This sum of 103 millions evidently belongs to the arrears. It is chargeable upon the credit of 231 millions, which, according to the first calculations, was to cover the surplus of the expenses of the first quarter, and which is now in the application necessarily reduced to a much less sum, because the receipts which originally were estimated only at 442 millions have given 533 millions; because the expenses rated at first at 674 millions amounted only to 637 millions; and moreover because in the interval of time from the 1st of April to the time when the law of the 23d September could be executed, about 57 millions were paid out of the funds of the current service for the expenses of the three first months. Thus every principle of order conspires to induce us to class ultimately with the arrears this surplus of expense of 103 millions, and, to apply to its extinction the forms and values appropriated to the payment of the debts anterior to the first of April. I except from this, however, a sum of about 23 millions which remains due for the public debt, and which is to be paid in specie out of the proceeds set apart for the arrears, an exception which has been already sanctioned by the law of the 23d September. By means of these arrangements, the term-1814, will be finally closed both as to receipts and expenditures. This term will no longer appear in the accounts of the treasury, and what collections may still be made from it shall be added to those of the term 1815, and will increase its resources. Term of 1815. On the 1st of March 1815 the situation of the finances was such as to inspire the greatest degree of confidence. The collection of the taxes had been brought to a close. The liquidation of the arrears was advancing rapidly; the stock intended to extinguish it was at par; all the departments of the public service were solvent, and there was in the treasury a reserve of fifty millions. Four months after, all our resources were swallowed up, all our calculations blasted; order, confi. dence, credit, all had disappeared; twelve hundred thousand foreigners occupied France; and all the calamities of war desolated our territory. This retrospect is sufficient to explain why the budget of 1815, which, in the month of September 1814, offered, in the equipoise of its receipts and expenditures, the well founded hope of a clear surplus of 70 millions applicable to the payment of the arrears, now exhibits a surplus of expense of about 286 millions. Your majesty will find annexed a detailed statement of the situation of the budget of receipts of 1815 on the first of October. At that epoch no more than about 369 millions had yet been collected on account of this budget, fixed by the law of the 23d of September at 618 millions. But considerable receipts have been made since, and from the progress making in the collections, I still hope that ultimately and notwithstanding the events which might very reasonably be supposed likely to occasion a deficit, we may still obtain this sum of 618 millions. This result is explained by the excessive moderation of the original estimate. To the ordinary receipts valued at 618 millions, ought to be added, 1st. The proceeds (35,510,000) of a sale made in May and June 1815, of annuities belonging to the sinking fund, a deplorable opera- | have made, beyond their propor tion, for which the administrators of that fund have no apology but the disposition of the authority which regulated the conditions of that sale. tion of the new tax; Of exonerating the departments which have suffered most from the late events; Of placing to their credit the 2d. The loan of one hundred local taxes which they were commillions authorised by an ordi-pelled to raise for the payment, nance of your majesty of the 16th of August. This ordinance was made under the most difficult, the most imperious circumstances. The treasury had engagements to fulfil towards the allied powers. It was necessary at the same time to provide for the wants of the daily service. It was then indispensable to provide for the obtaining of these hundred millions, without impeding the collection of the ordinary taxes. To this end an appeal for money in the nature of a requisition was made to the principal capitalists, farmers and freeholders. It remains to sanction this provisional measure, and ensure their reimbursement, the object of the 3d section of the law which I submit to your majesty. One half of the total amount of the schedules of the four direct taxes shall be collected in the shape of an extraordinary supply. The receipts of the sums given in payment of the requisition of one hundred millions shall be taken as cash in payment of this supply. The one tenth of the sum which it may yield is placed at the disposal of the prefects to cover the releases, reductions, and alleviations which it may be found proper to grant. The surplus shall be deposited in the treasury, but under the condition Of reimbursing the capitalists, farmers and freeholders, the portion of the advances which they equipment, and mounting of the foreign troops, and the amount of which has been deducted out of the sums to be paid to the allied powers agreeably to the respective conventions made with them. A sum of 61,057,000 is provisionally set apart under the head of fund previously appropriated for the discharge of those debts. At the next session an account shall be laid before both houses, of the employment of this sum. If it be not sufficient, additional appropriation shall be made; if a portion of this fund remains unemployed, it will be applied to the general expenses of the treasury. A particular provision of the law regulates, with respect to the payment of the supply, the respective duties of the farmers and freeholders in conformity with the 6th article of the law of the 23d September. It is proper to repeat, that the supply in question is an extraordinary supply, and it is strictly just, that the farmers should divide this burden with the freeholders who have had so many others to support, so many sacrifices to make. This regulation was called for by several prefects. They wished the law to be explicit and positive in this respect, in order to prevent the difficulties which might otherwise be raised in their departments. I deemed it a duty to comply with a wish which is the result of an enlightened examination, and the execution of which is besides authorised by anterior regulations. This deficit is indubitably the result of the fatal events of the month of March 1815. It represents, in great part, the payments which remain to be made for the months of April, May, and June following. Your majesty without ceasing to be just, might have been severe to the creditors of an illegal government. You have authorised the liquidation and the payment of their claims; but since the ordinary resources of 1815 are exhausted, since the 70 millions which were destined to the extinction of the arrears were employed by that government, to satisfy the new exigencies of the moment, it is just, it is necessary, that the