NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE publication of the French Budget is the event of a very dull week. We have discussed M. Magne's proposals elsewhere, but may here state them in briefer form. M. Magne, understood by Frenchmen to be "one of the Emperor's ablest Mamelukes,"—a man, that is, who accepts an order without dis- cussion,—calculates that the ordinary revenue of 1868 will be 67,720,0001., and the ordinary expenditure will be 64,000,0001., leaving a surplus of 4,000,0001. within a fraction. Ordinary revenue and expenditure have, however, little meaning under the Empire, and the truth as confessed by M. Magne is this. The Government spent last year 71 millions more than it got, and intends in the next two or three years to spend ten millions more, chiefly in arming France. The Treasury, therefore, requires a loan of 17,600,0001. cash, that is, the French funds being at 68, about twenty five millions sterling at three per cent. The total amount of debt incurred by the Empire is thus raised to about "130,000,000/. The loan is to be an " open " one, and to be raised in instalments payable through twenty months ; but of course the rate is not yet fixed. The Budget had been discounted on the Bourse, and this great addition to the indebtedness of France has created little remark, and no alarm.
