The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-19 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY

pretends that the right of contracting for the oan-
veyance of the workmen belongs, according to the
savemen; to the. Company ; and he . eittd M.
Icon Faieher befog the coancil of state, which is
usdiesttod to-day to have been charged with the
alamination of this question. I have already men-
tiossedotpreport of M. linglois's Aid from the
of the lottery •di
• . - - siclieci of evidence is at length Is pike
the reality of the famous conspirsefasmossied at
first es the Paris plot, then better known se the
Franco-German conspiracy, and now, acceding to
the evidence, a plot purely and exclusively Genhan.
This is a circular signed " D. C.D.," dated "London,
August 1," and headed, " Instructions for the league,
before, during, and after the revolution."
PARIS, TIICIUSDAT EVIININO.
The Committee of Permanence held to-day its
ordinary fortnightly sitting, which was presided over
by M. Benoist d'Azy. About twenty members, among
whom were M. Berryer and General Changanuer,
were present. After some remarks upon the general
situation of affairs, the committee separated without
taking any other resolution but the agreement to
adjourn until next Thursday week. In private con-
versation some remarks were interchanged upon the
omission of the government to offer any general
invitation to the Permanent Committee to be present
at the ceremony of laving the foundation-stone of the
Central Markets. This was noticed as indicating the
continued existence of the old grudge entertained by
the President against the National Assembly, and
the systematic resolution to neglect no opportunity
ofinflicting upon that rival power some slight or
humiliation. It was observed that M. Benoist et.lay,
the legitimist vice-president, and MM. l'eupin and
Yoan, secretaries of the Assembly, were the only
members of the Committee of Permanence invited on
that occasion.
M. Asselnie, head of the secretariat at Paris since
184 a, to act as a medium for the correspondence of
the Duchess of Orleans, is just gone to London, ap-
parently for the purpose of' learning the result of the
conference of the Dukc of Aumale with the other
members of the Orleans family.
Several councils of arrondissement, which did not
allude to the revision of the constitution at their first
meetings, have lately held second sessions, and have
expressed their wishes in the affirmative. That of
St. Etienne demands the revision at the earliest mo-
ment possible. That of Macon has demanded the
revision, and also that the general elections may pre-
cede the presidential election by at least 3 months.
The council of Arcis, the only one in the department
of the Aube which omitted to vote for revision on the
former occasion, has now demanded it with ?special
reference to the dangers of 1832, and particularly
with respect to Articles 4a and II I. The council of
Neufchatel has demanded the revision, and rejected a
proposition in favour of the repeal of the law of May
31. That of Dieppe, which voted for revision during
its first sittings, has now expressed a wish that the
period of the elections should be advanced.
'rho council of arrondissement of Orleans has just
met for the second part of its session. M. Oudet
proposed that the council, approving of the decision
come to by the council-general, in favour of the re-
vision of the constitution, should declare itself in fa-
I your of the revision by legal means. This proposi-
tion was carried by 7 votes to 3, one member having
abstained.
To-day arc exhibited in the press, more plainly
than ever, the irreconcileablo and bitter divisions of
various leading personages in the conservative party.
In the Constitutionnel, Dr. Veron indulges in a
philippic against M. Duvergier de Ilauranne. In the
Ordre M. Chambolle assails MM. Guizot and Sal-
randy.
The nix du Proscrit has been again siezed at the
post-office and in its office.
Public curiosity is excited in a high degree by
some scandals which have transpired with regard to
the administration of the lottery of the Lingots d'or.
The liroit publishes on this subject two letters,
which must certainly be followed by further expla-
nations. The first of these letters is signed by one
Fret, the agent of a capitalist who bought up the
last half-million of tickets, with the design of selling
them again at a premium. You are already aware
that the shops at which these tickets were exposed
for sale for lfr. 25e., lfr. 50c., and even 2fr., instead
of the original price of one franc, have been closed by
order of the police. It appears, however, that this
order Ilan been but very imperfectly executed, for I
went myself into two shops yesterday, one with a
flaring sign, on the Boulevard Montcmartre, and
another in the Passage Jouffroy, where '23 sow were
demanded for each ticket. In fact, at no shop where
such tickets are exposed can they be purchased for
one franc. The ordinance of M. 'Cartier prohibiting
the agiotage in question, remains therefore to all in-
tents and purposes null and void. The purchase in
which M. Fret was agent leaving no more tickets
disposable at the regular offices of the lottery, these
were closed on the 27th ult., that is to say, four days
before the appointed time. The lottery had not yet
completed the delivers- of the tickets to M. Fret,
when the authorities, having been informed that the
clerks of the administration had reserved fer them-
selves tickets which they had neither paid nor ac-
counted for, took measures to put a stop to these
scandalous frauds. M. Langlois, the director who
had sold the tickets to Fret, was dismissed, and re-
placed by a government commissioner. M. Clement
Hum, secretary of the prefect of police, and, by the
way, author of the Bonapartist pamphlet, entitled
" Qu'estaic quo to itetour I TEmpire ?" who took
paesseseion of the key of the money-chest. It now
turned out that the half-million of tickets sold to
Fret had never been paid for. Two other mem-
bers of the Committee of Surveillance have
resigned with M. Langlois. The Droit affirms
that, instead of half a million of tickets, at least
two millions remained to he disposed of on the 27th
ult. The other letter published by the Droit is from
M. Langlois, who protests his innocence of all com-
plicity a ithfraud, and intimates that the real cause
of his dismissal was the difference of opinion which
prevailed between himself and the commissioner of
the government with respect to the disposal of the
funds. I have already mentioned the detection of
several tickets stamped with the same number. The
public awaits impatiently the issue of this affair,
respecting which daily some revelation appears exhi-
biting the whole concern in the light of a gigantic
system of swindling and imposture.
