The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-17 00:00:00

FINANCIAL RESOURCES OF FRANCE.

The Moniteur of yesterday contains an impor-
tant paper—the report of the Minister, M. Magne,
on the general financial situation of the empire.
The assurance, not a superfluity, with which the
report concludes, will be read with general satisfac-
tion. The following is M. Magne's report :
REPORT TO THE EMPEROR.

"Sire,—We have now reached that period of the
year at which the Minister of Finance is in the habit of
rendering an account to the Emperor of the general state
of the finances.
" The exceptional circumstances, of a nature to in-
fluence the public receipts and expenses, and the opera-
tions of the Treasury during the years 1854 and 1855,
render the duty I am about to perform peculiarly
stringent.
" Your Majesty will see with satisfaction, that al-
though within the last two years the cholera, the crisis
in alimentary articles of consumption, and the war, have
imposed great sacrifices on the State, we can at least
demonstrate that the sources of public wealth are far
from having been diminished, and that, particularly in
1855, commerce and industry have attained a degree of
development such as no one could have ventured to fore-
see, even at the most prosperous periods.
" Service of 1854.—1 n my last report I had the ho-
nour of acquainting the Emperor with the principal
causes which, apart from the extraordinary requirements
of the war and the navy, have loaded the budget of 1854
with supplementary credits amounting to 120 millions.
"The general" statement of the finances, published in
the month of May last, exhibited the provisional state
of that financial period with a probable excess of expen-
diture of nearly 100 millions. Since then this result
has become less to a sensible extent. I can now an-
nounce with certainty to your Majesty that the deficit
of 1854 will not reach 70 millions. I ought even to add
that if the budget had not supplied, in order to complete
the sums set apart for great public works, over and above
the special resources destined for them, a supp'emelit
that has risen as high as 72 millions, the definitive ba-
lance between the receipts and the ordinary expenses
would show an excess of revenue.
" Service of 1855.—The estimates for the budget of
1855 have been affected by unforeseen circumstances.
"The assistance given to the communes, the arrears
•a the last two loans, the discounts on prepayments,
the necessity of reconstructing the rules and regulation,'
of the tobacco factories on wider bases, so as to make
the working correspond better with the increase of con-
sumption, the increase of premiums on exports resulting
from the activity of our industry, the expenses attending
the Universal Exhibition, the impulse given to public
works, are all of them so many accidental causes, induc-
ing the opening of numerous credits, and imposing on
the budget a supplementary charge of 120 millions.
" This sum appears to be a considerable one ; but I
beg the Emperor to be so good as to remark that a part
—that of the premiums, amounting to seventeen mil-
lions—is merely the giving back of duties levied ; that
another part, that of tobacco and snuff, exceeding
15 millions, is not a real expense, but a mere transfor-
mation of stock ; and, lastly, that the great public works
have taken 52 millions from the ordinary revenue.
" We cannot consider such an advance imposed on the
present for the benefit of the future to be an outlay lost
to the state. On the contrary, it is certain that it forms
the most useful, the most profitable of all investments.
The experience of the last 20 years proves in the most
incontestable manner that the funds devoted to the com-
pletion of roads, to the perfecting of navigable routes,
to harbour works, and to the development of railroads,
are productive in the highest degree, since by stimulat-
ing and facilitating trade and industry, they invariably
lead to a corresponding increase in the revenue of the
public treasury.
"At no period, Sire, have great works of general
utility received so powerful an impulse as during the
four years just elapsed ; nor at any period bas the in-
crease of the indirect taxes been so rapid, and under this
last-mentioned item no year can vie with 1855.
"The most signal proof of this is furnished by the
tables which the Monitcur has just published. To appre-
ciate accurately the value of this document, it is proper
not to confound the duties levied by virtue of old tariffs
with the new duties resulting from the laws voted at the
last legislative session.
' " The new duties have yielded 33 millions.
"The old tariffs, having been equally in force during
the two years 1854 and 1855, furnish alone elements
capable of bearing a comparison. In doing so, we find
in favour of 1855 an enormous increase of more than 70
millions, which raises to 917 millions the total yield of
the old duties, and proves that, thanks to the confidence
inspired by your Majesty, not merely has the ground
lost in 1848 been recovered, but that the year 184t!itself,
the most remarkable under the preceding Government,
is already surpassed by nearly 100 millions.
"The astonishing result of the national activity is not
the sole distinctive mark of the year just closed.
" The direct contributiens, owing to the increased
number of persons requiring licences, have given a
surplus of 4,000,000. The facility of recovering debts
has made freeb progress. The sums received 'be the
31st of December exceeded by ',early 18,000,000 the
amount of the instalments legally due, and the costs of
law proceedings bad undergone a new and marked reduc-
tion.
"The timber possessed by the state has been sold on
terms wholly unexpected. The quantities felled, ♦alued
at 21,800,400 f. in the budget of 1855, have produced
30,000,000.
"All these augmentations, and some probable dimi- '
nutiou of credit, will, according to all reasonable
cal-
culations, bring up the increased expenditure of 1855,
notwithstanding the 160 millions of supplementary
allocations of which I have spoken, to a total of about
56 millions. This sum, considering the extraordinary
exigencies for which we have been compelled to pro-
vide, will appear highly satisfactory, especially when
we reflect that it is far inferior to the amount assigned
to extraordinary works and the tobacco reserves, and
that i❑ this point of view it cannot be regarded as consti-
tuting, in the proper sense of the term, a deficit. Your
Majesty, in reference to this point, will permit me to re-
mark that, generally speaking, for some years past, the
budgets would have been so managed as to show an
exact balance if, as was formerly the case, the sums ex-
pended on extraordinary works had been entirely
covered by special sources of revenue so distributed as
to weigh both on the present and on the future.
" Service of 1856.—The budget of 1856, being only
at its outset, it is impossible to term a precise estimate
as to its probable results. But the greater portion of
louse causes which in 1855 rendered supplemental credit
necessary, are not in their nature likely to recur, and we
may reasonably expect, therefore, to find the facts turn
out much more in accordance with our estimates.
"Service of 1857.—The budget of 1857, which is at
this moment under consideration by the Council of
State, shows an excess of receipts over the expenditure
to the extent of 15 millions. In order to bestow upon
this investigation, in accordance with the Emperor's
intentions, the highest possible character of sincerity,
and diminish as far as possible all chances of a mistake
in the estimates, certain changes have been introduced
in the bases of the calculation.

