"These expenses have been fixed only after having been recognised to be indispensable; the public service requires that the means which we ask of you to maintain it should be entirely granted.

"Every minister is ready to give you any explanations you may deem proper to ask, as to the elements that have served as a basis for the estimate of the expense of his department. By such communications, you will be in a capacity to appreciate their moderation and indispensable necessity. You will have ulteriorly another proof of that moderation and that necessity, when the account of the payments shall be submitted to you. You will then judge whether the ministers have wisely employed, for the service of the state, the funds confided to their responsibility.

"It was not difficult to give a view of our wants, of which the evidence is but too apparent, but the task of finding sufficient resources, without bearing too heavy on a people already shaken by so many losses, was of a very different kind.

"Those which, above all, ought to fix our at tention, are, first, the suppression of useless services; secondly, economy in such as are necessary; and, lastly, a proportionate drawback on those very services. The king has afforded already, in this respect, an affecting example. His majesty has condescended to become the first contributor to the wants of the state, in consecrating a considerable portion of the income of the throne, to the relief of the most unfortunate districts.

alleviation would have been proposed to you, if
Providence had permitted, that the good inten-
tions of his majesty had been fulfilled. But is
this the moment to diminish the resources of the
state? And, however just, however desirable it
would be, to relieve the proprietors of lands, can
it be thought surprising that such relief should be
still postponed? We therefore are obliged, gen-
tlemen, to propose to you to establish, for 1816, the
four direct contributions, upon the same footing as
in 1815, which will amount to - 320,000,000 fr.
We may hope there will arise
from the tax on registers, from
the royal domains, and from
the sale of wood
From indirect contributions, and
the tobacco duty
From customs and salt

From the post-office, the salt ma-
nufacture of the east, &c.
From the abatements in the civil
list

From reductions of services
From securities

Total

150,000,000

147,000,000 75,000,000

29,000,000

10,000,000

13,000,000

50,000,000

800,000,000

"The receipts will be raised to the same sum if you sanction our operations; but an additional aid is still indispensably necessary. The least burthensome that has occurred to us, is an addi tional security to be demanded of such public functionaries as owe to the state a pledge for their good conduct. We hope that you will maintain the system established of last year, in regard to the additional centimes, and that, no!withstanding their destination for local expenses they will still continue, till their employment, t be deposited at the royal treasury. The cons derations which led to the adoption of this me sure are now more imperious.

"Let us hope, gentlemen, that by means of the unanimity of the king and the chambers, we may be able, with the aid of Providence, to keep our selves from sinking under the weight of our calamities, and to provide for all our necessities; or, in other words, to observe the faith of treatieskeep the annuitants of the state from languishing in painful suspense-to assure to the throne splendour and its strength-to create a new any without slighting or abandoning the vetera whom their principles and their glory will recom mend to the national gratitude. May the pre posed law obtain from your wisdom an unani of votes, and may the people answer them submission and devotion.

"The royal family has shown the same generosity. These sacrifices will make you, as well as us, feel, in a more lively manner, the misfortunes of an epoch, when the king and his family add, by such acts, to the claims, which, in so many other respects, they have acquired to the gratitude of the nation. The examination to which every expense has been subjected, and the different abatements and deductions produce a saving of nearly 250,000,000. It is after being convinced that this economy could not be carried further, that we have resorted to the computations of imposts. We all know how severe the pressure of the land-tax is; nobody feels more than his majesty the desire of alleviating it. This respecting the re-establishment of the sink,

"Your example is the most authoritative lesst they can receive, and ought likewise to be m efficacious."

The minister then entered into various dea

CHAP. I. 1815.

BOOK XVII. chamber of deputies; of an individual, selected by the king, from among the three presidents of the court of accompts, of the governor of the bank of France, and of the president of the chamber of commerce, at Paris. The nomina. tions of the peer of France, and of the two members of the chamber of deputies, shall be made by the king, out of a list of three candidates, presented by the one chamber, and six by the other. They shall hold the appointment for three years.

M. de Barente, charged with the office of presenting the project of a law on the consolidated taxes, mounted the tribune, and in an eloquent exordium, demonstrated the impossibility of di minishing, under the present circumstances, the burden of the contributions, and of the indirect contributions in particular. "It is tributes," said he," and not imposts, that we have the pain to demand of you."

The tax on liquors is taken at fifty-six mil lions in the one hundred and forty-seven millions,

composing the indirect taxes. These duties, not only by their produce, but likewise by the mode in which they are raised, are the most important of the indirect taxes. Means have been sought in the projet to diminish the abuses in raising them; but it was impossible to abolish this ecessary species of tax. As the tarife remain nearly the same, it was necessary to find new subjects for taxation. The duties which for merly existed upon iron, copper, paper, and ol have been again imposed. The plan of a mark upon all kinds of woven stuffs, has been rejected as vexatious; but a duty has been laid on those which receive a preparation necessary for fulling. Duties have, moreover, been laid upon transpor tation by land and water. As this projet comprehends 368 articles, and was to be distributed when the sitting was over, the counsellor-of-state thought it necessary to read it.

For the same reason, M. de St. Cricq did not read the long projet on the customs.

CHAPTER II.

Trial and Execution of Colonel Labedoyere.-Trial of Marshal Ney-His Execution.—Remaris on the Legality of his Punishment.-His Appeal to the Ministers of the allied Powers, mi Letter to the Duke of Wellington.-The Duke's Answer.-Ney's Defence.

