The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WDDNESL AY EVENING, OCIOBER 8, 18

danger. I for is it France only that is making
such free ule of English finances. Austria and
Russia are putting forward a variety of pretexts
to get their fingers into our purse, and ease JOHN
BULL of the money of which he takes so little
care. It is obvious, then, that the precautionary
measures sh ould not be delayed un'il the evil has
actually occurred, that we should shut the stable
door white the steed yet remains in its stall !
But what should these precautions be ? What
will prevent French, Russian, and Austrian
cupidity from satisfying itself at our cost? It is
qui:Le clear that any further increase in the cur-
Lent rate of interest will be perfectly useless.
The Timeer reasons truly when it says—" If the
Bank of France are determined to buy gold
at any sacrifice, no addition of one or two per
cent. per annum on the rate of Bills of Exchange
will be regarded. The only limit to such an
operation must be found in the exhaustion of
their power to buy up bills on this country, or to
obtain credits here !" But in this confessedly
useless effort we are to cause wide-spread ruin
and distress to the working population of the
country ; to bring many respectable houses
to the verge of bankruptcy ; to reduce the price
of all securities, public and private, and to cause
loss to the community at large, and misery and
privation to vast numbers. It is quite clear that
a very different remedy is required, and that can
only be obtained by the introduction of a purely
domestic currency, good for internal circulation,
and bypermitting the precious metals to be disposed
of at their market value, so that a drain can be
immediately and readily checked, and which will
prevent the temptation to hoarding, which is
carried to such an extent in France that M.
MAONE calculates that since 1850, according to
the official returns, there has been received
800,000,000 francs (82,000,0001.) more than
was exported, while there was a balance on
business transactions within the same period of
1,380,000,000 francs (54,400,000/0 All this
enormous amount cannot have vanished without
some show. A portion of it may be " absorbed
in the various arteries of circulation, feeding work-
shops, manufactures, agriculture, and commerce ;"
but the greater portion is concealed and hoarded
by those who are willing to lose the interest and
use of their money, in order to have a large sum
available for any emergency. As to the portion
daily use, we have repeatedly explained, and
die Times has admitted, that small notes, receiv-
able in payment of taxes, would perfectly answer
the purpose, without any deposit of specie to
provide for their convertibility.
Whatever is to be done in this most interest-
ing question should be done speedily ; it is
certainly of sufficient importance to justify a
meeting of Parliament before Christmas, for the
discussion of such measures, relating to the
currency, as may be submitted by the Govern-
ment for its consideration.

Austria still occupies the Principalities 1 What
' a world of reproach is implied in these words.
An Englishman's cheek should redden with shame
on hearing them. They are the death-warrant
of the claim of our Government to pass for Eng-
lish. The diplomatic and the military pride of
France are humiliated ley them. For what do
the words imply ? The jackall in possession of
the bone of dispute between lions. A traitorous
ally in possession, under false pretences, of a
territory from which the enemy was driven by the
sword. A people rescued from Cossacks by
civilised nations, and delivered over to worse than
Cossacks, whose imperious lusts include all the
vices to which triumphant savagery is addicted.
Oppressive taxation, wanton arrests, torture by
imprisonment, mock trials, quasi legal executions,
butchery of unarmed citizens, outrages worse than
death on helpless women, rapine, violation of Ilk
ternational law. All these are implied. Tot
Austria is still in possession of the Principalities
—occupies them, she has the effrontery to tell us,
in the interests of Europe ! The Allies, be it
remembered, all the while undeceived by he!
lying pretences, and cwing her no gratitude, hay.
ing no scruple of that kind to deter them from
insisting on an immediate evacuation, Positively
aware of, and probably displeased at, the manner
of the occupation, and her persistence in it 1
One of them—our own country, to wit—affronted
by murderous outrages on her citizens unredressed ,
and hardly apologised for, and with the remem-
brance of the seizure of Colonel TUBB at Bucha-
rest fresh in her recollection. Colonel TIIRR,
gallant Hungarian in our employ, arrested on a
neutral territory, tried, condemned to death, and
only saved from that termination of his inhuman
imprisonment by the most prompt and determined
intervention the aid ho would have given
us in the war being altogether lost, to the
advantage of the enemy against whom we
were contending. The days of earnest English
statesmanship, and of right hearty English hatred
of fraud and oppression are surely past. Let the
occupation be regarded in what light it may—let
the blood pulsate ever so ealmly in the reader's veins,
let him worship RICHARD COBDFN, if ho will, pro-
vided the claims of right, hum'nity, and common
honesty find a response in his bosom, his cry will
surely be—" Listen to no more excuses, but let
us have the Principalities evacuated at once !
Let England no longer connive at the low mur.
derous fraud, nor furnish Russia any longer with
a subject of such bitter sarcasm." As we write,
the news has reached us that Austria has just
occupied Galatz with four thousand troops,
and taken the administration of the public affairs
into her own hands. Is the mask being thrown off?
Of course, Sir HENRY RULWER is about to return
home ! His offices are perfectly useless.

