"From the care with which those estimates have been calculated, the year 1869 will not have any Rectificative Budget, properly speaking.

"The supplements of credits demanded by the Ministers, depending almost entirely on purely accidental causes, do not amount to 28 millions of francs, of which 20 millions are occasioned by the dearness of provisions and forage.

"We have to place, opposed to these 28 millions, an increase of income of 32 millions, consisting of 5 millions, being the produce of the direct taxes and the Crown lands, and 28 millions for the increased value of the indirect revenue compared with the original estimates. That surplus, as may be seen, will more than suffice to meet the supplementary expenditure. We obtain that result without any necessity for anticipating the increase of receipts belonging to the year 1869, nor the presumed amount of the annulations, which previously served to balance the Rectificative Budgets. This reserve is considerable. Without any exaggeration it may be said to give the assurance of a very good liquidation at the end of the year.

"ORDINARY BUDGET OF 1870.

"As a final result the ordinary Budget of 1870 is calculated to give as a surplus of receipts, 86,610,105f., or 5,224,024f. more than the excess of the preceding Budget, which amounted to 81,386,121f.

"It is very certain that those estimates are liable to unforeseen modifications. But, on the other hand, we reserve the increased produce of taxation in the two years 1869 and 1870, and the amount of the annulations; thus the situation is most reassuring.

"EXTRAORDINARY BUDGET OF 1870.

"Although voted by two distinct laws, the Ordinary and Extraordinary Budgets tend to combine, in this sense, that the surplus of receipts in the former become, very fortunately, the principal and almost only resource of the latter.

"That fact is worthy of being pointed out, as the funds of the Extraordinary Budget are often supposed to have an entirely special origin. On the contrary, the Ordinary Budget, with the produce of the taxes and the annual revenue, provides for almost all

P

the credits called extraordinary. Here is a proof for the year 1870:

"The sum of 86,607,145f. derived, as has been already shown, from the surplus of the ordinary receipts, is sufficient to pay the whole of the following grants :-Public worship, churches, priests' residences, and cathedrals, 5,300,000f.; Interior-Vicinal roads, telegraphs, and prisons, 16,633,000f.; Finance - Manufacture of gunpowder and tobacco, 1,325,000f.; War-Artillery and engineer corps, 2,975,000f.; Marine Transformation of the fleet, 10,500,000f.; Public Instruction-Schoolhouses, &c., 1,546,195f.; Fine Arts-Divers establishments, 4,960,000f.; Algeria-Interest and amortization of money advanced by the Société Algérienne, railways, and great public works, 8,249,000f.; Public WorksRoads, bridges, and railways, 38,591,000f.

"All that outlay, I repeat, is covered by the surplus in the Ordinary Budget, and may thus appear in the estimates without compromising the equilibrium.

"SINKING FUND.

"The Budget of the sinking fund is making progress. It will have, in 1870, a free, surplus of 32,396,493f., or, inclusive of the 10 millions coming from the Caisse des Retraites for the aged, 42,396,493f., to be laid out in the purchase of Rente.

"Your Majesty earnestly awaits the moment when the relief of the taxpayers will be possible by reduction of the amounts where the imposts are heaviest.

"The Commission of Agricultural Inquiry is devoting itself, in concert with the Finance Department, to the most active studies on this subject.

"The progress of the Budgets, and your Majesty's firmly decided will to impose on all branches of the public service the most rigid economies, cannot fail to shortly render these studies opportune.

"Sire,-If we regard the situation from the general point of view of business, we must admit that the year 1868 has been marked by alternations of confidence and apprehension, activity and dulness; little by little public opinion has habituated itself to judge the political circumstances more soundly. A sensible resumption has been the consequence, especially in the last few months. It has been manifested, as regards commerce and manufacture, by the balance-sheets of the establishments of credit; for interior consumption, by the progress of the indirect contributions, so much the more remarkable as it corresponds to 1867, the year of the Universal Exhibition; for personal property, by the relatively high price of all securities. There is an interest in comparing from these different points of view the close of the year 1867 and 1868.

"This revival, due to confidence, proves how necessary peace is to the country, to what an extent it may become productive, and what reason public opinion has to applaud your Majesty's efforts to

prevent, as far as depends on you, by a friendly intervention, the quarrels which might disturb it.

"I am, &c.,

"P. MAGNE."

The French Chambers were opened on the 18th of January, when the Emperor delivered the following speech :

"MESSIEURS LES SÉNATEURS, MESSIEURS LES DEPUTÉS. The speech which I address to you every year at the opening of the session is the sincere expression of the thoughts which guide my conduct. To explain frankly to the nation before the great bodies of the State the progress of the Government is the duty of the responsible chief of a free country. The task which we have undertaken together is arduous; it is not, indeed, without difficulty that on a soil shaken by so many revolutions a Government is founded sufficiently impressed with the wants of the age to adopt all the benefits of liberty, and sufficiently strong to bear even its excesses. The two laws which you passed during the last session, and the object of which was the development of the principle of free discussion, have produced two opposite effects, which it may be useful to point out. On the one hand the Press and public meetings have created in a certain quarter a factious agitation, and have caused the reappearance of ideas and passions which were believed to be extinguished; but on the other hand the nation, remaining insensible to the most violent incitement, and relying upon my firmness for the maintenance of order, has not felt its faith in the future shaken. Remarkable coincidence! the more adventurous and subversive minds sought to disturb public tranquillity, so much the more profound became the peace of the country; commercial transactions reassumed a fruitful activity, the public revenues increased considerably, the public interest reassured, and the greater part of the recent elections gave a new support to my Government. The Army Bill and the Subsidies Bill, granted by your patriotism, have contributed to strengthen the confidence of the country, and in the just consciousness of its pride it experienced a real satisfaction the moment it learnt that it was in a position to confront every eventuality. The land and sea forces, strongly constituted, are upon a peace footing. The effective strength maintained does not exceed that which existed under former systems; but our armament rendered perfect, our arsenals and our magazines filled, our reserves exercised, the National Garde Mobile in course of organization, our fleet transformed, and our strongholds in good condition, give to our power a development which was indispensable. The constant object of my efforts is attained, and the military resources of France are henceforth on a level with its destiny in the world. In this position we can loudly proclaim our desire to maintain peace. There is no weakness in our saying so when we are ready to defend the honour and independence of our country. Our relations with foreign powers are most friendly. The revolution which has

