Answer.—France is carrying a larger national debt than any other nation. It amounted at the close of the fiscal year 1882 to $4,683,840,000—nearly a billion dollars more than that of Great Britain. Besides this, like our own States and minor political divisions, the departments and municipalities of France are carrying local debts amounting in the aggregate to an immense sum. The debt of Paris in September, 1880, was 2,295,000,000 francs, or about $450,000,000. The national debt is well distributed among the people, there being in 1881 as many as 4,617,900 holders, receiving 851,909,901 francs annually for interest. So long as this interest, or “rente,” is paid promptly these holders are, for the most part, content with the government; but should the latter plunge the country into a costly war, rendering it necessary to suspend payment of the interest, and jeopardizing resumption of such payments, a popular revolution would in all probability ensue. This enormous national debt will indisputably prove a source of weakness to the government and the nation In the event of a foreign war. The imperial debt of Germany in 1882 was only $120,197,528. Add to this the debt proper of Prussia, $493,821,812, and that of the other constituent states of the empire, $735,608,892, and the total was $1,349,728,232. The imperial debt of Austro-Hungary the same year was $1,107,978,118, which, added to the Austrian debt proper, $176,914,016, and the Hungarian debt proper, $400,532,142, made a total of $1,685,424,276. The public debt of Italy in 1882 was $2,042,000,000; of Spain, $1,826,613,093; of Great Britain, $3,814,500,000; of Russia, $4,314,607,500; of the United States, $1,918,312,294.
Undoubtedly the industrial condition of France is better than that of any other European country, except Great Britain, Belgium, and Holland. The French people have been accumulating wealth at a remarkable rate since the Franco-German war, and in this respect France is stronger than her great continental neighbors.
The following table, compiled from Mulhall’s “Balance Sheet of the World,” shows the estimated capital or wealth of a few of the principal nations of Europe in 1880:
| Nations— | Total wealth. |
| Great Britain | $44,800,000,000 |
| France | 37,085,000,000 |
| Germany | 30,375,000,000 |
| Russia | 17,700,000,000 |
| Austria | 15,250,000,000 |
| Italy | 9,300,000,000 |
| Spain | 6,865,000,000 |
| Holland | 5,650,000,000 |
The next table gives the per capita, or rate of wealth for each inhabitant, less the per capita of the public debt:
| Nations— | Per capita of wealth. |
| Great Britain | $1,185 |
| France | 900 |
| Germany | 650 |
| Russia | 180 |
| Austria | 335 |
| Italy | 235 |
| Spain | 255 |
| Holland | 1,310 |
So much for the financial condition of France. As regards her ability to cope with England in the event of war, it is largely a matter of opinion. One hazards little in predicting that, if her people stand united, France is almost impregnable at home to any assault from Great Britain. So is the latter against any attack from the former, except in Ireland. On the sea England’s navy is far more than a match for that of France, whom she would easily strip of all her colonial possessions; but France, with a few Alabamas, could quite as easily drive Great Britain’s merchant marine from the high seas, and injure her commerce even more than the Confederates did ours during the recent rebellion.
BAROMETRICAL QUERIES.
Wilber, Kan.