The council-general of the department of the Nord
have passed resolutions complaining of the inefficacy
of the existing regulations for enforcing the law
• PARIS, WIDSZSDAY EVENING. limiting the hours of labour in manufactories. Pre-
You may remember that when the lottery of the viously to Sept. 1848 no legal restrictions existed,
Lingots d'Or was first started, it was put forward as and the manufacturers, urged on by the pressure
*beneficent scheme for settling 500 emigrant work- of over increasing competition, often employed their
Mt from Paris in California. The government was work people as much as fifteen hours a day.
biased to Patronise and permit the enterprise not The same argument was used, which was
mare by
Fs
nthropic motives than by the hope of formerly thought to be so unanswerable by the
getting of a considerable number of malcontents opponents of the Short Time Bill in England—
and turbulent fellows in the faubourgs. A contract namely, that it was absolutely necessary to work at
was therefore drawn up between the company who a profit, and that all the profit was in the last hour's
undertook the management of the lottery and, the work. The necessity of fixing some limit proper.
Minister of the Interior, whereby the former under- honed to the ordinary endurance of human strength
took, after deduction of the cost of the prize-ingots, was however recognised in France by the Consti-
amounting to 1,200,000 fr. and of the cost of manage- tnent Assembly, in Sept., 1848. A law w then
meat, amounting to- 1,21 as 10,000 fr., to devote the re- passed, fixing the maximum of labour in manufac-
mainder of the seven millions, namely, 4,600,000 fr. tones at 12 hours, and punishing any violation of
to the object of political benevolence above described, the enactment by fines varying from sfr. to 100 fr.,
As far as the disposal of the seven millions of lottery which fines might be multiplied,: according to the
i tickets is concerned, the speculation seems to have number of workpeople unduly employed. but so as
I completely succeeded ; for the sale was announced as not to exceed I,ooolr. in the whole at one time. But
having closed on Aug. 31, and the drawing is fixed j this law having laid down a principle, and fixed
for October I. In the meantime, the accounts fromipenalties to enforce it, left the executive government
California have assumed so dismal and discour- !to frame regulations for carrying the law into effect. aging a character, that at present it would perhaps : These regulations were not issued until May, 1850.
be difficult to find four or five hundred workmen j The council-general of the Nord, the department
who would consent to be expatriated thither i and at I which of all others contains the greatest number of
least the devotion of four or five millions francs to manufactories, now declares that they an wlsollg;
such a purpime is entirely condemned by public lefficacious, and that the law is a dead letter.
opinion. Hence almost as great and ingenious a . assert, upon unquestionable authority, that in many
variety of propositions has been made for the appli- departments the manufacturers work, without any
cation of the surplus funds in question as for the tlisguise, for 13, 14, and even 15 hours a day. A
disposal of the profits of the Great Exhibition in leading matter of complaint is that an exemption in
England. M. Langlois, the director of the lottery, I favour of certain workshops (ateliers) gives rise has represented to the government the evils of Ito evasions. The regulations leave it to the 1
the Californian plan, and submitted a series of other 'courts of justice to define what is an atelier.
applications, such as the sending of several thousand i It appears that this word is used by custom in the
workmen to cut timber in Corsica, in those fine forests ' Nord to describe a cotton mill, no matter what may
i which have been twice offered without result for be the number of workpeople employed in it. It is
public adjudication ; or despatching a fresh supply ! suggested that according to the spirit of the law no
of colonists to Algeria; or of parcelling out the funds , establishment ought to be exempt from its operation,
in several different charitable designs. On the other in which machinery is used, and in which more than
hand, M. Leon Faucher is represented not only as 10 persons are employed. The reforms demanded by
cleaving to the original destination of the funds, but the council-general as necessary to render the law
as having already contracted with a house at Havre effectual are, a precise definition of the exempted
: for the conveyance of the 500 workmen to the Eldo- workshops, the establishment of a system of relays in
redo of the Pacific, where they are to be landed and those cases where a prolongation of the ordinary
supplied with
provisions for 13 days. 31. Langlois hours of work is permitted, the entire suppression of

though somewhat slowly, dispelled. The unrealised
kora the ihmiustions, the uncertainties, and -Ike
graye:Um hem which resulted from the attempt to
secure for home grown agricultural produce, will
soon become measly facts for history; they will no
longer exercise nay baneful influence upon our hus-
bandry, save so liras they have render it the habit
of the agricultural mind to lein on something beyond
and extraneous to self-reliance. •
The second peculiarity, however, we have noted as
retarding the program of English husbandry still
exists in full force, and it is this: farmers engage to
pay certain yearly rents for their farms upon
the implied contract that they are to have
possession for the purposes of cultivation, and
with a full knowledge on their parts and on
that of their landlords, that a series of years
will be necessary to render such cultivation
remunerative to the tenants; and they find that from
a combination of causes they have only limited pos-
session, and are greatly restneted in the management
of their land. For instance, a farmer every year
must perform acts of husbandry and make expendi-
tures in culture, the returns from which cannot, at
the shortest, he obtained under four, five, or six years,
and that on the supposition that his farm is in good
working order. But, in fact, before his farm can be
said to be in good working order, it requires to be
drained, at the cost of .)1., at the least, per acre; it
requires, perhaps, a year's rent to be expendedin
furnishing building accommodation ; it requires to
be cleared of superfluous hedges and brushwood
around the fields, to let in the light and air and keep
down weeds and vermin • it requires the land to be
cleaved from wcs ds, annual and perennial, the result
of previous bad farming and neglect; and though
last, not least, it requires for several years an extra-
ordinary supply of manure, in order to bring the land
up to a fair and reasonable point of fertility.
