The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-15 00:00:00

THE] SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 15, 1861.

hared the fate of commercial protective imposts
and nobody have missed them. Churc'timen would
have voluntarily given more than they have hitherto
been coerced to paying, Dissenters would have been
left unmolested, and the "fabrics" Mr. DISRAILI
tries to lament for, would have been kept in repair
by their rent-free tenants.
We notice, however, one rather unfair trick on
the part of Mr. DISRAILI. His party, under his
leadership, got the Bill rejected last Session by a
majority of one. Obviously, it is now for them to
propose a Bill. Mr. DISRAILI, however, calls aloud
on Government to do it. He procured the rejection
of the Bill to which the Government gave its sup-
port. He says the law must be amended, yet he
does not offer the amendment needed ! The country
will not think this.manly. It is, in truth, showing
the white feather. For the leader of a party to
get rid of another's plan and refuse to produce his
own, can have but one result—the conviction will
be that the rejected plan was factiously rejected,
and that no other is practicable. This we believe
to be the truth. But then it furnishes no justifica-
tion for Conservatives. They differ among them-
selves as widely as the poles in the plans offered
from their own side, including that of the last Tory
Government itself. We do not believe they can
propose any scheme that is not substantially
abolition, which has a chance of being carried. Lord
EBURY'S plan to retain the rate—that is, all
the existing apparatus—but to abolish the power
to compel payment is the only one which can com-
pete with Sir Joint TRELAWNY'S, and that is be-
cause it is substantially the same. Sir JOHN has,
however, more pluck than Mr. DISRAELI. He at
least is not discouraged. If the Government does
not introduce a bill, he will do so—and thus the
" great domestic question" will not sleep next ses-
sion. We hope, however, after that, it will fall into
the eternal sleep on which it must like all mortal
things so soon enter.

The civil war in America is not only suicidal but
has a most injurious effect on the labouring classes
in this country. The selfish policy of the Man-
chester School, not only unpatriotic but suicidal,
has reaped its own reward. When £ s. d. takes
precedence of humanity it is not to be wondered
that our colonial resources are neglected. Central
India possesses all the requisites for the production
of cotton. Australia could supply the world with
the plant, which is indigenous to her lower lati-
tudes ; and the West Indies can compete single-
handed with the Southern States of America if
capital were only invested in developing the re-
sources of those prolific regions.

But why should not the richest of England's de-
pendencies, containing a population which out-
numbers the entire Anglo-Saxon race, contribute to
the maintenance of the commercial prosperity of
the country to which she owes her very existenec.
The old India Charter is dissolved. There is a wide
field open to the Governor-General of India to
establish an authority which shall be respected. It
is absurd to permit class prejudice to exist in India,
when in our own country we sanction some five
hundred conflicting creeds. It is useless to expect
that a people can be convinced of the folly of their
ways in a short time ; they must learn it gradually.
But it is the duty of those in authority to let the
landholders and petty chiefs know that
the remotest districts of India are as
much under command of the executive as any
county of England. We do not wish to take a de-
sponding view of our Indian possessions. In spite
of neglect and private cupidity in the end India
will prove harself to be one of the richest
and most valuable colonies of Great Britain
The numerous lines of railroads which are being
gradually extended through the country, and the
energetic advance which the Irrigation Company
has made, must, in the end, override the national
prejudice, but a kindly feeling and judicial conside-
ration may keep everything quiet.

CABINET CouNciL.—Summonses were issued yes-
terday to the several members of the Cabinet for a council
this afternonr et three o'clock at Lord Palmerston's official
residence in Downing •street.

Lord Brougham has accepted the Presidency of
the Edinburgh High School Club, to which he was re-
aeutly unanimously elected.

GOLD SHIPS AT SEA.—The gold ships that have
left Australia for England since the last mail are the Rox-
burgh Castle, on the 28th of August, with 50,399 ounces,
or £201,000 ; and the Wellesley, on the 21st of September,
with 76,961 ounces, worth about £308,000. The James
Wilson, with £76,000, is now 124 days out, and insurances
were effected on her to-day at the increased rate of eight
guineas per cent.
LARGE FAILURE.—The suspension is announced
of Messrs. Amott Brothers and Co., silk mercers, of St.
Paul's-churchyard, with liabilities of about £30,000, and
assets presumed to be considerable. The failure is attri-
butable to large loses on stock during the depressed state
of trade. The books have been placed in the hands of Mr.
W. J, White, accountant.

