The Express.
London, England, 1868-11-30 00:00:00

HIGH WATER ATLOIDO! lIIIDOS

Te-Dar --:=16;a4,-- trfirs=fte-1704-Ih. 1711.
To-Miaow—Naming, ft. 3011---Altesm• lb. kn.

Ronan of Burros. Ilfra;;;Oso.and Dicrao, ore received
until 12 o'clock fur inaction rum maize. Priem b. dd.

LOYDON, MONDAY, NOV. 30.

THE TERRITORIAL DEMOCRACY 1,1
FRANCE.

ET a decree, dated March 24, 11016, a Commission
was appointed by the Emperor NAPOLEON, at the
instance of the Minister of Agriculture and
Commerce, to inquire into the condition of French
agriculture and particularly of the peasant
proprietary. The mode in which the Commission
conducted its operations was as follows :—lt drew
up an elaborate series of questions, and for the pur-
poses of the inquiry it divided France into twenty-
eight districts, compnsmg each three or four de-
partments. The Presidents ad hoc of these
districts were chosen by the Minister among the
Senators, the Councillors of State, and other lead-
ing functionaries of the Empire. These presi-
dents, assisted by an auditor of the Council of
State or by an e.ployF of the Ministry of Agricul-
ture, were placed in communication with the
Prefects. in concert with whom they pro-
ceedc,l to constitute departmental commissions.
These departmental commissions, composed
on an average of ten or twelve mem-
Lars, rrogocuted their labours in the localities
assigned to them, and recrived altogether some-
thing less than 4,000 oral depositions, and about
an equal number of written statements of grie-
vances. Several agricultural boards and societies
deliberated on the replies to be given to the
questions of the central commission. Out
of these twenty-eight reports twelve have now
been published, and M. Esosa;E Di LAVERGNE,
one of the highest agricultural authorities in
Europe, in an interesting paper in the
current number of the Renue dee Iku.c Mondes,
presents a summary of the case of the
petitioners. As briefly as possible the follow-
ing arc the points on which the petition-
ers are unanimous. They demand a revi-
sion of those articles of the Civil Code which
favour the minute subdivision of property in land,
Without, however, infringing the principle of equal
testamentary succession ; re-enactment of the law
of 1,i24, which facilitated the exchange
of contiguous parcels of land; a general
revir.ion of boundaries in the register
of the government survey ; suppression of
publir loans, and of all the illicit wanceuvres which
divert capital from its natural course; new facilities
to be given to agricultural credit by placing it
withinreach of small cultivators ; amendment of
the law of mortgage ; and of those articles of the
Code which interrupt the flow of credit ; a con-
tido-olds reduction of the military contingents ;
immediate reduction of the unproductive pub-
lic works in cities, and principally in Paris ; de-
velopment of primary agricultural instruction ;
extension of the powers and resources of the com-
munal councils and councils-general of the depart-
manta ; an active impulsion to be given to useful
public works, especially in extending them to
the rural districts; reduction of thej charges on
the railways; revision of the Customs tariffs in
a purely fiscal sense, augmenting receipts without
infringing freedom of trade; reduction of duties
On
.transfers of landed property; reform of
tie wine tad spirit taxes; suppression or
redaction of the town dues, extension of the
powers of the local magistracy, division or sale
el communal lands, restehlishment of the National