The cost of the siege amounts in hard cash to about L20,000,000.

To meet the daily draw on the exchequer no public loan has been negotiated, and nothing is raised by taxation.

The monthly instalments which have been paid on the September loan cannot altogether amount to very much, consequently the greater portion of this large sum can only have been obtained by a loan from the bank and by _bons de tresor_ (exchequer bills).

What the proportion between the bank loan and the _bons de tresor_ in circulation is I am unable to ascertain.

M.
Picard, like all finance ministers, groans daily over the cost of the prolongation of the siege, and it certainly appears a very doubtful question whether France will really benefit by Paris living at its expense for another month.
Military matters remain _in statu quo_.