FOR a considerable period after the second re-
storation of the Bourbons, it seemed as if the
king was disposed to pass over all those who
had betrayed him, and contributed to seat Bona
parte on the throne; but, at length, measures were
taken for punishing the principal offenders, and
a commission was authorized to examine" the
conduct of officers who served during the usur-
pation." The functions of this commission were
announced in the following decrees:-

"Louis, by the grace of God, &c.
"When divine providence recalled us last year
to the throne of our fathers, we thought it our
duty to remove from public functions, some men
to whom good reasons did not permit us to grant
that confidence with which magistrates and ad
ministrators ought always to be invested. Yet,
upon the account given us of the long services of
some of them, and with the intentions of giving
to our subjects a fresh proof of justice and royal
munificence, we were pleased to grant to several
functionaries, so removed from the places occu-
pied for a long time, pensions of retreat or provi
sional salaries. The hope we had conceived of

restoring, in a few years, the finances of our king. dom, and the success of our first efforts, permitted us even to extend this beneficent measure, and to introduce into it great liberality. But we have been informed, that in the disastrous days the suspended the course of the benefits we were occupied in spreading among our people, several individuals, to whom we had granted these mark of our goodness, were eager, under the domin tion of the usurper, either to return to their o fuctions, or to accept new. The part they took in the support of the criminal enterprise that ha caused all the miseries which France now gra under, has made them lose all right to the fares we had conferred upon them; and the disorde which those evils have introduced into th finances of the state, the immense charges whic our faithful subjects are called upon to suppor notwithstanding all our care to alleviate the be then, imposes upon us the obligation to cont for the future, our liberality within the bounds severe justice and strict economy.

"However, in fulfilling this duty, we wo be sure that the measure we propose to or

BOOK XVII.

CHAP. II.

1815.

In the fifth class: those who, employed in the
army in the first instance, were cashiered, as sus-
pected by Bonaparte's government, and not on
grounds bringing their reputation in question.
In the sixth class: those who remained in the
service, but against whom there exist, in the
public offices, denunciations creditable to their
attachment to the cause of the king.

In the seventh class: those who, not being in
active service on the arrival of the usurper, did
not make application for active service until the
king's return.

In the eighth class: the officers of all ranks and arms, and the military administrators, who retained the destination they had obtained before the king's departure, and did not solicit any

new one.

In the ninth class: the officers who did sedentary duty in the interior, either in the fortresses, or with the national-guards.

In the tenth class: the officers of all ranks and arms, and the military administrators, who, after the king's departure, applied for and obtained the appointments, ranks, rewards, or the confirmation of ranks and rewards which it had pleased the king to grant them.

In the eleventh class: the officers of all ranks and of all arms, the military administrators and employés, who formed part of one of the armies formed by Bonaparte, and who followed its movements until the return of the king to Paris.

In the twelfth class: those of the above denominated persons who signed addresses to Napoleon Bonaparte.

In the thirteenth class: the officers who commanded battalions of federés or corps of partizans. The fourteenth class will consist of officers and military administrators, placed in one or other of the underınentioned positions:

1. The officers of all ranks and of all arms, militrary administrators and employés, who declared for Bonaparte within the twenty days which preceded the king's departure, excited the troops to insurrection, and favored, within that period, in any way, the progress of the usurper.

2. The general and superior officers who, in the military divisions and fortresses, hoisted, of their own accord, the standard of usurpation, and published seditious proclamations.

3. The general and superior officers who, in their districts, repressed or punished the movements of the king's faithful servants in support of lawful authority.

4. The commandants of places and forts who, summoned in the king's name, and by officers sent by the minister-at-war, refused to open their fortresses, and exposed them to all the dangers of a siege, if it be ascertained that they intentionally opposed a criminal resistance to the orders of the king.

5. The general and superior officers who marched against the royal troops collected in the interior.

6. The officers of all ranks and arms, and military employés, who shall be convicted of having insulted the effigy of the king or princes, or the decorations which they had previously obtained from the kindness of his majesty.

7. The officers on half-pay, who voluntarily quitted their homes to meet Bonaparte, and who accompanied him to Paris.

The officers comprehended within the 14th class shall remain in a state of non-activity, us less ulterior information furnish proof of ther repentance and return to true principles.

The commissioners shall distribute the officers subjected to their examination into these fourteen classes, according to the circumstances in their conduct respectively.

With this view, it shall draw up lists, divided by classes, in which shall be inscribed the offcers' names, and it shall add its observations on the particular considerations which shall attenuate the offences of these officers, and shall solicit exceptions in their favor; the officers of all ranks and arms, the military administrators and e ployés, who served during the usurpation, and who, since the king's return, have retained or obtained employment in the army, or in the royal guard, shall be not the less bound, conformably to article 4 of the ordonnance of October 12, furnish to the commission all the information which it shall have to demand of them.

The minister-at war, in consequence of the opinion of the committee, shall take the king's orders on their destination.

All officers shall be bound to address directly their applications to the minister-at-war, who shall regulate the order in which they are to be examined; and there shall be drawn up, with that view, lists of the names of the officers, with regard to whom it shall be of importance to the war-minister to know, in the first instance, the opinion of the commission.

The commission will remark, that the busines is not, in the last result, to impose corporal punishments, but to remove from the army men whe even if not labouring under any preventive cause, could have merely an uncertain hope of the resuming their place, in consequence of the dis proportion which already exists between the num ber of competitors and that of employment: that, by a special favor of the king, these officer have, in the half-pay of non-activity, which s granted to them, an indemnity for the preferez which others shall have over them; and the conmission will hence perceive the necessity o avoiding the excess of indulgence, beca nothing will be more contrary to the interest France.

: