The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS•

The French Minister of Finance (as would
be seen by our paper of Monday) has presented
his budget for the ensuing year. This docu-
ment, which is always delivered at the beginning
of a Session, and which frequently supplies
topics of discussion to its very termination, bears
no resemblance to the single financial statement,
or recapitulation of' the annual accounts, which
goes under that name in England. The French
budget, in fact, includes what we call the annual
estimates for the different services of the State,
together with a specification of the ways and
means, whether the fruits of existing taxes, the
result of new imposts, or the produce of loans
which have been prepared, or are calculated upon,
to meet the estimated expenditure. These esti-
mates (except on extraordinary occasions) are
always a year in advance of the actual state of
things, both as regards income and expendi-
ture ; and when the charges have actually been
incurred, or the authorized credits have been
realized, a new budget is presented, containing
what is called the definite regulation of the
accounts. The Minister at the head of every
department in the course of the session presents
his special budget, whether of prospective ex-
pense, which may be denominated estimates, or
of actual expenditure, and defends its policy
before either Chamber, when its details are
brought under discussion, or when its correctness
is attacked. Thus, in the case before us, the
Minister of Finance, M. Human!), presented
two projects of law or bills, by command of the
King, and on his own ministerial responsibility,
the first for authorizing the Government to open
credits for the amount of the estimated expen-
diture of the year 1835 ; and the second
authorizing the collection of the existing taxes
to meet such a demand, along with an arrange-
ment for making good the deficiency. To these
bills (which may be modified in the course of the
discussions) the Ministerial estimate are added by
way of appendix, and the whole of the documents
are then referred to the examination of different
Commissions, which may call the Ministers
before them for further explanations, anterior to
the discussion in the Chamber. It is plain that
this plan has many theoretical advantages over
our own, though in practice it probably has not
worked better. The statement of M. Humann
cannot fail to be satisfactory on some points,
though in others it is not a little alarming to the
friends of state economy. It is gratifying, in so
far as the Minister can announce that every
branch of the revenue is flourishing—that public
confidence is restored—that industry and trade
have resumed more than their wonted activity—
and that few complaints of the pressure of
taxation are heard : but the excess of the
expenditure over the ordinary revenue, though
thus increased, must give cause to some
anxiety and uneasiness. The estimated ex-
penditure for the ensuing year is taken at
1,030,090,5471., or about 41,200,0001., and
the receipts into the Treasury are not calcu-
lated at more than 996,557,415 f., or about
39,860,000/. ; so that there is a deficit of
more than a million and a quarter sterling,
which, with some other charges remaining over
last year, will make 3,000,0001. In this great
expenditure the chief increase is of course to
be found under the head of Military Supplies.
If a nation like France, in the midst of despotic
_enemies, is obliged, by the folly or obstinacy of
its Governmc; to make a great revolution like
that of.iuly, 1830, it must pay the penalty of its
patriotism, of its zeal for freedom, and of its love
of independence, by raising and paying an im-
mense army, capable of overawing its internal
factions, and of defending its frontiers against
external violence. Accordingly, we find that
the army has been raised to 316,409 regular
troops, and 65,445 horses, occasioning an ex-
pense of more than 257,000,0001., or more than
10,000,0001. sterling ! A very large portion
of the revenue of France, though bearing no ratio
to the corresponding charge in England, is ab-
sorbed by the interest of its public debt. This
permanent burden amounts to 319,000,000 f.,
or nearly 13,000,0001., and has been chiefly im-
posed since the first restoration in 1814, when
the national obligations of France were extremely
small. About c'40,000,000/. sterling of this
amount was imposed for an indemnity to the
emigrants under the Villele Administration ;
and Louis Philip at this moment derives a
large addition to his overgrown private for-
tune from thissource. About 161,000,000 F. more
are expended in charges of collecting the re-
venue. This seems a very large per centage
when compared with the expense of collection in
England, where a revenue of nearly 50,000,0001.
is brought into the Exchequer at the cost of
not much more than 3,000,0001.; but it ought
to be recollected that a part of the French charge
is occasioned by the management of the Go-
vernment monopoly of tobacco, and by the de-
fence of a larger frontier, or the protection of a
more extensive country against the evils of
smuggling or evasions of duty. Notwithstanding
these considerations, however, 161,000,000 f.
seems a monstrous charge for collecting a re-
venue of less than 1,000,000,000 f., or
40,000,000/. sterling. It would be of little
interest to the English reader to run over the
estimates of the different services, the only
two which concern foreigners being that of
the army, which has been already stated,
and that of the navy, which next year is
fixed at 65,500,000 f., or 2,621,000/.
The expense of this service has been increased
about 120,0001. in consequence of the naval
preparations which recent events have pressed
upon the French Government. The arrange-
ment of the budget which pleased us the most
is the contribution of 15,000,000 of francs, or
about 600,0001. sterling, allotted to the Minister
for Public Instruction, to promote the cause of
rational education. Of this sum more than
a half is to be advanced to defray the expenses
of elementary instruction or of primary schools.
Thus the system of communal or parochial
schools, so ably introduced and so zealously de-
fended by M. Guizot last year, is likely to be
fairly tried. The chief expense is subsequently
to be provided for out of the property of the
Communes, but the purse of the State must be
taxed in the first instance to secure the execution
of the law in certain of the poorer districts. We
remember that in one of the projects on the
right of man to be instructed prescribed to
the French Convention, it was said that
elementary instruction was a debt which the
Republic owed to the French people ;" but if it
was a debt, it was never attempted to be paid till

