23 DECEMBER 1871, Page 2

M. Pouyer-Quertier's Budget for 1872 is a very serious one.

He says he shall want £96,600,000 for the year, besides £12,000,000 more, which he will ask for as a supplemental budget, and estimates his old revenue at £24,000,000 less. Those twenty-four millions must be supplied by new taxes, of which those already imposed will yield £14,440,000, leaving £10,000,000 still to be raised. M. Pouyer-Quertier proposes to secure these sums by increasing the duty on sugar, and imposing heavy duties on all raw materials other than textile, which latter are protected for the present by Treaty. It is very unlikely that the Assembly will accept this budget, though the Debats' objection, that of the total outlay £8,000,000 is a sinking fund, will not raise much discus- sion. M. Thiers is a bad economist, but he knows quite well that you cannot get more hay out of a field than there is grass in it, and his sinking fund is only an euphuism for what the Germans call the War Reserve. The moment war was decided on, the Sinking Fund would fill the Treasury.