According to the poet "'tis distance lends
enchantment to the view." This much is certain
and it corroborates rather than impeaches the
truth of the assertion—the public often overlook
what would excite their intensest sympathy and
utmost efforts in the way of prevention if, in place
of proximity, distance interposed its magic influ-
ence. The late war will furnish us with a case in
point. Everybody remembers how the tale of
needleeg suffering and of death among our gallant
troops in the Crimea was received at home.
What horror and indignation, what sympathy and
effective aid, it elicited—how finely the generous
instincts of the nation responded to the invoca-
tion ! Yet year after year, up to the present
hour, hecatombs of helpless landsmen, women,
and children, and of hardy sailors—not the least
reliable of our defenders—in whose fate thousands
of us arc deeply interested
the majority perhaps for want of aid the public
can render them--and thus perish without ex-
citing much remark. Is it not passing strange ?
Strange, however, as it may be, "'tis true and
pity 'tis 'tis true." ,

We allude to the numerous shipwrecks and the
accompanying loss of life, which find apparently
their most stable record, and ara perhAps most
vividly brought before the imagination of the
multitude by the riven and scattered timbers
which strew our coasts. The environs of our
little island, which contribute so much to our
security from foreign invasion, are the rocks and

shoals on which hundreds on hundreds of our
countrymen are annually sacrificed in a great mea-
sure for want of that aid it is in our power, at a
very little sacrifice, to lend them. Brave hearts
there are in abundance to man our life-boats, but
lifeboats, of any sort in sufficient abundance, are
wanting to be manned. A beneficent society
exists, with a powerful, humane, and generous
patron, but unfortunately the society has the
area of its operations limited, and its exertions
cramped, for want of adequate means. Not
one-half of the number of life-boats required—we
may say not one-third—is forthcoming ; and of
those which are a large proportion are by no
means constructed on the best model. Is
this as it should be ? A people whose great-
ness depends so much on commerce—whose
friends and relatives are to be found ploughing all
waters and on the shores of every sea—whose
commercial marine, with the capital and enter-
prise involved in it, is the wonder of the world—
is it right they should continue to be exposed to a
reproach like this ? Where is the humanity, the
consistency, the common sense on which, as a
people, we aro so accustomed to pride ourselves ?
The underwriter is paid to insure our vessels and
their lumbering cargoes ; would it not be more
becoming if a little more effort were made to in-
sure the safety of their precious living freights ?

