The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-14 00:00:00

CORN-LAW FALLACIES, WITH THE

ANSWERS.

( Continued from The Sun of Monday.)
246.--It is felt to be superfluous, in short, to reiterate argu-
ments, with which the champions of the free. trade party have
never yet had the courage or the honesty to grapple.—lllorn-
ing Herald, Nov. 9,183 M.

Answer.—An argument must be very unlucky, if it has
never been hit after all the cross-firing there has been.
Where are these arguments ? out with them condescend
once more, and put the enemy to open shame.
[N.B.—The authority cited, speaks of " yesterday ;"
which is probably a mistake, as nothing on the subject ap-
pears on the day preceding, unless it has been in another
edition. Which is only mentioned, to guard against the
suspicion of intentional omission.]

247. —The Corn-law rhymers, and the Corn-law catechists,
and the opponents, in all their varieties, of the Corn-laws,
contrive to occupy themselves much more agreeably in re.
peatina themselves, and in echoing each other, than they would
be likely to do, in the attempt to subvert manfully, and in ac-
cordance with the laws of logic, the reasonings of the men who
stand up in support of the cause of native industry.—ld.
A.—The poor men have done their best. But it ap-
pears they have missed something. Perhaps they have
answered it, and the opponent does not know. He should
remember, the question is not what he knows of, but other
people.

248.--The general question of free trade—including, of
course, the question of Corn-laws—is a vital question between
the whole body of native producers on the one hand, and the
small but formidable minority of idle consumers on the other.
The whole body of native producers have one paramount in-
terest—an interest, namely, in securing a high value for la-
bour, and all its products. The body of idle consumers, on
the contrary, have a deep interest in cheapening labour, and
all its products—because as the price of labour, and of its
products lessens, to does the power of idle consumers over
producers increase.
The idle consumers, and their mouth-pieces, the econo-
mists, are never weary of chanting the praises of cheapness,
To whom is cheapness beneficial ? Only to the idle con-
sumers themselves. Each class of producers appears, at first
sight, it is true, to have an interest in buying the
produce of the labour of the other classes, cheaply ; but each
class of producers loses, in point of fact, more, by the general
depression in the value of labour and its products (for as the
economists themselves have well shown, labour and all its pro-
ducts perpetually tend to a common level of value) than they
gain by the cheapness induced at the expense of their brother
producers.

Free trade, in short, affects the different parties to it, ex-
actly after the following fashion. Each class of producers
gains, in the first instance, by the experiment of free trade
when tried upon producers of another class ;—and, immediately
afterwards, each class of producers loses much more than it
had seemed to gain—loses, not merely by the direct extension
in turn to itself of free-trade principles, but also by the indi-
rect and irresistible effect upon the whole body of producers,
of that general depreciation, to which we have already alluded,
in the value of labour and all its productions—a depreciation,
of which even the partial application of free-trade principles
is, of necessity, the cause. But how stands the case,
on the other hand, with respect to the idle consumers in so-
ciety? They gain, without any contingent loss, by each successive
depreciation in the value of the different kinds of labour.
They gain, in short, all that is sacrificed by the various orders
of producers in succession.

No class of producers has, in point of fact, the slightest in-
terest in cheapening the productions of any other producing
class. All producers gain by a system which sustains the
general value of labour. Under such a system, all producers
are engaged in the work (so to speak) of mutual insurance.
The dearness of the commodities on which they are respectively
employed, is merely nominal to them :--it is real dearness only
to the idle consumers amongst their customers.
Such is a view of the question of free trade, with which
none of the champions of free. trade opinions—not the Corn-
law rhymers, nor the Corn-law catechists, nor the journalists
which echo their arguments—have ever yet dared to grapple ;
—nor will these ingenious gentlemen, we venture to promise,
ever be found simple enough to enter upon the task. No:—Mr.
PAULTON, and his candid fellow-labourers have wisely chosen
a much easier and more profitable course.—ld.
A.—Here then is the argument of arguments, unin-
terrupted by saucy comment. The answer has been dinned
into the public, in reviews, in pamphlets, and in lectures, at
any time since 1830 ; and if any great originality had been
claimed for it then, it would have been declared to be all
traceable in Adam Smith. But if the opponent did not
know of it, what more is to be said ?

