44] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



thing else In view than, by the in- 

 stitution of a new republican system, 

 to guard more effectually, than had 

 been done hitherto, against the 

 intrigues of faction, and the cor- 

 ruption and treachery of rulers. By 

 the promises of peace, they endea- 

 voured to restore the confidence of 

 men of property, because peace 

 alone could enable them to restore 

 a regular system of finance, which 

 the violent and temporary expedi- 

 ents required by war must destro}'. 

 But the derangement of the finan- 

 ces, and the genei-al corruption of 

 the country, made it a very diffi- 

 cult task for the consuls to raise the 

 supplies by ordinary means. It was 

 not an easy matter to preserve the 

 promised respect for property, to 

 give contentment to the French in 

 this respect, and, at the same time, 

 not to relax from that military 

 energy which was necessary to 

 render the republic respectable and 

 formidable in the eyes of foreign 

 nations. The financial expedients 

 adopted by the new government 

 were principally these : 



In lieu of the forced loan of one 

 hundred millions, a war aid was 

 substituted, of a fourth part 

 added to all contributions or im- 

 posts on property, teri'itorial, 

 moveable, personal, and sumptu- 

 ary. Forty millions of what they 

 called hons,* payable to bearer, of 

 the nature of our treasury-warrants, 

 were issued for satisfying, for the 

 last half year of the 7th year, the 

 demands of the public annuitants. 

 For a present supply, for the im- 

 mediate exigencies of government, 

 Buonaparte assembled about sixty 

 or seventy of the bankers and prin- 

 cipal merchants of Paris, and hav- 



ing addressed them in a short but 

 very animated speech on the 

 glorious destinies and approaching 

 prosperity of France, obtained, 

 without difficulty, a loan of five 

 hundred thousand pounds sterling. 

 And seven commissaries, or syn- 

 dics were immediately appointed 

 by the subscribers for making it 

 good. The promissory notes they 

 received from the new government 

 were called hillcls dii iijndical. The 

 repayment of this loan was char- 

 ged on the first two payments, which 

 were made at the rate of twenty 

 per cent per month, of the war 

 tax, in the different departments 

 of the republic. It was ordained 

 that these bills, to whatever dis- 

 count tliey should have fallen, 

 should be received, not only in 

 payment of the war aid, but even 

 in that of the taxes of the year 

 7, by exchanging them for their 

 amount in cash. Contributors to 

 the forced loan, who had paid 

 a part of their contribution, were 

 entitled to a discharge, so far as it 

 went, from the new war aid : and 

 if there should be any balance in 

 their favour, after an examination 

 by the minister of finance, they 

 were to be re-imbursed out of the 

 national treasury. 



The whole of the financial plan 

 of the year 8, and which was 

 expected to pour into the national 

 treasury six hundred and fifteen 

 millions one hundred and seventy- 

 two thousand of livres, was 

 unfolded by Arnold, in the com- 

 mission of the council of five hun- 

 dred, on the eighteenth of Decem- 

 ber. This project he prefaced by 

 observing that it was disorder in the 

 system of finance that undermined 



• To our treasury-warrants docketsaresubjoinedjSpecifyingthe particular purposes 

 for which they are given. The particular purpose is not mentioned in tlie French 

 warrants, It is only said, in general, that they are eoop (eons) for this or th^t sum, 