While thus calling attention to the claims of
our sailors and of travellers by sea, it affords us
pleasure to be enabled to state that the National
Life-boat Institution has succeeded in obtaining
a new description of life-boat, the superiority of
which over others has been esto.bliahoci. The boat
in question is the result of competition, the in.;
ventor, James Peake, Esq., Assistant Master
Shipwright in H. M. Dockyard at Woolwich,
having won the prize offered for the best model
by the Duke of NOTITHUMBERLAND in 1852. The
boats for the most part have been built of two
sizes, viz., 2? feet and 30 feet in length,
with 7i to 8 feet beam, and rowing
from eight to twelve oars, doubled banked,
their weight averaging 2 tons. Some, however,
of less beam and weight have been found necessary
for certain localities. The qualities necessary in
a life-boat are t-1. Extra buoyancy ; 2. Self-
relief of water ; 3. Ballasting ; 4. Self-righting ;
h. Stability ; 0. Speed ; 7. Stowage room ; 8.
Strength of build..
I. The life-boats of Mr. PBAItH'S design have a
wafer-tight deck at the load water-line, and de-
tached air boxes along the sides, conforming
closely to the shape of the latter, from the thwarts
to the deck. A great amount of extra buoyancy
is also derived from large end air-cases, built
across the bow and stern, and intended to provide
self-righting power ; so that in the event
of the boat being stove in, and the space
below deck filled with water, these alone would
float her 2. In Mr. PEAKS'S life-boats the
tubes used for self-relief of water are fitted with
self-acting valves, which open downward only, so
that they will allow any water shipped to pass
downward, whilst none but a trifling leakage can
pass upward through them ! 3. Mr. PEAKE'S
life-boats are ballasted with heavy iron keels, and
with solid wood and cork stowed under their decks,
securing regular action, and the latter extra buoy-
anoy as well should the space under deck be
filled with water. 4. By a peculiarity of the build
and the preceding means these boats self-right.
IL In Mr. PgAza's boat very great stability is
obtained by an iron keel and other solid ballast,
and by flatness and length of floor, with moderate
beam only. 6. There is every reason to believe
these boats are equal in speed and power to any,
and superior to most, that exist. 7. The air
chambers are so distributed as to afford as much
room as possible for stowage of passengers. 8.
In strength, Mr. Pities boat will bear compe-
tition with any others. Superior facilities aro
also offered to persons getting into the boat, an
operation hitherto tasking the strength of even
strong men with heavy wet clothes about them.
Twenty-three of these boats, we aro happy to
state, are in the possession of the Institution, and
are stationed on the coasts of the United King-
dom, in addition to three *which have gone to
other countries, and to 10 which have been built
for harbour trusts and other bodies on our own
coasts. But what are these to the number wanted?
And if the supply were equal to the demand the
Institution would, still need funds to maintain
them, and to reward the brave men who man
them ! •

LATEST NEWS

BERNE, OCT. 7.

Six hundred' delegates of the people haie
assembled at Merges ; they have declared that
the sovereignty of the people is in danger from
monarchic intrigues, and constitute a central
committee. They haw voted an address to the
authorities, and a nanifesto to the people of
Switzerland.

The railway agitation in the Canton de Vaud
is on the increase.

General Narvaez arrived in Madrid on the 6th

inst.

The Paris correspondent of the Times (second
edition), in his letter dated yesterday, says

"The accounts, this day of the intention of the
Government with respect to Naples are somewhat
different from what they were yesterday. We
are informed that, in accordance with the wishes
of the English Government, and considering that
the King of Naples obstinately refuses all con-
cession, a more energetic policy will be adopted
by the allies. Of what this energetic policy con-
sists, and when or how it is to be enforced, is not
stated. Moreover the term energetic' is vague
—what one man considers energetic another may
deem feeble. Energetic,' however, seems to
be the order of the day for the present."

Tho Paris correspondent or the Morning Post
(second edition), in his 'letter datod . yesterday,
says

"Official information has reached Paris that
the Austrians have suddenly occupied Galatz with
4,000 men. They have taken the administration
of public affairs into their own hands here, and at
other points of the Danube. Sir Henry Bulwer
is about to return home, as those steps render the
offices of the Commissioners perfectly useless. It
remains to be seen if these events have taken
place by permission of Turkey."

A private letter from Constantinople, of the 29th
ult.,-mentions as follows :
" The dissension between the French Ambassa-
dor and the Turkish Government, with reference
to the privilege granted to Captain Magne and the
navigation of the Sereth and the Pruth, is said to
be entirely settled. Austria at last listened to
reason, and the revocation of the privilege has been
again set aside. The Minister of Finance is still
in great difficulties, and he has borrowed another
25,000,000 piastres, at per cent. interest and 2
per cent. commission, which makes 10 per cent.
Rothschild's home furnished the funds through its
agent at Constantinople. This sum is hardly suf-
ficient to answer the most pressing wants.

