The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-20 00:00:00

succeeded in alienating half a million from the sa-
cred treasure for the current service. in 4/64 he
took 1,200,000/. ; in 1735 and 1736 the produce
of the taxes devoted to that fund was anticipated
and mortgaged. In 1739, and the eleven following
years, it was wholly applied to the current ex-
penses of every year ; and it was made to contri-
bute to everything except the reduction of the debts
of the nation, which went on to increase.
This precedent is no less striking in illustration
of the main principle than in the minor points of
chronological detail ; and that principle is, that
funds accumulated, upon whatever system, for the
professed purpose of reducing the public burdens,
have usually served as an encouragement to the
extravagance of Governments, and as a pretext to
veil from the nation the real consequences of its
policy—in a word, to provide resources for the cor-
ruption of a Walpole, or the prodigality of a Thiers.
In England, at least, voices were raised against
that alienation of the sinking fund ; but in France
the institution has survived the principle in which
it originated, and it seems to be regarded on all
hands as the natural resource of a Government in
distress. Indeed, of late years, large sums have
been voted from it for public works of various
kinds; and, as these works will now be suspended
for seven years by the appropriation of the fund to
military purposes, the real effect of that appropria-
tion will be to paralyze an important branch of the
current service, which had been defrayed from that
source ; whilst the Administration will find itself
condemned by the engagements of this year to
forego all assistance from a fund on which the con-
tingencies of the State have naturally been thrown.
We now come to the loan of from 20,000,0001.
to 25,000,0001. sterling, which is to cover the re-
mainder of the deficit. M. Humann claims great
credit for having gained time for his inevitable ope-
ration, and he boasts that he has succeeded in
placing Treasury bills to a large amount, which
will facilitate the ultimate consolidation of the
loan. With the mode of operation we have nothing
to do ; but the substantial nature of the loan itself
is, of course, a matter of considerable interest to
the European public.
'The first question to be asked is, of course,
what are the ordinary resources of the revenue ?
What probability is there that the future expen-
diture of France will be so diminished, or her in-
come so increased, that the finances of the country
will have time to recover their equilibrium, and an
annual surplus enable her to efface from the public
accounts the additional burdens of the present time ?
The budget of France, as calculated for the
year 1842,is taken at its maximum at 1,162,000,0001.
or about 46,000,0001. sterling. More then half of
this revenue is raised by direct taxes on land and
on persons, to the amount of 606,000,000 f. per
annum, of which 450,000,0001. are levied upon
landed property alone, including the stamp duties
upon the transfer and hypothecation.of that species
of property, being about one-third of the total
landed income of France ; another third of that
income is tied up upon private mortgages, which
are known to represent a capital of more than
eleven milliards of francs, or 440,000,0001. sterling.
From this source no further revenue can be drawn.
The revenue arising from the taxes on consumable
commodities is only 341,000,000 f., including
customs duties to an amount of little more
than 100,000,000 f., or about one-fifth of what
the revenue of Great 'Britain derives from
the same source. Here, without doubt, a large in-
crease might be effected, but it. can only be the re-
sult of a gradual and extensive development of the
commerce of France, under the influence of fair and
unrestricted intercourse with the rest of the world.
The various Government monopolies produce
153,000,0001., and the domains of the state
62,000,0001. more. But of the total revenue of
1,162,000,0001. arising from these sources,
562,000,000 f. are required to defray the interest of
the existing debt and the expenses of collection,
&c. The revenue available for the current service
of the year is therefore reduced to about
600,000,0001., of which nearly 5,000,000 f. are
swallowed up by the army and navy on the estab-
lishment of armed peace. We borrow these facts
from the speech of the Marquis d'Audiffret, and
from his recent publications on the subject ; but
although they were not contradicted in the Cham-
ber of Peers, there is, perhaps, some exaggeration
in reckoning the extraordinary military and naval
expenses, for which the/loan is proposed, as charges
upon the current year. On the other hand, it ap-
pears from another and unquestionable source that
the expenditure of 1842 must be increased to the
amount of 86,000,000 f. by the new financial ope-
rations and by the extraordinary army and navy
estimates : 24,000,000 f. of this increase, being the
interest of the new loan, will constitute a permanent
burden on the country.
The only reply to these startling statements
which was made by M. Humann and Count
d'Argout, who, be it observed, have the strongest
interest in preparing the way for their plan, by
giving a more cheering aspect to affairs, consisted
in assurances that Algiers would not always cost
France 63,000,0001. per annum : that the re-im-
position of the duty on retailing wine, which was
taken off after the revolution of 1839, would give
30,000,000 f. or 40,000,0001. more, if required ;
and that the general prosperity of the country
would continue to swell the ordinary revenue, espe-
cially if it be more rigidly collected in the country
and on the frontiers. To these prospective assur-
ances, though they be not devoid of foundation, we
cannot attach much weight. They rest on the as-
sumption that for the next seven years no new
crisis in the commercial or political world will arise
to fling the country into fresh embarrassments ;
and that during the whole of that period all the
Ministe rs who may chance to succeed one another
in the exercise of ephemeral power will be content
to suspend the works of public improvement, to stop
that impulse from the coffers of the state which is
indispensable to speculative enterprise in France,
and to appropriate all the resources of the country
to repair the faults and follies of their rredecessors.
These suppositions are inadmissible, and a scheme
of finance which is founded upon them must prove
delusive to the nation and to the public creditor.
Considered in itself, this state of things is bad
-
enough ; but considered as a precedent, it is even
worse. Is it to be received as a constitutional doc-
trine in France that a Government may add, in one
way or another, one-fifth to the capital of the na-
tional debt* by engagements which the Chambers
are called upon to sanction 'after they have been
contracted ? Or is it supposed that posterity, bur-
dened by these perpetual charges, will be as indul-
gent to the authors of such measures as ti:leir con-
temporaries appear to be ? It is of vital import-
ance to the character and welfare of a country
that the fatal facilities of credit should not be
abused—nay, that they should trot he used, except
they be justified by necessities which no sagacity
could have avoided, or by duties too great to be
left unperformed. Will the events of 1840 and
the policy of the late French Cabinet iustify to
future generations the burdens they will have to
bear ? Will the Legislature of France and the
capitalists of Europe countenance a precedent so
contrary to prudence, so menacing to peace, so
prejudicial to the great interests the country ?
The discussions which will siaorti.,y take place on
the supplementary credits, rind the terms on which
the loan wilt be taken utp, may furnish answers to
these questions.—Tzinvs.

