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    Untitled Article

    " ^ IteTtmd one i « astonished that a society which confofns ed many elements of power and prosperity can ex-1 itself so frequently to seek its own ruin . ( Loud Clan e ) C * n f t , the £ , be true as the Emperor has 31 that the old world is ended and the new one w not Jet firmly fixed ? Without knowing what it will be , let Js do our duty to day in preparing for it solid foundations . ( Hear , h * ar . ) I am well pleased to employ this linffoa « e to you in a province remarked at all times for its patriotism . Let us not forget that your town was , linder Charles VII ., the centre of a heroic resistancethat it was for fourteen years the refuge of nationality in France when invested . ( Applause . ) Let us hope that it will be still one of the first to give the example of devotedness to civilizatien and its native land . ( Loud applause . ) I now drink to « The prospenty of the town of Poitiers . ' ( Prolonged cheers . )"

    Again no mention of the Republic , but a significant mention of " the Emperor" ! In corroboration of what we said in our last week ' s number about the French army , in an article headed « The Putting an End to the European Revolution , a correspondent sent us the following anecdote , showing the prevailing spirit in the present French army , amongst the higher ranks : — Some time ago a general was travelling by railroad , accompanied by a colonel of the staff . A lady , unknown to the general , was the only traveller besides the two superior officers . The general , fondly caressing his mustache , gave vent to his inyestives against the Republicans in general , expressing his wish to meet them in the streets , that he might have

    the opportunity of " exterminating them all . Ihe gallant general pertinaciously clung two entire hours to his chosen topic , which , of course , was submissively approved by the colonel . At last the train stopped , and the formidable exterminator of all the Republicans got out ; so also did the lady . Thereupon ehe reproached him for his abominable language , and asked him his name . " My name , " exclaimed the general , "do you intend to ruin me ? ' "Why , general , you are afraid ? " Finally the reactionary hero , being thus suspected of his bravery , gave his name ; his interlocutress did the same . This lady ¦ was no other than George Sand . The next day she received a letter from the general imploring her to keep the secret .

    Ledru Rollin has been sentenced by the bar of Paris to fine and imprisonment for his pamphlets on the 13 th of June and the 24 th of February ; and as these pamphlets ceased to become amenable , because the seizure of them at the editor ' s had been nonsuited , they brought an action against the author , not for having written the pamphlets edited in France but for having given occasion by their publication t , a Belgian " contrefaction , " of which copies have been seized upon hawkers , whom the police absurdly protended as being unknown to them .

    It is now pretty generally admitted that the petition-movement has been a failure . The sum total of signatures unauthenticated , crosses included , will barely amount to a million , and of that million a considerable fraction neither are , nor have ever been , nor can ever be electors . Perhaps the fuilure is owing " to the very means taken to Btimulate the movement , the active canvass of the authorities . The pressure exerted by the administration , and importunity of sub-prefects , employes , and gendarmes , seem in fact to have made the mass of the people colder than they would otherwise have been , and to have set their stomachs against the revision .

    The Prussian Ministry , compelled to respect the excitability of the provinces , energetically protesting against the return of the provisional Diets , has abandoned the carrying out of the plan by administrative measures ; they will remain in the constitutional track , viz ., allow the Chambers to decide the mischief . Meanwhile the search of private houses at Berlin continues . Austria , too , will not remain behind Prussia in her reactionary zeal , and Windisgratz is spoken of as about being intrusted with the supreme direction of public afFuirs in Vienna , the present authority being accused of too much moderation .

    Our readers will not have forgotten that , following the example of the generul reaction on the Continent , superintended by Nicholas of Russia , the partisans ««¦ Jesuitism attempted an insurrection in Switzerland . MiBled by fanatical priests , a certain number ° » peasants , headed by a demoniac called Currard , endeavoured to overthrow the legitimate Government of iVibourg , to replaeo it by a gang of brigands . Alread y a list ot citizens to be put to death wub prepared . The good cause triumphed , and many people , '"pecwll y those who accent the calumnies spread by t » e reaction ( depicting the Republicans as bloodtiniBl y monster *) , for ho many truths , were pretty « uret uat the victors would take their revenge . But , "intend of revenge , the victorious SwifcH Jtebublicnim spared the lives of their vanquish ! d enemies , though in looking around them , a sanguinary spectacle , of uiouHunds of victims perishing under the merciluBti Blown oi the European despots met their eyes . The fate of the twenty-seven Poles belonging to the J "niih-lluiiguriun Legion , we mentioned in our last week h number , bun been decided by the Turkish Wovenua « at , XU * y yrill ho » vnt to . Liverpool . Xlrn

