • you can at a later period de
cede with respect to the others what the • good of the State re-
quires ; anti you can do this when the first conversion has taken
place. It would be impossible to discuss the second question
usefully before the disposable part of these rentes has been
converted. and while you are yet ignorant of the results of that
attempt which we propose to make to 'attain that object; the
other, branch of the rentes is adjourned, but not excepted ; it
. can be adjourned without danger, because its conversion, if the
other succeeds; and the law sanctions it, cannot meet with any•
obstacles in the interests of individuals. It would not be so with
the measure the consequences of which we are examining; it is
a real exception from a reduction which we are proposing to you
to apply to all the, individual holders of our certificates, and
from which such of these holders as should prove to have been
formerly repaid would. be exempt. -
" If we should examine the grounds upon which this favour
is to be granted to them, we are forced to acknowledge that the
only ground for it is, that at the epoch, fatal to so many others,
when the State compelled them to receive a repayment, which
it had the right to make. them receive, it executed it fraudu-
lently in depreciated value, so that it used one kind towards
Ithose to whom it owed money, and another towards those who
had shared in the loss occasioned by the assignees. More for-.
Itunate than others, the actual holders of these ancient rentcs
have profited, and are still proceeding to profit, by the improYe-
ment which the restoration occasioned 'to the value of their ca-
pital.;
would it be fair to grant them the additional privilege
of alone holding 5 per cent., when all the remainder shall be
converted into 3 per cent. ? or rather should we change their
certificates, by allowing them the privilege of changing them.,
upon terms different from those of the other holders of the same
rentes ? But ought the party, who has been obliged to alienate
his rentes in consequence of •the pretended repayment of two-
thirds of than,' to be treated less favourably than tile party to
whom that bankruptcy left the means of preserving the lest
third even to the present flints ? And does the party who some
months, or even the evening before that repayment purehr.s,a
at a low price funds sari -eh he saw endangered Ipy a elisas,tirio.ours
measure, does that pasty deserve more. favour than the to ton-qe holder enjoying an annuity for life, cruellyreduced. b a
third, without any hope of indemnifying himself by the im-
provement of his capital ? In examining the question, you will
convince yourselves, gentlemen, that it would be rather an act
of reparation than an act of justice. The proposition being
once reduced to these terms, it will be sufficient to overthrow
it to recognize the inutility of our efforts to efface indiscrimi-
nately all the traces of the misfortunes created by the revolu-
tion ; in those of the species which now engages our attention,
you will find in the first line, without doubt, the holders of
rentes whose ruin the State completed, in erasing from the
great book the total of their inscription ; in the second, the
holders of annuities for life ; finally, those whose perpetual
reuses have been reduced a third by a fictitious repayment.
" 'file injustice of which we are complaining is not the in-
justice of the present times ; that which would be caused by
the exception which is demanded, would press entirely upon our-
selves.
" I leave with satisfaction this painful part of the task which
42 been imposed upon me, after having proved to you, I hope,
On one side the impossibility of repairing all the evils inflicted
in a period so different from that in which we have the happi-
ness to live; and on the other, the necessity of reserving our
power of reparation for such of our past private misfortunes as
are at present a general misfortune.
" It remains for me to examine whether any other method is
reconcilable with the maintenance of the actual rate of interest
1 upon our rentes, the only objection which can be offered to the
proposition whiCh.we have the honour of submitting to you.
"fhere has been a great deal said about the project of re-
ducing the amount of the sinking-fiend, instead of the interest
of cur rentes. To adopt such a project would be to sacrifice the
most valuable results arising from the measure, for the sake of
recurring to accidental resources, which it would be very erro-
neeus to suppose are the principal end.of the operation which
we present to you. The abundance of capital and the extension
cf our credit have sunk the interest of money to such a degree,
- that we can 0f1,,:r,• without danger, and almost without loss to
our creditors, the payment cf the greatest amount of rentes that
was ever submitted in any country to a similar operation —that
is, a reduction to 4 instead of 5 per cent. upon the interest of cur
debt. There is so little doubt as to the success of the measure,
that no other mode is left to combat it than by attacking ita le-
gality or its justice.. I have riot yet heard any person express a
doubt as to its practicability.
64 What stronger proof can be given of the fact which, we ad-
vance, and which ought to decide the whole question—namely,
that the abundance of capital and the credit of the State is Such
that we can borrow at 4 per cent. -in funded stock ?
". In such a situation, ought we to continue to pay 5' per
cent. ? Can we do so without failing in our duty towards those
who pay it, and whose interests we are bound to defend ? Be-
sides, if we examine the effect upon all transactions of every
kind of the rate of interest paid by Government, we shall re-
main convinced; even through 'the reduction of this rate should
produce no diroinutionin the 'public burdens, that it would
still produce a wonderful etlect in putting a stop to the unfortu-
nate ditlerences between the produce of capital employed in the
funds, and the produce of money employed in agriculture, in-
dustry, and commerce.
" Would you give life to these three props of our national
'prosperity, direct the public capital towards them, and endea-
vour that they shall obtain.that capital at the lowest possible in-
terest. In order to accomplish this end, cease to put them, by
the high interest of your funds, into a competition which they
are unable to sustain.

" Any plan which will not accomplish, out of existing cir-
cumstances, a reduction in the interest of the public funds,
will fail in the most important point connected with general
prosperity. - - •
" And do not let us deceive ourselves, the spoliation proposed
of the Sinking Fund would not leave the interests of the stock-
holders so perfectly untouched as is believed. Such a breach of
public faith would quickly affect their capitals, and the credit
of the State, in a degree which we do not hesitate to declare, for
it inevitably would afford equal-subject of complaint to the
stockholder, already used to reckon his capital at a high rate of
interest, and to the payer of taxes, who would be condemned to
furnish for ordinary exigencies 30,000,000 f. more than he wouid
have done; and who, under pressing circumstances, would see
those loans negociated at inferior rates, which, under a better
direction of the operation in question, would have been ziego-
ciated at high ones.