The answerers, then, answered as follows ; which they
repeat with many thanks for the opportunity. They said,
that when the trade is stopped in an article from abroad,
for the sake of producing the like article dearer at home,
—for example, if the importation of gloves at two shillings
a pair from France, is stopped to enable English glovers to
produce gloves of the same quality for three shillings
at home,—the several effects produced are these. That
for each pair of gloves prevented from being imported, a
trade to the value of two shillings is taken from the manu-
facturers or traders concerned in making the goods with
e
o
smgat
ahl
aotil
trade
y bd-
nasSysh
wouldlmf far,rione mg
wtasai
ilhvaegeoni
trader
erceea.a.ndpn
eetnrunTo
expended
theh: sdhtpofurther,
which payment used to be made in France, and is given to
o
glove-maker,
twl
ki
ehnt
trh:
el
iwaonnvhv
dueo
tl-mwumt
taken
ukhe fene
places,r san: %
00
Englishetnvdie.fr the
hh
ee
had been let alone. So far, balance again. And that be-
sides all this, which left a balance to English trade in
the aggregate, there is the fact behind, that the consume
gets nothing instead of something for his money. Sotart
if the consumer was Satan or a duchess, no gain to Eng-
lish trade in the aggregate, would arise out of the consu-
mer's wrong. But inasmuch as a number of the consumers
are neither Satan nor duchesses, but the working classes
themselves, they in the aggregate bite off their own noses,
to the exact extent to which they happen to be consumers
of the article in question.
The answerers said, that the existence of this double
loss for a single gain, in the case of the difference of price
between the foreign and the protected article, was as
palpable as in the case where a wood-cutter should
ba direeted to cut with a blunt axe instead of a
sharp, with the intent of charging his employer
two shillings for two days' labour, instead of a shilling
for one. That it is undeniable an additional shilling would
be given to the fraternity of wood-cutters ; but it is also
undeniable that the same shilling would be taken from
some trader, suppose the snuff-merchant, with whom the
owner would have expended it, if left to have his wood cut
with the sharp axe ; and that after these have made a ba-
lance to trade in the aggregate, comes the further fact that
the owner has parted with a shilling for nothing, instead of
the snuff he would have had for it if let alone. So that if
any society could be supposed blockhead enough to estab-
lish such a system for general use, there would not be a
man that lives by warming himself, that would not feel the
effects of the irrational invention. And that this case, on
reflection, is just as clear, as that an insulated fool who
should invent cutting his own wood with a blunt axe on
purpose, must lose by the result ; the only difference being,
that in the more complicated instance, one loss and one gain
fall upon separate individuals, and after these are set off
against each other, there remains an aggregate or final
balance, of the consumer's loss.
They said, further, that for the industrious classes to
comfort themselves with the idea that they had the advan-
tage turn-and-turn about, was the same folly as if they
should agree to take a penny from each other day and-day
about, as they passed by Charing-cross, with the understand-
ing that at every payment one halfpenny was to be thrown into
the Thames. That it is just as visible, that on the whole they
cannot gain, and must lose. That if there was a scramble for
who should take most or oftenest, there is a bare possibility
that somebody or other might pocket more than he
lost in his turn ; but that this again must be got by the
increased suffering of somebody less lucky, and therefore the
working classes who could seriously set up such a system
at Charing-cross, would exhibit a compound of knavery
arid gullibility, which cut them off from compassion for
any mischief to themselves that should ensue.
They further said, that as no prohibition of foreign
articles can be made, without cutting off as much trade
in one place as is added in another, and robbing the con-
sumers besides,—it follows that employment and wages
must be reduced in one place as much as they are raised
in another, and a loss inflicted on the industrious classes, so
far as they stand in the situation of consumers, besides ;
from all of which, so increase of employment or wages
can arise in the aggregate, however numerous the experi-
ments may be, any more than the surface of a pond can
be raised, by taking water from one place to add it in an-
other ; and that remains, after all, the naked comfort to
the working classes, of losing the difference of price, in
any foreign commodity (for instance corn) they happened to
consume. All of which is equally applicable, to the converse
else of the removal of restriction ; where it is equally clear,
no general depression of the rewards of labour can take place,
because they are raised in one place whenever they are
lowered in another, and after all comes the sweeping benefit
to the working classes, of being allowed to consume cheap
corn.
All this has been said over and over again, and nobody
has attempted to gainsay it. Nobody has pointed out
where, and when, and how, the industrious classes are to
be the gainers in the aggregate by the invention of employ-
ing the blunt axe instead of the sharp ; and nobody means
to do it. If the working classes want the property of the
" idle consumers," let them go and take it. But do not
let them be persuaded to go about it in a way which, for
every time it takes fourpence in the shilling from a pen-
sioned duchess in the bread she eats, takes it also from
the starving manufacturer who can worse afford it. Yet
this bait has been extensively gulped down by the working
classes ; and, like other gudgeons, they must digest the
hook they swallow.

