Such was the general financial condition of the empire in 1814, though the year previous the agent that dethroned Louis XVI. had began to work. The disastrous result of the Russian campaign had embarrassed the state of the finances, and in November, 1813, Napoleon gave orders to add 30 centimes, or nearly a third, to the land and window tax, to double the personal tax, and add three-fifths to the excise duties and salt tax, which measure affected every inhabitant of France, and made them weary even of Napoleon le Grand.

In January, 1814, the land tax was increased fifty per cent, and the duties on doors and windows, as well as duties upon personal and assessed taxes, were doubled. The effect of this last financial act upon the waning popularity of Napoleon is shown by the fact that in France, at that time, but 17,000 proprietors possessed above 2007. a year, while 8,000,000 of its inhabitants were so poor as to be only taxed 16s. 10d. per head, and yet the land tax bore directly upon them and extorted from them the following sums in the years given below :

To show who these taxes fell upon, we subjoin the following table, compiled by the Duc de Gaeta, Napoleon's Minister of Finance :

In addition to this burdensome tax, provisions began to fail, and famine, the ally of finance in revolutions, began to play its part in dethroning one who once had the strongest hold upon the French nation that any man ever possessed over a people, either in ancient or modern times. In 1802 and 1803 France was forced to be an importer of grain; but from 1804 to 1810 she was an exporter; while in 1811, 1812, and 1813, she again became an importer of the food that was necessary to furnish subsistence to her people. This fact filled Napoleon with the deepest alarm, and even when anticipating it, he addressed the following letter to Montalivet, Minister of the Interior:

In 1803 the contributions from Italy were 25.000,000; and in 1805 there were levied upon Genoa, Italy, and Holland 130.000,000. In 1807 Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria paid into the imperial treasury of France 772,226.922 franes, which sum supported Napoleon's Grand Armee of 200,000, and left him a surplus of 543.226,922 francs. In six years Napoleon exacted from his conquered enemies $155.000.000. In twelve years (1800-1812) he expended upon public works in the empire 1,030,000,000 francs, or $200,000,000.

"MONSIEUR LE COMTE:--I send you a very important note from the Council-. lor of State, Maret, on the question of corn. Come to the Council on Monday supplied with all the information which you can procure on this important affair. I have given orders to that Councillor of State to attend with all the documents which are in his hands. You will see that this Councillor of State believes that all the wheat of 1808 and 1809 will have been consumed by the end of the year. I have forbidden the exportation of rye from what he says of its dearness. I have doubled the export duty on wheat. Those two decrees shall be dispatched during the night. Bring with you on Monday all that the good of my service shall suggest to you as useful and suitable for remedying the present state of things. Bring likewise returns of the exports since the month of August. This question is the most important of all, and I cannot delay beyond Monday taking a definite resolution on the subject. I request you to verify the fact, and to take measures that the reserve stores shall be fully supplied. You have inspectors who are charged with that verification. The existence of that supply is confided to your zeal for my service. I have sacrificed a million a year during eight years for that purpose. It would be truly unfortunate were those eight millions and those eight years of anxiety lost at the moment when the fruit should be collected. I cannot sleep tranquilly on the subject until I am completely reassured. On your part, make it your particular care to verify that a sufficient supply for Paris exists. There is no government measure more susceptible of producing an influence on the happiness of the people and on the tranquillity of the administration than the certainty of the existence of that supply. It is not beyond your attributes to demand a statement of the supplies which are at the disposal of the War Department. See that the Invalides and the hospitals have their supplies, and that they are not taken unawares. It would be terrific if it were true, as I am assured it is, that 40 millions' worth of grain have been exported to England since the month of August last. I have imposed a double duty on the export of wheat. Give me an account of the exports, and tell me if it be possible to increase it still more. I would further desire to increase the supply of Paris still more out of the million-and-a-half which I receive from the customs duties. I pray to God that he may keep you under his holy protection. 66 NAPOLEON."

These sad forebodings of Napoleon were but too true, for in 1811, 1,400,000 quintals of grain were obliged to be imported into France. Two hundred thousand rations were daily distributed among the people, and 20,000,000 francs were required from the imperial treasury to pay the extra charges upon the government and keep the people in a state of quietude; and no language of ours could so well express the effect of this scarcity, and its relation to the stability of government, as does that letter of Napoleon to Mantalivet, written when he was anticipating that even he might be driven from France by the forces of finance and food.

At last he became the victim of his own suicidal policy; for he exhausted the finances of France, deprived her people of the means of subsistence by his vast drains upon her producing population, and, as a penalty for his oppressions, finance and food revolutionized the sentiment of the empire, and made its people glad to receive as a ruler and king a descendant of the hated dynasty of the Bourbons.