now, and the present budget contains the firs

instalment. One of the chief peculiarities which
.distinguish the French system of revenue from
our own is the disproportion between the
"7,,-.1-_,•,'''':l;amount of direct and indirect taxes. While we
• derive more than a third part of our public in-
come from customs, or duties on imported
commodities, the whole customs of France do
not rise to 4,400,000/. sterling. On the other

hand, the French raise a third of their income
from land taxes or stamp duties. The excise
duties in France amount to nearly 8,000,0001.,
and are more the subject of complaint than in
England, where they are double that amount.
We observe that M. Humann, though in some
difficulty to make up the deficit in his budget,
repels the very idea of a tax on property, as
uncongenial to the feelings of the people, and
inexecutable, or likely to be unproductive in
France, where property is so minutely divided.
He is therefore obliged to have recourse to a
new loan, which he proposes shall be for nearly
3,000,0001. sterling.— Times.
The Inquiry into the Corporation of London
begins now to be more interesting than it has
been. To ascertain the constitution of this
imperium in inzperio—to settle the limits of the
powers of the Corporation as a whole, and of
the different parts—is no easy matter. The
Commissioners seem now, however, to have ob-
tained a tolerable idea of all this, and we are
now come to what may be called the working of
the machine. Great complaints have long been
made by the shipowners, of the weight of the
charges of the port of London ; and the inhabi-
tants of the parts of the metropolis without the
City, who receive the greater part of what they
consume through the City, also complain of the
duties levied on them by the City Authorities.
Now, with all due respect to the Corporation
of London, entertaining proper sentiments of
gratitude towards it for its services in the cause
of liberty in critical times, and bearing no ill-
will to the citizens on account of their rich re-
pasts—we yet would wish, if possible, to see
them so conduct their affairs as to afford no just
cause to the people in trade, and the inhabit-
ants of the metropolis in general, to complain
of the undue weight of the burdens imposed on
them by the City Authorities. Mr. Williams,
on Monday, touched a sore place, when he de-
tailed the result of the audit of the City accounts.
The articles furnished to the city were charged
in some cases at the double of the market price.
The auditors discovered that there was a general
bad management and bad letting of the city
lands. " The estates belonging to the city
numbered 6,000 tenements; 400 of which
were in Maddox-street, Hanover-square, and
the rental produced from them was not much
above 3,0001. per annum. These houses were
let in perpetual leases, renewable every fourteen
years, on the payment of a fine not exceeding
seven years' rent, which was exceedingly low, as
the same houses would let again at for 300/. or
4001. per annum. Al! the lettings in the city
were much below their value. When this report
was read in the Common Council, it gave great
offence." So far from envying the city the pos-
session of the lands which have been thus badly
managed, we think that all the lands on which
the metropolis is built, ought to have been, by
Act of Parliament, taken from the owners at a
fair valuation, and appropriated to public pur-
poses. What a fund we should have had for
meeting burdens of all sorts, if the additional
value given to lands, by the necessity for en-
larging the metropolis, and which is not a fair
incident of property, had been appropriated in
time, the owners receiving a fair compen-
sation. The evil is now beyond remedy.
