4 JULY 1868, Page 2

The speakers on the Loan in the French Chamber seem

all to agree upon two points—that the Empire has spent on an average 12,000,000/. a year since 1852 in excess of the revenue, and that the total budget of France cannot be considered leas than 120,000,000/. a year. At that rate the Empire has cost France 168,000,000/. already, and in fifty years two-thirds of her income would be mortgaged to the debt. Affairs are not really so bad as this, first, because the country is increasing in wealth, and, secondly, because the grand check, inability to borrow, will arrive before that ; but the policy of the Empire, if persisted in, will really endanger the security of _antes. A great war would be cheaper than this armed peace.