At the epoch at which the budget of 1814 was proposed, all the purchasers of timber had filed claims against the treasury. Their accounts were then under exami nation, and regulations were in progress to adjust the indemnities, and discharges to which they might have a right in consequence of the losses which they had experienced, owing to the invasion of our territory. It was then impossible to furnish any but a very imperfect estimate of the amount to be expected from this source of revenue. It has exceeded all hope, notwithstanding the reductions, the discharges, and the indemnities justly granted to the purchasers whose claims were found to be well grounded. I ought to add, however, that this sum of 26,698,500 francs is the gross amount of the sale of timber, and that in order to reduce it to the net proceeds, it is necessary to deduct from it about six millions for the expenses of the administration of our forests, and which have been supplied out of the revenue of the stamp and domainal administrations. ed, and temptation to fraud been diminished. The price of the farm of the salt-works has been ultimately fixed for 1814 at two millions. The proceeds from this item had been valued provisionally at 1,500,000. There is then a surplus of 500,000. The several receipts have exceeded by 557,447 francs the first estireceipts sufficiently excuses the mate. The uncertainty of those inaccuracy of the first estimate. But on the other hand several branches of the revenue have not come up to the first estimate. The direct taxes valued at 291,266,000 francs, deducting the contingent of the departments severed from France, leave a deficit of 26,000,000. Nearly the whole of these 26 millions is to be obtained from departments which have been twice occupied by foreign armies, and will be absorbed by the remis signs granted to those depart n.ents. I do not believe that more than from 5 to 600 thousand francs can be obtained from this portion of the arrears. The proceeds of the stamps, and those of the lottery and of the post office, exhibit likewise a deficit; but I repeat that this deficit is more than compensated by the surplus obtained from other branches of revenue, and that of course they leave no deficit in the budget. Certain extraordinary receipts have been made by the treasury in 1814. I submit the account of them to your majesty: they amount to 60,690,230 francs. This sum includes a payment of 9,515,500 francs made to the royal treasury. by the extraordinary domains in 1814, and the additional cents imposed in 1813 and 1814, which remained to be collected on the 1st of April 1814: An order in coun3 B cil of the 13th June following has authorised the commutation of these cents for requisition-notes. This commutation has taken place, and will be speedily terminated in the eastern, western, and southern departments. It was more slow in its operation but draws now to a close in the central and western departments. The sums which have not been absorbed by this mode of liquidation, have been paid into the treasury, and there has resulted from them an increase in the receipts of 51,174,730. In adding the amount of these extraordinary receipts of 1814 To the ordinary receipts And superadding likewise a sum of 12,084,689 franes, the surplus of the collections made out of the proceeds of the debt in arrears beyond the payments made on the same account There results a total of 60,690,230 460,941,020 12,084,690 533,715,940 the system of this law, all the. payments remaining to be made for a period anterior to the first of April were to be made in that mode. But as these provisions could not be executed before the end of 1814, the result has been that ministers have sanctioned and the treasury has actually paid in specie, in the same mode as for the expenses of the last nine months, a great portion of the expenses belonging to the three first months. We must then give up entirely those first calculations which are at variance with facts, and rest upon a new basis, the budget of the expenses of the last ninc months. This sum of 103 millions evidently belongs to the arrears. It is chargeable upon the credit of 231 millions, which, according to the first calculations, was to cover the surplus of the expenses of the first quarter, and which is now in the application necessarily reduced to a much less sum, because the receipts which originally were estimated only at 442 millions have given 533 millions; because the expenses rated at first at 674 millions amounted only to 637 millions; and moreover because in the interval of time from the 1st of April to the time when the law of the 23d September could be executed, about 57 millions were paid out of the funds of the current service for the expenses of the three first months. | of confidence. The collection of the taxes had been brought to a close. The liquidation of the arrears was advancing rapidly; the stock intended to extinguish it was at par; all the departments of the public service were solvent, and there was in the treasury a reserve of fifty millions. Four months after, all our resources were swallowed up, all our calculations blasted; order, confidence, credit, all had disappeared; twelve hundred thousand foreigners occupied France; and all the calamities of war desolated our territory. This retrospect is sufficient to explain why the budget of 1815, which, in the month of September 1814, offered, in the equipoise of its receipts and expenditures, the well founded hope of a clear surplus of 70 millions applicable to the payment of the arrears, now exhibits a surplus of expense of about 286 millions. Thus every principle of order conspires to induce us to class ultimately with the arrears this surplus of expense of 103 millions, and, to apply to its extinction the forms and values appropriated to