On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
FRANCE . . ( From our oion Correspondent . ) . ¦ ' Paris , Thursday , 6 J p . m . The opinion expressed in my last letter that , in spite of the pretended official inspirations of the Constitutionnel and its positive affirmations to the contrary , there was every probability of the decree authorising the free importation of corn , which expired on the 30 th of last month , being extended , has been fully justified and proved to be correct . Last Saturday ' s Moniteur contained a copy of a decree , signed on this day week at St . Cloud , which stated : " Art . 1 . The delay fixed by the decree of the 22 nd September , 1857 , relative to different
measures applicable to alimentary substances , is prolonged , in so far as regards importation , until the 30 th September , 1859 . " The delicate and subtle beauties of the sfiding-scale are not to charm the Protectionists for the next twelve months , nor yet to tax the food of the population . M . J . Burat , of the Constitutionnel , to whose disagreeable duties in reference to that well-informed and soi-discmt authoritative journal , reference has previously been made , after positively asserting that , by this time , the prices of corn would be sliding up and down a Gove rnmental scale , affirmed his belief that if at any future period the law , which , he fancied , would now regulate the movement of grain , should be modified , it
would be by means of a new act , and he hoped that the last would not touch the principle of the sltdingscale , but only its mode of application . What ^ ever may be this gentleman ' s hopes , they are evidently as untrustworthy as his positive assertions . It is out of all probability that , after the sliding- ^ scale has been suspended successively for two years , and free trade established in corn during that period , the Government would set it up in force again . Were the Government ten times stronger than it is * it would hesitate before resorting to so desperate a measure . Consequently , so far from sharing the belief and hopes of M . J . Burat ,
I believe the Emperor will never re-establish theslidiugscale ; and if hereafter , another ruler should do it , it wilL be the fault of the people themselves . I trust your readers sympathise with M . J . Burat ' s unfortunate position . True , he may have merited it , but that does not render it the less pamful and ridiculous . To make a great flourish about being in the confidence of the Government , and then for it to be shown that such was not the case , must be very mortifying indeed , especially after the self-abasement that has been performed to be permitted to gather up the crumbs of news—often old and stale—that fall from ministerial tables . Few can
understand how contradictions of this nature can occur , but the explanation lies in the fact that the Emperor governs , and that his Ministers are really the ministers to his will , and not his counsellors or advisers . Indeed , they are not competent to such an office . Most of them were briefless barristers , destitute of political and economical knowledge , and owe their positions to pliancy and the absence of fixed opinions upon every subject except that which they share in common with the Vicar of Bray . They are doubtless very docile , very obedient , capital copying clerks , and more or less ornamental to the Court , but they are not statesmen . One thing more
they are—which might be expected in gentlemen of such narrow experience and limited knowledge in political economy—they are rank Protectionists . It is therefore just probable they may have inspired ftl . J . Burat , and communicated to him these forecastings in which the wish was father to the thought . But the Emperor having a will of his own , and on this occasion choosing to exert it , determinedto give the people another year's free trade in bread . According to rumours , he met with considerable opposition among the Council held to discuss the question ; That is exceedingly improbable , and one would be curious to learn the name of the Minister UK 1 V ? YVUUAU L / U VUAAVUQ tU AOUtU I . MV ttuutw V * «»*** *•¦»••••• # ***•
cerity , as it would also be of their disinterestedness . This measure would enlist a large agricultural population in the army of free trade ; it would give employment and well-being to whole provinces , and would not reflect any very great injury upon the English revenue . As might be expected , the appearance of the decree last Saturday caused waitings and gnashing of teeth among the Protectionists . Ou the preceding Thursday , the very day the decree was" signed , their organ shouted victory and sang the beauties of the sliding-scale as " being the best mode of protecting agricultural interest , andat the same time , maintaining the price of corn
, within limits that would not be onerous to the working classes . " This journal having found out that people did not live cheaply where articles of consumption were cheap , likewise discovered that the relapse to the slidingscale , which has not yet taken place , was a precursor to another relapse ; namely , the non-extension of the decree which , expiring the 17 th instant , authorises the free entry of iron for ship-building purposes , and the Francisation of foreign-built vessels on payment of ten per cent . duty . It is to behoped that the perspicuous organ of the monopolists will be as successful in this instance as in the former one—that i 3 to sa }\ its prognostications