This new dynasty commenced their reign under the most inauspicious circumstances. Though Napoleon, as we are informed by the minister of Louis XVIII., left a debt of only 125,000,000 francs, yet when he was obliged, by his reverses in Austria, to give up his favorite policy of making war pay for war, instead of resorting to credits he had recourse to exorbitant taxations, and thus exhausted France at a single stroke, instead of eking out her substance by paying interest upon enormous loans. France was unable to bear even ordinary taxation, and the deficits of 1814, 1815,

and 1816, amounted to 83,051,115 francs, while in 1817 it rose to 349,000,000, which resulted in part from the enormous contributions levied upon her by the Allies, (viz.: 1,550,000,000 francs,) in retaliation of the policy of Napoleon, who had extorted from his enemies $350,000,000. Add to this the fact that famine was staring France in the face, and that 76,000 francs was paid daily in Paris to keep down the price of bread, and we have some idea of the financial difficulties that beset that country, and the extent of which forced Bignot to declare "that France was at the mercy of the Allies, and unless they were generous to her another revolution must add to her already ruinous and disastrous condition." The Allies yielded to these appeals, cut down their demands from 1,500,000,000 francs to 360,000,000, and thus gave France an opportunity to regain her position among the powers of Europe. The Spanish and Algeria war in a few years followed these events, and we give the budgets of France from 1815 to 1830 in the columns below:

Such was the condition of the finances under Charles X., each year exhibiting a deficit, and making it necessary to ask for new loans to carry out the measures of the government. Under his and the preceding administration 6,434,000,000 francs had been added to the debt of France, and the various surpluses noted above were but the result of enormous loans. In addition to these financial embarrassments, famine, that had already dethroned Louis XVI. and Napoleon, began to battle against him also, and in 1828 and 1829, riot and disorder pervaded every part of France-bread rose in value a third-28,000,000 bushels were imported to supply the demand of the people, who, urged on by hunger and exasperated by taxations too grievous to be borne, openly rebelled, and placed upon the throne the Citizen King, Louis Philippe.

Thus the third change of rulers and of government since 1789 was caused by disordered finances and lack of food. The accession of Louis Philippe to the throne of France seemed to betoken an auspicious day for that country, but the first year of his reign was marked by a deficit in the budget to the amount of 530,000,000 francs, while in 1832 the indirect contributions decreased 59,000,000 francs. If we examine in detail his reign, we shall see it disgraced by riots and internal disorders at home, war abroad, and lack of confidence everywhere. To his credit, though, be it said, that he introduced in his reign good post-roads for France, and also other useful internal improvements, but almost every year that he sat upon the throne was marked with a deficit, partly the result of his foreign relations, and partly the fruit of his own household expenditure. Below will be found the state of France's finances from 1830 to the revolution of 1848, which drove him from France :—

• The deficits from 1814 to 1819 were replaced by loans, which amounted in all to 1,030,000,000 francs. The surplus in 1819 was 44,500,000 francs. In 1821, the taxes were reduced 17,000,000 francs; in 1822, 22,000,000 francs.

+ Surplus.

In 1826, war with Spain. In 1827, a loan of 800,000,000 francs was negotiated by the government. Algeria war began in 1828, and in 1829 the army was raised from 180,000 to 420,000 men. Deficit.

It will be seen above that nature, as though she was the sworn enemy of kings, armed her children against that sovereign who was but the toy of a wild and sudden revolution, for famine had, in 1847, made France one field of riot, while its disordered finance forced the king to raise its land tax, so that every land holder in France paid 30 per cent of his income to the government, and 280,000,000 francs were levied upon the small yet poor tillers of that country's soil. The people were goaded almost to frenzy; redress was demanded from the throne, and fearing that it might not come, the people demanded a revolution, and the fourth king of France was driven from his throne by the coalition of finance and famine. The ruler chosen by a revolution became himself at last its victim, because the people demanded food for their nourishment and exemption from burdensome taxations, in order that they might enjoy the fruits of their labor.

