the taxes. It began with declar-' of opinion. Some dissented from the principle of the measure as too anti-revolutionary; others conceived that it did not go far enough; the ultra royalists thought, that the emigrants were only half compensated, if what they received was not taken from those who had been gainers by their spoils; and all who disliked the financial alteration with which it was coupled, wished for its failure. The debates, though protracted, were of little interest; and M. de Villèle carried his scheme triumphantly through both chambers. The most strenuous opposition which was made to it, was upon an amendment proposed by M. Roy, the late minister of Finance. He moved to substitute the sum of 37,000,000 of francs arising from a five per cent stock, as the amount of the indemnity, instead of the 30,000,000 from a three per cent stock. This amendment was lost, after a long discussion, by a majority of 27 against 100. ing that The rentes acquired by the sinking fund from its establishment up to the 22nd of June, 1825, should not be annihilated nor diverted from their application to the purchase of the public debt before the 22nd of June, 1830: but the rentes, which should be acquired by the sinking fund from the 22nd of June, 1825, to the 22nd of June, 1830, were to be cancelled for the benefit of the State, as they were purchased, and also the coupons of interest attached to them; and after the 22nd March, 1825, the sums accruing from the sinking fund were not to be applied to the purchase of public stock, when the price was above par. This was the first part of the law. The other partof it provided thatthe proprietors of 5 per cent rentes should have, till the 22nd of June, 1825, the faculty of demanding from the Ministry of Finance their conversion into 3 per cent rentes, at the price of 75, and till the 22nd of September, 1825, the faculty of requiring their conversion into 4 per cent stock at par, with a guarantee in both cases against being paid off till the 22nd of September, 1835. The rentes so converted were to continue to bear interest at 5 per cent, till the 22nd of December, 1825. The sums arising from the diminution in the annual charge of the debt were to be applied to the reduction, from the year 1826 of the land-tax, poll-tax, and taxes on moveables, doors, and windows (contributions fonciere, personelle, mobiliaire, et des portes et fenetres). The settlement of the civil list did not produce much discussion: the law of indemnification, on the contrary, gave rise to great variety After the law was passed, the king appointed a commission, who were to investigate the demands of those who claimed compensation, and to determine what sum ought to be allotted to each. The commission was sub-divided into five sections; each consisting of five members, and charged with the liquidation of the claims in a certain number of departments. The Marshal Duke of Tarentum was President. Count Mollien, president of the commission of superintendence of the Caisse d' Amortissement, Messrs. Olivier and Leroy, of the chamber of Deputies, and Baron Guilhermi, president of one of the chambers of the Court of Accompts, were among the members. M. de Villèle was equally suc cessful in carrying his great financial measure, in spite of the violent opposition which it met with. Pasquier and M. de Chateaubriand were violent in their hostility to it. On one amendment which was proposed in the Chamber of Peers, he prevailed only by a majority of 123 to 103; but, upon the final division, the law was adopted by 134 against 92. The period allowed to the holders of rentes for demanding their conversion into a 3 per cent stock at 75, was extended to the 5th of August. Those proprietors of inscriptions in the 5 per cents, who should not demand their conversion into either 3 per cents or 4 per cents, were to retain the enjoyment of the actual interest and the power of transfer, under the same forms, and at the same periods of payment as before; subject, however, to any future enactment which the government might make with respect to them, and unprotected by that guarantee against being paid off, which the two new species of stock possessed. After the law was passed, great doubts were entertained, whether its practical operation would not be baffled by the refusal of the holders of rentes to any considerable amount to accept the newlycreated stock. Unfortunately for M. de Villèle, this scheme had scarcely passed into a law, when the aspect of the money market throughout Europe began to be somewhat unsettled; and, finally, the amount of rentes, which were converted, was very limited. The total amount of 5 per cents converted into 3 per cents was 30,574,116 francs of rentes, and the amount of 3 per cents arising from this conversion was stock yielding 24,459,035 francs of yearly divi dend. The 5 per cents converted into 4 per cents amounted to 1,080,345 francs: the 4 per cents inscribed in their stead amounted to 972,228 francs. The diminution thus produced in the annual charge of the debt was to be applied to the reduction of the land-tax, the poll-tax, and the taxes on moveables, and on doors and windows. According to a report on this subject, presented to the king by M. de Villèle, The diminution effected in the interest of the debt amounted to.... The taxes in question amounted to.... A diminution of these at Francs. Cents. 