The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-28 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS. SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 28, 1851.

FRANCE.

PARIS, FIIIDAT EVENING.
M. Thiers has made to-day the grand protectionist
speech, which he has been long preparing as a boon
to his constituents of the Seine-Inferieure, who are
the stiffest protectionists in France.
The mere proposal for the introduction of the
principles of free trade into France, however remote
the realisation of such a scheme may be, cannot fail
tots:interesting in the country which has set the great
example. M. St. Bence beganby showing the necessity
of removing all duty on alimentary substances. The
sliding-scale in France was equivalent to no pro-
tection at all ; for when corn was cheap the duty was
prohibitive, and when corn was dear it fell too low to
afford the farmer any protection. The scarce years
1846 and 1847 afforded proof of this. Protection
was merely favourable to the interests of certain ma-
nufacturers. Thus the price of iron had risen unchecked
in '44, 4S, and 48, in consequence of the demand for
railways; the tariff had not fallen, and the under-
takers of those enterprises had to pay 40 per cent.
for their rails more than if they had been free to
purchase iron in England and Belgium. This was
enough to show the unjust inequality of protection,
which was extended to an extravagant degree to
one industry, while another reaped no benefit from
it whatever. Agriculture was deeply interested in
the abolition of protection, which did everything for
certain manufactures, and nothing whatever for the
farmer. He next turned to meat. What could be
more absurd than that an aliment so essential to the
strength and endurance of the workman should be
loaded with a duty which excluded from the diet of
labour its most substantial aid. Fifty francs a head
was paid on cattle, and thirty francs the hundred
kilogrammes for fresh and salt meat. Thus the
population were obliged to pay one-third more for