" The question of the Isthmus of Suez still re-
mains in state quo, and the railway in the valley
of the Euphrates, directed by an English company,
at the head of which is Major-General Chesney, is
making the greatest progress. According to the
Constantinopl• journal an Imperial order has au-
thorised it. This news seemsto me to be premature,
because I know for certain that the project has not
as yet been examined by the Council of Tanzimat,
and that no important resolution is to be adopted
before the arrival of Mehemet Kepresli Pasha, who
is now at Moscow, where he is not to remain very
long."

The Tuscan Monitor, of the 3d, says :
" At a moment when the Neapolitan question
so intensely occupies public attention, wo deem it
expedient to make known the personsinvested with
the Ministerial functions in that kingdom. The
President of the Council is M. Ferdinand Troja,
brotherof M. C. Troja, who was Chief of the Minis-
try of the 3d April ; the Minister ofForeign Affairs
is M. Luigi Carafa, former Secretary of Legation
in Paris during the reign of Louis Philippe ;
Minister of Finance, M. Murena ; Minister Secre-
tary of State, General Raphael Carascosa ; Direc-
tor of Internal Affairs, M. Ludovic Biauchini ;
Director of the Affairs of Sicily, M. Giovanni
Cassisi ; Director of the War and Navy Depart-
ments, Colonel Picenna and General Bracco ; and
Director of the Ministry of Grace and Justice,
M. Luigi Pionati."

FRANCE.
PARIS, TVESDAT EVENING.
The Bourse has rallied a little from the panic
which yesterday so powerfully affected every kind
of security.
The report of the Minister of Finance, published
this morning in the Moniteur, on the state of the
finances, has restored confidence to the public in
reference to the exaggerated rumours which have
been circulated for several days past.
The editors of the Paris papers were requested
yesterday by the authorities to publish nothing on
the financial crisis, and to be equally discreet about
the Neapolitan question. As you may perceive, no
prohibition on the former subject has been imposed
on the M oniteur. The money-changers have been
forbidden to expose in their shop windows the pry•
mium they offer on silver.

The Imperial yacht, the Reine Hortense, arrived
at Havre yesterday with Pritice Napoleon on
board, having effected the passage from Hamburg
in 52 Hours. Immediately on the arrival of tha
vessel, his Imperial Highness was waited on by the
Commissary-General of Marine and the Colonel of
the 29th regiment of the line, whilst a considerable
crowd of spectators assembled on the quay. The
Prince seemed in excellent health, as did all the
persons who accompanied him. His Imperial
Highness was to take a farewell dinner on board,
and then leave for Paris. The yacht, after her
cruise, 12,000 miles, would, it was thought, re-
main for some days in the Vieux Bassin to effect
some slight repairs.—His Imperial Highness left
Havre last night by the express train, and arrived
at the Palais Royal this morning about one o'clock.
BOURSE, Oct. 7. The following were the last
quotations :

irregular ; and even the - attempt at dressing the
Turks as Europeans has ended in peopling the
streets with ludicrous-looking creatures, who seem
equally uneasy when they sit down or when they
get up. And yet most of our European ideas, if
modified and properly applied, could be of the
greatest use to Turkey. The only difficulty is
how to do this.