broken out beyond the Pyrenees has not altered our good relations with Spain, and the Conference which has just taken place to stifle a threatening conflict in the East is a great act, of which we should appreciate the importance. This Conference approaches its termination, and all the plenipotentiaries have agreed upon the principles calculated to bring about a reconciliation between Greece and Turkey. If, therefore, as I firmly hope, nothing shall arise to disturb general harmony, it will be our fortune to realize many projected improvements, and we shall endeavour to solve all the practical questions raised by the agricultural investigations. Public works have been sufficiently endowed; parochial roads are being constructed; education of all classes continues successfully to be developed; and, thanks to the periodical increase of the revenue, we shall soon be able to devote all our solicitude to the diminution of public burdens. The moment is drawing nigh when, for the third time since the establishment of the Empire, the Legislative Body will be constituted afresh by a general election, and each time it will have attained the limit of the legal duration, a thing unknown hitherto. This regularity is due to the harmony which has always existed between us, and to the confidence which I felt in the sincere exercise of universal suffrage. The popular masses are staunch in their faith as in their affection, and if noble passions are able to rouse them, sophism and calumny scarcely ruffle the surface. Sustained by your approbation and your concurrence, I am thoroughly resolved to persevere in the path which I have laid down-that is to say, to adopt all real progress, but also to maintain, without discussion, the fundamental bases of the Constitution, which the national vote has placed under shelter from all attacks. A good tree is known by the fruit it bears, says the Gospel. Well, if we cast a glance at the past, which is the Government that has given to France seventeen years of ever increasing quiet and prosperity? Certainly, every Government is liable to error, and fortune does not smile upon all enterprises, but that which constitutes my strength is the fact that the nation does not ignore that for twenty years I have not had a single thought— I have not done a single deed-of which the motive was other than the interest and greatness of France. Nor is it ignorant of the circumstances that I was the first to desire a rigorous control over the conduct of affairs; that I with this object increased the powers of the deliberative assemblies, persuaded that the real support of a Government is to be found in the independence and patriotism of the great bodies of the State. This session will add fresh services to those which you have already rendered to the country. Soon the nation called together in its comitia will sanction the policy which we have pursued. It will once more proclaim by its votes that it does not desire revolution, but wishes to rest the destinies of France upon the intimate alliance of power with liberty."

In February an interpellation was put in the Legislative Chamber by Baron de Benoist to the Government, on the question

of the application of the law relative to public meetings. He said that he was well aware that in free countries the citizens had the right to meet together to discuss all questions which are of interest to the community at large-corn law reform, electoral reform, reform of the Established Church-all these he would willingly accept. "But," he added, "in no free country is it permitted, under the pretext of the right of meeting, to tolerate incitements to regicide and to civil war. Such a privilege has never been allowed to the professors of insurrection and the poets of the barricades."

In the course of his reply, M. Baroche, as Minister of Justice, observed that the law on public meetings gave sufficient power to the Government to check the abuses complained of. One clause authorized the Commissary of Police, who was always present at these meetings, to dissolve them whenever the chairman allowed questions foreign to the object of the meeting to be proposed, or in case of the meeting becoming tumultuous. This clause has never been acted upon, simply because, though there were questions discussed foreign to the subject proposed, the Government was desirous of acting with moderation throughout. The 13th clause authorized the suspension or dissolution of the meetings in certain contingencies; but the Government, trusting that better sentiments would prevail, abstained from having recourse to any extreme measure. As, however, it could not but admit the existence of danger, it was now resolved to make use of all the means which the law placed at its disposal. Another motive for hitherto abstaining was that, though the attendance was large, the speakers were comparatively few; some of them were already in the hands of justice; and the question the Government had to consider was whether their theories were not less dangerous when exposed to the light of day than when they were left to ferment among the secret societies.

M. Emile Ollivier was decidedly opposed to any official interference with these meetings. He did not think that even when they were extravagant they were dangerous to social order. The real danger is not what is said above board, but what is said in low whispers and murmurs, and among those who make their appearance only in days of terror. Restrictions on meetings existed under former Governments. M. Ollivier observed,—

"You have alluded to 1848 and the July Government. This last should serve as an example to us. Under Louis Philippe the right of meeting inspired such fear, that one day a manufacturer was forbidden to assemble his own workmen, with whom he used to divide his profits, in order to lay before them his accounts. There was no question whatever of coalition. When the July Government imposed silence it thought it had established complete security, and at the moment it was congratulating itself on the monarchy being as solid as the diamond, the revolution of 1848 broke forth, and then the multitude that had long been plotting in secret places started forth from their hiding-places."