sumers" (all the non-productive ones, assuredly) " assert that
the Corn-laws rob and plunder them."--Id:
A.—When men struggle for a purse in the street, the
question is not whether one man's gain will be the other's
loss, but who had the original right.
If the manufacturers had laid a tax on home-grown corn,
with a view to increase their sales for corn abroad, then the
would have been the robbers, and to I,be put down by all
the means for such cases made and provided.
When the agriculturists lay a tax on the exchange of
the manufacturers' goods for corn, then they come under
the same predicament. The question is not, why this man
is to rob or that, but Why any man is to be robbed at all.

250.—Have not farmers invested in the cultivation of the
soil of England, property to the amount of many millions, on
the guarantee of the national faith ?—ld.
A.—" Force by force, is well ejected when the conquered
can." If the manufacturers had got a tax on home-grow❑
corn, how long would the agriculturists stand upon the
right of property ? But there is a worse rod in pickle for
our feudal lords ; which is, that the farmers shall be brought
over to take side against them.

251.—Has not property to an immense amount been in-
vested in the purchase of land—and have not the burdens to
c‘hich the land is peculiarly subject, been cheerfully borne_
on the faith of the value guaranteed to land by the existing
Corn-laws ?—ld.
A.—The landlords first kept everybody else out
of law-making, and then proceeded to burden themselves.
Sancho whipping himself, was just as pathetic an object.

252.—The whole body, besides, of the labouring poor of
Er gland have a properly-interest in this question. The new
Nor-law throws every unemployed labourer "on his own re-
sources," even in the matter of finding a market for his la-
bour. To close up, therefore, a vast labour-market, is to
rob a large class of labourers of what to them stands, a3_
suredly, in the relation of properly —ld.
A.—This is rather ticklish ground. Why shall we
not throw the landowners "on their own resources ?"
And the labourers will not stand upon their " vast
labour-market," after it is shown to them that ten equally
vast are shut up in consequence.

253.—1 f " the tax, which is the produce of the Corn-laws"
is to be scornfully denied the character of property, what, let
us ask, is to be said in reference to those taxes, of which THE
FUNDS are representative? Is it the doctrine of our contempo-
rary, that to describe the produce of the fund tuxes, as pro-
perty, is ridiculous? Or what distinctive character does our
contemporary assign to the funds, and to the t.ixes, by which
they are supported? If the fundowners possess the guarantee
of national faith for the security of their property—so do the
farmers and the landowners of England ;.---and to play fast and
loose with that vuarantee, may, perhaps, be found a perilous
experiment.—ld.

A.—The funds were a quid pro quo; the Corn-laws
were a gratuitous robbery. To apply the sponge to the na-
tional debt, would only be robbing Peter to profit Paul, and
would not add one jot to the national wealth, strength, or
happiness. To demolish the Corn-laws, would be to cut
off a devouring plague, where for a small and disputed ad-
vantage to our feudal masters, damage to an incalculable
amount is inflicted on every other interest it is possible to
enumerate. The droit de seigneur would have made
just as good a subject, for an experiment upon " the na-
tional faith."

TO BE CONTINUED.

THE VENGEUR.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Since the period of Lord Howe's victory, on Ist
June, 1794, the story of the Vengeur French 74 gun
ship going down with colours flying, and her crew
crying " \live la Republique I—Vive la Liberte I" &c..
and the further absurdity that they continued firing
the main deck guns, after her lower deck was immersed,
has been repeatedly declared, and has been very re-
cently re-asserted by a French author. It originated
no doubt, on the part of the French, in political and
exciting motives—precisely as Bonaparte caused HIS
victory at Trafalgar to be promulgated through France.
While these reports and confident assertions were
confined to our neighbours, it seemed little worth
the while to contradict it. But now, when two
English authors of celebrity, Alr. Allison, in his his-
tory of Europe during the French Revolution, and
Mr. Carlisle, in his similar work, give it the confirma-
tion of English authority, I consider it right thus to
declare, the whole story is a ridiculous piece of non-,
sence. At the time the Vengeur sunk the action had
ceased some time. The French fleet were making off
before the wind, and Captain Renaudin and his son
had been nearly half an hour prisoners on board
H.M.S. Culloden, of which ship I was the Fourth Lieu-
tenant, and about 127 of the crew were also prisoners,
either on board the Culloden, or in her boats, besides,
I believe, 100 in the Ay-red s, and some 40 in the
hired cutter, commanded by Lieut. (the late Rear Ad.
miral) Winne.

