The Express.
London, England, 1855-10-03 00:00:00

11, OCTOBER 3,
,1855.

IT FROM ABROAD,

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

. r••
011011 our, owl
PARIS, TUMIDLY EVINTire.
. Muteßowleg important, end unexpected decree
relative to the sale of butchers', meat in Paris was
placarded this morning, and everywhere attracted
groups of eager readers :
We, the Prefect of Police, order as follows :
Art. 1. On sad after the 16th of the present month,
butchers' meat shall be sold at prices taxed by the autho-
dam.
Art. 2. The price shall be fixed every fortnight for every
kind of meet, wording to 010 returns made at the Callum
M Paley, and to the weight of meat ascertained to have
bean mat from the public slaughter-houses of Paris during
the Area fortnight.
Art. 3. For beef, the meat, with respect to the selling
price by retail, shall be divided into three categories:—lit,
The buttock, the veiny piece, the rump, the sirloin, and
the thick flank ; 2nd, the shoulder, the kidaays and our
rounding fat, the ribs, the neck ; and 3rd, the sticking piece,
the middle ribs, and the shin.—The Met (ander cut of the
sirloin), when detached, is considered as Irian& do lyre,
and will not be subjected so the fixed price.
Art. 4. For sow and ball beef, the division of the pieces
shall be the same as for oz beef.
Art. 6. For veal and mutton, the pieces shall be divided into
two categories. For veal, the first category will comprise the
fillet, the kidneys and the loin, and the best end of the
breast ; and the second, the brisket end of the breast, and
fore knuckle, and the head. For mutton, the first category
shall comprise the leg, the loin, and the saddle ; and the
second, the shoulder, the breast, and the neck.
Art. 6. Every buyer shall naive, even without claiming
it, a ticket on which is marked down the denomination of
the kind of meat and of the pieces, as also the weight and
the price. Pieces of meat belonging to different categories
are to be weighed and marked down separately.
Art. 7. Butchers are forbid to weigh bone with the meat,
and to deliver it (or what is vulgarly called e6oirisearsu) to
customers. The bone is to be sold separately at such terms
as may he agreed on between the butcher and the
customer.
Art. 8. In the shops established in the markets, meat
shall be sold at 100. at least per kilogramme below the
fixed price.
Art. 9. The present ordinance shall be printed lied pla-
carded, and a copy of it shall be communicated to the
Prefect of the &Tattooist of the Seine.
Art. 10. The chief of the Municipal Police, the com-
et:mans of police, the inspector-generals of markets and
their subordinates are charged, each in what omens him,
with the execution of the preseat measure. Potent.
This decree has been decidedly well received by
the muses, who are bat too prone to believe in the
power of government to diminish the price of neces-
saries of life by an act of supreme will. People
,olep their hands at the idea that the butchers,
against whose flagrant abases of their monopoly a
cry has long been raised, are about to be punished,
and do not doubt for a moment that as soon as the
new decree comes into operation meat will be mat: •
rially cheaper. I fear thin expectation will torn out
to be a delusion. There is no doubt that the
butchers have made exorbitant profits. In-
stances are cited of large fortunes made in
two or three years. But the true way
to prevent them from fattening at the public cost,
would have been to abolish their monopoly, and not
to attempt to regulate their profits. The throwing
open of the trade is the reform which has long been
demanded, and which everybody thought the govern-
ment bad made up its mind to grant. It appears,
however, according to my information that the mea-
sure demonstrably proved to be the only sound one,
be. been rejected, or at least indefinitely postponed,
because the city of Paris cannot spare the revenue it
deriver, from the Caine de Poissy, through which
every bargain effected at that great market
is per force transacted. This revenue is not less than
eight or nine millions of francs a year. There was a
time when this Pokey Baok was thought an indis-
pensable instrument to the supply of the city of Park
with butchers' meat, and a contemporaneous notion
was that nothing hut privilege could afford a so&
°lent stimulus to butchers to provide for the wants
of their customers. Nobody now believes in these
doctrines; but, unfortunately, routine end existing
interests combine to act upon thein yet a while
longer. It is very Meek to imagine how the prc
sent decree can be worked practically. The "cate-
gories indicate the probability of a distinction
being made between ox flesh and cow and bull beef.
But otherwise the only difference in value assumed is
that between one part of an animal and another. Legs
of mutton, we may gather from the categories, will
be charged at a higher rate than shoulders ; but it
does not appear to have entered into the minds of
the framers of the regulations that the quality of
the meat is a matter of any moment. A
joint of four-year-old Southdown and a joint
of ewe mutton is to be subjected to the
same inflexible tax. This system fl so con-
trary to common sense, that we may affirm at once
that it cannot work. That pert of the decree which
delights housekeepers is the abolition of reYouissonce
—an expression which requires to be explained. The
word refold:same is a !um • a non lucendo, need to
signify that at which the good housewife grieveth.
It is the custom of the butchers when weighing out
meat to throw Into the scale a piece of dry bone (utterly
useless to the purchaser) upon the plea that it is the
fair share of the bone belonging to the portion of
flesh sold. Many butchers boy bones on purpose to
serve out to their customers u rifjoutisartee. It tickles
the French public immensely to think that the go-
vernment has condescended to interfere in a matter
which is a daily cause of bickering between the
butcher and the mistress of the house. The decree
may possibly have the good effect of rendering people
more contented throughout the winter. It may be
some time before the faith with which it is received
.vanishes.