in both cases may be proved to be entirely false . Your readers have all heard of " His Excellency M . Troplong , President of the Senate , Member of the Privy Council , " and First President of the Court of Cassation . " This gentleman has the reputation , of being the Talleyrand of the Second Empire , and , what is more positive , enjoys a very unfortunate cognomen , which precludes him from accepting , either a countship , barony , or dukedom , except at the risk of incurring the universal ridicule of France . Baron Troplong , of Due de Troplong , would raise a laugh even in the shadow of the throne , and the aristocratic particle wbuld be voted de trop in . every circle of society ; while , if he changed his name for the title of an estate the smallest wit that haunts the Boulevard
would ring the changes on Troplong being Tropcourt . Should he have the misfortune to take a title from his department , and sign Troplong d'Eure , people would laugh all the . more at Troplong d ( 'E ) ure , however hardened he might be ; and matters would not be mended if in official announcements it should be set forth M . le President du Se ' Troplong d ( 'E ) ure . This fortunate politician , with an unfortunate name , has been following the example of M . Dupin , and giving the agriculturists of his department ( Eure ) the benefit o his opinion of things in general , and on his own merits in particular . The reader would not care to follow M . Troplong in his fulsome adulation of power and his servility to the priesthood ; nevertheless , it may be
movably in the castes of peasant and citizen . The country has also lost arms for which the plough was tiresome , and we cannot blame them for having left work for which they were unfitted , for work to which they were better suited . Lastly , the country has got rid of a burden of useless or dangerous elements , which at their risk and peril have gone to hhle in cities their misery , their idleness , and their vices . Frankly , are these desertions to ' grieve over ? On the other hand , the country has . kept among its children all those who are captivat ed by the powerful attractions of the soil , who are attached
to it by the bonds of small holdings , and who devote to the furrow ( in most cases not much more ) their time , their sweat , their economy ; all those landowners for which the possession of laud is a passion ; all those robust labourers that arc retained by the natal cradle and the habits of a simple life . These are the solid and faithful supporters of the country . Wiih this army , powerful by its courage and always immense by Us numbers , whatever may be said , whatever may be feared , our agriculture may defy sinister predictions , and rel y un'on a brilliant future .
" Do you know the motive of this predilection , of this ardour of country people for the land ? It is the division of property as made by the Code Napoleon ; it is the possibility open to the most humble to acquire bits of land with the fruits of labour and economy . Take awav , if possible , the Code Napoleon , create obstacles to si peasant fixing himself by purchase in the land "with which he has made a compact ( literally planting himself in the soil ) , and the country will lose its prestige in his eyes . It is then that , disgusted with his fate , he will seek in cities that fortune which he asked of the land of his affection , anil which that stepmother without bowels refused . It is then that the prophets of evil will triumph , and that the situation of the country will be lamentable .
'' People , however , slander sometimes this division of property , and affect to fear that , drawn onwards' by a perpetual'movement of fractioning , it does not fatally end in a grain , of sand and an atom . But they do not pay attention that beside the action which divides there is the reaction which reconstitutes , and that an inheritance shared by succession is remade by labour , economy , and marriages . To be convinced of this truth we have only to consult the registers . , " Let us bless , then , instead of blaming , our civil law which has made for us a rural class , and rooted it in the soil to the sweet bonds of property . I avow that to-day there are fewer large domains than furmerly , but there
instructive to note that the President of the Senate gravely stated to his neighbours at Cormeiiles , that " the population ( of that district ) had marched to the ballot of the 10 th of December ( when the empire was voted ) with an ensemble and resolution that nothing could shake , and there were then seen many electors mark with the sign of the - cross the vote given to the Prince who was to save France . " If the sign of the cross was made upon the votingtickets , I fancy it arose from the belief that signatures are requisite . Now , Jacques Bonhomme , not having the gift of writing , signed his name with a cross , just as Giles makes his mark across the channel when too nervous to make letters . If this be
are also a much larger number of landowners , ' and . it-is the small proprietors that are found unshakable in the days of revolution to oppose anarchy . 1 avow , also , there is a little smaller country population thau formerly , but , on the other hand , there are more ease aiul wellbeing . Would it by hazard be preferred to have , as at one time in Ireland , an excess , of population with an excess of misery ? la short , I do not deny that work has often to wait for the carpenter , mason , tiler , &c . Is it because these artisans have left the country ? Xo ; they are more numerous than twenty years ago , but work has increased fivefold by the desire of every one to augment hjs ' enjoy incuts . *'
