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    1202 THE LEADER. [Saturday ,

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    LETTERS FROM PARIS. Letter CIII. Paris, ...

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    Nphe Position Of Our Government Has Mate...

    temper and self-possession , with the avoidance of that abusive language which set to the crew an example of Billingsgate from the quarter-deck . And not the least important of the official improvements is , that example of agricultural statistics which the Board of Trade has just issued . This particular example has been long brewing . The statistics were collected in . 'the . counties of Haddington , Roxburghv and Sutherland by the Koyal Agricultural Society of Scotland some time since . Statistics are in process of collection in the

    English county of Hampshire , where Lord Ashburton and Mr . Pusey have been giving those who have been called upon to furnish the information such excellent advice . There are two great obstacles to the collection of the information- —indiffei'ence of the farmers to the object , and the fear that their personal affairs may be closed to their neighbours and competitors . Lord Asliburton endeavoured to persuade them that the latter fear would not be realised , and this example of statistics from Scotland will corroborate what he said .

    The totals of the calculated produce of wheat , peas , or potatoes , for an entire county , derived from the details of individual returns , expose nothing that the farmer need fear to have known , though they will guide him and his fellows in regulating his preparations so as to avoid the production of commodities in which he may be anticipated , or to ' supply deficiences in their plans , to his own profit . These statistics have been long in

    collection , because the business is new ; but when the public collectors are . properly instructed , when farmers ] : > ereeive the convenience of the arrangement , and when the aiTangement itself has been improved by the light of experience , the process will take comparatively little time , and the returns can be presented at the close of each season , so as to guide the operations of the farmer in the next .

    The news from our colonies to the South and East ought to be extremely satisfactory to the public generally , but especially to the workingclasses . The accounts from Australia announce increased produce of gold , general prosperity of business , and such a condition of all the three principal colonies as bespeaks large exports , particularly of gold , large imports from this country , and increased demand for labour . There had

    been great outcries about the probable " g lut 17 of goods—outcries repeated not only in London , but in Melbourne and Sydney : the consuming power of the colonists , however , had proved to be so great , that the supposed glut molted away like snow in summer , and for the main articles of consumption the demand continues steady . The gold diggings were turning up new riches , but particularly the earliest in Victoria , that of Hsillarat : here , by penetrating deep into the ground , to the

    depth even of a hundred or a hundred and forty feet , the diggers came upon streams of goldmeandering veins six or eight feet in breadth , and worth , it in reckoned , 800 / . a running foot . As llie gold is near the surface , and also at ho groat a depth , and as it lien . scattered over so great an extent , it is to be pupposod both that the intermediate depth will be fount I richly strewn with

    the mineral , and also that the primary sources must bo exhjuifltless ; since it must have been / lowing down through the soil of Australia , for jige . s upon agcH . People have talked of the exhaustion of the < jjold milieu , forgetting that our less productive tin mines have been worked from the beginning .. of history , and are still productive , even in the WHHhin <> H .

    While thus prosperous in natural produce and business , the colonies were also doing well politically . In New South ' Wales the ' . Legislative Council , deferring to public , opinion , ] liU [ delayed Its Constitution Hill for three months , in ordcr ^ that the , provision of a , Nominee Council , with an hereditary eon . slitu eney , might be deliberately considered , in South Australia ., where the debates

    had proceeded , not more hastily , but much more smoothl } , the Council had arranged for two Chambers ^ the upper one to be nominated by the Crown , with spats for life ? but with a provision that , after nine months' experience , the I < ower Chamber should have the power of converting the Upper Chamber into \ an elective body . The demand fur . - labour continued to be very greatf ,

    Not wil & standing ' the probability that the Caffres will renew their depredations and border warfare , the intelligence from the Capa is also satisfactory in its marked political progress . The last meeting of the Legislative Council under the old system had been held . Lieutenant-Governor Darling justly complimented that body on its deathbed for having , upon the whole , exerted itself for the public interests . His speech , acknowledging that the old constitution was no longer suited to

    the wants of the day , might be studied with advantage by many persons at home who talk about preserving old institutions , as if it were impossible to adopt new improvements . No Ministry has shown more than the present how easy it is to be thoroughgoing in reform ; but it has shown that capacity always in places where it acted under one peciiliar condition . The pre ' sent Ministry has been thoroughgoing in reform where the general body of the people were prepared to extort thoroughgoing reform .

    The Spanish Government is , for the hundredth time , reported to be contemplating a coup d ' etat . The occasion is offered by the resistance of the Senate to the Government in pushing its railway schemes : the Government dissolves the Cortes , and threatens the coup . What does it matter ? The Government of Spain is but one continued coup d ' etat . - .