The
Vengeur was taken possession of by the boats
of the Culloden, Lieut. Rotherham, and the Alfred,
Lieut. Deschamps ; and Capt. Renaudin and myself,
who were, by Captain Schomberg's desire, at lunch in
his cabin, hearing the cries of distress, ran to the star-
board quarter gallery, and thence witnessed the me-
lancholy scene. Never were men in distress more ready
to save themselves.

ABond-street. M. ,
Nov. GRIFFITHI3.S, Rear-Admiral.
Royal Naval Club,

TREATMENT OF PAUPERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
saw to-day, in Blackfriars-road, three men in
workhouse dresses, drawing a truck like brute beasts, and
one pushing behind. This, no doubt, was a shocking sight,
and probably will afford, as it did some three weeks ago,
matter for two or three letters to the Papers from some of
the friends of the poor in Southwark, on the cruelty of the
Workhouse System. lam a friend of the poor also, and
particularly of that class of poor persons who submit to
great deprivations, and work hard to maintain themselves
by honest industry. In case these gentlemen, therefore,
should give only a one-sided view, I will supply the defi-
ciency. Besides this truck, I saw three others at the same
time, one drawn by two boys, with a man pushing behind;
another drawn by two men, and a third by a man and a
dog, the latter with a load fully as heavy as that drawn by
the paupers. I leave you to judge which deserved the
most sympathy, and what credit is due to the lamentations
of those friends of the poor who never take up their cause
till they have put on a workhouse dress. The poor who
are not in a workhouse pay a hundred per cent. tax ou tea—
one of the necessaries of life—they pay fifty par cent. on
another, to keep up the rents of the rich—and they are
half-starved in the inclement weather on account of the tax
on coals; yet the Tory organs remain silent on these op-
pressive imposts, or defend them.
Nov. 12.

MISOJUDAS.

CHELTENHAM-MONDAY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sia,—Having been at Weymouth, I was much surprised to
find on going to Trinity Chapel, (Chapel of Ease,) a few Sun-
days since, a demand of Is. for admission, and nothing less,
or wait until the second lesson was read, and go in for nothing.
I have asked several persons if the sum can be demanded, but
cannot be satisfactorily answered. Can you shine a little on
my unenlightened mind with your refulgent rays, and tell me
if the payment can be resisted, or if they dare demand money
for admission to a public place of worship ; to my mind, it is
much more repulsive to any Christian mind than the truly
worthy Durham Bishop's subscribing to Mr. Turner's Ser-
mons, about which so much canting hypocrisy has been preached
by the Tory Papers. lam also told by a gentleman, who
has lately been in Devonshire, that at Teignmouth or Tor-
quay, the latter I think, a similar demand is made for a Chapel
of Ease there.

Your's, truly obedient,

H. N.

OLIVER
DR. VAUGHAN'S " PROTECTORATE OFh
Distin-
CROMWELL ; a Series of Original Letters by
able work we are reminded that we are seeking truthildis
undisguised
safest way to it—that we are admitted to read theecuerning
the
guished Men of the Time."—ln this interestin; eandinvatihu-e
utterances of great men in bygone times,
e
rsin
as they
with them is such as to permit our being at. their
apoamrtniesseannadetotcneuhrerennfeetsheoifr tfhreaitrerdnajyty-thaantdwtchcaa.tnrnenadrlleocivonevde,
of argument
task their powers in tracing out the labyrinths of diplomacy,
theiran d ina
is ever
which, whether conducted in Cabinets or Senates,
orients,
aper,oveiadcihn providing apiefinsitnigtst
hsenar otheres— ftohrethatw keenestar intellects
arising out of the great business of nations. Such
too, are interesting in other respects than in disclosures
as are here hinted at. " The importance," as Dr.
observes, ~ attached by such correspondents to the talk and
doings of Courts, to the passing humours of the people—in.
short, their care to make a full report of the news of
t forth
hour, and the free and natural manner in which they se .
details of this sort, upon which the general historian rarely
descends to touch all contribute to give to such papers an
such
interest of their own, so that they are sometimes found to bear
in the truest of the noise and change, and struggle—the
the reader. away from the world around him, and to place Inn
ever-
bubbling life of other lands and other days."
A duel took place at Seacombe, on Tuesday night,
but fatal consequences were prevented by the seconds pru-
dently omitting to load the pistols with any more dangerous
charge than powder and paper. A proclamation
against the
practice of duelling in that " borough," we understand, has
bech iistt,;.l by Ow clerk of the peac,,---- 111. rrrn,l Malt
The Post-office authorities have it in contemplation
to give Newcastle the advantage of two daily communications,
morning and evening, with London, via Carlisle.