The rational debt, of France on•the Ist of January,
1840, amounted to 4 milliards and 303 millions of francs
(172 millions steling) in capital, or 192,740,000 f. in
annual interest.

THE TABARD INN (TALROT,) IN THE
Bonounii.—The exterior of the inn is simply a narrow,
square, dilapidated looking gateway ; its posts strapped
with rusty iron bands—its ga',es half covered with sheets
of the same metal. " The Talbot Inn" is painted above,
and till within the last 6v e or six years there was also
the following inse;iptior. --" This is the Inno where
Sir Jeffry Chaucer ear' the nine-and-twenty Pilgrims
lay in their journr,v to Canterbury, anno 1383." This
inscription was fr,rm-erly on the frieze of a beam laid
cross-wi;e upoo
two uprights, which stood in the road
in the front of the Tabard„ nod from which hung the
sign, creakiire- as it swung ',;v3 aid fro
ing gust. 'R with every pas,r-
Ahe sign and its supports were removed in
1763, wiren all such char acteristic features of the
streets of London in the oldeta time dhappcared, in obr-
die-ce to a Parliamentary edit .t f,,r their destruction. The
writing of this inscription was evidently not very ancient;
but had, not improbably, b3cn renewed from time to time
from a very remote period-
Tyrwhitt, however, thinks it
is not older than the seveasteenth century, front tl:e fact
that Speght, who nr,ticej the Tabard in his edition of
Chaucer (1602), (I, ,es not mention it; be therefore sup-
poses it to have bo en put up after the great fire of South-
w ark in 1676, Nr. hen some portion of the inn was burnt,
and in ccnsequer .ee of the change of name which then took
place. Aubrey , writing a little after the period of the
fire, says, " c ignorant landlord, or tenant, instead of
the ancient sign , of the Tabard, put up the Talbot, or dog."
"London," Part I.