    Like that of-Rome—still coercing its subjects , and occasionally extending its iron favours to foreigners . Mr . Desain , a native of Gibraltar , is the new victim—imprisoned seventeen days without warrant , and then reluctantly handed over to the British consular agent , who is negotiating for redress on account of this " Papal aggression . " Naples also again thrusts herself upon notice for her criminal treatment of her own subjects , and her defiance of international relations . The

    distinguished prisoner Poerio , ex-Minister of the King , has again been subjected to a petty restriction tipon'his personal comforts , his leave to spend \\ hown money being hardly limited to fourpence a day . The Government having but lately succeeded in mollifying that of France , for an insult u pon a French oflicer , is now trying its hand at ofiunding England and America . Mr . Baggio , a British Ionian , who has long conducted business in Naples ,

    is arbitrarily excluded , on the plea that he has political relations with refugees . Mr . Carbone , an American citizen , is equally excluded from Sicily , notwithstanding the oiler of the American Consul to be answerable for his conduct . Quarantine hardships of a very disgusting character are also indicted upon travellers . Naples appears to be determined to try Iioav far our Foreign ( Mice can be made to bear insults . Hitherto , unquestionably , the experiment has been very satisfactory to Naples ,

    I he internal Government of the kingdom , however , is in the most shocking state . Travellers contrast it with the state of Piedmont , -w here the effects of constitutional liberty already appear in the demeanour of the people . There is an air of . freedom in the city , in the countenance and actions of the inhabitants , which shows that ; they are Buffered to think and speak . Order and

    contentment are everywhere apparent ; and the political movement now going on in the elections shown how the public , at ; largo appreciates the confidence of tho ( Government , since , while the retrogrades have but few successes , even the Liberals remain in a minority , and the Government in acquiring- an overwhelming majority . In Naples , on the other hand , a moral mlence in

    everywhere enforced By . the tyranny of an all-pervadTl police * an < $ the gaol expenses must be enormou ^ Naples has Been cultivating an army , to be to Eomey and it costs , money to grow sold ^^ Naples suffers also somewhat from . the dearth whieft laas -visited a considerable part of Europ and heir finances are rotten to the core , Ti ' population , gfooniy and discontented , exhibits tlr worst signs of bad government . The -Lazzaroni are reduced to such excessive' poverty as to hav

    occasioned a new and peculiar treatment . Haggard and emaciated , unable to procure sufficient cloth ing , reckless of decencies even beyond the type of " Ould Ireland , " they are not fit spectacles for the civilised part of Naples , and their quarter Jias hen walled up to hide them . Indian tradition tells us how Alexander , unable quite to reduce the terrible and mystic tribe of Gog and ] Vla" -oodrove them into the mountain and walled them up with a wall of brass . The Lazzaroni of Naples are the Gog and Magog of King Bomba

    Ofifce more a true Christmas is ushered in with snow and frost—such a Christmas as , in these days of reform and oblivion of the past , is almost numbered among our old institutions . But if the cold is sharp without , the blaze is all the brighter ,. and the hearth more cheerful , which forms the centre of many a happy group in every town and hamlet of Old England . Still , there is another side of the picture , The pinching frost is hard to bear for the poor , who are clothed in rags ; and even working mechanics , with large families around-them , can tell us that provisions are dear ,

    andthat , even at " merry" Christmas , the battle of life is fierce . Let wealthy England look to this . Perhaps a few shillings spent in charity may not mar the comfort of the happiest fireside . Some thousands of Englishmen in Lancashire and in other districts of the North , will find it difficult to echo the cry of " merry Christmas" in the December of 1853 .

    1202 The Leader. [Saturday ,

    1202 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    Letters From Paris. Letter Ciii. Paris, ...

    LETTERS FROM PARIS . Letter CIII . Paris , Thursday Evening , Dec . 15 , 1853 . The denoument of this sorry drama , which history will call The Second of December , seems to be nearer than might be supposed . At least , it is generally felt to be so here . Every day , every hour , intensifies and precipitates the crisis . Every one is in expectation of great events . [ Meanwhile ^ commerce , and labour , and industry are in suspense . The emp ire is like a dying man . The heart still beats ; but tho extremities are already frozen with the dews of

    death . The pulse is fluttering- ; tho minutes arc counted . To describe to you tho state of suffering in which France ia now , would be impossible . No work here , and no bread there , is , after all , only one aspect—tho physical aspect of our present position . ' 1 he moral aspect ia far worse . The clearness of provisions and tho stoppage of worjc have envenomed the common hatred . Passions are let loose ; private revenge is busy in the provinces . Torch in hand , it lights Hi :. cendiary flames from village to village , from mill to millWherever corn is left in the mill while the poor

    . « t I ** . * . * F J <> V . A V I \ i i V ^ WAAI . * fc- » AV'AU * ** & " »* -V * »«»«• ^ - — * people around arc starving , that mill is burnt , uniy in the large towns are the stores of corn in Hiu ^ tJTwenty-seven departments the chief corn-producers have been ravaged with fires this last fortnight * v the towns the popular indignation has > nother source , and takes another shape . Manufactories and ivoricshopa are closing one after the other . The niasf * ' ™ ' deprived of their usual markets , are lowering ir <> day to day tho wages of their workmen when uw do not discharge them altogether . The ^ inllH !^ workmen yield without resistance , Imt they J ) V I V ^ IL * *¦ *¦ ¦ ^ J ¦ H 7 ^*^ A * * If 'bill / tt U *¦ - ^ s t- * M » # »* B-v - ** - f — 1 * J /\ fl retainu

    terrible threats , and hoard up a savage - The tactics of tho Legitimists arc already , you b _| producing their effect . It is tho Parisian » m keepers who feel it most . " For the last three tfijJ ^ purchasers have ceased to appear . Tho J . " c wandera about his shop solitary and moody , i ' ^ , fixed on tho door which no customers ftI » l " ' , , iH rec Iconing the fugitive bourn that must < - » l I ! o foro t ho day on which bills fall due which lie Ji » ^ resources to meet . His house-rent i » P ^^ iod , price- of everything , excepting bread only * \ ( ° . , ] lt . and hia profits are null . . Ruin » tare » him *¦

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1853, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17121853/page/2/