249.—Aceording to our contemporary, it is ridiculous to
maintain that the abolition of the Corn-laws would " rob the
landowners and farmers"—so long as " the bulk of the con-

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, lE3'

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF
EXETER.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESFONDRNT.)
The election of Mayor has been a great triumph to the Li.
berals, and will prove a heavy blow and great discouragement
to the friends of Sir W. Follett. At the first election, under
the Municipal Act, the Reformers and Tories were even on
the returns. One Gentleman (a Quaker) refused to sign the
declaration—that gave the Toricsa majority of one—with that
one they elected eleven Tory Aldermen and one Reformer,
and he only slipped in through a breach of a point of form.
This conduct of the Tories excited a deal of indignation in
the minds of the citizens ; but it served the Tory purpose, as
it enabled theni to quarter all their old staff on the new bcdy,
and to fill up the places of the Corporation with their own fa-
vourites. The Burgesses have, however, taken the best satis-
faction they can, and at every succeeding Municipal election
the Tories have been rejected, till from the overwhelming ma.
jority which they had, they have now come down to a miserable
minority of 11 out of 36 elected Councillors, and have only
16 in the whole Council, including the remnants of their Al.
dermanie batch. _ _

At the election of Aldermen yesterday, the following Gen

tlemen were triumphantly returned :—Doctor M'Gowan, and
Messrs. Sayall, W. Lee, W. Tombs, W. Drewe, and J. D.
Osborn. Dr. M'Gowan was unanimously elected Mayor, the
Tories not having power to oppose, prudently let him pass in
silent and reluctant acquiescence.
The Mayor was proposed by Mr. Mark Kennaway, one of
the ablest men possessed by the city of Exeter, and whose
talents and patriotism would advance any community. His
speech was most brilliant and effective—he took a review of
the Tory proceedings in our Corporation since the com-
mencement of the new system, and showed its whole politi-
cal and corrupt tendency. He showed that the Municipal
Elections were every where regarded as political struggles,
and that it was in the inevitable necessity of things that it
should be so. As a politician, he proposed Dr. M'Gowan for
the office of Chief Magistrate, in the belief that though he
would never suffer politics to attend him in the judicial seat,
he would yet give their (the Reformers) principles every sup-
port in the Council consistent with his duty.
Mr. J. C. Scrcombe seconded the motion, which was car-
ried with triumphant acclamatiors.
Dr. M'Gowan, who has not hitherto taken a very active
part in politics, although his politics have been sufficiently
known, adopted all that the mover and seconder had said in
his behalf, and expressed a belief that the principles of Reform
were ordained by God, for the progression of society, as much
as the laws that regulate the planetary system on the human
fi ame.

Thanks were voted to the late Mayor. D. B. Davy, Esq.,
was appointed High Sheriff, and the meeting separated highly
pleasd with the result.

The Council gave a dinner to the Mayor last evening, at
the Half Moon Hotel. The Tories turned " sulky," and not
one of them would attend the meeting, although they had all
voted for him as Alderman.—Exeter, Nov 12.

SAFETY GUARDS ON RAILWAYS.

