~ 
r 
many of yourreaders, I tock the liberty of 
requefting any perfon, qualified for the un- 
dertaking, to favour the public with it, 
through the channel of your valuable mif- 
cellany. I have finceread ‘‘-Citoyen Hau- 
terive,Chef de Relations Exterieurs, on the 
fiate of the French Republic at the end of 
the 8th yeary tranflated into Englifh by 
Lewis Goldfmith.””. In this publication, 
which difplays great acutenefs and com- 
prebeniion et mind, and extenfive infor- 
mation on the affairs of France, fome light 
is thrown cn the (ubje€&t of my inquiry. 
‘This however isnot fo much as to fuper- 
fede the ufe of the hiftory Irequeit, though 
it may be of confiderable affiftance to the 
wfiter of it, making due allowances for the 
partiality which itis as natural fer a French- 
manas an Enzlifoman to feel for his own 
country. As. the fituation and charater 
of Hauterive Ramp confiderable authority 
on his affertions, it may be interefiing to 
fome of your readers, who have not read 
his work, to make a few extraéts from it. 
‘© The nationaldebt-of France cannot 
epprefs the ftate, by an annual expence of 
three millions fterling, of which, more than 
the Aalf confiltsin axauities.”? p. 202. If 
this ftatement be correct, the permanent 
debt.of France does not exceed one million 
aud. @ half; annual interet. We are not 
informed, however, whether he means the 
debt already conjolidated, the tiers confolidé, 
no more than oe “Lird, or incluies the 
whole of the claims of the public creditors 
on the French government. He certainly 
cugbt to include the latter: as well as the 
former; and if thefe be not fatisfed, an in- 
delible blot. will remain on the French 
€redit and honour. If thefe be aétually 
taken into Hauterive’s calculation, as I 
think they are, how fhall we account for 
the fmallnefs of the national debt, after fuch 
an expenfive war-as they have fuftained? 
Let us hear what our author fays on this 
fubjeci. 
‘6 Asto what M. D’Ivernois afferts and 
repeats in all-his publications, of the com- 
parative weaknels of the French armies and 
finances, oppoled to the English finances 
and the armies of the Coalition, I {ee no 
neceflity to contradict him, I will admit 
with him, that in almof every period of 
the war, the numbers of the armies de- 
creed bythe legiflative affemblies were not 
completed, that the eftimates of the reve- 
. i 
rons 
propoled by the minifter of finances, 
adopted by the reprefentatives of the 
nation, were not entirely made good by the 
contiibutions; that before the 8th year, 
there have been years that have not pro- 
luced three hundred and fixty-five millions 
See). French National Debt. 
(Nov. 3; 
of revenue to the treafury; tliat there have 
been, perhaps, fome which didnot a€tually - 
produce two bundred effeétive millions of 
francs. But what are the confequences to 
be drawn from thefe admiffions? Has not 
France conftantly refifted the efforts of her 
enemies ? Has fhe not penetrated twice to 
the interior of Germany? Has fhe not pax 
cified Pruffia, Spain, and Holland? Has 
fhe not twice conquered Italy? ‘Thefe are 
the refults, that the writers who would de- 
ftroy France by their invectives, and de- , 
prefs her by their calculations, thould en- 
deavour torefute. If they cannot fucceed 
in this attempt, they mult acknowledge, - 
that France has either found in itfelf more 
powerful refources than thofe they have 
been pleafed to attribute to her, or that fhe © 
has contrived to triumph over the greate 
difficulties with very feeble means.” p. 203, 
204. 
“* T might calculate, in detail, the com- 
penfations that France has been able ta 
find beyond her territory, not only for the 
military fupport of her armies, which have 
eftablifhed themfelves there, fince the be- 
ginning of the war ; but alfo for the affift- 
ance of her interna] adminiitration.. _I may 
venture to ftate, that, in the firft campaign 
of Italy, little more than one years refi- 
dence of the French army beyond the Alps. 
has faved to France an expenditure of more 
than one hundred and fixty millions.’ See 
p- 215. . 
«* At the besinning of the 8th year, the 
adherents of the Englifh miniftry made all 
Europe refound with unfavourable predic-. 
tions on our finances. , They announced 
increafing difficuities in the colleétion of 
our taxes, and the fpeedy diffolution of 
the refources of our treafury. They af- 
ferted, that in France the ability to pay 
wasexhaufted ; that the military levies had 
been pufhed to the utmoft extreme; that 
the French armies, already enervated'by 
want of difcipline, would be diffelved im= 
mediately for want of recruits. Soon after 
thefe threatening predictions, the republi- 
can government prefented, for the year 8, 
an ¢fitmate of expenditure, lower than that 
ofthe yearz7. The fervices in arrear were 
progreihvely difcharged, the current fer - 
vices were paid with exaétnefs, the armies 
were completed, and Italy was reconquer- 
ed.”” ‘p. 21n% Ads 
It appears from the above extraéts, that. 
the refources of the French, not always, in- 
deed, the mow jujfifiable, were fuch, that 
little or no addition was made tothe public 
debt. That the intereft of it was regularly 
paid, at leaft, to the foreign creditors, can- 
not be afierted ; but, that bots the agri 
i: pat 
