The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, P 139.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL TRADE

OF FRANCE.

(From the Commerce.)

" The Administration of Customs has just pub-
lished the general state of the commerce of France
with its colonies and with foreign bowers dur
ing the year 1838. These reports have especially a
comparative value ; taken alone they lead to great
errors, because they are based upon valuations made
in the year 1826, of which many have ceased to be
correct ; but put together they offer useful compa-
risons for measuring the commercial movement from
one year to another.
" Let us compare the following figures:—
" GENERAL COMMERCE.
Years. Importations Exportations. Totals.

1836 906,000.000 961 000 000 1,867,000,000
1837 808,000,000 758,000,000 1,566,000,000
1838 937,000,000 956,000,000 1,893,000 000
" Thus the total movement of her commerce in-
creased in 1838 to the sum of 1,893,000,000, im-
portations and exportations united, compared with
what it was in 1837. This indicates considerable
progress, being an excess of 528,000,000 or 39
per cent. But if the movement of 1838 be com-
pared with that of 1836, the increase is only
26,000,000—an increase satisfactory enough, but
Lot sufficient to compensate the losses experienced
by commerce in 1837. It is to be remarked, also,
that the general commerce of 1838 only exceeds
that of 1836 in importations, and it is inferior to
1836 in exportations.
"If we turn our examination again to special
commerce, which is of greater interest to us, be-
cause it is connected with the development of our
industry, we find the following results :
Years. Importations. Exportations. Total.
1836 ... 564,000,000 629,000,000 1,193 000,000
1837 ... 569 000,000 514,000,000 1,083 000,000
1835 ... 657,000,000 659 000,000 1,316.000,000
" Thus the increase is more considerable for spe-
cial than for general commerce. This increase,
taking importations and exportations together, is of
123,000,000 upon the year 1836; it has increased
93,000,000 upon importations, and 30,000,000
upon exportations.
" Examining the report in detail, it is seen that
the increase of imports is more peculiarly felt in the
following articles :

Articles. 1836. 1837. 1838.
Cotton
Silk
Wool 32,000,000 19,000,000 34,000,000
Olive oil
Hemp and Flax Thread 12,000,000 14,000,000 21,000,000
" Amongst other articles, we will also mention
cloves, wood for dyeing and for furniture, cochineal,
bark, gum, hemp, and zinc, as presenting a greater
or smaller increase. The exportations of our spe-
cial commerce, that is to say the exportation of the
products of our country, and manufactures, had
decreased 115,000,000 in the year 1837 ; we have
just seen that they increased in the year 1838, and
even surpassed the exportations of 1836, by
30,000,000. This increase was chiefly upon cot-
ton and woollen stuffs : the exportation of the
former, which only amounted to 66,000,000 in
1836, amounted to 80,000,000 in 1838 ; the ex-
portation of the !at' er increased from 49,000,000
to 64,000,000. Silk tissue, which forms the fifth
part of our exportations, after having fallen to
90,000,000 in 1837, increased in 1838 to
139,000,000, that is to say, to about the same as
in the year 1836. Also the exportation of our
wines was, in the year 1838, 51,000,000, as in
1836.

" The United States and England preserve the
first rank among the nations with which we have re-
lations. These two Powers have taken part in our
commerce thus :—The United States in the pro-
portion of 16 per cent. with respect to general and
special commerce, England in the proportion of 12
per cent. with respect to general commerce, and 11
per cent. with respect to special commerce. Bel-
gium has preserved, with respect to special com-
merce, the third rank, which it held before ; but
with respect to general commerce, it has descended
to the fifth rank, whilst Switzerland takes the fourth.

In general our relations have been of about the
same activity as in 1836, except in Mexico and in
our colonies, for which our exportations are con-
tinually decreasing.
Transit, although it has been more active in
1838 than in 1837, remains below what it was in
1836. The value of commodities passed in transit
during 1838 was 183,000,000 ; whilst in 1836 it
amounted to 204,000,000. Cotton stuffs form
one-fourth of this transit, which chiefly come from
Switzerland.
" Our maritime commerce is to the whole of our
foreign commerce as 70 to 100. This navigation
has given rise to a movement of 2,703,000 tons. It
was at 2,449,000 tons in 1837, and a little less in
1836 ; this is, then, an increase of 10 per cent.
Unfortunately, the French marine does not see its
relative share increase ; it still remains at 40 per
cent. upon the total movement, and also is reduced
35 per cent., if the privileged navigation of the
country with the colonies be deducted.
" In gum, commerce had regained in 1838 a
part of the activity which it had lost the year be-
tore in consequence of events, and especially on ac-
, count of the crisis of the United States. Unfortu-
nately, this activity has not continued in 1839, and
the diminution in the product of the Custom-house
ought to prepare us soon for the effects of a re-
action.

coming the husband of one who was to have ruled
over the British empire, has declined the throne of
Greece, condescended to ascend that of Belgium,
and since obtatned the hand of a young, fair, and
wealthy daughter of the house of Orleans. A se-
cond scion of the same stock wears the Crow❑ of
Portugal ; and the brightest of all prizes awaits
another younger member of a family who, not long
ago, were glad to get co►nn►issions in the ranks of
the Austrian army.

THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE•

PARIS CORRECTIONAL POLICE.—" Great is
the number of conjugal misfortunes. The author of
the Physiology of Matrimony' has not pointed
out the thousandth part of them ; it would take the
whole life and all the patience of an English statis-
tician to establish a perfect scale. But within the
nieinory of husbands never has anything so strange
or so ludicrous occurred on a wedding day as that
which befel poor Cesar Honore Massias, and in
consequence of which he now appears before the
Correctional Police. Cesar Honore Massias is 32
years of age ; he is a workman, very well in his
way, tolerably steady, working regularly in the
week, and getting drunk most scrupulously every
Sunday. However the approach to forty years

induced him to reflect, and reflection determined
him on sowing his wild oats ; he turned his thoughts
ro marriage, and instead of wasting his hours of
idleness' at the Barriere, he devoted them to Made-
moiselle Virginie, a young a..d amiable cuistniere,
whom he had seen in her garret one day while oc-
cupied in his trade of a plumber on the top of her
master's house. After a long and an assiduous
courtship, and after having given to his intended
all those guarantees of affection and good conduct
which a prudent damsel could desire, the long-
looked-for day was at last fixed. It was a beautiful
day in the month of September. Preceded by his
friends, his wife leaning on his arm, the new made
husband proceeded to the celebrated house known
by the sign of the Chou sans pareil (the cabbage
without equal), where the repasts are more famous
for their substantial than t heir refined character.
Other friends there joined them, and having
proposed a pic-nic, were permitted to join the
bridal party at table. Every thing passed off
gaily, and the guests managed to preserve just
sense enough to find their way. When about
half way on their road, Massias, pouring into
his wife's ear a whole vocabulary of soft nothings,
herd behind him bursts of laughter. He
turned round, and perceived three young men,
who repeated in a mimicking tone all the charming,
things of which he had been delivering himself du-
ring the preceding quarter of an hour to his wife.
Massias understands no nonsense on such a sub-
ject ; his wife and himseif are alike insulted by
it, his wife, to whom only a few hours before he
had promised protection at the altar, and to whom
he was willing to give a specimen of his courage.
Thus, without further explanation, he fell upon

these untimely jokers, who returned his blows
with interest, and an unequal combat is began.
The young wife began to scream—a patrol arrives
—the adversaries of Massias, hearing the heavy
clamping of the municipal boots, take to
their heels, and Massias taken by the collar

and charged with riotous conduct, is ordered to
march to the guardhouse. He protests loudly his
innocence, but the equivocal state in which he is,

renders the guard credulous to his assurances of the
attack that he had been exposed to and of whic:i he
had been the victim. When he sees in perspective
the guardhouse cell as his lodgings for the night,
instead of the bed of down, on which he had so
long and so fondly reckoned, he turns his fury
against the guards, and applies to them every
elegant epithet with which his memory serves him.
They wish to drag him along—he resists—kicks,
swears, thumps ; at last they master him, and drag
him off in triumph, while poor Virginie, like
Niobe, all tears,' returns to the garret horn
whence she had first seen her ill-fated husband.
The municipal guards are not ill-tempered fellows
after all ; it is probable that if he had been more
calm and had better understood his own interest,
that after he had explained his unfortunate position,
Massias' happiness would not have been delayed
more than twenty-four hours. But instead of that,
the poor fellow, exasperated to the last degree,
amused himself during the whole night in vocifera-
tions, in attempts to burst the door of his prison,
breaking everything which came within his reach,
and in abusing those who had him In custody.
Hence, after perusing the charge of the chief
of the station, it was considered necessary to
retain the unfortunate husband in prison. After
five weeks' imprisonment, not having been allowed
to converse with his wife, except through the iron
bars of the gaol parlour, he now appears before the
tribunal. a

The President.—Ma,sias, you are charged
with a riot in the night—with insults by your
language, and outrages by your acts, against the
agents of the law, and with having destroyed pro-
perty belonging to others. What have you to say
in your justification ?
" Massias.—Eh, a pretty marriage, and manu-
factured under nice auspices. Thumps, the guard-
house, and a wife whom I have hardly been al-
owed to shake hands with. I thank ; you a pretty
honey-moon I
" President—Do you admit the facts alleged
against you ?
" Massias.—Put yourself in my place. A wife
whom I adore, whom I idolize, my goddess, my
Venus, whom I had courted for six months without
permission to take the most trifling liberty. At
last she is mine, Paradise is within my grasp, and
they throw me to the bottom of a watchhouse
dungeon, like an unclean animal.
" President—But this was your own fault ; you
ought to have conducted yourself better.
" IVlassias—But then you do not know what love
is. I was devoured, inflamed as if I had swallowed
all the brands of hell—and they separate me from
my wife—from her to whom the law had just united
me for life by a tie which nothing could break, as
the Mayor had just told me ; and I was to look on
in cold blood—l was to have no soul I It was
treacle, then, that was to circulate in any veins
A pretty sort of a husbana I should make. In fine,
gentlemen, I tell you that they would not even
allow my wife to come with me into my cell. Re-
turn me to my wife, I pray you ; I am sure she is
here. She will herself ask you for her husband,
her darling, her Caesar. Arn't you there, Vir-
ginie?

" At the other end of the Hall a sigh is heard
like the lowing of the wind.

-
" Massias—That's her sigh. I know her Figh.
You hear it, gentlemen ; it is worth more than any
thing I could say, and you would not separate us
longer. Wait for me, Virginie.
" The unfortunate position of Massias induces
the tribunal to mercy, and he is only sentenced
to fifteen days' imprisonment.
" The poor devil appeared quite stupified on
hearing the decision ; though, after all, he is very
happy to be able to reflect that in a fortnight
hence his honeymoon will commence, when, if he
had had his own way, it would have been over long
ago."—Gazette de Tribunaux.

Mr. Thomas Potter has been unanimously re
elected Mayor of Manchester.

The Earl of Lucan is not a candidate for the re
presentative peerage.—Limerick Chronicle.