Take, for instance, publicity. There is, perhaps,
no idea of ours which seems so utterly opposed to
all current notions in an Eastern mind as that any-
thing connected with the Government should be
made public. The mass of the people are still in
that benighted state where blind faith is the main-
spring of all obedience. Secresy becomes a State
maxim, for the denser the veil is in which all acts of
the Government are hidden the greater is the feel-
ing of awe. It would be, therefore, folly to press
publicity on a country like Turkey, especially as
the mass of the people would take no interest what-
ever in the most interesting disclosures.
At last, however, there seems a beginning made.
In the last number of the semi-official Journal de
Constantinople there is an official table of the popu-
lation of European Turkey, made at the last census
in 1845. According to the law there ought to
have been a census in 1853, that is, every seventh
year ; but owing to the war, this has been deferred
to the present moment. The same number of this
journal has likewise a translation of the decree or-
dering a new conscription at Constantinople.
The Imperial decree is as follows :
" It would be useless to enlarge on the advantages of
a census, which is recognised as of great importance,
both 'for goodgavernment and a good administration. To
follow this rule a census has been already made several
times ; but since the last census considerable time has
elapsed, and it is necessary to correct the old registers,
to know the exact number of the present population,
and to compare it with the old one. To arrive at this
result orders have been. issued for a new census. Em•
playa and registrars will be designated for this purpose,
and will be sent to the different points of the capital, of
Scutari, and of the Bosphorus, to note down the male
population, without any difference as to religion, and
without leaving out any one.
" In order to make a distinction between the Ottoman
and other subjects, every one will receive a sened, or cer-
tificate, which he will be obliged to exhibit whenever he
wants to get possession of property or of a legacy, or to

" This system is doubly advantageous, because it will
prevent the abuses which result from false pretensions of
certain persons, and which exercise an evil influence in
lawsuits and other publiC affairs. His Imperial Majesty,
in the interest of his subjects, will give to every one of
them henceforth a Tezke e, with his Imperial cypher.
" Moreover, beginning from the month of Mouharem,
of the year 1273 of the Hegira, every family will have to
make a declaration in all cases of birth or death to the
Irnaum or Muchtar or Papas or Hallam of the quarter,
or to any other perion who will be designated, and who
will correct the register of his quarter and transmit it to
the town authorities.

"Such is the Iradi of his Sublime Majesty the Sultan,
which must be executed. The census will begin in a few
days, and instructions have been given to the employes
who have been designated for the purpose to announce
the day when the census will take place, that every one
should be in his quarter that day. The advantages of
this measure cannot be mistaken ; nobody should try to
escape it ; on the contrary, every one should come for•
ward freely to be inscribed. Every person who after the
closing of the registers shall not be inscribed must hold
himself responsible for the consequences, and the present
information is given that everybody might take his
measures accordingly,"

THE MONETARY CRISIS IN FRANCE.

We have received the Monilcur of yesterday,
and now subjoin a translation from the official
journal of the report of the Minister of Finance
on the budget of .1858, a telegraphic summary
of which appeared in our impression of yester-
day :

" Sire,—At this period, when I have to ascer-
tain the elements of the budget of 1858, in order
that they may be submitted to your Majesty's in-
spection, I proceed, in compliance with your
.com-
mands, to place before you a succinct statement
of the most essential facts belonging to the present
year, to indicate the general point of view in
which our calculations of receipts and expenses
ought to be made.
" The circumstances through which we have
passed, Sire, were very difficult ; all sorts of mis-
fortune, so to speak, came upon us at the same
time—war, cholera, the inundations, and the pro-
tracted dearth. At other periods, one alone of
these calamities has sufficed to exhaust the sources
of employment and of wealth, to excite troubles in
the community, and to embarrass the State as
well as the fortunes of individuals. It was much
to be feared that; with such a concurrence of dis•
asters as we have been oppressed with, at least
public confidence would have been impaired, and
that the suspension of trade and manufactures
would have caused a serious diminution of the
revenue of the Treasury.
" These multiplied misfortunes, Sire, have no
doubt greatly affected the heart of your Majesty ;
but despite such melancholy trials, every sincere
lover of his country and of the truth must feel
happy in acknowledging the fact—perhaps a fact
unique in history—that never, thanks to the con-
fidence which your Majesty has inspired, was
more, complete security prevailing, or more perfect
order ; never were the energies of this nation
imoro actively developed, never did the improve-
ment of the public revenue so rapidly progress.
" It is a singular fact that the difficulties of our
present position are those which arise out of the
very excess of our prosperity, and in a manner out
of the excessive feeling of confidence. By a for-
tunate necessity, the government has had to apply
its efforts, not to provoking, but restraining the
general impulse, and by repeated admonitions to
keep speculation within the bounds of prudent
reserve.
" The operation of the budgets now current,
the
.state of credit, the Bank and the Treasury,
are the points towards which must converge, and
at which chiefly must be manifested, the symp-
toms which at any given period are most charac-
teristic of the economical situation of the country,
and supply the most accurate measure of its capa-
bilities. As these data form the basis of a rational
estimate of the wants and resources of the future,
I beg your Majesty's permission to make them the
subject of some observations.
" The budget of 1854 is now in course of being
brought to a settlement. The provisional account
of it which was published last year showed an
excess of expenditure of 100 millions of francs.
This deficit is in the final account reduced to
75 millions.
" The budget of 1855 has just been closed, and
1
lwe have every reason for hoping that the amount
which it leaves to be covered will not go beyond
50 or 60 millions.
"These figures will be seen to be satisfactory,
Sire, if they are compared with the average deficit
of the five preceding years, which was not less
than 40. millions annually, and if we bear in mind
the enormous burdens which the public calamities,
even without taking the war into account, im-
posed in addition to the ordinary services of 1854.
and 1855, involving the opening of large supple-
mentary credits.
" These comparatively favourable results are to
be attributed to the extraordinary increase of the
revenue from indirect taxation, which last year
attained the enormous amount of 65 millions,
without including 33 millions arising from new