Many of these outlays it is the province of the
landlord to make, such as the draining, the building,
and the clearing of hedgerows, but landlords do nut
make them, and often, for want of available funds,
arc unable to do so ; and with comparatively few ex-
ceptions, it may be said, that the English farmer,
who desires to bring his farm into good working,
must do all that we have enumerated for himself.
And on what tenure is he expected to do these
things? What security has he for the capital ho
must thus of necessity invest, sink, bury in the soil P
What guarantee has he that another may not reap
what he has sown, and that his time, his labour,
and his money be not wholly or partially lost to
him and his family ? II hy, the tenure on
which the English farmer is asked to do
all this is a yearly tenancy determinable at the will
of his landlord by a six months notice to quit; the
security he has for bis capital is nil. Nor is this all;
first, the landlord reserves to himself all plantations,
trees, and hedges, and all game and fish, with the
right by himself or others to come on the land to fell
and take away the wood, and to
.preserve or destroy
the some • and next, the farmer is bound to observe
P
a minutely defined system of culture, which the land-
lord or his agent assumes to be requisite to protect
the land against spoliation by the tenant, and which,
in nine cases out of ten, affords not the slightest pro-
tection to the landlord's interest, while it seriously
interferes with profitable management by the tenant.
And yet such is the prejudice of landowners
that very few of them will dispense with these
foolish reservations and restrictions or grant leases.
Indeed, unless the reservations and restrictions were
abandoned a prudent farmer would scarcely consent
to bind himself by a lease. As consequences we see
in all directions land scarcely half cultivated, and
even that which is pretty well farmed, capable of
producing far more than at present, and, what at this
moment is of great importance, with much better
profit to the tenants.
Now we say advisedly this state of things cannot
be maintained. Farmers can and will farm with
ordinary profits, under low profits, provided they can
have their farms put into good working order, or
can hold their land on such conditions as will enable
them to put it in order themselves • but they cannot
and will not pay present rents under the trammels
and precarious tenures they are now subject to.
Landowners as well as farmers must take stock.
They must be prepared to deal with their land as a
commercial article; they must look henceforth, in
letting farms, to give some equivalents for the rents
thee- expect to receive from their tenants. Farmers
will not much longer attempt to make bricks with-
out straw, they will require such outlays of fixed
capital to be made upon the land as will enable it to
be profitably cultivated; and wo ask the great body
of landed proprietors where they can find the means
for such outlays? Yet this is a question they must
resolve, and the sooner they attempt to do so in a
rational and business-like spirit, the better. Hem
and there a few of the larger proprietors are
making fresh arrangements with their tenants. Thus
we are told that " Ea' Lt: Goes has given notion to
his numerous tenants at Ilarrold, Carlton, &c., with a
view to the entire re-adjustment of rent, adapted to
present circumstances." That is well enough so far

as it goes, but mere re-adjustments of rent will nut
meet the exigencies of husbandry at the present
time. What is wanted is a more rational, more com-
mercial contract for letting agricultural land. Land-
owners cling with a puenlo fondness to certain
territorial quasi-feudal rights, such as the reserva-
tions and power of enforcing the restrictions we
have mentioned. And they often do so without
any apparently strong motive, save such
seignorial ideas. For example, a well-known
landed proprietor, not a sportsman, who has
*mind and tastes far above and beyond such pursuits,
'los at this moment several farms vacant, which he is
arrying on in a way that must be causing a serious
Isms to himself, and he has declined to let them with
utri reservation of game. The consequence is, men
w are able and willing to farm them well, refuse
to take them—and the same proprietor has actually
hat the game and right of sporting over others of his
farms occupied by tenants, to a stranger; and such a
wayward course us by no means unusual. Yet, when
we recollect that the landed property of England is
well known to be incumbered to at least one-half its
value, there can be no difficulty in predicting that
with prices permanently moderate, landowners will
soon come to their senses, when they clearly see that
they must relinquish their prejudices or their
rentals.

FRANCE.