"On the one hand, in estimating the expenditure,
greater regard has been had to the experience of pre-
ceding years. I will mention the bounties on exporta-
tion, the estimate of which I have augmented by 12
millions, it having hitherto been always insufficient.
" With regard to receipts, contrary to the mode gene-
rally adopted of late years, they have been calculated
on the footing of results actually obtained, and of the
estimates of 1856, without regard to the possibilities of
ulterior augmentation. This augmentation, which is all
but certain, is left as a reserve to meet the supplemen-
tary expenditures which acts of hostile force might occa-
sion. Not to discount the future, and to keep eventual
receipts as a reserve to cover unforeseen expenditures,
appears to me the most efficacious method that can be
adopted, with a ♦iew to arriving at a well-considered
balance. •

" Treasury—l cannot speak of the situation of the
Treasury without directing for a moment your Majesty's
attention to the product of the loans, and to the extra-
ordinary expenses to which it is liable.
" The loan of 250 millions has been completely paid

up.
" On the Ist of January last 476 millions were realised
of the loan of 500 millions.
" At the same period, on the 780 millions, the amount
of the last loan and the supplement, we had received 394
millions—that is to say :
" For the dime and the expired terms which ha►e been
paid up in full, 234 millions.
" For the anticipations, 160 millions ; total, 1 milliard
120 millions.
" The expenses charged on the loans amounted on the
31st December, for the two years 1854 and 1855, to
nearly a milliard.
"The excess of resources realised over payments
effected is thus at this moment about 120 millions.
" This surplus, added to the 415 millions which have
yet to be received upon the two preceding loans,
presents a total sum of 535 millions disposable for the
extraordinary requirements of the war in 1856. It is true
that some of the expenses incurred during the year just
closed have yet to be discharged ; but it will be pre-
cisely the same with the expenses incurred dining 1856,
a part of which must be carried over for liquidation in
1857.

