30 JANUARY 1875, Page 2

The impatience of France for a more settled Constitution is

nt., soothed by the financial statement for 1874, which shows a deficit of £3,500,000. This is not a real deficiency, as heavy back-payments to the Bank of France are included, but it is alarming, because it has arisen from a falling-off in the produce of the taxes on liquors, regis- tration of sales of property, and colonial and foreign sugars,—all marks, it is supposed in France, of distrust in political security. We should rather attribute the decline to a decrease of business, which has reduced workmen's wages ; but the French are nearly unanimous in supposing that the cure must be sought in settled government of some kind, as insecurity, besides alarming the people, prevents the adoption of a settled system of finance.