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

vendon.

Tha 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 Haut 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 have afforded
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 the 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 suffering
frcm 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 date, have amounted to
nearly a million of f ranee 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 7
tary, derive new energy from it, and this noble emulation
will still contribute to the relief of the working classes ; for
there is no disguising it, the misery caused by want of em-
ployment cannot be fully relieved except by the daily efforts
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. ROUHEB..
F. DE PRESIGWY.
This bill is appended for opening a credit. of
2,500,000 f. in each of the departments named.

GRATING ACCOMMODATION FOR TUE GREAT
EASTERN AT LIVERPOOL.—Mr. Yates, the secretary
of the Great Ship Company, bavi, g 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 to
find a suitable spot for a gridiron of the required size, and
that the cost would amount to at least £16,000. Ultimatel7
the subject was referred to the works committee.