COPPER COINAGE.—In respect of a local scarcity
of copper coin, referred to by a correspondent, we are de-
sired to intimate that the new bronze coin is supplied at
the Mint to any amount from £5 upwards for its value in
gold, notes, or old copper coin, free of charge. In the case
of the exchange of old coin for new a premium of 2 per
cent. is also allowed to the public upon the nominal value
of the old coin brought in. Already £230,000 of the new
coin has been issued, of which about £60,000 only was
exchanged for old copper coin withdrawn.

DIE DRAWBACK ON PAPER.—As illustrating the
extent of business transacted by some of the principal firms
engaged in the paper trade, it may be stated that the total
drawback received by Messrs. Spalding and Hodge, of
Drury-lane, on their stock of paper, represented £16,689
12s. Bd. The number of reams held by this house was
101,520, or 2,936,3651b5. weight.

GALLANT LIFEBOAT SERVICES.—RESCUE OF
EIGHTEEN SHIPWRECKED PERSONS. LOWESTOFT,
Thursday Night.—This morning (says Captain Joachim,
R.N.,) at nine o'clock the Lowestoft libeboat, in connection
with the National Lifeboat Institution, was launched to
the rescue of two vessels riding to windward of the Holm
Sand. They were lying close to the breakers of that sand,
The gale was at the time very heavy, and the two vessels
were expected to be blown every moment on the sand,
where the destruction of every one on board would be
inevitable. The first vessel was the Whim, a pilot cutter,
with seven men on board. The harbour steam-tug had
gone to assist her, but was quite unable to venture near
her; but the lifeboat having anchored to windward
of the cutter, and having dropped down, was enabied to
take her crew out. The lifeboat having been
hauled up to her anchor, the steam-tug removed
her to windward, when the boat was again fortunately
enabled to repeat a similar merciful operation in rescuing
the crew of eleven man of the Saucy Lass, a fishing lugger.
By the assistance of the steam-tug the lifeboat was again,
for the third time, removed from her perilous position, and
I am happy to inform you we landed the eighteen hands all
safe. I have great pleasure in reporting the gallant and
skilful conduct of the boat's crew, with two of the North
Sea pilots, who favoured us with their assistance, and must
add that without the valuable aid of the steam-tug we
could not have accomplished these important services to
suffering humanity. It may be mentioned that Captain
Joachim has been instrumental himself in rescuing a large
number of shipwrecked persons, and had previously re-
ceived the silver medal and second service clasp of the
National Lifeboat Institution, in acknowledgment of his
gallant services. It is also worthy of notice, at this season
of the year, that the lifeboats of the National Lifeboat
Institution has been instrumental, during the last twenty-
two months, in rescuing four hundred and seventy-six ship-
wrecked persons from a watery grave.
THE FRENCH MINISTRY.—The financial letters
from Paris state that at the Council of Ministers, there was
considerable discussion as to the conditions demanded by
M. Fould before accepting the functions of Minister of Fi-
nance. He required that each Minister, and particularly
the Ministers of War and Marine, should not be allowed to
spend without limit, and merely como to him to find the
means when the expenditure is made. He also asked for a
certain control of the Moniteur, a reduction of the army,
&c. M. Billault opposed all this, and wished to maintain
things as they are. It was understood that the revenue of
the year will bar3ly reach the sum it was estimated at,
and that the tremendous deficit to be announced is attribut-
able almost entirely to the excess of expenditure in the
army and navy and public works. The number of men
voted was 393,000 men. The actual number under arms
has bee nearer 600,000.

M. FOULD'S REPORT.

LATEST NEWS.

our country in what concerned the execution of
the great lines of communication. In fact. the
bills presented by the Government were rejected,
at one time in consequence of questions of the
direction they were to take, and at another on ac-
count of the conditions of their concession: Some
persons wished that the execution of the railways
should be confided to the companies ; while others
advocated the State undertaking them ; and be-
tween these two systems the general interest
remained almost always disregarded.
" The draft of the Senatus-Consultum of the 25th
Dec., 1852, had therefore, for object to decide that
all works of public utility, particularly those de-
signated by the laws of the 3d May, 1841, and the
21st April, 1842, should be ordered and authorised
by decrees of the Emperor, as well as all unCertak-
ings of general interest. The credits applicable to
those works and to those undertakings were to be
opened according to the terms prescribed for extra-
ordinary credits, and submitted to the Legislative
Body at its next session.

