Ecuadorian Commission in London to issue Ecuadorian Bonds of the Foreign Consolidated Debt, at the time of exchanging the Bonds, as per 4th Article, for the sum of £ 1,596,6461⁄2 sterling, which is the share of the interest due from the 1st January, 1826, to 1st January, 1854. being cancelled the difference of interest. "Art. 26th. The Bondholders to have only 25 years from the date of the approval of this arrangement, to apply for, and take possession of, the waste lands hypothecated to them. If the holders of Bonds do not take the lands within the specified time expressed in this Article, they lose all right thereto, and the Bouds which acquire this right become cancelled.

"Art. 27th. The holders of Bonds of either class referred to in the present Agreement may acquire with them any other national property which the Congress may judge proper to dispose of, the said Bonds to be six times the amount of the value of the property so alienated

"Art. 28th. Totally expunged.

"The following to be added to this Agreement :-The capital of the Consolidated Debt cannot be recovered by the holders until the expiry of 60 years from the date of the approval of this Agreement.

"In the roth Article, in addition to the reform specified therein, the following paragraph to be inserted:-If the funds, consisting in the Customs' Pagarées, endorsed to the Commissioner of the Bondholders, are misapplied or lost while in the possession of said Agent, the loss to be for account of the creditors, and in no case is the Government responsible."

In this position stands the Ecuador debt with England at the present time, with very little hope of its being liquidated.

The commercial and industrial condition of the Ecuador is too unimportant to require any remarks,

FRANCE.

The only French Government Securities negotiated in the English Stock Market are the Rentes, which at the present time consist of the Three, Four, and Four-anda-Half per Cents., the Five per Cents. having been converted in 1852. The dividends on the Four and the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. are payable on the 22nd day of March and September, and those on the Three per Cents. on the 22nd June and the 22nd December.

These dividends are payable in Paris, but can be received by an agent possessing a power of attorney from the holder of the Stock, or by depositing with him the original certificate of inscription. They are generally transmitted to this country by short bills drawn on London, payable at the exchange of the day, after deducting the usual charges for commission, which is one eighth, or 2s. 6d. per cent., and postage.

In making purchases in the French Funds the practice is to negotiate for the rente, or dividend, without expressing the capital stock, as in the English Funds. But the mode of determining the amount of capital represented by each description of rente is very simple. For instance, in the Five per Cent. Rentes. I franc represents a capital of 20 francs; in the Four-and-aHalf per Cents., 22:22 francs; in the Four per Cents., 25 francs; and in the Three per Cents., 3333 francs, when at par; these numbers being multiplied by the rate of interest produce 100; or are, in other words, the quotients arising from dividing 100 by the several rates of interest, thus :—

As we have already stated, the debt of France is given at so much rente, and the capital of each description may be easily known by multiplying the rente by the

above numbers.

To determine the value of French capital in English currency, it is necessary to multiply the rente by 20, if the rate of interest is 5 per cent. Suppose the market price is 110 francs 25 cents.; then if 100 francs are worth this sum, 20 francs will be worth 22:05 francs, because the price is above par. Should the exchange on Paris be 25 francs 50 cents. per pound sterling, then the value of the 22:05 francs capital will be 178. 3d. in English currency, exclusive of brokerage, which is oneeighth per cent.

When purchases are made in the other rentes, the multiplier must be used accordingly, viz., 22:22 for the 4 per Cents.; 25 for the 4 per Cents.; and 33°33 for the 3 per Cents.

The public debt of France, since the close of the war in 1815, has undergone some very remarkable changes, which, for the sake of clearness, we shall divide into three periods. Firstly, the amount from 1814, to the reign of Louis Philippe in 1830. Secondly, from 1830, to the overthrow of the Orleans dynasty in 1848. And, thirdly, from the latter year to the present time.

FIRST PERIOD.

The amount of the public debt of France, inscribed in the Grand Livre, or the Great Book, to the 1st of April, 1814, was 63,307,637 francs, of 5 per cent. Rentes, or about £2,532,305 sterling. During this period the following Rentes were created and redeemed, viz., from the 1st April, 1814, to the 31st July, 1830:

*

or £7,492,322

£2,047,939 £5,444,382

Thus the total amount of debt inscribed in the Great Book at the end of the above period was 199,417,208 francs of Rente, or £7,976,688, when Louis Philippe commenced his reign.

SECOND PERIOD.

The second period, from the 1st of August, 1830, to the 23rd of February, 1848, when the Revolution broke

* The term rente, as applied to the French Public Debt, corresponds with our word annuity; for when purchases are made in the French funds only the rente or annuity is referred to and not the capital Stock, as in this country. It is in this sense the above statement of the French Debt must be taken.

Rentes

created.

out in Paris, extends over eighteen years, during which the following changes were made in the French debt:

Francs.

Francs.

The third period extends over five years, namely, from the 24th February, 1848, to the 1st January, 1853. During this time the French debt underwent considerable changes, in consequence of the conversion in accordance with the decree of the 14th March, 1852. These changes are shown in the following statement :—

* Created by the Decree of the 14th March, 1852.
Rente created prior to the Decree of March, 1852.

It may be seen by the above statement that the actual decrease in the debt during this period amounted to £994.300.

The result of the three periods, when added together, will stand as follows:

The last column shows the amount of the debt inscribed in the Great Book at the end of the three periods, to the 1st January, 1853. But to make the several amounts more in accordance with the English notions of the debt incurred by France, the following statement represents the capital of each Stock in French and English currency :

The progress of the French consolidated debt in each year, from the 1st January, 1847, to 1851, together with the number of inscriptions, will be clearly seen from the following statement :

By the Decree of March 1852.
† Prior to the Decree of March 1852.