safely said, that nine-tenths of the increase in the revenue is owing to the development of national prosperity.

It is not the past expenditure and actual deficit which are alarming. The danger lies in the financial system, or rather want of system, which has hitherto prevailed. It can be best characterised by saying, that the right hand did not know what the left hand gave. As there is no solidarity among the Ministers, there can be, properly speaking, no question of a regular Budget. Each Minister makes his report direct to the Emperor, trying naturally to show the increasing wants of his department, the Minister of Finance like the rest. These conflicting demands are brought into some sort of shape, and submitted to the Conseil d'Etat, so as to be presentable to the Corps Legislatif, but this was hitherto the least important part of the business, and the influential Ministers, above all, reserved their powers for the struggle which began after the Budget had safely passed.

The Senatus Consultum of the 25th December 1852, gave, namely, to the Emperor the power to order and authorise, by simple decree, all works of public utility and enterprises of general interest, and to assign extraordinary credits for this purpose. The same decree gives, likewise, the power to transfer the credits voted for one department to the necessities of the other. It was to avoid supplementary credits that the Senate conferred this power, and limited, likewise, the extraordinary credits to works which were directly undertaken by the State. But this power was too elastic, and offered too many, temptations, not to be soon abused and applied to all departments and all purposes.

Immediately after the voting of the Budget, the race began between the Ministers to get the largest shares

in these credits. Every one had one or more pet projects which he submitted to the Emperor. When the consent of the latter was obtained, it was, as a matter of form, presented to the gentlemen in the Conseil d'Etat, and it became quite a triumph to surprise less fortunate colleagues in the ministry by the appearance of the decree in the Moniteur.' No one wanted to be worse off than his neighbour, and the surprises became every day more As experience showed the convenience of improving a Minister's department in this way, the taste for extraordinary and supplementary credits daily increased. Above all, since the Crimean war, these credits, which, until then, oscillated between tens of millions, began to move among the hundreds of millions. It seems almost as if the large credits required during the war had familiarised people with large figures.

numerous.

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The last two years may serve as a specimen. In the Bulletin des Lois for 1860 there are 36 supplementary credits, amounting to 46,171,568; 46 extraordinary credits, 191,154,817, besides 15 transfers = 11,000,000; in all 248,000,000 in round numbers, in a budget fixed at 1,824,000,000. In 1861 there are 47 supplementary credits 34,823,967, and 51 extraordinary credits= 238,306,762. Then there are extraordinary exceptional credits for six Ministers 45,000,000, and special credits for public works of 10,941,997-in all, 329,172,726 francs, in a budget estimated at 1930 millions. It is true that sometimes one or another of these credits is again annulled, but these cases are comparatively rare; and M. Fould himself admits in his report that 115 millions were used in 1860, and 200 millions in 1861, which sums, however, do not include those required on account of the dearness of provisions. Such easy play with

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millions must have defeated all attempts at regular budgets, and it was high time to renounce such a pernicious practice. It seems that after what has been done in "works of public utility and enterprises of general interest," the exceptional power of supplementary and extraordinary credits may be given up without restriction, especially if the power of transferring the credits of one department to the wants of the other is kept up. In a large budget like that of France, this power is sufficient for any emergency which might arise between the meetings of the Corps Legislatif.

CHAPTER VI.

TERRESTRIAL PROVIDENCE AND ITS ADVANTAGES.

HAVING set forth the "petites misères," to which those who undertake the part of Providence on earth are subject like other common mortals, it is only fair to cast a glance on the sunny side of the pictures, and enumerate some of the sweets which are reserved for those who are

bold and powerful enough to aspire so high.

Nothing is probably more calculated to make us so conscious of our power as an occasion to exert it for the relief of misery, or for conferring happiness in individual cases. It is, as it were, trenching more directly on the province of Providence. The means for such occasions have been amply provided in the second Empire by an increase of the civil list from 12 to 25 millions of francs. A bourgeois king, walking about with his umbrella, was compelled by his position to be stingy; and any attempt on his part to deviate from this line would have been regarded with suspicion, and set down as corruption, although his large private fortune might have been sufficient to excuse any little deviation from this constitutional maxim. In the present case the obligation lies in the opposite direction. Nor can there be any charge of remissness in the performance of it, as the numerous visits and journeys to the different parts of

France can testify. East and West, North and South, Algeria, and even the lately annexed provinces of Nice and Savoy, have all had their share in the private bounties of the Empire. But, more than any other, those places where the Emperor or Empress has made a more or less prolonged stay-such as Biarritz, Plombières, and their vicinities-have enjoyed this advantage. The Imperial privy purse is always open to all cases of calamity and distress, and is appealed to by departments, towns, villages, and individuals. The Rhone overflows its banks, an accident befalls a mine, a storm has ravaged the coasts: Imperial liberality is always the first to mitigate the misfortune. Besides this, at every moment the Moniteur' informs the world of some grant, now for a school, now for a church, promenade, or some charitable institution, or as a reward for some case of devotion, or as support to a distressed or bereaved family. The wonder is how so much can be done with so little.

After punishing enemies, rewarding friends is one of the sweetest privileges of Imperial omnipotence. Among the friends, the Senate and the Corps Legislatif stand out foremost. Times are changed from what they were when Government was looked upon as the natural enemy of the people, and when "Pairs" and deputies were set up to act the part of fierce watch-dogs. It is true means were even then found to tame them by throwing before them morsels on the sly; but it could not be allowed that he should feed them against whom they were set up. Now it is the Elect of the people who rules and governs, and senators and deputies have become friends, assisting instead of opposing Government. They cost about 7 millions of francs a-year.