THE MINISTERIAL CHANGE
IN FRANCE.

The Emperor has addressed the following letter
to Count Walewski, Minister of State :
"Palace of Compiegne, 12th Nov.

" Monsieur le Ministre,—The opinion expressed
this morning on our financial situation by M.
Fould, in the sitting of the Privy Council and of
the Council of Ministers, has my full approbation.
" For some time past, as you are aware, my great
desire has been to confine the Budget within stated
limits, and often, when presiding over the Council
of State, I have expressed my desire to that effect.
" Unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances and
ever-increasing necessities have prevented me from
securing that result. The only effectual means of
attaining the end in view, is resolutely to abandon
the faculty which belongs to me of opening new
credits in the absence of the Chambers. That sys-
tem will work without prejudice to the State, if,
after an attentive examination of possible economies,
a candid explanation of the real requirements of
the Administration persuades the Legislative Body
of the necessity of properly providing for the diffe-
rent services.

" The Senate introduced a modification in that
plan. The faculty of opening credits by decree was
limited to the works executed for the account of the
State, and if these works or undertakings had for
conditions subsidies or engagements from the Trea-
sury, the credit could not be granted except by a
law issued before the execution.

"I now therefore inform you of my intention to
convoke the Senate on the 2d of December, to in-
form it of my determination of relinquishing the
power of opening, in the interval between the ses-
sions, supplementary or extraordinary credits. That
resolution will form part of a Senatus-Consultum,
which, according to my promise, will regulate by
great sections the vote of the Budget of the diffe-
rent ministries.

" As to the Budget, Art.l2 of the same Senatus-
Consultum decided that it should be presented to
the Legislative Body with its administrative divi-
sions by chapter and by article, but that it should
be voted by the Ministry. The division by chapter
of the credit accorded for each Ministry was to be
regulated by decree of the Emperor, given in the
Council of State. Lastly, by the same Art. 12, the
power was given to the Government of effecting, by
means of decrees of the Emperor, issued in the same
form, transfers of funds from:one chapter to another.
It was in order to avoid recourse to supplementary
credits that the Senate gave the Government that
now resource for providing for eventualities.
" Such is the economy of our financial system,
and the attacks to which it has been subjected seem
to me in nowise founded. Consequences are as-
cribed to it for which it cannot be held responsible ;
and the remedy proposed, the division of the vote
according to the service in each ministry, would
not produce the result which is hoped for.
" The pure and simple return to the vote by
special chapters would only displace responsibility
by making the Legislative power intervene in the
administration ; but it would not re-establish the
equilibrium in our finances. However, since your
Majesty has promised the division by great chap-
ters, I do not see any serious inconveniences in that
modification, provided the chapters only certain
great divisions. M. Dupin has justly said :—' All
the budgets are presented and voted with an excess
of receipts, and all are closed with a deficit (I).'
" That state of things was not new, and when
the most rigorous division by special chapters was
exacted, for example from 1840 to 1847, the equi-
librium of the budget was not better maintained
I have now before me an account of the supplemen-
tary and extraordinary credits opened in those
eight years, they amount to nearly 1,200,000,000
francs, deduction being made of the credits an-
nulled, or about 150,000,000 f. a year. It is true
that the years 1840 and 1841 required extraordi-
nary expenses on account of the crisis occasioned by
the Eastern question, and that the budgets of War
and Marine were exceptionally high in those two
years. If we compare with that period the eight
years from 1851 to 1858, it must be admitted that
the expenses during the latter interval were more
considerable, but account must be taken of the
Eastern war, which has weighed so heavily on our
finances. From 1851 to 1858, the supplementary
and extraordinary credits amounted to not less than
2,400 millions, averaging 300 millions a year. De-
ducting the expenditure occasioned by the war in
the East, which amounted to 1,348 millions, there
will remain, for the second period, 1,050 millions,
of supplementary and extraordinary credits, or
about 130 millions a year. The justice of this
comparison could not be fairly assailed by object-
ing that the extraordinary expenditure of 1840
1841 modified its terms, for, as a compensation,
the occupation of Rome has, from 1851 to 1858,
been an uninterrupted charge on our budgets. The
difference between the two periods is moreover in
favour of the latter. It is partly explained by the
faculty of transfers from one account to another,
which existed from 1853 to 1856.
" Since 1857 the influence of transfers has become
almost null, because the law of the sth May, 1855,
and the Imperial decree of 10th November, 1856,
again modified the legislation, and decided that from
the Ist January, 1857, the transfer of credits from
one chapter to another should be reserved to cover,
after the first financial year, the insufficient allow-
ances for which it might be necessary to provide.
But this modification is in direct opposition to the
Senatus-Consultum of 25th December, 1852, which
was never favourably viewed by the Council of
State and the Administration of Finance. Their
efforts have always tended to restrict, as far as
possible, the exercise of the right of transfer, and
they have rendered its application well nigh illusory
by limiting it to the last two months of the financial
year. Your Majesty knows that the Budget is not
expended only in the year for which it is voted, and
that the expenditure may also take place in the
months of January and February of the year fol-
lowing. But, at that epoch, the funds appropriated
to the different services are nearly all completely
exhausted, and scarcely any are disposable when,
according to the new provision of the law, the right
of transfer comes into operation. That was not the
end which the Emperor and the Senate had in
view ; for the President, M. Troplong, had said,
with great justice and authority, that the faculty
of transfers, guarded, however, by rigorous guaran-
tees, was an almost certain means of keeping the
Budget strictly within impassable limits.'
" For my part, I attach the greatest import-
ance to the system of transfers. I sec in it the
only practicable and effectual means of securing
the public services in the absence of the Legis-
lative Body, and I think that the use of it must
be re-established, as was decided by the Senatus-
Consultum of the 25th December, 1852. in
fact, let an unforeseen want reveal, in one part of
the service, an insufficiency of any kind, it will be
possible, by means of a transfer, to carry from one
chapter to another the necessary supplement,
leaving it to the Government to regularise that
operation before the Legislative Body, and to have
the funds replaced in the chapter from which they
shall have been taken.