6,223,108 0 194,727,934 63 5,841,838 4 381,359 96 year, the 3 per cent stock, which had been accepted at 75, fell as low as 65 and 63; and even the 5 per cents fluctuated between 94 and 98. In opening the budget, M. de Villèle gave a very flattering picture of the financial state of France. The whole receipts of 1823 (the year of the Spanish war) including the loan, amounted to 1,123,456,392 francs (or about 45,000,000l. sterling), and the expenditure to 1,118,025,162 francs, or about 200,000l. less. The whole resources of 1824 amounted to 992,333,953 francs (or about 39,693,3581.), and the whole expenditure to 990,119,582 francs. The revenue for the current year was estimated at 928,000,000 francs (or a little more than 37 millions sterling), and the expenditure at 926,500,000 francs of this sum. In extending his view to the year 1826, the minister estimated the national income at 924,095,704 francs (or 37,000,000l.), and the expenditure at 915,504,499 francs, leaving an excess of the former over the latter to the amount of 8,591,205 francs, or about 343,3281. The expenses of the consolidated debt, and the sinking fund came to 241,585,785 francs; and the general expenses of the government 672,918,714 francs. From a report made of the state of the Caisse d'Amortissement, or Sinking Fund, it appeared that, during the preceding six months, it had purchased 317,286 francs of rentes, 5 per cents, which cost 7,696,027 francs, 8 cents; and also 509,865 rentes at 3 per cent, which cost 12,761,513 francs, 6 cents. The stock, of which it was in possession, amounted to 37,579,972 francs of rentes, which had cost, in all, 607,675,592 francs 61 cents. measure Another ministerial which excited considerable interest, especially in England, was a law introduced for the punishment of sacrilege, breathing a spirit of barbarous bigotry worthy of the darkest age. This law first defined the crime which it sought to coerce, in the following manner : "The profanation of the sacred utensils, and of the consecrated wafers (hosties), is the crime of sacrilege. "Every overt act committed voluntarily and through hatred or contempt of religion, on the sacred utensils or the consecrated wafers, is declared a profanation. "There is legal proof of the consecration of the wafers, when they are placed in the tribunals or exposed in the ostensoir, and when the priest gives the communion or carries the viaticum to the sick. "There is legal proof of the consecration of the pyx, the ostensoir, the patten, and of the chalice employed in the ceremonies of religion, at the moment of the commission of the crime. "There is also legal proof of the consecration of the ostensoir, and of the рух shut up in the tabernacle of the church." Then came the denunciation of the punishment. "The profanation of the sacred utensils shall be punished with death. "The profanation of the consecrated wafers shall be punished in the manner as parricide." was This horrible law passed the Chamber of Deputies by a majority of 210 to 95; and, though the severity of the enactment somewhat mollified, there was in its provisions, such as they were when it received the final sanction of the legislature, no deviation from the principle on which it had been framed for the clauses denouncing the punishment of sacrilege were, ultimately, in the following form: The profanation of the sacred vessels shall be punished with death, if it has been accompanied by the two following circumstances: 66 1st. If the sacred vessels contained, at the moment of the crime, the consecrated elements. "2nd. If the profanation is committed publicly-when it is committed in a public place, and in presence of several persons. "The profanation of the sacred vessels shall be punished by perpetual hard labour, when not accompanied by one of the two circumstances stated in the preceding article. "The profanation of the consecrated elements, committed publicly, shall be punished with death. The execution shall be preceded by the amende honorable of the condemned person before the principal church of the place where the crime shall have been committed, or of the place where the Court of Assize sits." The following amendment was proposed by the count de Bastard, and seconded by the viscount de Chateaubriand : "The profanation of the sacred vessels is punished by hard labour for a limited time. "The profanation of the sacred elements is punished by hard labour for life." It was rejected by 108 votes against 104; and the entire law was adopted by the Chamber, by a majority of 127 to 92. The archbishop of Paris and the bishop of Hermopolis did not attend the