The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-31 00:00:00

NEW FRENCH SINKING FUND.

A Correspondent of the Constitutionnel sug-
gests a novel scheme for reducing the burthen of
the French National Debt, and founding a per-
manent fund for the purposes of education. He
begins by saying :—" If it were possible to obtain
some addition of revenue for the State by a very
simple method, and without producing complaint
from anybody, surely no man of good sense
would oppose it ; and to procure its adoption
we must avail ourselves of publicity through the
Journals. It is incontestible that the fund-
holders are in a state much more advantageous
in many respects than the landowners. They
have a fair interest for their money, and an in-
come clear and free from all charges and losses.
This ought to be so ; for the engagements of the
State must be kept inviolable ; public credit can
exist only at this price. The idea of levying any
tax on them cannot enter into any person's mind.
Yet, if there be a means of exciting among many
of them a desire to render some portion of their
income subject to the charges to which all others
are liable, it would be cheating ourselves to ne-
glect
so useful a resource." He then remarks
on the avidity with which political rights are ac-
quired, when they are attainable by the people ;
and on the complaints often made by the fund-
holders that their property gave them no politi-
cal rights, to which he thinks they are fully en-
titled, and refers to their loyalty for the last fif-
teen years. He proceeds :—" Let us come to
the plan : Two words are enough : it is only
necessary to enact, by one or two articles to be
introduced into the Budget, something equiva-
lent to this. - Every holder of an inscription for
100 francs of Rentes, at least has the right to
give notice to the Minister of Finance that he
wishes to render it quasi-real property, it under-
going for that purpose a reduction of one-tenth,
as direct taxation. On the payment, every six
months, the reduction of one-twentieth shall be
acknowledged by a small stamp on the coupon.
The Rentes rendered quasi-real property, cannot
be restored to their former state." The writer
expects that the opportunity thus afforded to
ac-
quire a vote, will be eagerly seized by many who
now pay 290 francs or less, in direct taxes, but
have no electorial rights. Many of these would
gladly convert an hundred francs of Rente into
quasi-real property, to become electors, and if
they had not the Rente already in their posses-
sion, they would buy it. This would bring the
Rente into demand, and spread it through the
departments. He has no doubt that 500,000
francs might thus be gained ; and he asks, whe-
ther that is a sum to be despised in a country
where the Deputies were fought for many sittings
together to save 12,000 francs, and where a ,grant
0150,000 francs for the mutual instruction of
32 millions of souls was hailed as a victory ? He
proposes that the produce of this new tax should
be applied to the maintenance of schools for in-
fants, and for adult artisans. This, he thinks,
would be an additional stimulant to the fund-
holders of liberal principles to convert their
Rentes into quasi-real property. He justifies the
singular phrase he has adopted to designate the
new species of Rente, and owns he has no hope
of seeinghis project realised, because " it has
the unpardonable sin of increasing the number
of
electors.