HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



[47 



sions, beginning with the last six 

 months of the year T, in proportion 

 as tliey were extinguished, to be 

 placed to the same account, and em- 

 ployed to the same purpose. From 

 the date of the periods of payments 

 of the securities, treasury-warrants, 

 or bon.i de requisition, were to be 

 granted bv ffovernraent to the re- 

 ceivers-general, and be payable 

 every three weeks by the fund, for 

 the management of which there 

 was established a kind of bank, 

 under the name of a Caisse d' 

 ^mortisseweiit : aTeAem])tion chest. 

 The expenses of the war depart- 

 ment, for the year 8, had been es- 

 timated by the late directory at four 

 hundred and seventy-two millions ; 

 but reduced by the legislative body 

 to three liundred and thirty-three 

 millions : a sum which was deemed 

 equal to the employment of five 

 liundred and sixty thousand, four 

 hundred and twenty men. But in 

 the new estimates for theyear 8, by 

 the directory and councils for tl;e 

 year 8, no account was made of the 

 army of Egypt. Thisomission could 

 not be overlooked by Buonaparte. 

 An annual fund therefore of fifteen 

 millions, in consequence of a propo- 

 .sition made by the general to the 

 commissioners of the councils on the 

 third of December, was established, 

 to be raised by contributions on 

 Egypt. This arrangement was not 

 an augmentation of expense, be- 

 cause the advances in France would 

 be compensated by the receipts in 

 Egypt. It merely, as was stated 

 by Buonaparte, opened a credit in 

 favour of tlic army of tlie cast. In 

 the mean time, it was but an act of 

 natiimal justice and gratitude to 

 enal)le tlie minister at war, to make 

 good in I'niiife tlie sums wliich 

 were justly claimed by the soldiers 



and military agents who were re- 

 turning from Egypt, as also by the 

 women whose husbands were in 

 Egypt, and who were absolutely 

 destitute of the necessaries of life. 

 The national treasury was on this 

 account authorized to leave at the 

 disposal of the minister at war, the 

 sum of one million, by way of ad- 

 vance, and to be taken from the 

 fund of fifteen millions to be drawn 

 from an equilibrium, arising out of 

 the contributions levied in Egypt. 



Instead of a number of particular 

 sums allotted to particular purposes, 

 under certain limitations, the gross 

 sum of one hundred and thirty mil- 

 lions, and eight hundred thousand 

 francs, was committed to the dispo- 

 sal of the minister at war, Berthier, 

 a vast trust, and which strongly 

 marked the confidence of Buona- 

 parte in Berthier, and that of the 

 councils and nation in Buonaparte. 



In the whole of the financial 

 plans, or, as we would say, the 

 budget of Buonaparte, there is an 

 air of justice, equity, and lenity to 

 the great mass, that is the poor of 

 the people, and at the same time 

 an address to the sanguine temper 

 of the French nation, ever prone to 

 sacrifice a great deal to hope. His 

 lottery allurements were not with- 

 out their effect in France ; but nei- 

 ther these, nor others held out by 

 general Marmont, one of the con- 

 sular agents, had any effect on the 

 Dutch ; very few of whom could 

 be induced to subscribe to the loan, 

 or to advance money to the French 

 government on any account or con- 

 sideration. They professed good 

 will, but pleaded inability. But, 

 after all, the main strength of the 

 plan for raisingthe su])))lies, adopted 

 by tlie consuls, rested, like those of 

 tlieir predecessors both during the 