" There is a connecting chain in good as in evil— in the true.
as in the false. Enter the right path, and' all your results,are
fztunate ; take the wrong one, and every thing turns out ill.
" If you reduce the sinking fund to preserve five per cent.
to your stockholders instead of four, it will not be merely five
pa cent. that your funds will produce, in competition with
your agriculture, your industry, and your commerce; it will
be six, seven, or eight, as we have found in situations just simi-
lar, as regarded our public credit, to that which would be
brought on by this violation of the sinking fund.
" I have aln.acly observed, that this system would los:. to t,lit

fundholders upon their capital all that it gained for them upon
their interest ; and let there be no mistake upon that point.
The increase of capital testiltina•' from the progress ofour credit
and the increase of price in our funds, is a real increase of pub-
lic wealth—one of the great elementsnaf prosperity of which so-
ciety at large is entitled to claim the -preservation, because so-
ciet"y at large participates in the benefits of it.
Touch the Sinking fund, and you will see, operating for a
fall, those crowds of speculators; to whom it matters little whe-
ther they act upon a fall or a rise, prbvided that by the move-
ments which draw the public within their ground they are en-
abled to play their game against'.the public, with all the advan-
tageg of dexterity against ignorance.
"in the operation which we propose, on the contrary, there
are embodied all the advantages which are produced by the happy
financial condition at which we have now arrived. We shall
have nothing, as it appears, to do, but to gather, without exer-.
tion, all the fruits which the wistinnt of the King, and the good
fortune of France, have collected for us—to reap all the results.
of a prosperous situation. --
You may
four
rer
prethrence in this conversion ;
P cent., and you owe at five.
You off
and if they_ refuse it, either from whim or from ignorance of
ulestohocrkr..ohwohi a
stock-holders
their true interests, you have your right to pay them off, and
to give others the bargain which they have declined. .
" The change once carried into effect, you will have reduced
the annual charge of the country 30,000,000 f. You will have
substituted, for public funds bearing an interest of five per
cent., and upon the value of which the fear of being paid off,
or of a diminished action by the sinking fund, will at any time
throw the same uncertainty which we observe in the money
market at this moment—you have substituted, I say, for these
a three per cent. stock, which you have put forth at the point
of 75 (that is to say, at a price which pays off' the holders of
the five per cents. at par, and fixes their interest at four) r but
you have freed this fund from the apprehension of being paid
off. It must gain 33 upon the 1-00 before you have a right to
pay it off; and,. as the nio.-e this new stock rises the more the
capital of the country will increase, and the more you will assist
the progress of your own prosperity by reducing the interest of
money, you ought to retain the strength of the sinking fund
cautiously, to assist you in reaching. these results.
" In fine, Gentlemen., when in this situation you shall be forced
to have recourse to your credit, you willcongratulate yourselves
at having preserved it in al) its Power; and you will find in the
nature of the stock which you have in circulation, the same ad-
vantages which I have displayed in those which we are propos-
ing to substitute for the five per cents. If we negotiate a loan
of three per cents at 751 it will cost us four per cent. interest,
and it will be equal, in real capital, to a negotiation of five per
cent. at par.
" I think I have said enough to convince the Chamber of the
superiority of the plan which we propose over that which some
would oppose to it; we shall wait till the discussion to com-
plete the eianlariations which the. Chamber may desire. I-now
read the prcjcet of the law :
" Lou,
" Single ,elrticle.—The Minister of Finance is authorized to
substitute rintes at three per cent. for those already created by
the State at five per cent., whether he effect it by exchanging
the five per tents. for three per cents., or by paying off -the five
per cents. by means of the sale of the three per cents.
" The optration shall not be effected but in so far as—
"
1. Therashall be reserved to the holders of the 5 per cents.
the power of.making their option between the repayment of
their nominal capital and its et:inversion into 3 per cents. at the
rate of 75.

" 2. That :t shall present, as its definitive result, a reduction
of a fifth on tie interest of the debt converted or reimbursed.

" 3. That the Treasury shall enter on the enjoyment of this
reduction of interest on the Ist January, at latest.
" The Minster of Finance shall render a detailed account of
the operation in the coutse of the first following Session of the
Chambers.

(Signed) " LOUIS.
. "Minister Secretary of Finance,
. .
" VILLELE."
" Given at Paris, &c., April 5, 1824." •
[The address of the Chamber of Deputies to the King's
speech, though -in general uninteresting, as being merely an
echo of the speech itself, contains, nevertheless, the following
most important passage in allusion to intended measures for
increasing the revenues of the Church, and indemnifying the
losseS of the emigrants] : .„.
"Four Majesty wishes to close the last wounds of the Re-
volution. It was for the King, who has already redeemed so
many evils, that this great task was reserved. '
your designs shall he aecom-
" Religion requires, for divine worship, protecting laws : fur
its Ministers, an existence more worthy of them.
APRIL s.—Five per Cents. 102 f.
" Unfortunate fidelity asked nothing, but your Majesty lies.
the last tracer of our civil
mindfuli:zin.,l:,:ra oe::t hiplelsiv ih,
dissensions." obliterateda;:a•Acnidtiws,en
40c. ; Loan of
.1823, 161.—Bank Stock, I,94o.—NeaPs alitati 5
'
per Cents., in ducats 96 ; in francs, 100 25.—_Renter d'Esp.
204 ; Royal Spanish Loan of 1823, Mt.—Exchange on Lon-
don, I month,. 2.5 40; 3 months, 25 20.—( Cour:: ..-Izithentique.)