"In renouncing the right, which was also even
that of the constitutional sovereigns who preceded
me, I think I am resolving on a course useful to the
good management of our finances. Faithful to my
origin, I cannot regard the prerogatives of the
Crown either as a sacred deposit which cannot be
touched, or as an inheritance from my fathers which
must be transmitted intact to my son. As the Elect
of the people, and representing their interests,
I shall always abandon without regret any prero-
gative useless to the public welfare, in the same way
as I shall preserve unshakeable in my hands all
power indispensable to the tranquillity and pros-
perity of the country.
" On this, Monsieur le Ministre, I pray God to
have you in his Holy keeping.

" NAPOLEON."
The Emperor has addressed the following letter
to M. Achille Fould

" Palace of Compiegne, Nov. 4.
" My dear Monsieur Fould,—

" You pointed out with so much lucidity before
the Privy Council, and the Council of Ministers a
danger to my Government, and you supported your
opinion by arguments of so convincing a nature,
that I am decided on completely adopting your
ideas, and on causing your memoire to be inserted
in the Moniteur.

" I accept your system the more willingly from
the fact that for a long time I have sought, as you
know, the means of solidly establishing the credit
of the State by confining the Ministers within the
regulated budget. But the new system will not
work with advantage unless the man who has been
able to study profoundly all the difficulties of it
will resolve to devote himself to its execution. I
therefore charge you with the portfolio of Finance,
and I thank you for undertaking the task, the re-
sults of which will be favourable to the general in-
terests. lam persuaded that in this new position
you will not cease to give me, as heretofore, proofs
of devotedness and patriotism.
"Receive, my dear Monsieur Fould, the assurance
of my sincere friendship,

" NAPOLEON."

The following is the report from M. Fould to the
Emperor, which was read in the sitting of the
Privy Council, and of the Council of Ministers at
the Tuileries, on the 12th Nov. :

" Sire—Your Majesty has permitted your Go-
vernment to take before the Legislative Body the
engagement of presenting to the Senate a plan-for
the modification of the Senatus-Consultum of the
25th December, 1852.
" I come, therefore, as your Majesty has deigned
to authorise me to do, to submit to you, on the
occasion of that change, the reflections with which
my experience and my devotedness inspire me. I
shall do so with a conviction so much the more pro-
found that your Majesty has without doubt not for-
gotten the share which I took in the important act
which has to be modified.

