It is a long time since specie payments’ have been practically resumed.
Five-franc bank-notes have gone out of circulation, and for months the bank
has not paid out any twenty-franc notes. It will probably not be long before
the whole circulation under fifty francs will be in gold and silver. All
these results have been accomplished without talk, boasting, or parade. And
what a humiliating contrast it is to us. Proclaiming ourselves constantly
the “greatest, richest, freest, noblest” “government on the face of the
earth, our promises to pay are to-day at twelve per cent, discount. That is
a reproach to us in the face of the world; and now the one thing needful
above all others, looking to the genuine prosperity of the country, is the
resumption of specie payment at the earliest possible period. I am therefore
rejoiced to learn, as we do by a special dispatch to the London Times of day
before yesterday, that the President, in his message at the opening of
Congress next week, will take no step backward, but will stand by his veto
message, and will recommend to Congress such action as will bring us back to
a specie basis at a very early day.
The message of the President was read to the Assembly yesterday. I inclose a
translation thereof.
[Inclosure in No. 1068.]
Message of President Mac Mahon.
The National Assembly sat yesterday, M. Buffet in the chair.
In consequence of the meeting of the members in the bureaux, the
proceedings commenced at a later hour than usual.
Immediately after the minutes of the previous sitting had been adopted,
General De Cissey, vice-president of the council of state, ascended the
tribune with a paper in his hand. Immediately the vacant seats were
occupied, and as soon as silence had been obtained, proceeded to read
the following—
Presidential message.
“Gentlemen: At the moment when you are about to resume your labors, the
government has the duty of explaining to you the general situation of
the country, and I owe to you also an honest declaration of my own
sentiments.
“I have striven, during your absence, to fulfill scrupulously the twofold
mission which was assigned to me, the consolidation of peace and the
maintenance of order.
“No foreign complication comes at this moment to impede the work of
reorganization to which we have devoted ourselves. My government has not
neglected any opportunity for affirming, by words as well as by acts,
its fixed resolution to keep all its engagements, and to rigorously
respect all treaties.
“That policy which you have always approved of and in which we have
persevered, has each day rendered our relations with foreign powers more
confiding. Not one of them at present entertains the slightest doubt of
our sincere desire to maintain pacific and amicable relations with all
the cabinets.
“In the interior, the economic situation of the country has sensibly
improved. The deficit of last year has been followed by an exceptionally
abundant harvest; and thanks to the circumstances which have favored it,
and also to the continued progress of farming, the agricultural produce
has reached a figure which has never been attained before. This happy
abundance, for which we return thanks to Providence, could not fail to
have a favorable influence on the development of affairs and the general
prosperity of the country.
“And accordingly the manufacturing activity which, during the first
half-year, had undergone some relaxation in consequence of the
insufficiency of the preceding harvest, has since recovered in a
perceptible manner. Never has the movement of our
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exports been so considerable as in the
course of the four months just elapsed, and everything leads to a belief
that in the point of view of exchanges, the results of 1873, the most
satisfactory hitherto obtained, will be at least equaled.
“The impulse given to works of public utility will come powerfully in aid
of that valiant effort of national labor; and we reckon on it to secure
more abundantly the payment of the taxes.
“The government, in devoting itself with earnest solicitude to the public
finances, and principally to the means of creating the necessary
resources for balancing the receipts and expenditure in the budget of
1875, has realized your intentions and the desire of the country; and it
has, above all, endeavored to make the existing taxes produce all they
ought to yield.
“Measures destined to accomplish useful reforms in the administration of
the finances, to complete our fiscal legislation, and to prevent, as far
as possible, frauds of all kinds, will be shortly presented to the
National Assembly for its approval.
“Our financial situation will besides be explained to you in a special
report, and you will judge, with a full knowledge of the facts, whether
the present means will suffice to make up the deficit which the
financial law of the 5th August, 1874, allowed to subsist.
“In visiting some of our departments, I saw everywhere expressed, with
love of order and the need of peace and security, the desire that an
organization, admitted by you to be indispensable, should give to the
power created by the law of the 20th November the strength which it
requires to fulfill the mission you confided to it.
“Incessantly disturbed by the propagation of the most pernicious
doctrines, the country asks you, in fact, to assure the free action of
the government, and to insure, by measures of prudent foresight, during
the period of stability which you have promised France, the regular
working of the public powers.
“On those serious questions which you are shortly to take into
consideration, an accord will, I hope, be established among you. I shall
not shrink from my share of responsibility, and the intervention of my
government will not be wanting.
“But I wish to tell you at once how I comprehend my duties toward the
Assembly and the country.
“I have not accepted power to serve the aspirations of any party; I am
engaged only in a work of social defense and national restoration.
“I invite to rally round me, to aid me in accomplishing it, all men of
good intentions—all whose personal preferences bow to the necessities of
the present time and to the sacred cause of the country. I desire
ardently that the co-operation of all will be given me. I claim that
support in the name of France, whose safety and greatness is my only
object.
“But, in any case, nothing shall discourage me from the accomplishment of
my task.
“On November 20, 1873, in the interest of peace, order, and public
security, you confided to me, for seven years, the executive power. The
same interest makes it my duty not to desert the post in which you
placed me, but to occupy it until the last day with an immovable
firmness and a scrupulous respect for the laws.”