taxes.
. "At no period, under the most favourable in-
fluences, have the producing capabilities of the
nation been exhibited in so signal a manner.
" This movement, which was ascribed to the
Exhibition, has not ceased in 1850. It was be-
lieved and asserted that it would cease ; but that
wag a complete error.
"The result, in fact, has been decisive as to
that paint. If the amount of the products of the
country in 1855 had been owing to an accidental
cause, we should have seen, what always happens
after a great effort, a sudden pause in our indus
trial progress, and the products of 1856 would
have fallen off and descended even to less than
those of 1854.
" I ani happy-to be able to state, Sire, that
the contrary has actually happened.
" Not only has the amount of the year been
attained and ekceeded—not only, at least up to
this time of the year, the extraordinary amount
of 1855' has been reached, but the first month of
the preent year, compared with the correspond-
ing months of last year, give as a considerable
increase.

"This increase comes to 63 millions as com-
pared with 1854, and nearly 26 millions, as com-
pared with 1855, in the first half-year only.
" It is true that the comparison for the month
of August is less favourable—but that is imma-
terial, for it is to b© explained by the payments of
taxes by anticipation, in the .month of August,
1855, occasioned by a wish to avoid payment of
the newly imposed tenth. This partial falling
off will, moreover, be soon compensated for.
The information we have received enables us to
expect an increase of above twelve millions on the
month of September.
"Upon the whole, the augmented revenue
from the old taxes, and the sum derived from the
new taxes, together constitute an' excess of about
72 millions above the amount of the estimated
revenue for the nine first months of this current
year.
" The importance of this calculation is beyond
all dispute.
We have, therefore, Sire, without indulging
in any illusion, the most substantial reasons to
hope that the budget of 1856, notwithstanding
the expense of contracting the loan, will actually
exhibit, for the first time during many years, an
equal balance-sheet. This desirable result, at-
tained in times of exceptional difficulty, is the best
proof that the onward progress of the fortunes of
the State hitherto is far from being slackened.
" But shall we find any evidence to the contrary
in the momentary depreciation of the public secu-
rities ?

" This is a very delicate subject, and difficult
of appreciation. In the alternations of rise and
fall of prices much is due every day to the in-
fluence of temporary causes which are often in-
explicable and unknown. But one fact of general
observation and of a re-assuring character results
from the present state of things, which it will soon
control; and that is the perception, as every sin-
cere mind must agree, that the giving way in the
prices of our securities does not precJed either
from want of confidence or a diminution of capital

in France, or a defect in the solidity of their titles,
but solely from the multiplicity of the securities
themselves. We must not be surprised at this,
for it is the invariable law of trade that every
sort of merchandise declines in market value in
proportion to the quantity of the supply, esne_
cially if this exceeds the existing want and ther
amount of means at the time disposable.