Our forefathers were wiser in many respects than
we are, for they took care that the lands within
the limits of the various cities and boroughs
should belong to the community and not to
individuals. With, then, such anomalies as the
Dukes of Bedford and Northumberland, and
the Marquis of Westminster, &c., deriving
princely revenues from rents accruing from the
necessity of the citizens for habitations, would
never have happened l It appears that the City
of London possesses extensive estates applicable
to public purposes, but that these estates are
mismanaged. The meaning of this is, that the
managing individuals of the Corporation make
large incomes out of the Corporation property.
If houses are let at a nominal rent for 14 years,
and the lease renewable on a fine of seven years
of that nominal rent, while the occupying tenant
pays 3001. or 4001. of rent per house, a valuable
consideration must be paid to some person or
persons for the difference between the nominal
rent and fine and the actual rent. The value
of a property in the market of a house of
this description, would be the ordinary num-
her of years' purchase of the full rent, sub-
ject to the deduction of an annuity for
fourteen years, or the number of years to run,
minus the nominal rent. No wonder that the
auditors give offence by drawing aside the
curtain which hid these proceedings. Now,
while the city estates are thus mismanaged, tolls
and duties are levied on the public to meet the
city expenditure. " The Livery passed a reso-
lution (said Mr. Williams) expressive of sur-
prise that the particulars of all accounts had not
been furnished to the auditors, and ordering the
Chamberlain not to pay any money out of the
city funds until the particulars of the bills were
furnished. The Common Council objected to
the proceedings on the ground that the funds
belonged to the Corporation, but such was not
the fact, as many of the sums were the produce
of taxes and tolls levied on things going into the
city." Mr. Williams then stated the interdiction
of all expenses to the. auditors of the accounts,
save tavern expenses. They had not, he said,
taken a penny of the money for tavern expenses,
but it appears from our report of this day, that
the two city carvers charged in the accounts two
guineas each for what they ought to have con-
sumed, so that consume, or not consume, it
would seem necessary to have high bills. These
are important matters. We are, of course,
prepared for a struggle, for wherever there is
property at stake, men will fight.—Morning
Chronicle.

What may be the result of the war now waging
against the Church Establishment it is not diffi-
cult to foresee—what may be its fate during the
ensuing Session of Parliament is another ques-
tion—but that the Dissenters of the United
Kingdom, forming the great mass of its po-
pulation, must be relieved from all the prac-
tical grievances under which they labour is a
matter of undoubted certainty to them, or
undoubted disgrace to the Government and to
to the Legislature. These grievances resolve
themselves into claims which may be thus
classed—relief from church taxation—from
being compelled to submit to the rule of the
church in matters of registration of births and
burials and solemnization of marriages and bap-
tisms—and from exclusion from the Universities.
To the abolition of all these pains and penalties
upon dissent from the doctrines and discipline
of the Church England, the Dissenters are
most fairly and most justly entitled ; and most
egregiously will they betray their own cause if'
they shrink from the fulfilment of every atom of
their demands on these points. They have every
right and title to them, and to accept less would
be to compromise the great cause of religious