The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-26 00:00:00

THE FRENCH BUDGET.

The Moniteur of yesterday contains the financial
report of M. Magne to the Emperor.
The Minister congratulates himself that the state
of the treasury is flourishing. The arrears, which
were 886 millions of francs, do not now exceed 660
millions. •

The Minister says that he has communicated to
the Council of State the documents necessary for the
preparation of the budget of 1861.
The following are his remarks on this part of the
report :

These documents would lead us to anticipate an
excess of revenue equal to about three millions:
Your Majesty, wishing to encourage national pro-
duction and to place industry in a state more advan-
tageous for competition, has conceived a vast pro-
gramme of internal reforms, among which figures
the release of raw materials and certain articles of
great consumption from duty. The reduction of
the duties might entail a disturbance in the balance
of the budget ; but your Majesty, so rightly desir-
ing to preserve our finances from all injury and to
maintain good order in the budgets, proposes to
compensate the momEntary loss that the treasury
will experience by the resource of the sinking fund.
As I said to your Majesty in my report of 1857,
" to produce its full effect, the sinking fund ought
to result from a positive excess of income. If it be
otherwise the money it absorbs will occasion a
deficit in the budget. The deficit increases the
floating debt, which latter ends sooner or later in
the creation of consols," that is to say, the sinking
fund in this case, instead of extinguishing the
public debt, tends to increase it at a loss to the trea-
sury.

Consequently, however good in itself—however
just and wise the sinking fund may be, as a measure
of foresight especially, as a check upon and obsta-
cle against the increase of the expenditure, it is
intelligible that its action may be suspended in the
presence of an inevitable deficit. But, since the
sinking fund is of itself a guarantee of order, your
Majesty would not resign yourself to this sacrifice,
though only temporary, save in a case of absolute
necessity. lam convinced that you will be happy
to maintain it in activity, should the loss to the
treasury be capable of being compensated, wholly
' or in part, either by the progressive amount derived
from the taxes, or by savings effected in the public
expenditure.
Nothing, in fact, is impossible with the lasting
peace of which your Majesty holds out the hope in
your programme. Economy keeps in reserve abun-
dant resources, and in a country like France, pre-
pared as it now is, it would be difficult to estimate
too highly what may be produced by confidence in
the fature.
To sum up, Sire—The era of peace inaugurated
by the programme traced out in your Majesty's
letter to the Minister of State opens under the fol-
lowing financial conditions :
The excess on the debit side of the old budgets is
reduced from 886 to 660 millions.
The budgets of 1855, 1866, 1857 are balanced
without deficit.
The budget of 1858, though deprived of all ex-
traneous aid and charged with the expenses of the
Chinese war and of the public works, ends, never•
theless, in an excess of income by more than 12
millions.
The fl )ating debt, which threatened to go beyond
a milliard, is already reduced to 750 millions, and
placed in presence of disposable resources, which
within a very brief period will make it sink below
700 millions.
The Treasury bonds, which in 1858 had reached
the sum of 345 millions, now hardly amount to 136
millions, and the interest lowered from 4 to 21 per
cent.
The treasury, notwithstanding the considerable
reimbursements it has already effected on the float-
ing debt, is in a state now for meeting all the ordi-
nary and extraordinary current demands, for the
office was closed yesterday at Paris with 251 mil-
lions in cash, and 150 millions in notes.

The taxes and indirect revenues advance so steadily

that the gravest circumstances have scarcely been
able to produce a check, and have yielded, since the
commencement of this reign, an increase that sur-
passes, not including the new imports, the enormous
and really characteristic sum of 268 millions.
The special commerce of France with foreign
nations has increased during the same period at
the rate of about 80 per cent.

The monetary circulation has been enriched by
nearly one milliard and 500 millions, arising from
the difference between the exports and imports of
the precious metals.
The Bank of France is provided with a metallic
fund of 551 millions, and enabled on this basis to
extend the circulation sufficiently so as to promote
largely the development of commercial operations.
The Bourse has been reorganised, and affords to
the public greater guarantees, without depriving
business of legitimate facilities and the necessary
intermediate agents.
If, owing to the wise foresight of your Majesty,
and to the marvellous fertility of the country, it has
been possible to obtain this favourable situation in
the midst of the complications, wars, scarcities,
crises of every kind, that for five years have im-
peded the financial services of the state, is it not
permitted to hope that, with peace and the like
prudence, the general progress will not be arrested,
and that the sacifices about to be imposed on the
treasury in favour of agriculture, commerce, and
industry, will not fail to receive compensations that
will maintain the good state of the finances ?