their meat than was necessary. This was a tax
raised on the health and sinews of the operative
classes. Look at England. The workmen of that
country were never better nourished than at this
moment, when their superiority was so strikingly
'evinced. Sir James Graham had stated that the
amber of poor had sensibly diminished in England
mince the abolition of duty on food. M. niers in- '
terrupted M. St. Beuve to remind him that Sir James
Graham was an ardent free-trader ; and that agri-
cultural wages had couaiderably diminished in Eng-
land since the reforms of Sir Robert Peel. M. St.
Bence then proceeded to show the necessity of tak-
ing off all duties from raw materials; and to argue
against drawbacks, which, he said, only enabled the
foreigner to purchase at a cheaper rate than a
Frenchman what was manufactured in France. The
privations to which the French population were re-
duced by the extravagant duties on sugar were strik-
ingly evinced by statistics, which attributed 3 kilos
only of annual consumption to each Frenchman;
while in England the consumption was 11 kilos,
and in Holland 17. He would suppress at once
all duties on wool, cotton, leather, wood, coal, and
metals, but not on iron, on which he proposed to re-
4see the duties gradually. M. St. Beuve would
also abolish all differential duties. I lis principle was
the advantage of the public, which ought to pay its
taxes to the state, and not to this or that group of
citizens who pursued a particular industry. He drew
all his arguments from the reforms effected in Eng-
land, and strove to prove that free trade had been a
decidedly successful experiment across the channel,
and therefore it ought to be adopted in France, as
there was no reason why it should be attended with
lan opposite result here. M. St. Beuve having
occupied the whole sitting with his able speech, re-
sumed the subject in the sitting of to-day.
To-day he adduced fresh arguments to prove that
the experiments of free trade had been successful in
England.
M. Thicrs then rose to speak in answer, and to op-
pose the motion. Ile begun by rendering homage to
the genius of Sir Robert Peel. But he added that
everybody in England was now convinced that the
free trade reforms of that great statesman had gone
too far and too fast ; and no doubt it would become
necessary to make some steps in the opposite direc-
tion. It was generally felt in England that the
country had been put to a most severe trial by free
trade. Already there was a powerful party daily
tending towards a political preponderance in Eng-
land, which was for reversing the principles of unli-
mited freedom in trade, where they began, and
placing a fixed duty upon corn. Comparing the two
systems of free trade and protection, he stated that
France was doubling the amount of her importations
notwithstanding the revolution, while the importa-
tions of England increased in a much lower ratio.
It is impossible to present an analysis of a speech
so crowded with facts and figures as that of M.
Thiers. The principle of this elaborate harangue is
that protection is indispensable to France; and that
if it were suppressed }ranee would fall off in all re-
spects which constitute her a great nation. He then
proceeded to point out the circumstances of di&renee
between France and England, which made the expe-
riment of free-trade a thousand times more hazardous
in France. England had not yet arrived, like France,
at the point of placing 450 millions of direct taxes
against 450 millions of indirect taxes ; although she
was marching towards this equilibrium. England
had only proclaimed the principle of free-trade when
she had thought that she had secured her superiority
by protection. M. Thiers then examined succes-
sively the questions of corn, of cattle, of coals, of iron
of cotton, and of navigation. M. 'l'hiers was still
addressing the Chamber when the post closed.
An Englishman to-day, in attempting to get out of
one of the tribunes, missed his footing, fell over the
benches, and broke his leg. Lord Nonnanbv, who
was in the diplomatic tribune, immediately hastened
to the spot to procure all possible assistance for the
sufferer of this severe accident.
The committee of the budget has been engaged in
examining the propositions referred to it by the As-
sembly, for re-establishing equality of duties on all
spirits of French origin. The discussion on these
propositions was interrupted by a communication
from M. Berryer, in the name of the committee on
the Lyons Railway Bill, of which ho formed part.
M. Berryer stated that the committee were of opi-
nion that it was desirable to continue provisionally
at the expense of the state the execution of the rail-
way from Chalons to Vaise, and to commence the
works on the line from Lyons to Avignon. The
committee estimated the expense approximatively at
76 millions, to be charged on the estimates of 1851
and 1852. The committee was at the same time oc-
cupied on the question of ways and means; it consi-
dered it possible to provide for the expense by means
of an issue of bonds by the state to the amount of
100 millions; it, however, considered that there would
be danger in a special committee proposing, not
only such a considerable expense, but also a system
el ways and means, without conferring with the
committee on the budget, which alone was thoroughly
acquainted with the financial state of the country.
It would be readily undersood, said M. Berryer, what
influence might be exercised on the economy of the
budget by an amount and a form of loan determined
without taking into account the general ways and
means, by the aid of which the Minister of Finances
is to meet the necessities and the eventualities of
the two years of 1851 and 1852. The state of the
floating debt, the liquidation and the consolidation
of a part of that debt at a period not remote,
when the country should be relieved from the
political complications of 1852 ; the ultility of
the Minister of Finances retaining the power of
contracting a loan, if unforekeen circumstances,
should render it necessary—all these conside-
rations might reveal serious inconveniences in an
issue of bonds, which would weigh very heavily on
the money market, and shackle the freedom of action
of the minister. Without in any way prejudging
the right of special committees to propose not only
expenses but ways and means, the committee on the
budget accepted the proposition submitted by M.
Berryer, in the name of the committee, in the name
of the ilway committee. The conference between
the two committes has been fixed for Monday next.
At that meeting the question will be discussed in
the point of view of the budget. and of the general
state of the finances.-1. The opportuneness of placing
an expense of 75 millions on the estimates of 1851
ami 1852 ; and 2. The admissibility of the ways and'
mesas proposed by the committee on the railway
bill. Tho discussion on the question of spirits was
&Remoras resumed, and a sub-committee, composed
of MM. Lepeletier d'Aunay, Gouin, Germouierc,
Lagarde, arid Beaumont, appointed to report on it.
The funds were firm. The Fives closed at 93.25,
with a rise of 15c. The Threes rose 10c., and closed
at 36.15.

M. Magne is appointed Minister of Commerce ad
inertial, until the return of M. Buffet from London.

SPAIN.

MADRID, ICNE 22.
The debate on the vote of confidence in the cabinet
I continues. The ministry appears less firm, and ru-
mours of a restoration of the old Moderados to power,
under Mon and Phial, are more rife than ever. Cer-
tain it is the opposition of the latter remains una-
bated.