payments which remain to be made and which form a deficit for 1815, be added to the debt in arrears. It is thus that the expenses of 1815, which belonged to your majesty's government of the three first months, are to be paid; the creditors of the three following months of 1815 cannot be dealt with in a different manner. I therefore propose to your majesty to open a credit of 130 millions in stock of the arrears. This sum, together with the 347 millions which remained to be collected on the first of October last, three months of 1814 119,861,896 And from 1813 to 759,165,000 593,217,979 C. 1810 (inclusive) › 381,616,240 593,217,979 00 And from 1809 to 1801 91,739,843 145,161,949 76 448,056,029 24 14,023,300 00 462,079,329 24 These arrears are to be divided into two parts: The first includes the claims for the year 1809 and anterior to that date. The second what remains to be paid on the claims belonging to the years 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814. The fate of the creditors of 1809 for fidelity in keeping engage. ments produces confidence, and confidence is the basis of public credit. Doubtless, nothing would be more easy than to postpone indefinitely the extinction of the ar rears, and to add their capital to that of the inscribed debt. But it is not to be concealed, that this compulsive consolidation does not release the treasury, since the trea and anterior to that year, has been irrevocably fixed by the law of the 20th of March 1813, according to the provisions of article 7 to the 2d of that law. All that remains due for those fiscal terms is to be inscribed in the great book of the public debt. This principle has been uniformly adhered to in the measures devised for the execution of the law respecting the finances of 1814. And the law of the 20th March 1813 having open-sury, in such case, only makes a ed for the payment of those claims, a credit in annuities which is not exhausted, it is enough for me here to refer to the rules which are applicable to them. The question of the mode of payment of the arrears was long discussed. It has been decided by the law of the 23d September. I might abstain from a new examination. But opinions supported by the authority of experience and by the weight of talent are in opposition to the principles of this law. I deem it useful to bestow some attention on them. There is one principle not to be contested:The state owes to its creditors the full payment of their claims; and this principle is dictated not only by the conscience, but likewise by the interest of every government; nominal payment, exerts its authority to commute the debt already due and demandable, of its creditor, for an indeterminate engagement, and thus but too often places him under the alternative either to sell with loss, or to keep,. without hope of reimbursement, a depreciated stock. In adding new annuities to those which already exist, the compulsory consolidation attacks not only the interests of the man who, in the expectation of a fair profit, has lent to the state his time, his industry, and his capital; but, contrary to the faith of contracts, it reduces ancient debts; it envelops in one empoverishment, the holder of the demandable, and the owner of the inscribed debt, it violates, with respect to them both, the sacred rights of property. common And what is the result of this operation? The honest contractor, the capitalist, shuns a government upon whose good faith he cannot depend; the public service falls into bad hands; ruinous contracts swell the public expenses; the burdens of the people increase, and the state becomes a prey to all the disorders inseparable from the dishonesty of which it has given the first example. In other times ministers who were precluded by absolute orders from a choice of means, creditors who were placed under the necessity either to suffer a total loss, or to subscribe to a reduction of their claims, may have agreed to such an operation. But it belongs to the religious loyalty of your majesty to pursue a different course. No, sire; at a time when the deficit in the receipts of 1814 and 1815 compels us to add to the arrears, 235 millions of payments which remain to be made for those two years; at a time when new treaties will increase the inscribed debt, and as an effect of these same treaties, we shall have a foreign competition in our market, fitted to exert a dangerous influence on our credit, I will not propose to your majesty a mode of relieving the treasury so contrary to justice and to the public interests. The law of the 23d September has laid down the principles: we must remain faithful to them. The events which have taken place, since that law was enacted, might, no doubt, afford pretences to circumscribe its concessions, to postpone the epoch of reimbursement, perhaps to reduce the interests. But those events, in altering the situation of the debtor, have not diminished the rights of the creditors. These rights remain the same: They have lost nothing of their validity; they rest on the public faith, on the word of your majesty, and what minister could dare to propose to you to violate such guarantees? However, in order to accomplish the object of the law of the 23d September, it is indispensable to replace the 70 millions which were to have been deducted from the receipts of 1815, and devoted to the payment of the arrears. I ask authority to carry as far as four hundred thousand hectares the sale of national forests; and in order to facilitate the operation, I propose that the bonds of the treasury shall be admissible in payment of the price of those forests, and of the estates of the communes, with the condition of paying one fifth in cash. This measure will deprive the creditors of none of the advantages which were secured to them. On the contrary it will extend, it will complete their security. They will have the option to wait for the reimbursement of their bonds at the time at which they become due, to cause them, if they prefer it, to be inscribed on the grand livre, the great book of the public debt. They will have, moreover, the advantage of investing them either directly, in personal acquisitions, or indirectly, by selling them to the purchaser who may be in need of them, in order to pay the value of the portion of the national forests he may wish to buy. It is very essential not to confound the operations which have taken place under the last government with that which we now propose. When, in countries wrested by the force of arms from their legitimate sovereigns, the conquered domains were offered for sale, the rescriptions, delegations, and other stock received in payment of those domains, of necessi ty depreciated, because the investment of the stock was compulsory, because remote estates, the value of which was not known, could suit but a small number of individuals, and because the mode of the original acquisition,-the violence of conquest-diminished stiil more, in their estimation, the value of those estates. Such is the character of our operation that, by means of the |