318 
** Nae 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
Arr. XXILI. The Five Promises : Conduct of the Consular Crecccare toward F¥anées 
England, Italy, Germany, and especially Switzerland. 
dvo. pp. 350. 
THE financial system of the French, 
says with precise justice a manifesto of 
Bonaparte, reposes exclusively on their 
soil and their courage. 
The contribution fongicre and the recette 
exterieure, are in fact the chief sources 
of governmental income. 
The contribution fonciere closely resem- 
bles our assessments, with the addition 
of a rent-tax. The doors, windows, 
carriages, and servants, of each house- 
keeper are enumerated ; an estimate of 
the value of the furniture is mserted ; 
the rent is recorded; and on all these 
particulars a tax is levied, at present so 
moderate, that in a nation less military, 
it might speedily be doubled without 
inconvenience. ‘This tax is chiefly odious 
among the small proprietors of land: it 
is chiefly evaded at Paris, where the go- 
vernment is shy of making enemies, and 
where the facility of shitting residence 
renders evasion easy. 
The recette exterieure is a tribute impu- 
dently exacted from Spain, Holland, 
and other contiguous countries, as the 
price of neutrality, security, or autono- 
my. The independent nations of Europe 
ought to resist such levies, by instantly 
withdrawing their recognition from all 
those states which submit tothem. From 
the moment a real independence has ter- 
minated, it is time lost to dissemble the 
conquest; and only enables the over- 
awing power to secure a larger propor- 
tion of the eventual partition. 
Both these classes of revenue are ad- 
mittedly progressive in France. There 
are other symptoms of increasing inter- 
nal prosperity. Witness, the indirect 
taxes, which during the last three years 
have produced as ufder,* neglecting 
fractions. 
Indeed the minister Gaudin appears 
to have introduced great order into the 
collection of the revenue ; and although 
it cannot be dovbted that the expences 
of the French government are increas- 
ing, yet the means of meeting those 
expences extend with still greater ra- 
pidity. Governments are strong in pro- 
portion to the circulation of which they 
Year VIII. 
55,789,000 
4,708,000 
17,261,060 
22,860,000 | 29,807,000 
* Enregistrement, 
Mortgage-duty, 
Stamps, 
Custems, 
By Sir Francis D’lvernois: 
are the organ: they derive power both 
from what they levy and from what 
they pay; and far from acquiring in- 
fluence or popularity by economy, they 
usually acquire it by magnificence. 
Notwithstanding these Pets. Sir Fran- 
cis D’Ivernois persists in drawing his 
old inferences, that France is vergin 
on new bankruptcies; and that Frenc 
power (which is a far wilder inference) 
would by new bankruptcies be brought 
to the brink of ruin. ‘To encourage this 
country in a war of finance, is like en- 
couraging a man of property to gambla 
with an adventurer: if he breaks _his 
antagonist he has not gained any thing ; 
if he breaks himself, he has lost every 
thing- 
We have much more faith in the re- 
presentations contained in Mr. Necker’s 
«“ Last Views of Finance” than in those 
of his fellow-citizen: he makes the re« 
venue of France amount to twenty-three 
millions sterling. ‘The consequence of 
understating the income of all govern- 
ments is to strengthen those governments, 
and to provide an apology for new le- 
vies; it predisposes authority to timely 
precaution, and the people to patient 
acquiescence. Mr. Necker understands 
far better the art of letting down an au- 
thority : “« What a country, he said to 
Louis XVI. where subordinate econo< 
mies and imperceptible objects would 
suffice to banish the very appearance of 
a deficit.” He now says to Bonaparte, 
« Behold France rising from beneath 
her ruins, as opulent as ever.” 
The expenditure of France appears 
here to be estimated with litte exaggera- 
tion, and to approach nearer to proba- 
bility than the estimate of income: It 
runs thus according to the postscript: 
«Let us now proceed to the principal 
article, namely, 
«© Expenditure present and future. 
«« Every one, who has attended to the 
French budgets, must remember, how uni+ 
formly the Directory promised, that at the 
peace the expense of the army should be re- 
duced to one hundred and fifty millions ; and 
Year IX. Year X. 
71,219,000 | 80,665,000 
6,398,600 | 7,697,000 
20,901,000°| 28,£38,000 
41,060,000 
* 
j 
