8 APRIL 1871, Page 2

The finance of Paris is, as usual, a puzzle. The

Commune has the control of the octroi and other taxes, which may reach with requisitions £10,000 a day ; but it spends that sum in mere pay to its troops outside, who must be fed besides, as must also their families. It seems probable that it pays for nothing except necessaries, that it " requires" all articles except food—if it re- quired that, the farmers would cease to send it in—and that it has effected some small loans, partly by menace, partly by bonds, which the lenders think will be taken up by the Assembly as part of the ultimate amnesty.