COMPARATIVE FINANCES OF EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS: Manual's in order to appreciate

the full force of the comparative survey of the finances of the empires of Europe, it ought to be extended beyond France and Russia; for the difficulties of France, are not:peculiar to that country; nor is Russian finance peculiarly sound, The state of French commerce is tolerably familiar to the h reader. The wine crop is deficient; the corn crop

ef meat that special measures have- been necessary to miti- gate the pressure upon the population of Paris and of other, tewns ; and while the state is in want of money, the peculiar circumstances of the Government render it very difficult to bring forward "the loan of 200,000,000" francs which has long been contemplated. This is bad enough ; but the dearth which France has felt is common to the whole of the South- ern, part of Europe, and does not render Frame proportion- ately weaker than-Naples or England. On the other hand, ineon- ' sistent as it is with our ideas to regulate the price of bread, or to diminish the cost at present by an arbitrary abatement of price with a provision for repaying it by a bread-tax hereafter, the plan- is so fat in accordance with prevalent opinion in France that it ap- pears to be generally approved ; and with that favour of public opinion it is not impossible that the arrangement may attain its object in a great degree. The failure of the wine crop is a cala, mity not quite compensated by the high price of wine; but it is a calamity shared with other countries, and certainly not traceable to any misdeeds in government. Perhaps the statement that the manufacturing districts are distressed is too sweeping. There are many enterprises in progress that certainly indicate a contrary con- dition; and amongst those indications is that advance of railway enterprise which was amongst the immediate reasons for reducing the duty on iron. By some means or other, the working-classes have been kept tolerably employed; and there is no reason to sup- se that the credit of the French Government, even if it sought a loan, would be reduced to the Austrian level. France is in diffi-

culties, but she has surmounted difficulties not less serious, and there are grounds for favourable expectation on the part of her Government; particularly in the recognition now extorted from Europe and in the moral support of the English alliance,

If we were to compare the financial state of France with that of Austria, the contrast would be all in favour of our nearer neigh- bour. The deficit of 95,000,000 florins is but the deficit of this year, and must be combined With the Annual deficit heretofore. But everybody knows that the stated deficiency or 9,500,000/. does by no means represent the true vacuum in Austrian finance. The recent expedient of exacting a discount upon paper-money paid in for taxes shows that the Government is obliged to;fill up another vacuum by snatching 15 per cent more in depre Oso. its own

perfection—it is putting a tax on the payment Of I

paper. This device perhaps carries tax-inaking ennityAnts the device is independent of 'another manceuvre—some further issue of paper not long before. r "While the Government isresetting to those expedients, the utmost efforts are used to screw taxes Out of Hungary and Lombardy ; and a hile, elaborate jeffOrt.A. are made throughout Europe to restore the credit , .thesio,., . .,. the sole Ils hopes of financial redemption rest npon tau, :a a .cffis which the state of Europe renders ridiculous. Xiiii igilnp,4 etFrance, hesitating about the ealakiency Of attempting 10.. itakta4Ioan for

8,000,000/. sterling; but has year after year :u e :the re-

fusal of a.loan toocever a deficieacy. ranging. from: „91/0/.. to 12,000,0004 besides the other disguised defioiencies. .4. comparison is ettemptod on behalf of Itnseia ; pat we know. not on what grounds,. „Certainly the course atkio,AutsaLlutis i taking, in alarming--Engl4 merebantsin, theBal*,,.-aild Wra inaprove her resoureeiR ., Tt-iiOrtie . t, ing the safety of Eurep-ma .eampree 64 no been mostly paid for,lat Engliiikpliji was, not ler the moment nutting off ,hfir A safe conduct for Eng11,a inereliantaaikeOxyzo, such measures affect lief „trede ne the credit of Russia in contemplated,--most desi dustry of the empire ; but they' e to e, money for war purposes. She Inv en, *bile Iti '.otiag, mercial credit, substituting expenditure for investm waiving of railways. reminds us that the last loati70ii etedlli England. by Rinennwas made professedly fur the par seof raisin'go ...,. f;,‘„ . eriwIceertzaairn hexa,a, -: . !A 34,541re an,ct capital to be expended in a r way, bu penditure in the Hungarian war, j been withdrawing so much as hehatt England—out of spite, nome,,seid thought ; and certainly these at - e-17141.1 / spoiling the sources of wealth, t ,Faiefk 2 a. 4,,, •

nancial or the eommercialcredAp , las , .:keelnt, :'''. • , it. state a mystery ; but these signs are at least not in her

If we were to compare the accountai Of these great (.;oi-ek1ipiq with those of smaller kingdoms, the.contrast-ruld be iniitnn,ti We need not, for example, take hi* t compaerpial HollariA,,,li let us take Constitutional- and practical 'Sardinit4Yere *-,e,g-i! well as in Austria, a "deficit"; but to What extant. Na• the or • expenses there is a deficit a little exceeding ,000,000 1,1

11,000,000 under the extraordinary head. •• This ex . ? . ai, . ,

deficit is set against constructing Ule .A.lassandriti, ovatir: . .

Arena railway, and is virtually provided for. The other At.'

Il

may be set Winfit. S .xpeia d itu re constantly decreasing, an probability of:aka-nit:able conversion of the Fiveper Cent. the worst, Serdiniaticentending with a deficit under4b , , Our Own: bendition, sad that Of America' k are quir eio

an

comparison. 'We have a Surplus d constantly pitglilo' e r flue, and a commerce constantly increasing ; as out /Sat Beiiii Trade returns show. We have a public Credit competent to aiyi appeal. In America the finaucial story is the same, the Ow denominations only altered ; and the Republic being without iiii ' tional debt worth talking about—contending, in fact, only that peculiar grievance an excess of surplus revenue. It A/mil almost appear from this survey, that AbsolutiAnCdoes not " pay (7; --its creditors or its peoples. At all events, ..it Sergher curious see how peculiar is the contrast in the financial cortittah and of those Governments which are absolute and tyrahdetil---wh " regulate trade" and screw the taxpayer ; and theee 'cerrn where constitutional principles enable the taxpayers o'‘ be re seated in their Government, and whore more enlightened prineir pies of commerce are permitting the natural growth of wealth. -re appears to us, that commercial interests are decidedly arrayed:la' the side of constitutional freedom autlf Parliamentary accounts," ,