REPUBLICAN EXTRAVAGANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1890, 16 August 1884, Page 3

REPUBLICAN EXTRAVAGANCE.

- (London Morning Post.) The marvellous story of the magnitude and increase of public expenditure in France under the republic, as compared with the Empire, is engaging the attention of a growing number of anxious observers, outside as well as within the chambers of the Legislature, and the spectacle of the utter recklessness of the Repuplic's financial management is calculated to throw doubts upon the permanent capacity of French taxpayers to (ill up the perpetual deficit. As an illustration of the value to be attached to the trite maxims of the Birmingham school upon the economy of democratic government as contrasted with the extravagance of monarchies aristocracies, the state of French finance deserves to be studied even by those who have no personal interest in the stability of French credit. The space of a few years is sufficient to present in tiie most unmistakable colours the real character of an Administrtion which is supposed to be conducted by the representatives of the people for the benefit of the people, and which is now showing itself to be the most remarkable machinery for lavishing the public funds which bas ever been witnessed in operation in any country in the world. The fii'iires of the ordinary Budget for the year ISB3 are simply astoundiii" and stupefying. They are no ; less than 3,242,000,000fr. In ISO 9, in the last years of that Empire which was the target for every Republican theorist's denunciation, the French Budget only amounted to 1,021,000,000fr. From £05.000,000 to £130,000,000 is a progression which speaks for itself. It is true that the increase of the Public Debt, necessitated by the calamities of the Franco-German war, has imposed an annual burthen of £26,000,0C0 or i 30,010,000 upon the country. But the annual payment of interest upon debt does l©j account for the vast increase which has taken place. Besides, the very fact that it was necessary to devote large sums to the payment of interest upon the war debt should have pointed to the wisdom of curtailing as far as possible the public expenditure in every other direction. It is just the contrary which has occurred. The moment in which the country was suffering under exceptional difficulties was the moment chosen by the new rulers of France to extend the scale of their extravagance to every department and upon every pretext. Though the debt charges might be admitted to raise the Budget of the Empire from £05,000,000 to some £95,000,000, it could not account for the vast difference between even £05,009,000 and £130,000,(100. We have seen that the Republicans can be economical upon occasion. The salary of the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, which had been fixed at 100,000 francs, only £4,000, at the.commencement of the century, not a very large sum, even then for the maintenance of the dignity of such a si'e as Paris, has been cut down at a recent sitting of the Chamber to the ridiculous sum of 15,000 francs, only £'ooo, and a large number of similar estimates were nibbled away in like fashion, or abolished together. In the hospitals for the service of the sick and injured poor of Paris, where helpless creatures of all creeds are continually in sore sickness or at the point of death, the same economical spirit has banished the chaplains—who for centuries were maintained—where a chap lain must be to meet such emergencies—upon the premises and within reach of the sick or dying call. No denominational institution of education is allowed to touch the public funds. In spite of such remarkable sparing, and in spite of so saving a disposition so ostentatiously displayed, the French Budget Iras mounted iii thirteen years of Republican rule from £05,000,000 to £130,000,000, and even we make allowance for the exigencies of the war debt, there still remains a «ap of £35,000,000, unaccounted for and unaccountable. We nre wrong, however, in saying that the excessive increase of French public expenditure is unaccountable. It can be easily explained, and it is easily explained by the common vice of demagogic administration, the quartering upon the revenues of the State of every ambition and every kind of cupidity which can attach themselves to the skirts, or which can lead the march of the victorious legions of an ultra-demo-cratic electorate, happily destitute of any stake in the country, and joyously careless who pays or what pays, inasmuch as r.t all events it does not expect to have to bear any share of the burden. The French Budgets have doubled because the democratic principal is religiously carried out by which two men are always set to do the work of one, and if the one lias not anything to do already he gets an assistant to help him in doing it. All this means, of course, a multiplication of places and salaries, and places and salaries are the breath of the life of the political democracy. Mr Joseph Cowen, in his splendid speech at Newcastle the other day, reflected upon the dangerous increase of Government patrongage in England in these later days, and, pointing to the a row th of inspectorships of all kinds and degrees, and to the establishment of huge departments under new legislation, as under the new Bankruptcy Law, involving innumerable appoinments by the will of the Miuistcrs of the Crown. The independent member for Newcastle could not help expressing his anxiety at the perils which were latent in the development of such tendencies. The evil may be inevitable, but it is none the less an evil. If Mr Joseph Cowen were to look to France he would see a sad confirmation of his foreboding in the reckless multiplication of all kinds of places and offices, from the highest to the lowest, in the Ministerial gift. Talk of Imperial munificence and Republican simplicity, the munificence of the Empire was sheer parsimony and downright niggardliness when compared with the lordly lavishnesa of the triumphant Democracy. An eminent French financier has recently examined in detail the estimates for some French departments to day and thirteen years ago. The Imperial Ministry for Commerce and Agriculture, for instance, cost 6,000,000fr in 1809. The Republican Ministry costs 21,000,000fr in 18S3. In lighting the same offices in 1575, 2,500fr. sufficed, but more than 20,000fr. are devoted to the same purpose to-day. The maintenance of office furniture used to cost annually 2,000fr., but to-day it figures for nearly 2S,OOOfr. Two thousand five hundred francs used to figure in 1869 under the head of miscellaneous expenses ; 40,000fr. is the corresponding amount to-day. The very item of lint/eric, presumably curtains and such, used to cost OOOfr., but lingerie in 1883 requires 11,500fr., and the Figaro is tempted to ask "if the State now supplies clean shirts to its Republican officials ?" Two ushers used to attend the offices of the Imperial Minister of Finance, The simple Republican who now holds the public purse requires the attention of four. Special law used to forbid the lodging of public functionaries in such public edifices as the Louvre. To-day one hundred and fifty-nine suites of rooms apiece, are supplied in the Louvre at the expense of the State to so many fortunate dependents of the Ministry of the day. The liepubliquc Francaise itself is unable to deny the grave abuses which swarm in every direction. It confesses, for instance, that, .thoughunexpected estimates should by law be held over and accounted for separately, it is the universal practise to place such sums at the disposal of the Chief of the Department for distribution according to his pleasure, and that, the jjublic audit, ,s which ought to resist; accepts on the contrary the task of giving a regular appearance to these irregularities!" ' If we imagine such abuses multiplied by every department throughout France, we have a sufficient /elue; ) to..the;:growtl> of the monstrous ; Budget?' ; bf ;'ih"e ? ' Ref. pUblio. •''.• ' i 'l'\\^^'T:^i'^j^