Measures continue to be taken in different places
for relief of the poorer dames during the present
moment of scarcity. The Municipal Council of
Orleans has voted 300,000 fr. for the distribution of
bread tickets, and for the execution of works of public
utility. At Olivet (Loiret) the wealthier inhabitants
have formed themselves into a commission, under the
presidency of the mayor, for the purpose of purchasing
rice wholesale in the seaports, and selling it at a re-
duced price to the poor. At Marseilles an emacia-
tion has been fanned for importing oxen, and selling
meat et a rearmed rale. At Boulogne-sur-Mer, a
society for providing cheap food has also been estab-
lished. Finally, several manufacturers in different
parts of France have determined to let their work-
men have bread at a rate not exceeding 25c. the
half kilogramme.
At the Bourn the Rents was steady, with little
business doing, and closed at yesterday's pries,
65fr. 30c. Almost all other securities were lower.
Credit Mobilier fell 40. Austrian railways, Mr. We.
The settlement in French railways was difficult.
Orissa' and Lyons fell 161 r. each. Northern,
12fr. 60e.

The English steamer Calcutta left Marseilles on
Sunday for the East, having in tow the Elise trees.
port, of 1,800 tons, with troops and stores on board
for the But.

The Napoleon, French warateamer, left Toulon for,
the Black Bea on the 29th alt., having troops on
board for the army of the Fast, and 248 prisoner, ofi
war to be exchanged.

The medals to bs distributed in commemoration of
the Universal Exbilition of 180 an now ready to

M strne.k at the Mint of Paris: ' The dies are by M. I
Barre. The obverse displays a profile of the Ern-
pew; the reverse, which is extremely rich in design
and execution, reiweeents the Imperial arms resting
upon palms and wreaths, and surrounded with a
streamer bearing the following inscription : " Expo-
sition Universtlle. Agriculture, Industrie, Beaux-
Arta. Paris, 1864." Alleround are the eseetcheons

'of the principal nations that have contributed to the
Great Exhibition. In the exergue is a scroll, on
which is to be engraved the name of the person to
whom the medal is to be sent.
The opesiog of the 'tattersall Pransis, for the
sale of horses and carriage*, took place yesterday at
Beasj on.

001.WAIIDID NT OUB B AAAAA 0

ST. PETERSBURG, 82pr. 27.

Owing to the scarcity of brandy, required for the
1 use of the army, the Government has ordered its ad-
mission free of import duty to the governments of
Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, Taurida, and Bessarabia.