“I cannot withhold my assent to the observations of the report on the whole of ministerial budgets. I had myself said at this tribune in 1819, ‘It would be highly beneficial that every ministry should inquire, with all conscientious severity, into what is necessary to the due performance of their duties, and should propose in all remaining details, terms as generous and complete as they please, for the security and comforts of those actually in office, provided that ministers should be divested of all parasitical service, and children brought up to a more profitable labor than the industry of obtaining situations, which is so detrimental to every kind of industry, and to the independence of a vast number of citizens.’ The specification,—I mean the application,—which can never be too minute, of every appropriation to every item of expenditure, has already made some progress; but how profuse those specifications, beyond which there is ministerial exertion, when compared with English budgets, of which I now hold in my hand three departments,—the artillery, war, and navy; and yet this is not _a cheap government_, to use an expression that has so often been charged upon me, and which I am so unwilling to deny. “The minister for foreign affairs has opened his career under the most critical circumstances; his official duties will be dictated by the loyalty of his personal character. The great political question is now, to decide whether this government will continue to follow the track of old diplomatic traditions, or whether, divested of all foreign influence and reminiscence, it will boldly assume the rank it behooves us to take at the head of European civilization; a post which, in my opinion, has always remained vacant, notwithstanding appearances contradicted by facts; a stand to which no foreign power any longer dares lay any claim. From that exalted station, France may and ought to resist coalitions in which none of her interests are involved. For my own part, I should have expected more satisfactory explanations and details before giving my assent to the late loan of eighty millions, but none would more readily consent to the measures necessary for the liberty and independence of Greece; to enable her by assistance to defend herself; to erect a barrier against the ambition of other powers; to abolish the ignominious sale of fellow-beings, and rescue from slavery all those wretched victims of whom our interference has hitherto been inadequate to their deliverance; and in this I should foresee the advantage of our commercial relations, which, in spite of narrow prejudices, will always find a benefit in extending to other people the blessings and comforts of education and liberty. “France, so long accustomed to triumph over the most formidable coalitions, wonders at finding herself encumbered under petty manœuvres, the mysteries of which she cannot unravel.