I give this extract as literally as possible in order that , the reader might form a correct estimate of the mental powers and accurate information of one -who passes for the master-mind of the present Government . There is not a statement , except the one relative to the decrease of population , which cannot bo refuted , and there ia not a proposition which is not in contradiction with what either precedes or follows . M . Troplong says that rural populations have diminished , but not the number of peasant proprietors nor of rural artisans . We have , consequently , a diminished total resulting from increase in tho two component parts . A niuiiifost absurdity . Ho also stated that tho sub-division of property had not increasedanda few liiiua
picnot the explanation of the presence of what mathematicians call the most perfect geometrical ligure upon the voting-tickets , then we shall be compelled to adopt M . Troplong ' s inference that the signs of the cross elected the Emperor and saved Franco . But tho portion of his speech which is likely to interest your readers is that which contained the defence of the system at present existing , which leads to tho almost infinitesimal division of property , and to the desertion of tho country for the town . M . Troplong said , after a silly boost about England being tributary for tho superfluity of Normandy ' s eggs and fruits , that , " in tho midst of this increasing prospqrity there is a phenomenon worthy of attention . Since nearly half a century our rural
com-, , viously , that tho nunibor of small landowners had increased . Can a man , then , bo a landowner and owning no land ? A friend saw sold tho other day a landed inheritance for IB franca and a bottle of wine . So far from rurul districts returning tho most . stalwart and laborious of their boiis , tho very reverse is the fact . Tho conscription carries otf'tho best men to city barracks ) , where they contract a distaste for hard work , and uu equally strong passion for tho duke fur nivnte and tlio uxciutinouC of tho cabaret . Those who survive the five or seven yours military servitude rarely return to fluid liihour . l " ov thodo
rnunea have lost some portion of their population . Every census proves deficiencies and emigrations , which , although slight at first , have ended , after a lapse of time , in a total which is not without importance . This fact , which has occurred in other departments , has given ris « to painful suppositions and to atrungo comparisons . People' appear to four for tho feeding of . France , tho recruiting of her armies , and tho upholding of her greatness . Some , however , predicted for us the fate of the Lower Empire , exhausted by tho desertion of tho country before it crumbled away under tho invusion of tho barbarians . We do not sec , however , what the Lower
Embecomo waiters , bedmakcrs in hotels , anil form ¦ - nothing or dangerous population of French cities , i ' loy are always tho peat behind tho barricade , and tho last to bring up a family respectably . French agriculture is languishing for lack of labour , and unless soino moans bo devised to supply arms to till the soil it must gradually poriah . Those aro not the personal opinions of your correspondent , but of the few largo landed proprietors that exist in Franco . Thoy have been oxp'cssoa at numerous mooting * in tho presoueo of liulmuuaia delegated by tho Government , and have parsed witjious eontmdiotion-r-withoufr uvon bcilig cultoU '" qwwwn . Nay , ' more , I hoard it propusod'ln a public iiicoling , " » tho prcsonco of u Coiiseillur rt'Klat , went there * by iuu Minister of Commerce to report what passed , to ntiuuou tho State to reftibo country labourers permission to fc « into cities for tho purpose of sottllng thoro unless mcy
piro can have to do with our civilisation , unless it be that there wore sophists at Byzantium , and that tlio race possibly may not be entirely extinct . In fact , all this onnnot be , at least in tho district in which wo are , a subject of fear . I only desire to upodk of what I know , and I hovo not tho . protonaion to contradict opiniona based on facts not vcrillutl by me . But if I muy juilgo by what wo havp bufrro us , wo can silence vain alarms . Without doubt the country 1 ms soon countrymen leave who loved It little , and who have done well , so far as tho sorvices thoy could render woro conccrnod , to follow their vocation . We are not ' a country of civil liberty without equal' to rost
imwho opposed . It is to be regretted that the public cannot be informed of the history of these proceedings as they would place the character and motives of the Emperor in a much more favourable light before the world than they now occupy . The great penalty which is imposed upon arbitrary power is tho constant liability to misrepresentation . His Majesty is now engaged in a great struggle in which no dynastic or personal interests are concerned . He is literally and truly fighting the battle of the pooplo against the tyranny of monopoly , and there can be no servility in wishing him a safe
deliverance . His position may be greatly strengthened by the conduct of tho English people . I do not mean by any demonstration of sympathy and approval , for to take such steps would be to arouse the ridiculous susceptibility of the nation , and represent the Emperor as the instrument of British commercial aggression . Tho Protectionists would not fail to' take advantage of an error of this kind on your part . But Englishmen may greatly help the free trade cause in France by proving that thoy advocate , and are prepared to practise to tho full , commercial liberty in all things ; and a reduction in tho wine duties would bo the best proof of their sin-
Untitled Article
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE . - —?— . ¦
Untitled Article
1058 fHE LEADER . [ No . 446 , October 9 , 1853 ^
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1858, page 1058, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2263/page/10/
-