The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-20

| not alter in this respect, the births would no
| longer suffice TO cover the losses by death And
under such circumstances a reorganization of
the army has been devised which takes away all
the able-bodied men, without exception, in the
very prime of life, compelling them Tor years 10
! celibacy Must not the youth of France, men
and women, rebel against such system9
It would lead too far. to- enter deeply
into the causes of dissatisfaction con-
nected with the financial affairs of the
| country. The new system of loans in
! troduced under Louis Napoleon has 1t
| is true, enabled large masses OF the people 70
make small investments; and this has frequently
| been considered guarantee of continued gov
ernment influence. But the very circumstance
of the vast distribution of those investments Is,
on the other hand, a guarantee to the holders
for repayment under any government. As to
the financial administration of the present
regime, which has been hitherto practically ire
sp onsble, the figures are simply appalling
Already in 1855, Baron Rchemont, who re-
ported in the name of the Committee on the
budget complained of the State expenses being
"double that which they had been under the
First Empire J" The active State property
had vastly decreased under Napoleon III,
through the sale of railways, of State domains,
and of possessions formerly held by the Orleans
family, as well as by extraordinary clearings OF
wood in the State forests. Nevertheless, the
extensive budgets annually fixed were year by
year found to have bt EN- enormously exceeded.
The surplus of receipts, shown by ministerial
legerdemain, like mirage not only vanished
regularly into thin air. but one day the head OF
the State had actually to sit down and to indite
a letter to the public in which deficit of ten
hundred millions of francs was acknowledged,
which nobody knew how to account for. 1t was
a strange pecuniary sickness that had suddenly
broken out in the State body. M. Fould was
called in as q doctor, and temporary renet
seemed to be afforded At least that was what
| the friends of Government asserted.
The revelations concerning the financial adj
ministration of the Imperial Commission"
which acts as an irresponsible communal council
| for Paris, are probably fresh in the memory OF
| some readers. They came out in the Corps Legis-
| latif NJ. Haussmann himself the great recon-
structor of the capital had to make his confession.
| 1t was such a scandal that persons who might
have been expected to hold together IKE
burrs began to indulge in mutual recrimlna-
| tions. The affair was smothered with difficulty.
| Since then the republican press has agitated
| another financial point. Inyidious comparisons
were drawn between the salary of American
| Presidents and the civil list which LOUIS Napo-
leon had decreed to himself after he had con-
vertcd bis Presidentship into an imperial tenure
of power The French civil list is at present
the highest ia the world. Under Louis Phi
lippe it was twelve millions of francs. Under
Louis Napoleon it is nominally twenty-five
millions, not counting the dotatiOns of the
imperial princes and princesses In reality
the civil list of the Emperors own person
| is reckoned to amount to some forty or
| forty-two millions of francs through the
| receipts from various domains attached to the
| Crown. Yet few years ago the civil list was
| supposed to be charged with debt of eighty
| millions of francs!
| Now in iuXtapositon to the twenty-five or
| rather fOrty-two millions of francs which the
Emperor receives annually, the democratic
| critics placed the ''ridculously small sum OF
| ninety-two thousand five hundred francs which
| are an American Presidents yearly salary. And
it was said that France must certainly be able to
| pay for her glory" seeing that in eighteen
| years She had contrived to pay to Louis Napo-
| leon four hundred and fifty millions, Or more
correctly speaking, seven hundred and lifty-six
| millions of francs
| Epr ho colyo Of anto tha
| calculation above alluded to has been so worked
| out as to show the receipts of the Emperor by
| day, hour, and even minute. The effect on
people who had been told by the present ruler
| himself that he was "a pGTCenU," and to whom
he was often described by his agents cents as the
Friend" may be easily imagined
If France had regular system of popular
| education, the result of the recent elections
would no doubt have been an overwhelming
defeat of Government. 1t is telling fact that
the MAP of the State of Public Instruction"
which was drawn up few years ago, and which
| indicates, by shades more or less dark the intel
! lectual condition of the different departments,
| should actually be reliable guide for estima-
ting the political forces of the Empire and those
of the Opposition. Where education stands
lowest, there the ruling power marshals most
adherents Where education stands highest,
the adherents of Government are lew and far
, between.
The departments in which the people are most
man, Belgian, and Swiss frontiers, well as the
Department of the Seine, where the capital eXer-
cises its influence. In Alsace and Lorraine the
state of public instruction is most satisfactory.
1t is worst in the ancient Bretagne In the de-
partments situated towards Germany, Belgium,
and Switzerland only from two to nine per cent.
of the married people were unable to sign their
| names. In other parts OF France, from sixty
to seyenty-five per cent. were unable to accom-
plish that simple feat. 1t is however, not diff
cult to understand that great mass OF people
should be thus crippled in education. The ag-
gregate sum spent on public instruction does
not reach the expenses for the Court. Some
years ago there were marked in the State
budget six millions of francs for public instruc-
tion: five millions of francs more were added
by the departments eleven millions five
hundred thousand by the communes; the school
fees brought in nine millions more. Total,
thirty-one millions five hundred thousand francs
against about forty-two millions spent Tor the
Court.
The six millions contributed by the State for
public instruction stood out in strange relief
against the four hundred and siXty-three millions
spent for the war-fOrces on sea and land. Hence
q Liberal paper, paro dying Napoeonic phrase
could utter, with regard to the coincidence be-
tween the strength of the opposition and the
state of education in the various departments
the bitter but perfectly true taunt-L Empire
| c'est FIgnOrdnce!
For the upshot-some ncurable pessimists
may perhaps say the ''downshot"-of this new
French movement we will probably not have to
wait long. A mighty change is lowering in the
air. There may be short and sharp shocks and
counter-shoclls for little WHILE but the great
issue cannot be long delayed. That which oc-
: CURED few months ago at Paris, at Bordeaux
at Nantes, at Marseiles a mere prelude-of
little importance in ITSELF yet a sign and symp-
tom. Great Catastrophes are often preceded by