DIVERNOIS’S FIVE PROMISES. 
that when, in the year X, the consular go- 
vernment raised them to two hundred and 
ten, it declared, by the minister of finance, 
that in this article there was a certainty of 
important reductions, which were impossi- 
ble during the first moments (of peace.) 
«* These first moments have passed away, 
and he has raised the expense of the army to 
two hundred and forty-three millions ; so 
that the important reductions, of which he 
Buaranteed the certainty twelve months ago, 
are already converted into a certain increase 
of thirty-three millions. ‘Thus, even should 
there be. no further augmentation in the year 
XII, the army will cost, on the peace esta- 
blishment, and under the republican govern- 
ment, just double what it cost under the 
monarchy. 
__ «© The same remark applies to the navy, 
the expense ef which, frum the year X to 
the year XI, has likewise increased from one 
hundred and five to one hundred and twerity- 
six millions. 
«© Another observation, of no less impor- 
tance, is, that precisely in the same propor- 
tion in which the army and navy establish- 
ments have been immoderately increased, 
the new list of expenses for the year XJ, the 
amount of which is five hundred and eighty- 
nine millionsand a half, does not contain any 
‘one of the articles, which, as I all along 
foretold, would be passed over in silence. 
“« The sinking fund is the only one of 
which mention is made, and this is stated 
2t no mere than five millions, though the 
government stands engaged, by a decree, to 
tmake it ten, commencing from the vear X11. 
“Lhe same may be said of the roads, this arti- 
cle of Eoemiirite not being stated at one 
fourth of the eighteen millions which the 
a intends appropriating to them. 
Lastly, a profound silence has been observed 
on the floating debt, which amounts to above 
a milliard and a half, (about sixty millions 
sterling) ; on that part of the debt already 
funded, the interest of which will commence 
in the year X11; on the army of reserve ; 
on the legion of honour ; on the new depart- 
mental senatorships ;. and even on the new 
lyceums; the expenses of which are doubt- 
less intended to be thrown upon the depart- 
‘ments. 
«« However important these omissions 
may appear, they are far less so than that of 
the clergy, in favour of whom Bonaparte 
had instituted an eighth department of admi- 
nisiration; the only one not set down for 
any share in the probable expenditure for the 
year Xf. All that J have been able to diseo- 
ver in the accounts for the preceding year, 
when the extraordinary instaliation of the 
‘bishops was to be provided for, is, that the 
whole Gallican church of France was unable to 
obtain a sum equal to that which was swallow- 
sed up by Bonaparte’s privy counsellors alone. 
Scarcely has the impious author of the con- 
cordat devoted to the service of the Deity 
$19 
twice the amount he devotes.to that of the 
vpeta and dramatic art! | 
«© The omission of these seven articles it- 
self constitutes an additional deficit of near 
one hundred millions, which does not appear 
in the consular budget. ‘The treasury, how- 
ever, will not perceive this deficit till the 
consul shall have realised all these promises. 
*¢ Strange as such omissions may appear, 
it is far more so, that the tribunes, to whom 
Bonaparte thought proper to submit his ac- 
counts of the receipt and expenditure, con- 
sidered them so well proportioned to each 
other, and so complete, that they have. so- 
lemnly thanked him for rendering, in less 
than thirty months, the finances more flou- 
ishing than they ever had been since the 
year 1688, when Colbert died ; that is to 
say, they thank him for having glortously 
restored the equilibrium, by inserting in the 
account of the revenue an external receipt of 
twenty millions, and obliterating from that 
of the expenditure seven articles, which will 
amount to at least a hundred millions. 
‘© Notwithstanding this gross artifice ex- 
hibited in the new budget, the accounts of 
receipt and expenditure, which od 
it, induce me to think that it is less ditheult 
to restore the equilibrium, than was once 
imagined ; and that it might be accomplished 
by at once adopting the two following mea- 
sures : 
«© 1. A retrenchment of one hundred 
millions in the expenses of the army and 
navy ; not only perfectly easy in itself, but 
at the same time the surest mode of conso- 
lidating that peace, to which the minister of 
finance principally attributes the improve- 
ment in the revenue. 
“© 2. A diminution of at leat fifty mil- 
lions in the land tax, together with a reform 
in all the expenses of show, beginning with 
the civil list of the consuls, the senate, the 
tribunes, the legislative body, and the legion 
of honour. ’ 
«¢ Tf I am not very much mistaken, re- 
publican France will never be able, without 
these two reductions, to return to a pacific 
system, to a state of prosperity, to find with- 
in herself sufficient resources to enable her to 
go on withoutplunder, without tributes, and 
without external receipts.” 
Very unfavourable and certainly over- 
charged accounts of the internal dis« 
tresses of the French are given in vartous 
places, as (at p. xxiv.) of the roads, 
which (the writer speaks from personal 
observation) are good already, and in a 
state of active amelioration. The cot- 
tages of the. peasantry have improved 
in neatness and embellishment within 
these twelve years. The small farm- 
houses are more elegant and more nu- 
merous. ‘The guingettes of the lower 
classes are cleanlicr, and let higher. 