" The vices of the system which prevailed in our
finances at the moment at which your Majesty sub-
mitted that act to the sanction of the Senate are
already far from us, and in order to appreciate pro-
perly the importance of the object which your Ma-
jesty proposed to yourself, it is not without utility
to speak of the past.
" Under preceding Governments the tendency of
the Chamber of Deputies had invariably been to
take possession of the administration in all its de-
tails. That tendency was especially manifested in
the exaggeration of the speciality which it was de-
sired to introduce in the obligatory appropriation
of the sums voted for the public service even the
least important. The divisions of the Budget, at
first few in number, were progressively multiplied.
As the budget was voted eighteen months before-
hand, it often occurred that certain services were
insufficiently provided for, whilst others had too
large a share. That error was at times inten-
tional, for the Government had the faculty of
assisting the suffering services by supplementary
credits granted without the previous consent of the
Chambers, and the ministers often reduced their
demands to avoid discussions. The regulations for
keeping the public accounts did not permit the
surplus funds attributed to any particular service
to be tranferred to another, so that at the end of
each year certain credits, not having been employed,
had to be annulled, whilst others had to be opened
to meet recognised deficiencies. Hence the impossi-
bility of ascertaining the exact financial situation,
and of maintaining the resources equal to the re-
quirements otherwise than by the movements of the
floating debt and the operations of the Treasury.

" After the revolution of 1830, when the Par-
liamentary power received an immense extension,
new exigencies were soon produced. They first
showed themselves in subdividing different Minis-
terial budgets into a great. number of chapters, and
in the insertion in the yearly financial law of a list
of the particular chapters on which the Government
had the right to open credits during the interval of
the sessions—a useless precaution ; for that list,
after a continual struggle of the Ministers against
the finance committees, came at last to comprise 75
chapters.

" It was not only the opening of supplementary
credits in the absence of the Chambers which the
transfers would prevent ; it was also the opening
of extraordinary credits. In fact, the most grave
and the most unlooked for circumstances might find
resources in our vast budget, and give the means of
waiting for the meeting of the Legislative Body;
and, moreover, the more unexpected was the cause,
the more readily admitted would be the transfer
which would be made (2).
"The complaints made against the administration

" The tribune first, and then the press, gave great
prominence to those debates. They both vigorously
attacked the administration of finance, and rendered
it suspected by public opinion ; and the reform of
the finances was made a weapon against the Govern-
ment in the elections.

(1). This assertion is a little exaggerated, the Budget of
1858 having presented an excess of receipts.
(2) . " The faculty of transfers from one chapter to an
other," said M. Bineau, " will suppress almost all the
annulments of credit, and it must, on the other hand, do
away with almost all the supplementary credits."—Report
of H. I3ineau, liftnieter of Finance, 1853.

" The sad effects of those Parliamentary struggles
were a lesson for the persons wh ) had followed
them, and it was not doubtful that it constituted a
danger which a new Government ought carefully
to avoid. That opinion was still more strengthened
by the attempts made in 1852 by the Legislative
Body, and which manifested themselves in the re-
port of the committee on the Budget. Thus, among
the modifications to be introduced in the Constitu
tion of the 14th Jan., 1852, the Emperor, in addi-
tion to certain prerogatives in conformity with the
new destinies of France, called in the first place for
a reform in the financial system of the country.
Not only would he resume what had been succes-
sively taken from the Government in a vote of the
Budget, but he also reserved to himself the initia-
tive of undertakings of general interest. It was
thus that your Majesty put an end to fruitless dis-
cussions and to prejudicial postpenements, particu-
larly on the occasion of the directions to be taken
by the railway lines, and in the conditions of detail
in their working.
" The Emperor doubtless remembered that it
was to the interference of the Chambers in the
administration that was due the inferiority of

" The first of the considitions, which I have always con-
sidered as indispensable, was the closing ef the Grand
Livre, but as everything holds together in our great finan-
cial system, that condition required that in the first place an
end should bo put to the increase of the deficits. Since
1855 the progress of them has, in fact, been checked, and
as to the future, the decree of the 10th November last,
which subjects to a rigorous control the opening of supple-
mentary credits, and which prescribes the keeping the
expenses within the limits of realised resources, must be a
guarantee, as it were, infallible, of order and equilibrium."
—Report of M. Magne, Minister of Finance, 1857.
" It has appeared to us," said M. Schneider, Vice-Presi-
dent of the Legislative Body, in his report on the Budget
of 1854, " that this right of transfer must for the future
give to the provisions of the Budget, taken in the whole, a
character for truth and exactitude which they previously
wanted, but on condition that, while avoiding exaggerated
grants, which allow of abusive expenses, the services should
have been properly endowed. In fact, the insufficiency
which in the course of the year should appear on the pre-
visions of certain chapters, might then be made up by the
surplus b
on other chapters. A double advantage may b©
expected from this system : en the one hand, the Minister,