" The resources of France, Sire, are indeed
great ; they are immense, and recent events have
showed their full extent. There could be any
serious danger to them only if we came to per-
suade ourselves that they wero infiuit3, and that
they would suffice to perform in France, and
abroad also, in a single day, that which should be
the patient work of time. But lot the prudent
recommendations of your Majesty be listened 10,
and let the requisite time be afforded for the sur-
plus to ruu off; and then the various classes of
securities will rapidly assume their true position,
and the scale of their values will soon rise ; for
I expect their basis is solidly established, the ex-
isting securities ate founded in general upon bona
fide productive enterprisesa and the elasticity of

credit has, after all, been entire' 'y maintained.
The apprehended embarrassments, I cannot too
often repeat, could only arise, Sire , from such ex-
aggerated speculation as it is, to be hoped the pub-
lic will know how to guard agairoct..
"It is to the same cause, that i.ve must attri-
bute the reaction by which 'Last year;, at this very
seascrn, the Bank of France was obliged to adopt
seine restrictive measures.
"'Those measures were unfavourably appre-
ciated by a portion of tho public, bemuse they
were it of always viewed with an accurate know-
ledge of the cause, nor in all cases with disin-
terested feelings. That great institution has to
deal with such numerous and diversified interests,
that whatever it may do it cannot escape the dis-
advantage of injuring some of them, and in their
judgment the course it may adopt, however wise
it be, will always be the course which ought not
to have been adopted.
" What, then, was the state of affairs ? The
amount of discounts of the Bank daily ..I,ssurned
exorbitant proportions, and its reserve was
rapidly decreasing. Everybody acknowledged that
an immediate remedy was called for, and the only
disagreement was about the nature of that remedy;
the most serious measures were proposed. What
was it, then, which the Bank did ? The same
which it had done, and always with success, under
almost all the preceding Governments when in
analogous circum,stanees. The Bank said to the
public, However liberal may be my statutes,
there is, nevertheless,, a limit to the issue of my
securities which the commonest prudence, if not
an express law, forbids ate to exceed. In order
to enable me to grant a ssistance in a greater num-
ber of cases of need, it is necessary i-hat ever* one
should consent to reimburse me mom quickly.'
And with this object the 3 Bank contented itself,
whilst raising the rate of interest, with shortening
the date of bills discounted. No doubt front this
measure resulted a certain derangement in com-
mercial affairs which was to be regretted, but
which was not without some compensating benefit
to trade itself. • The resources of the Bank, re-
newed more frequently, enabled it to make a
greater number of discounts ; if its advances were
for shorter periods, they were thereby multiplied ;
and upon the whole, during the months of Octo-
ber, November, and December, under the opera-
tion of the measure referred to, the amount ofthe
Bank discounts exceeded by more than 600 mil-
lions that of the discounts in the same months of
the preceding year. Sufficient notice has not yet
been given to the enormous relief which wax; thus
bestowed upon commerce.
" By acting in this man Lier the Bank of France
stopped, as it had done on former occasions, the
evil which threatened to approach it, and did not
cause those serious disturbances to trade which
had been apprehended. The Bank of a neigh-
bouring country, notwith sta.nding the great amount
of credit which is characteristic of it, and the
legal currency of its bank notes, was obliged at
the same period to impose restrictions upon trade,
which in their effect, if not in their form,
:•were
far more rigorous.
4' The same circumstances which last year deter-
mined the Bank of France to adopt such measures
having been reproduced in the present year, the
Bank has deemed itself bound to olAterve the same
line of conduct, and expects from it the same
result.
"It may be said of the Bank, as well as of
credit, that its difficulties do not arise" from the
fundamental condition of affairs, but are caused
by a temporary exuberance.
" The exportation of specie has been spoken bfe
A succession of bad harvests, the purchase of silks
abroad, and other less legitimate causes, have
doubtless had their influence on the exportatiiel
of our coinage ; silver, in particular, has becotile
an object of a traffic which makes the public sin•
easy, and which consists in selecting the finest
pieces of coin and withdrawing them from the
currency for their surplus value. This practice,
the tendency of which is to destroy the general
equilibrium of our monetary system, was under
the old law regarded as an act of debasement of
the coin of the realm and punished with the
severest penalties. Modern legislation cannot be
powerless against such an abuse, -which has nothing
in common with the undisputed principle of corn'
mercial liberty. The attention of
.your Majesty's
Government is very properly directed to this
evil.