the payment of the debts anterior to the first of April. I except from this, however, a sum of about 23 millions which remains due for the public debt, and which is to be paid in specie out of the proceeds set apart for the arrears, an exception which has been already sanctioned by the law of the 23d Sep-ceipts have been made since, and tember. By means of these arrangements, the term-1814, will be finally closed both as to receipts and expenditures. This term will no longer appear in the accounts of the treasury, and what collections may still be made from it shall be added to those of the term 1815, and will increase its resources. Term of 1815. On the 1st of March 1815 the situation of the finances was such as to inspire the greatest degree Your majesty will find annexed a detailed statement of the situation of the budget of receipts of 1815 on the first of October. At that epoch no more than about 369 millions had yet been collected on account of this budget, fixed by the law of the 23d of September at 618 millions. But considerable re from the progress making in the collections, I still hope that ultimately and notwithstanding the events which might very reasonably be supposed likely to occasion. a deficit, we may still obtain this sum of 618 millions. This result is explained by the excessive moderation of the original estimate. To the ordinary receipts valued at 618 millions, ought to be added, 1st. The proceeds (35,510,000) of a sale made in May and June 1815, of annuities belonging to the sinking fund, a deplorable operation, for which the administrators of that fund have no apology but the disposition of the authority which regulated the conditions of that sale. 2d. The loan of one hundred millions authorised by an ordinance of your majesty of the 16th of August. This ordinance was made under the most difficult, the most imperious circumstances. The treasury bad engagements to fulfil towards the allied powers. It was necessary at the same time to provide for the wants of the daily service. It was then indispensable to provide for the obtaining of these hundred millions, without impeding the collection of the ordinary taxes. To this end an appeal for money in the nature of a requisition was made to the principal capitalists, farmers and freeholders. It remains to sanction this provisional measure, and ensure their reimbursement, the object of the 3d section of the law which I submit to your majesty. One half of the total amount of the schedules of the four direct taxes shall be collected in the shape of an extraordinary supply. The receipts of the sums given in payment of the requisition of one hundred millions shall be taken as cash in payment of this supply. The one tenth of the sum which it may yield is placed at the disposal of the prefects to cover the releases, reductions, and alleviations which it may be found proper to grant. The surplus shall be deposited in the treasury, but under the condition Of reimbursing the capitalists, farmers and freeholders, the por tion of the advances which they have made, beyond their proportion of the new tax; Of exonerating the departments which have suffered most from the late events; Of placing to their credit the local taxes which they were com pelled to raise for the payment, equipment, and mounting of the foreign troops, and the amount of which has been deducted out of the sums to be paid to the allied powers agreeably to the respective conventions made with them. A sum of 61,057,000 is provisionally set apart under the head of fund previously appropriated for the discharge of those debts. At the next session an account shall be laid before both houses, of the employment of this sum. If it be not sufficient, additional appro priation shall be made; if a portion of this fund remains unemployed, it will be applied to the general expenses of the treasury. A particular provision of the law regulates, with respect to the payment of the supply, the respective duties of the farmers and freeholders in conformity with the 6th article of the law of the 23d September. It is proper to repeat, that the supply in question is an extraordinary supply, and it is strictly just, that the farmers should divide this burden with the freeholders who have had so many others to support, so many sacrifices to make. This regulation was called for by several prefects. They wished the law to be explicit and positive in this respect, in order to prevent the difficulties which might other. wise be raised in their departments. I deemed it a duty to comply with a wish which is the result of an enlightened examination, and the execution of which is besides authorised by anterior regulations. This deficit is indubitably the result of the fatal events of the month of March 1815. It represents, in great part, the payments which remain to be made for the months of April, May, and June following. Your majesty without ceasing to be just, might have been severe to the creditors of an illegal government. You have authorised the liquidation and the payment of their claims; but since the ordinary resources of 1815 are exhausted, since the 70 millions which were destined to the extinction of the arrears were employed by that government, to satisfy the new exigencies of the moment, it is just, it is necessary, that the payments which remain to be made and which form a deficit for 1815, be added to the debt in arrears. It is thus that the expenses of 1815, which belonged to your majesty's government of the three first months, are to be paid; the creditors of the three following months of 1815 cannot be dealt with in a different manner. I therefore propose to your majesty to open a credit of 130 millions in stock of the arrears. This sum, together with the 347 millions which remained to be collected on the first of October last, |