of our finances, and the experience of the last few
years; have not changed my views. I desired in
1852, as I desire now, the suppression of extraordi-
nary and supplementary credits apart from the vote
of the Legislature, for your Majesty will permit
me to say on this subject all I think. The real
danger for our finances is in the liberty which the
Government possesses of decreeing expenses with-
out the control of the Legislative power ; and, as
has been justly said, nothing is more difficult than
to struggle against the most legitimate of desires—
that of making useful expenses.
" With a Budget well arranged, and in which all
the services should be sufficiently provided for, the
abandonment of that prerogative would not present
any inconvenience in the despatch of public busi-
ness. A great neighbouring country has never
given the executive Government the latitude of
disbursing any sum whatever without a previous
vote, and yet the special application of the sums
voted by the Parliament is absolute. The number
of chapters inscribed in the Budget is about 240.
The Ministers of Marine and War alone, on ac-
count of their services being disseminated over all
the surface of the globe, have the power of making
transfers, and those operations which must be sub-
mitted to Parliament are surrounded with exces-
sively minute conditions (3).
"In all countries where the representative sys-
tem prevails, especially in Belgium and Holland,
the same thing occurs.
"I seek examples which might be cited against
my opinion; I endeavour to figure to myself sudden
necessities; and I do not discover a single objection
which may not be easily met. A public calamity
occurs in the absence of the Chambers—the funds
of the Ministry of the Interior and of the Ministry
of Agriculture and Commerce are ready to afford
the first assistance by means of transfers. A war
becomes necessary ;—the Government can concen-
trate on a single service the active forces of the
Ministries of War and Marine, the resources of
which amount to no less than 500 or 600 millions
per annum. Moreover, in such eventualities the
Emperor would hasten to convoke the Legislative
Body, and he might rely on its support, all the
more absolute as the occasion should be more urgent:
"I have said that the Budget ought to be care-
fully calculated and sufficiently provided for in
every part. Already, in 1853 and 1856, the same
thought had determined the revision of all the
chapters, and a rather considerable increase in some
of them. Nevertheless, supplementary credits have
continued •to increase, and their extension has
been so much the more dangerous because they
were not always kept within the conditions traced
by the law. lam not indisposed to admit that,
since 1856, further augmentations have become
necessary. Let them be demanded, and the Legis-
lative Body will not hesitate to grant them, as soon
as the Emperor, on his side, shall relinquish the
faculty of opening supplementary and extraordi-
nary credits by decrees. I venture to affirm that
such an exchange would be easy, and the two
powers would both equally gain thereby.
" The Constitution has reserved to the Legisla-
tive Body the right of voting the taxes; but this
right would be almost illusory if things were to
remain in their present state. In fact, what is the
value of a control exercised over expenditure 18
months after it has taken place P And whom can
it affect, if not the Chief of the State, since Ministers
are responsible to him alone ? Might not we also
question the utility of discussing the Budget in the
Council of State and in the Legislative Body, if, in
spite of the reductions accepted or imposed, the
Government can, after the session, increase the ex-
penditure of every kind ?
" In the comparison which I have made of the
results of the last eight years of the monarchy of
July, and of the eight years from 1851 to 1858, I
have shown that, apart from the facts relative to
war, there is not between those two epochs great
differences, and that that which existed was in fa-
vour of the period nearest to us. Unfortunately,
since 1858, facts have assumed greater ga.vity. The
supplementary and extraordinary credits, which
were 83,000,000 f. in 1859, rose to 115,000,000 f. in
1860, and in 1861 they approach 200,000,000 f.,
without counting those which must be opened in
consequence of the dearness of provisions. It has
been seen with regret that the most considerable of
these credits have been opened immediately after the