" But in looking at tha question in its general
and permanent aspect, we see, Sire, liow
founded are the fears which some entertain•

---
When, notwithstanding the exceptional neea s.of
which I have just spoken, the SUM total of our
exports exceeds the sum total of our imports 11
an enormous amount, it is impossible that the
balance which is in our favour, and which since
1850 has amounted to 1,360,000,000 f., should
not have brought to us against our sales more specie
than has left us for purchases. A very remark'
able fact comes to confirm this conclusion. M'
cording to official custom returns, France bee
received in gold or silver since the same epoch
800,000,000 f. more than she has exported ; the
first eight months of the current year figure in
this total for a bonus of 72,000,000 f, No doubt
the declarations of exportations have some timee
been incomplete, but the same is of true entrieS.
What has become of this money ? It is not los4
Sire ; it is in the country ; it has penetrated b 1
the thousand channels of circulation which alimoo
the numerous establishments of public works, mr
nufactures, agriculture, and commerce ; it h 0
been meeting the new wants which result frolll

the development of social activity, and by it" 4
fecundity it augments the general stock of public
wealth.

" The embarrassment now felt does not, there'
fore, arise from any fundamental vice, but frool

,ransicnt causes.

" The situation of the Treasury, which is
excellent one, is a new proof of this.

"The first two loans have been paid up, a►nd
the payments of the last, which will suffice t°
liquidate the war, are met with exactitude.
" The public revenues augment, as I have jit
said, in a ratio without precedent. The taxes are)
paid with the most rare punctuality, and even
advance. Money flows into the public exchequer•
Tho payment of the dividends of the last fa%
months has left us with a reserve of 11,000,0001.
It must be evident to every man of sense 00
these are the evidences of a situation which
good at bottom.

" For these reasons, Sire, I have thought It
right, in preparing the budget of 1858, to 10
aside the pro-occupations of the moment, and 0
take the natural and normal movement of the
public fortune as the basis of my estimates.
"At the same time, being desirous of limiting,
as for 1857, the chances of supplementary credit°,
I have, according to your Majesty's orders ar
preciatod the expenditure with the utmost per'
sible exactitude, and the receipts with the great'
est moderation. Thus, notwithstanding woo
improvements made in the situation of the minor
functionaries, and the alleviation of some fiscal
burdens, we may hope that the budget of 1859
will largely suffice fur its expenditure.

I am, dm.,

P• MAGNE."

Ai. de Dirking-Ilolmfeld, who had been Danish re'
presentative to the Hanse-towns, to Hanover and Old'
enburgh, since 1849, has been appointed Danish atnlog'
sador to Paris. •

A prospectus has been issue t of the Australian Land
and Emigration Company, with a capital of 100,00014
under with a view to facilitate On
settlement respectable
of a-e auspices,rman s in New South W ales .
The weekly reviews from the Amsterdam and Eater:
data produce markets state that the increased value n:
money bad checked business, but that quotations be°
not experienced ally impoi;,aiit change. 10 coffee, sago;
awl the other nrin ;
articles the operations were
chiefly for immediate consumption. The lotte.7s 11.010
Rouen mention that the market for manufactures wad
steady, although the attendance of buyers had diminishe'
The experimental iron pavement laid down in Leaden'
hall-street, opposite the Church of SL Katherine Creel
does not exhibit that fixedness and stability so essential
to b..) regarded in the pavement of the permanent OP
iiagr-ways of the nntropolis. The various compart'
rrients in which this pavement is laid. down already sho°
very considerable indications of wear, and the vibratiooo
to which they are perpetually subjected show a certaid
locseness and want of tenacity and endurance, the 16
verse of which is the characteristic of granite pavil
especially when properly laid the narrow-gauge
courses,—Building News.