FRANCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 732, 7 August 1852, Page 3

FRANCE.

The Moniteur of March 17th publishes the estimates for 1852. The state expenditm*e is calculated at 1,430,363,244 francs. ; the receipts at 1,449,413,604. The import duties on fermented liquors are reduced by half, and those on liquors sold by retail raised orie half. The war estimates are augmented by 7,000,000 francs ; those of the navy by 12,000,000 francs, and works by 14,000,000. The correspondent of the Morning Chronicle says it is evident that the process of submitting the budget of the year to the examination of Parliament was a process which would be utterly unbecoming the-dignity of such a Government as Louis Napoleon has conferred upon France. The elect of eight millions is above responsibility. Whatever he and his Government do must be received not only with-res-pect and confidence, but without question. The whole of the expenses of the year 1852 are to be passed and legalised, without examination or control, by a simple decree. Louis N&poleon does not even deign to produce the semblance of an account. He merely tells the tax paying public that, while on the one hand the burdens laid upon their shoulders have produced stfmany millions of francs, each of his Ministers requires so many millions to meet the expenses of the departments. The only exception which he makes is in respect' to his own salary as President, which he modestly abstains from fixing, and the amount of which is to be fixed, not by the representatives of the people, but- by the senators whom he himself appointed, and who are his creatures, depending upon him for honours, and some of them even for thsir daily-

bread. A greater mockery of representative government never insulted a nation. The absurdity of the affair is that this decree appears just on the eve of the meeting of an Assembly which h;is been depriyed of all prerogatives of representatives of the people, with the sole exception of the financial affairs of the country. The anomaly is so great that M. Bineau finds it necessary, in his report to allude to it, and the excuse which he makes only shows how really inexcusable the proceeding is. He states that the last Assembly not having had time to examine the budget for 1852, a decreewas published on the llth of December, 1851, allowing the provisional collection of taxes for three months. If the new Assembly were now to examine the budget, an additional month or two would be lost, so that another-decree would have to be published, allowing the collection of taxes for three months more. This (says the report) would be very inconvenient, and would, moreover, be useless, for a great portion of the expenses have already been incurred ; and, "accordingly," says the complaisant Minister, " in order to satisfy the necessities of the service, and in order also to leave the responsibility to the person to whom' jt belongs, I think it my duty, Monseigneur, to propose to you to regulate to-day the budget of 1852." to this pleasant and off-hand proposition Monseigneur is graciously pleased to give a favourable consideration ; and accordingly the report of M. Bineau, the Minister, and the decree of Louis Napoleon, the President, appear in the Moniteur, and this is all that the people of France will know of the expenditure of 1852, or of the awkward items which the exposure of certain transactions in December, 1851, would haxe brought to light. By a decree, dated March 16, the Prince President re-organizes the Legion of Honor. The decoration of the Legion, as under the Empire, is to be a star with five double rays, surmounted by a crown. The centre of the star is to contain the effigy of Napoleon, surrounded by leaves of oak and laurel, with the inscription " Napoleon, Empereur dcs Francois," on the other side is to be the eagle with the words " Honneur et Patrie."