session.
" In studying the financial question, it is easy to
foresee that, without a change of system, we shall
soon find ourselves beset with serious embarrass-
ments. The eight years from 1851 to 1858 have
opened extraordinary credits to the amount of 2,400
millions. If to this sum be added 400 millions for
the three years, 1859, 1860, and 1861, it will be
seen to what extent the public debts and the defi-
cits of the Treasury have increased.
" To meet these expenses recourse has been bad
to every form of credit, and with the assent of the

obliged to keep himself definitively within the limits of his
Budget, will be naturally called upon to realise all the par-
tial savings compatible with the wants of the service ; and,
on the other hand, we may see disappear those annulments
of credit and those supplementary credits, which every
year overthrow provisions, and render the vote of the Bud-
get too illusory. In the new conditions in which we find
ourselves placed. we cannot too strongly urge that sup-
plementary credits should for the future disappear, that
extraordinary credit be not called for, except in unforeseen
cases, or under circumstances exceptional and really urgent.
The suppression cf supplementary credits and of the annul-
ments of credits appears to us to be one of the capital condi•
tions of the new regime. It is on this condition that We
can proclaim as a result as serious, as considerable, the
equilibrium of the Budget of 1854."
"In 1855, Baron Paul de Richemont, reporter of the
Budget of 1856, expressed himself in the following terms
—" Financial order, towards which all efforts ought to tend,
cannot, we do not hesitate to say, be realised except on con-
dition of cutting short the supplementary credits, which,
with some rare exceptions, can no longer be justified, and
of reserving the extraordinary credits for completely unfore-
seen circumstances, of real imperious interests, and of
urgency, which cannot be disputed. If it were otherwise,
those extra budgetary credits, not made up by surplus re-
venue, would destroy the equilibrium of the receipts and
expenditure, falsify the voted Budget, and by increasing
the deficits, would consequently lead to an augmentation Of
the floating debt."

The same ideas are set forth in the reports of M. Alfred
Le Roux, on the Budget of 1857; of M. Lequin, reporter
on the bill relative to the supplementary and extraordinary
credits of 1854, 1855, and 1856 ; of M. Devinck, reporter of
the Budget of 1859 ; M. Lonvet, reporter on the bill relative
to the supplementary and extraordinary credits of the ses-
sion of 1859, and several others.
(3). The Ilioniteur, published on the 2d Aug., 1861, de-
tails respecting the vote of the English Budget, which I
have ascertained to be correct, and which will give your
Majesty an idea of the severe control exercised by the Par-
liament over public expenses. The following is an ext ract
from the Ilfootiteur
. _

" Vote of the English Budget.—The English Parliament
is about to terminate its session by passing a bill in which
all the grants of money made to the Crown by the House
Commons are united, and subjected to the sanction of the
Legislature. This measure is at this moment passing rapidly
through its different phases. The following is a sketch. of
the financial machinery employed in the payment of ex-
penses in England :
" In virtue of the law referred to, the Controller •GerLeral
of the Exchequer, who is one of the great functionaries of
State, is independent of the Executive Government, and
directly responsible to Parliament, accords credits to the
different Administrations for each grant separately voted by
the Parliament. These credits are opened at the Bank of
England, which, as is known, receives taxes for the Go-
vernment, and does so for the account of the Controller-
General of the Exchequer. The Controller on his part only
opens credits on warrants signed by the Sovereign.
" In consequence of this operation thus controlled, the
Executive Government cannot introduce any modification
into each grant made by Parliament, which remains sepa-
rate and distinct ; and each Ministry cannot, as a general
rule, spend more than the special sum awarded by the Le-
gislature for a special object. There is, however, an excep-
tion to that rule. The Treasury can modify the grants made
for the army and navy, on the condition that the transfers
made in the details of the credit shall not exceed the total
sum voted by Parliament, and that besides an account shal
be given to Parliament in the following session of the real
sons for the modification.
" Apart from the grant of special credits for specified
objects, there is granted every year to the English Govern-
ment, under the title of general credit for different pur-
poses,' a sum of £lOO,OOO sterling, of which also an account
must be given to Parliament. That grant for different pur-
poses, and the capital of about £2,000,000 sterling, which
represents the operations of the Treasury, are the only sums
in England which are not under the absolute control of the
Legislature of the country. Thus, in the event of an un-
foreseen eventuality occurring, as was the case when the
decision was adopted of paying the funeral of the Duke of
Wellington out of the funds of the State, there is no other
alternative than to convoke the Parliament in order to ob-
tain the moues.—.Private Corropngenee.

I.