discussions on this sanguinary law. The low state of the Catholic clergy in France was strongly proved by a very remarkable circumstance the difficulty of finding recruits to fill up their numbers. From a return made of the number of clerical places which were vacant, and of the number of aspirants in the seminaries, it appeared, that the number of vacancies was 14,085, and the number of pupils in the seminaries only 4,044; so that there was a deficiency of more than 10,000 Catholic priests. Besides this, the youth devoted to the ecclesiastical career all belonged to the lowest rank of society; they took orders only because they had no other means of existence, and were educated for the church at the expense of the public. On the other hand, as many respectable candidates as were wanted always presented themselves to fill up vacancies among the Protestant clergy. Towards the latter end of the year, the public interest was very much excited, especially in Paris, by the legal proceedings which the ministry instituted against the two best known and most esteemed liberal journals, the Constitutionnel and the Courier Français, for alleged attacks on the church and the government of France. the last law on the press, the public prosecutor in attacking a journal is not bound to present any specific article as containing the libel, but may collect the political discussions of a whole year, and ask the court to decide on their By tendency. If the Cour Royale thinks that the tendency of the cited articles is anti-monarchical, anti-religious, anti-moral, or otherwise blameable, it may suspend the publication of the accused journal for such a period as in its discretion it may think fit or may decree its final suppression. In the present case, the requisitoire, or information of the attorneygeneral, Bellart, demanded the suspension of the Constitutionnel and Courier Français for three months. Many of the passages which were specified as supporting the accusation, were of the most frivolous kind. For instance, the following apparently very innocent statement of an undeniable fact, was one of the passages quoted from the Courier Français as subversive of the religion of the state:-"The petition of the Protestants of Nerac, expelled from their church, was laid on the table of the Chamber of Deputies the day before yesterday by general Foy." The articles selected from the Constitutionnel as libels against the established church amounted to 34, and were spread over a space of three months from the 1st of May to the 31st of July. The following was one of them :-"But while the schools of the Frères Ignorantins are established and supported by means of taxes, pray allow Lancasterian schools to subsist by voluntary contributions." The prosecutions, though urged with much vehemence, were unsuccessful. On the 3rd of December, the Cour Royale pronounced their decision. In the case of the Constitutionnel, the judgment was in the following words:-"The court, having considered the requisition of the Procureur-general of the king, dated the 30th of July, 1825-having considered the 34 culpatory articles extracted from the paper called the Constitutionnel, and having considered the law of the 17th of March, 1822, on the police of the journals, resolve, that, though many of the articles contain expressions and improper phrases on serious subjects, yet the spirit resulting from those articles is not of a nature to cast a slur on the respect due to the religion of the state; and likewise resolving, that it is neither casting such slur, nor abusing the liberty of the press, to discuss and oppose the introduction into the kingdom, of all establishments not authorized by the law; and that every paper has a right to point out such facts as are notoriously established as offensive to religion or morality, or such dangers and excesses as are likely to arise from a doctrine which would threaten the independence of the monarchy, the sovereignty of the king, and the public liberty, guaranteed by the Constitutional Charter, and by the declaration of the clergy of France in 1682, a declaration that has always been recognized and proclaimed the law of the countrydecree, that there is no cause for pronouncing the required suspension, though we at the same time enjoin the editors of the Constitutionnel to be more circumspect. The cause is therefore dismissed, free of expense to the defendants." In the case of the Courier Français, the judgment was in these terms:- "The court, upon article 3 of the law of the 17th of March, 1822, and the demand of the Procureur-general, considering that the greater part of the articles objected to, inserted in the Courier, although very blameable in their form, do not possess at bottom a sufficient character to affect the respect due to the religion of the state; and that, although in fact other articles do possess this character, yet they are by no means numerous, and have appeared under circumstances attended with mitigation, such as the establishment |