" By the anticipation of receipts before expenses, the
Treasury have been enabled most advantageously to the
country to postpone, to the latest period, the raising of
the interest of the bonds, and to support without embar-
rassment the advances made out of the funds of the de-
pots and consignations, to the funds of the dotation of
the army.
" The floating debt, properly so called, is reduced to
652 millions—i. e., to 121 millions below the total of last
year, and the Treasury Bonds have fallen to 168 millions•
" This position of affairs, which has been so favour-
able to economy in the ordinary resources of the Trea-
sury, has the incontestable advantage of leaving thereto
a large margin for its ulterior requirements.
" Upon the whole, sire, this simple sketch of the prin.
cipal financial events of the past year reveals an un-
rivalled commercial activity; a progress unheard•of in
consumption; two or-ormolu loans paid with the great-
est regularity, and in a great part before they fell due ;
apart from the loans, more than 135 millions, an amount
never yet witnessed, employed irk the purchase of renter
on account of the departments ; the direct contributions
paid in advance, and almost without expense ; a budget
properly balanced ; the floating debt reduced ; and all
these despite the war, the food crisis, and the heavy ex-
penses which accidental circumstances have imposed
upon us.
" What grander proof can be afforded of the vitality
and wealth of our country----of all, indeed, to which
France may aspire under a popular Government, and
with her vast resources wisely administered ? The only
danger that could be feared under these circumstances
ill MOO. Bat your Majesty will know how to wipe ,

this danger by your august prudence, in firmly resisting
the wild impulses of speculation, and in postponing, in
the interest of the great natters now in hand, all under-
takings which do not bear the stamp of evident urgency.
—I am, &c., " P. MAGNE.

THE DIPLOMATISTS AT ST. PETERS-

BURG.

A letter from St. Petersburg, of the 6th, in the
Constitatiomnel, says :—" We know pretty well
here at present what has occurred relative to Count
d'Esterhazy's mission. His first visit to Count de
Nesselrode was without result, and his audience
with the Emperor was exceedingly cold. The Ans.
trian envoy also paid a visit to M. Leon Senlaurne,
chief director at the office of Foreign Affairs, and
was received not merely with coldness, but with
certain sarcastic observation on the slice Of
territory which Austria desired, he insinuated,
to appropriate to herself from the part of
Russia adjoining the mouths of the Danube.
In fact the language used against Austria
amongst the partisans of the Court was violent
in the exreme, and the ingratitude of that Power
was spoken Of openly, as something monstrous,
with regard to Russia, who had saved from total
destruction the House of Hapsburg.' On the
evening of the 29th Dec. the rumour was current
that Baron de Seebach, minister of Saxony at Paris,
and who represented Russian interests in that capi-
tal since the breaking out of the war, had arrived
in St. Petersburg. The news proved true, as the
Baron was at the time at the hotel of his father-is'
law, Count de Nesselrode. The secondary states
of Europe having of late given evidence of consi-
derable independence, every one looked on Baron
de Seebach as a reinforcement to Count d.'Ester-
hazy, and, in consequence, no one was surprised to
learn that the day after his arrival, the Saxon di'
lomatist passed a great part of the morning with
the Austrian envoy. The Baron was received by
the Emperor Alexander on the 31st of December,
and the audienn,t lasted upwards of two hours.
What took place at the interview I of course can-
not inform you, but what I can affirm is, that
Count de Nesselrode, who a week before had pub-
lished his famous circular to make known the final
intentions of Russia, all at once changed his tone,
and declared that his circular was not an ultima:
tuna any more than was the Austrian note, and
that there appeared not to be any impossibility of
coming to an understanding on a middle ground.
It is evident, therefore, that Baron de Seebach's re°
presentations have had something to do with the
sudden veering about of the Russian chancellor.