FRANCE. 



477 



their trade. This conquest, though confirmed 

 by a treaty, seems to be of somewhat uncertain 

 permanence, as just at the close of the year, 

 the Anamese had risen in insurrection, and 

 made very determined and resolute attacks 

 upon Saigon and Mytho, and though repulsed 

 with considerable loss, there was room for ap- 

 prehension that they would overwhelm the lit- 

 tle garrisons in those towns by sheer weight 

 of numbers. (See Cocmx-CniXA.) 



In Mexico (see MEXICO) the British and Span- 

 ish allies having both withdrawn from the ex- 

 pedition, the French have been left to conduct 

 the war alone, and have met with numerous 

 and somewhat serious reverses ; reinforcements 

 have been repeatedly sent out. but the success 

 of the French arms, and the vi establishment of 

 the power of the Latin race on this continent, 

 as a counterpoise to the Anglo-Saxon," which 

 the emperor, in his letter to Gen. Forey, so 

 strongly indicated as his purpose, seems yet 

 hardly realized. The gallant resistance of 

 Mexico to this invasion has excited little sym- 

 pathy among the European powers, with the 

 exception of Italy, which sees in it the counter- 

 part of its own struggles for freedom and inde- 

 pendence. 



In his relations to the United States the 

 French emperor has maintained a strict and 

 careful neutrality, neither attempting to run 

 the blockade, nor suffering privateers to be fitted 

 out in his ports to prey upon our commerce. 

 He has sought to unite the leading powers of 

 Europe in a proposal for mediation, (see DIPLO- 

 MATIC CORRESPONDENCE), and failing in that, 

 proposed late in the autumn an armistice and 

 convention in some foreign country between 

 the two belligerents. During the summer of 

 1862, his minister at Washington, M. Mercier, 

 visited Richmond, and held an interview with 

 the Confederate authorities. 



At the commencement of the year there was 

 an intense excitement throughout France in 

 regard to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, 

 which had its central council at Paris, and its 

 affiliated associations, under the control of the 

 central council, throughout the empire. As 

 this Society was, to some extent, made one of 

 the organs of the ultramontane party among 

 the clergy, to attack the Government for its 

 supposed opposition to the preservation of the 

 temporal power of the Papacy, and as neither 

 the Society nor its branches had taken out 

 authorizations, as all benevolent societies in 

 France are required to do, from the prefect of 

 the place where they are established, and 

 these authorizations give the prefecture the 

 power of regulating, and if necessary, of sup- 

 pressing them, the Government directed that 

 they should take out in each city and town an 

 authorization, or be suppressed. In most in- 

 stances the authorization was taken out, and 

 on the 5th of April the central council of the 

 Society was dissolved. 766 out of the 854 local 

 societies having signified their preference for 

 independent existence. A part of the masonic 



lodges of the empire were closed about the 

 same time, and some of the nunneries, which 

 had been too active in their proselytism of 

 Jewish children, were deprived of their author- 

 izations. 



The sanguine hopes entertained at the close 

 of 1861, of a reform in the finances under the 

 vigorous and skilful administration of M. Fould, 

 were not destined to be wholly realized. This 

 was not attributable to want of financial ability 

 on the part of the minister, but to the extra- 

 ordinary exigencies of the country; the Chinese 

 war, the conquests in Cochin-China, and above 

 all the war in Mexico, required large and to 

 some extent unforeseen expenditures, and al- 

 though on the 9th of October, the finance 

 minister expressed the belief that the expendi- 

 ture of the year would be about 157 millions 

 of francs less than that of the preceding year, 

 and that he should be able to commence the 

 year 1863 with a reserve of 80 millions of 

 francs, instead of a deficit as had been usual, 

 the subsequent large expenditure occasioned 

 by the disasters in Mexico seems to have thwart- 

 ed his plans, and the surplus was only 4,300,997 

 francs, while the budget for 1863, 2,0"69,507,518 

 francs, was 100 millions of francs (s20.000.000) 

 in advance of that for 1862, and with very little 

 hope of any considerable surplus, even from 

 the extraordinary taxes and imposts to be 

 levied to raise it, the ordinary revenues indicat- 

 ing a deficiency of at least 335,000,000 francs. 

 That the current expenditure of a nation of 

 37,000,000 inhabitants, in a time of no great 

 or general wars, should reach the sum of 

 $413,853.291 seems singular, and indicates gross 

 extravagance of expenditure somewhere. The 

 legislative body (corps legfolatif) answering 

 to our House of Representatives, endeavored 

 in a protracted discussion on the budget to 

 effect a reduction of 8,000,000 francs ($1.600,- 

 000), but the finance minister replied that the 

 utmost allowable decrease would be 771.341 

 francs ($154,268), and with this slight reduc- 

 tion they were forced to be content. 



The larger liberty promised to the corps 

 legislatif and to the press had excited many 

 hopes and anticipations, most of which were 

 doomed to disappointment. The legislative 

 body was indeed allowed somewhat more of 

 freedom in the discussion of topics of finance 

 and state policy, and their speeches were per- 

 mitted to be reported stenographically ; but 

 when the democratic members made vigorous 

 and eloquent arguments in favor of the with- 

 drawal of the French troops from Rome, or 

 the adoption of a real instead of a pretended 

 liberality and authority in legislation, their 

 arguments were suppressed and the papers 

 were restrained by communiques from publish- 

 ing them. Still something was accomplished, 

 the emperor had set his heart upon granting 

 from the public treasury an annuity of 50,000 

 francs upon the general, Cousin-Montauban, 

 Count Palikao, and a bill to that effect was in- 

 troduced into the legislative body, but the 