    determination is attributed to the influence of Sir S . Canning . The decision was read to them on the 27 th of May , by Arzuman , Commissary of the Porte , and contains the follow i ng provisions : — " 1 . In twenty days a Turkish steamer will anchor at Ghemlek ( where the said Poles now are ) , and carry them to the Dardanelles , from whence they will sail to England on board an English ship . " 2 . They will be furnished with individual passports . " 3 . The Turkish Government pays the expenses of the voyage , and moreover assigns for their minor expenses a certain sum . " Freedom in Hesse Cassel has received its deathblow . Two documents are published in the official Gazette of Cassel of the 28 th of June . The first is a general decree cancelling the oath taken by the officers of the army to the Constitution , their interpretation of which , after the publication of the decrees of last September , led to their resistance to the Government , and finally the occupation of the country by the troops of the Bund . The other decrees contain the grant of an amnesty to both civil and military officers who refused compliance to those decrees , and the exceptions from it .

    Untitled Article

    M . THIERS ON PROTECTION . A debate on the question , shall France adopt the free-trade system and . abolish protection ( arising on a motion made by M . de Sainte Beuve ) , comes like an anodyne over the mind of the observer of French politics . A topic , which , in its treatment , raises no political passions , but is addressed to the intelligence , must be at a discount in Paris . Besides , that topic has drawn forth a " great speech" from M . Thiers , very useful at this stage of the Associative question .

    M . Thiers professes to be a Protectionist " pure and simple . " He bases his theory on what may be called the doctrine of remunerating prices ; and his speech reads like an echo of the manifestos which were wont to to be issued from New Bondstreet four years ago . At the outset he made an extraordinary statement . M . de Sainte Beuve rested his theory upon the principles of political ceconomy developed by Adam Smith , and he found practical illustration in the policy of Sir Robert Peel . Yes , exclaims M . Thiers , I have the deepest respect for Sir Robert Peel , but " there is not a man of common sense who does not admit that Peel was

    precipitate , and has exposed his country to severe trials by the boldness of his reforms " ! And he contended that the English system was not applicable to France , because direct and indirect taxation were equal in France and unequal in England . France could not support an income tax ; and without an income , how could her revenue be raised . Everything is protected in France , corn , cattle , silk , manufactures , even wine . And this protection was necessary , in order that the producers might receive a remunerating price for their products .

    " ' Take off the protective duty , ' says M . de Ste . Beuve , ' and agriculture will at once profit by it . * Butagriculture could only be benefited by selling its corn dear . The problem , therefore , to be solved was—to have corn dear and bread cheap at the same moment and in the same country . But that was impossible ; for bread could not be cheap while corn was dear , and consequently M . deSte . Beuve's system could not at the same time benefit the agriculturist , whose interest it was to sell his corn dear , and the workman , whose interest it was to buy the bread of his family cheap . The possessors of land in England and in France were not of the same description—the former were a rich class , being , in fact , the aristocracy ,

    and able to Bupport , to a certain extent , the change which had been introduced into England ; but in France the people were the landowners , each with a small parcel of ground belonging to himself , and the whole muss constituting the aristocracy of the country * To show the poverty of the possessors of the eoil , did they know how many in France paid a land tax under 51 " . ? l'ive millions and a half of people . It waa all very well to talk of buying in the cheapest market ; but what were these people to do—how were they to live—if you bought your corn for nine francs the hectolitre at Odessa ? These latter werenot such a clasB as could support the sacrifices consented to iu England by her powerful aristocracy . " lie also illustrated thin doctrine of remunerating prices by a rcferenco to coal , iron , cotton and silk ; and broadly stated the isolation principle in the following words : — " Ah , I can very well conceive that when a people has a small territory , like that of the three British islands , it should feel the greatest anxiety to have foreign markets opened to it ; but when a country has u market like France , it ought , to endeavour to keep it to itself , and then give what is not wanted to others , if any such remainder there , should happen to b « . ( Laughter . ) A great nation , " lie added , " cannot consent to depend on foreign powers for iU daily supplies . We cannot look to others for our iron , coals , and tissuou . " Consistently with his theory of protection lie denounced what is called laissez-faire . He » howed bow Henry VIII . hud established the woollen manufacture in England by placing a heavy duty on Flemish cloths ; how we had borrowed cotton manufncturiH irom India ; and obtained our bieed of horses by a prohibitory duty . In fact , he traced English superiority to protection , tuid a policy tho reverse of i

    vilJe famous for its webs . Lace was not taken from the English and Venetians by laissez faire , but a woman was set up with workmen , money , and privileges , to produce specimens within a given time . When the glasses of Venice had to be surpassed , workmen were fetched from the Adriatic capital , and furnished with means , honours , and privileges . Under the Revolution and the Empire English manufactures were burned . That wag the way to originate something solid and grand , not by laissez-faire . "