He left, as a legacy to the revolutionary government that followed his, a floating debt of 630,000,000 francs, and they aggravated this embarrassment still farther by increasing the army, enrolling the Guard Mobile, and by an ill-timed reduction of the impost in the sum of 160,000,000 francs. To remedy this, recourse was had to a loan of 250,000,000, but each year only added to the embarrassment of the government, and the seizure of its administration by Napoleon was acquiesced in by the people because it promised some diminution in taxation, and unlike the two revolutions that preceded it, it added nothing to the embarrassment of the finances, but by the dissolution of the National Guard it promised a reduction in the expenses of government, and was gladly acquiesced in by the people. We will now give the budget of the revolutionary government :

Each year, as seen above, shows a fearful deficit in the budget of the government, but this time nature saved France from another disorganizing revolution, for from 1848 to 1852 the crops were so abundant that she exported 30,000,000 bushels of grain, by means of which $19,000,000 was added to her national wealth. Taxation was therefore, in 1852, her only grievance; 16,000,000 landed proprietors demanded relief from its burdens, and the coup d'etat of Napoleon was hailed with delight, for it promised stability of government, and, as a necessary effect of it, increase in the "indirect contributions" of the empire, and consequently diminution

Charles X. deposed and Louis Philippe made king. In 1832, a loan of 70,000,000 was effected. In 1833, the debt of France was 5,417,595.017 francs. In 1842, there was another loan of 150,000,000 francs. The cost of the Algerine war was 200,000,000 francs. The fortifications around Paris that were built by this monarch cost 647,610,000 francs. In 1847, France imported 276.000,000 francs' worth of food, and it again borrowed, by means of loans, 250,000,000 francs. Its debt had now reached the enormous sum of 6,450,000,000 francs.

+ Deficit from 1840 to 1844.

Deficit.

Increase in expenditures in 1848, 276,000,000 francs, which was met by a loan of 250,000,000. The indirect contributions in the same year decreased 142,000,000 francs.

Coup d'etat of Napoleon.

in direct taxations, thus giving labor greater chances of support, and capital greater security in its investments in manufactures, Commerce, and trade.

The remarkable success that thus far has attended his reign, the quietude of France under it, and the regard of the nation for him have been ascribed to all causes save, as we shall show, the true one, for finance and food have been his allies instead of his enemies. During the sixteen years of Louis Philippe's reign the indirect contributions to the revenue increased yearly at the rate of 19,000,000 francs, but under Napoleon III. they have increased at the rate of 44,000,000 francs a year. By diminishing the army he has reduced the land tax down to 161,000,000 francs, the lowest point ever attained since the revolution. This reduction alone amounted to 27,000,000 francs, and pressed almost entirely upon the laborers in the rural districts. He has also relinquished the octroi duties, consisting of a tenth levied upon certain taxes, and yielding 7,000,000 francs, and he has abolished other taxes, (including the reduction of two-thirds of the duty upon salt,) making in all the sum of 40,000,000 francs, that he has taken since 1852 from the burdens of the poor. To compensate for these reductions no recourse has been had to new loans, but France's prosperity has so increased the "indirect contributions" that her treasury, as we shall soon see, has for two years had a surplus. The items of expenditure for 1854 are for War, 315,897,791 francs; for Marine, 127,602,402 francs; for Instruction and Public Worship, 65,719,722 francs; for Public Works, 156,735,242 franes; Minister of Finance, 711,964,619 francs. We will now give Napoleon III.'s budgets from 1851 to 1855:—

Years.

1852*.

1853........

1,460,000,000 4,000,000 1855........ 1,566,012,213 $3,981,905 Such are the budgets of Napoleon to June, 1855, and upon them Bineau, Minister of Finance, thus remarks:-"The Council of State is at this moment examining the budget of 1855. It presents an equilibrium. The budget of 1851, that which preceded your accession, left a deficit of 101,000,000 francs. The deficit of 1852 has only amounted to 26,000,000 franes; that of 1853 will be only about 4,000,000 francs. This progress will, I hope, continue; and, except in the case of extraordinary wants for 1854, the equilibrium will become customary in our finances, as it should be the rule of them.

"I have concluded, Sire, the account of the financial situation of the empire. This statement is not less satisfactory than that which, at a similar period last year, I had the honor to submit to you; 1852 and 1853, two memorable years in the political history of France, will be also remarkable in her financial history. During these two years, at the same time that the emperor re-established order and authority, he has re-established the public and the private prosperity; without new taxes or a new charge for the country, the emperor has maintained the reduction of the salt tax and lessened the land tax; without a loan, your Majesty has executed in two years extraordinary public works to the amount of 150,000,000 francs-the expense of which works might, however, have been cast on the future, which will enjoy the fruits of them; and, instead of borrowing,

* Value of breadstuffs exported $10,790,000; value of the same imported in 1852, $13,400,000. + Loan of 250,000,000 francs, necessitated by the war in the East. Increased expenditures for 1855, 49,156,565 francs; also a new loan of 400,000,000 francs.

+ Surplus.