The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-24 00:00:00

'AYB.

RECOGNI

TION OF THE SOUTH.

THE DISTRESS IN FRANCE.

The Moniteur of yeysterday contains a report,
signed by M. Rouher, the Minister of Agriculture,
Commerce, and Public Works, and M. de Persigny,
the Minister of the Interior, recommending that in
each of their departments a credit of 2,500,000 f.
shall be opened for carrying out local and other
public works, with the view of relieving the distress
of the operatives thrown out of employ by the cot-
ton famine. The report thus commences:
Sire,—Upon opening the session of the Corps Legislatif,
your Majesty announced that a credit would be applied for
in aid of the operatives out of employ.
In order to fulfil the intentions of your Majesty we have
the honour to propose to you to submit at once to the sanc-
tion of the Corps Legislatif a measure for opening extraor-
dinary credits of 2,500,000 f. each upon the budget of the
Department of the Interior, and upon that of Agriculture,
Commerce, and Public Works, for the purpose of assisting
useful communal works, of affording aid to the charitable
institutions, and of carrying out public works at the expense
of the state in those places where the ' suffering of the,
operatives is greatest.
We have no hesitation at this moment in limiting to this
sum the total of the grant necessary for the relief of the
operatives deprived of their ordinary employment. Amid a
crisis in which so many interests are involved we certainly
ought not to deceive ourselves as to the extent of the evil,
or the suffering it occasions; but it is also the duty of the
Government to ascertain the exact state of things, to look
upon the facts as they really are, to dissipate exaggerated
fears, and to define the limits and the measure of its inter-
vention.

The evil now is local, and while all business last year
felt the influence of the events taking place in America, the
crisis which the country is deploring in 1863 extends only to
those districts where cotton is an article of primary necessity,
It is in the Seine Inferieure that it is most severe ; and it is
in the Somme, the Nord, the Hant Rhin, the Eure, the
Loire, the Orne, the Vosges, in part of the department of
the Rhone, at Limoges, Troyes, Saint Quentin, Falaise, &c.
that employment is diminished or suspended; it is there
that the efforts of Government and of private charity should
be exerted. In neither case have they yet failed in their
duties.

As soon as the industrial crisis began to make itself felt,
the Emperor's Government took the necessary measures for
insuring employment to the population of the manufactur-
ing districts. In the department of the Seine Inferieure,
especially, the Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, and
Public Works opened numerous workshops for the rectifi-
cation of the levels of the imperial roads.
The report then alludes to other public works,
and to the railways, canals, &c., in course of for-
mation in various departments, which haveafforded
occupation to the unemployed. These undertakings
not being, however, able to meet all the exigencies
of the crisis, the Minister of Public Works is under
the necessity, we are told, of applying for extra-
ordinary resources. The report concludes in the
following terms :
The communes have joined with an ardour worthy of all
praise in the sacrifices everywhere imposed upon the lead-
ing firms in order to mitigate the severity of a crisis so pro-
longed. They have voted taxes and loans, measuring their
burthen only by the suffering they were desirous of reliev-
ing. In the Seine Inferieure, 78 communes have voted extra
taxes for 1863, amounting in all to 103,575 f. The same de-
partment has voted a loan of one million of francs for useful
communal works, and for the relief of the distressed. A
bill sanctioning the vote of tht Council-General is now
under examin :tion by the Council of State.

As to private charity, it has as usual accomplished its
benevolent mission, without parade and without display,and
with a constancy nothing discourages. Throughout all the
departments it has come to the assistance of the distress in
the Seine Inferieure, and there is not a single town muttering
from the industrial crisis in which the voluntary subscrip-
tions of the inhabitants have not been added to the grants
of the government or those of the municipalities. These
subscriptions, up to the present gate, have amounted to
nearly a million of francs in the Seine Inferieure, and it is in
great part owing to them that more than 30,000 families
have been assisted.

The ardour of private charity will not be diminished by
the intervention of the government. It will, on the con-
tary, derive new energy from it, and this noble emulation
will still contribute to the relief of the working classes; for
it, the misery caused by want of em-
not be fully relieved except by the daily efforts
tphioeyremiesnnt ocadnisguising
of benevolence.
We beg of you, Sire, to allow the following measure to be
submitted to the examination of the Council of State. We
doubt not that the Corps Legislatif will eagerly respond to
your Majesty's appeal. Last year it unanimously voted the
subventions applied for under similar circumstances, and it
has always identified itself with the intentions of your
government for ameliorating the position of the working
classes.

We have the honour to be, with the post profound'. re-
spect, &c., E. ROUHEIL.
F. DE PB.ESIGDIY.
This bill is appended for opening a credit of
2,500,000 f. in each of the departments named.

GRAVING ACCOMMODATION FOR THE GREAT
EASTERN AT LIVERPOOL.—Mr. Yates, the secretary'
of the Great Ship Company, having applied to the Mersey
Dock Board for a gridiron for the Great Eastern, the sub'
ject was partially discussed at the weekly meeting of the
board yesterday. It was stated that it would be difficult t?
find a suitable spot for a gridiron of the required size, and
that the cost would amount to at least £16,000. Ultimate/1
As subject was referred to the works committee,