    Ial 9 sez-faire . He altogether ridiculed the notion of " letting things find their level" : ' It was not in that way that the most important industries of France had been bom and reared . Tho 8 e giddy kings of France , as Machiavelli called them , were not . blind on their travels in Ital y ; and Francis I . and Henri IV . had brought home the mulberry-tree to plant in the palace gardens . While Louis XIV . was humbling Spain , Colbert was conquering cloths , and making

    Abbe-There is something very imposing about the solemnity of the following passage . The gravity of the orator whose mystical predications were followed by a " sensation" must have been immense ! " We have the Exhibition of London to form a comparison as to the strength of nations ; the Exhibition of London , that noble and grand imitation of France . England there takes the lead , through her speciality in a great portion of her manufactures . She has nothing to fear for iron , coal , or cotton . Masters of markets for their productions , the English have been led to believe that in all other respects they could support free trade . But for silk goods , for gloves , and other articles , Eng

    land has protected inferior articles . As far as that , however , free trade has not been unfavourable to England . It has not been the same with corn ; that was only brought about by a political pressure . The aristocracy , however , knew how to make sacrifices , for that body is essentially liber ? . !; it is the mother and the guardian of liberty in England , and I think that if the aristocracy of England were to perish liberty would fall with it . ( Sensation . ) I think I do you honour , gentlemen of the Left , in saying this ; for it proves you can bear the truth , and the truth is that the English aristocracy

    is essentially liberal , and that if we do not commit very serious faults , we are sure of having England as a friend and a support under circumstances which I foresee , but which 1 hope never to see take place in Europe . ( Renewed sensation . ) I am not at all deceived as to the result of free trade in corn in England . God grant that the English people may remain calm before the eventualities of the future ! I hope that all will end well ; but I would not , however , wish to introduce into France what I consider to have been an imprudence in England , in spite of all that it may support with the speciality of it » manufactures . "

    " I should be very proud to be an Englishman , ' * cried M . Thiers , " but I am not unhappy at being a Frenchman , " a sally followed by " approving laughter . " He thought that Washington , were he alive , would recommend the Americans to stick to agriculture as the surest means of liberty and greatness . " " Russia , " said he , " desires to make cotton cloths , because she wants to trade in them with China , her design being to transport them there in caravans . The Russians are perfectly right , for every nation ought to do as much as is in its own power . At first the experiment will cost dear , but with time and patience the article will become cheap . " The last paragraph of this speech forcibly illustrates the perversity of the human mind , and the ease with which a man may slide into an illogical induction from , a great fact : — " Look on the map at the spot which we occupy- — what is it in comparison to the rest of the world ? 1 'rovidence has given to China and India silk ; to America , cotton ; to Arabia , the horse . But Providence has given something superior to all these things to the temperate rone—namely , man . ( Hear . ) Man , so created superior , exercises his intelligence , and after bringing to perfection the goods which he receives from those distant climes , sends them back to the populations which gave them . It is , I say , the design of God which you blaspheme in proposing to confide to chance this great and noble civilization . I protest in the name of my country against such a doctrine , and I recommend it to persevere in the admirable sentiments of its policy and its tradition ( Loud applause . )

    And yet M . Thiers , recognizing the unquestionable fact that goods received aro sent back perfected , would close the ports of France to all the world until France munufaciuicd everything she needed for herself , and had a surplus of nil things to send buck perfected . If all the nations adopted this plan , war and conquest would be inevitable ; and , accordingly , we find that M . Thiers does contemplate war as a necessity . While be is so anxious not to blaspheme by committing " this noble civilization to the guidance of chance , " ho forgets that the very difference of clime and production suggests exchange , that exchange suggests amity , and amity concert ; and that bin protective plan confides the destiny of civilization , in ho far hh it can , to something worse even than chance — to the capricious notions which man forma of his own interest .

    M . Thiers in ailentupon protection for wages , while he loudly demands protection and i enumeration for capital . This i « an important oversight on hid part . These discrepancies only nhow that tho remuneration required is not alone that of capital or wages , but that which alone can arise from conceit iu production , and , concert iu dj » tttbutu > n .

    Untitled Article

    July 5 , 1851 . ] «!> * gLtmtt * 6 fl 5

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 5, 1851, page 625, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1890/page/5/