The following letter lately appeared in the Preston
Chronicle. The subject is of so much importance, not
merely to railway managers, but to the public in general,
that it well deserves to be made widely known :
Mr. Editor,—l take the liberty to hand to you an ex-
tract from a very interesting work on the Civil Engineer-
ing of North America, published July, 1838, written by
David Stevenson, Esq., Civil Engineer of Edinburgh (one
of the engineers employed by our Ribble Navigation Com-
pany.) The subject will be interesting to many of our
readers, and is, I think, worth consideration by the Rail-
way Directors in this country.
Speaking of the North American railways, Mr. Steven-
son says, " From the unprotected state of most of the
railways, which are seldom fenced, cattle often stray upon
the line, and are run down by the engines, which are in
some cases thrown off the rails by the concussion, producing
very serious consequences. To obviate this, and render
railway travelling more safe, an apparatus, called a guard,
has been very generally introduced. The guard consists of
a strong framework of wood fixed to the fore-axle of the
locomotive carriage, and supported on two small wheels
about two feet in diameter, which run on the rails about
three feet in advance of the engine. The outer extremity
of the frame-work is shod with iron, slightly bent up, and
comes to within an inch of the top of the rails. The
upp6r part of the surface of the guard is covered with
wood, and the lower part with an iron grating. The
apparatus affords a complete protection to the wheels
of the engine. I experienced the good effects of it on
one occasion on the Camden and Amboy Rail Way ; the
train in which I travelled, while moving with considerable
rapidity, came in contact with a large waggon loaded with
fire-wood, which was literally shivered to atoms by the con-
cussion. The fragments of the broken waggon and the
wood with which it was loaded, were distributed on each
side of the railway ; but the guard prevented any part of
them from falling before the engine wheels, and thus obvi-
ated what might in that case have proved a very serious
accident." This apparatus might be introduced with much
advantage on the railways in this country, on which acci-
dents, attended with the loss of several lives, have happened
from similar cases. I am, &c.
Preston, Oct. 30, 1838.

P. PARK.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.

The Moniteur contains a Royal ordinance, dated the 31st
ult., for regulating the civil administration of " Algeria,"
and which is to remain under the superior jurisdiction of the
Governor-General, who is to have under his orders a Director
of the Home Department, an Attorney-General, and a Di-
rector of the Finance. The Director of the Home Depart-
ment is to be charged with the general, provincial, and district
administration, the public works, agriculture, commerce, public
inst: uction, ecclesiastical affairs, &c. The Director of the
Finances is to superintend and direct the registering of pro-
perty and Stamp-office, the administration of the national
property, the Customs and Taxes, the Post.office, &c. By a
Royal ordinance of the same date, Count Eugene Guyot,
Deputy-Civil-Intendant of Constantine, is appointed Director
of the Home Department, and M. Dussert, the Mayor of
Bona, Under-Director of the Province of Oran.
TuE DUKE DE BORDEAUX.—The Legitimatist Journals are
much occupied with the plans proposed for completing the
education of the Duke de Bordeaux. The Quotidienne states
that the Prince is about to travel through Italy, Germany, and
Russia, and even to visit Constantinople, Syria, and Egypt.
The Moniteur publishes Royal Ordinances appointing M.
de 13uurlon, Master of Requests of the Council of State, to be
Prefect of the Marne, in the room of the Viscount de Jessaint,
who retires, and the Viscount de Germiny, Master of Requests
Extraordinary, to be Prefect of the Seine et Marne, in the
room of the Baron de St. Didier, who retires ; and also creat-
retiring Prefects Peers of France'
ing the two
RAILROADS.—A general meeting of the shareholders of the
Versailles and Meudon Railroad Company was held yesterday,
M. Chaid Est_Ange in the Chair. A Report drawn up by
the
Board of Management of the Company was read, de-
tailing the circumstances in which the affairs of the Com-
pany were placed, and the steps taken to remedy the difficul-
ties that were found to exist. It appeared from this docu-
ment, that, according to the survey and plans of M. Cur-
rcard, verified by the Council of the Ponts et Chaussees, and
approved of by the Government as the basis of the grant of
line, that the total expenses of the undertaking were esti-
mated at less than 4,000,000 f. Upon this the Company pro-
ceeded, constituting a capital of 8,000,000 f., and keeping a
reserved fund out of it of IP:000,000f. (or 4,000 shares of 500 f
at par). The works were then commenced, but it has since
proved that the road, as far only as it has hitherto been car-
ried, has nearly absorbed 8,000,000 f., and must definitively
cost, according to the best calculations, 15,000,000 f. Under
these circumstances negotiations were opened with the Ver-
sailles and St. Cloud Company, as our readers are already
aware, but the conditions proposed by the latter were so exor-
bitant that they could not be accepted. Application was then
made to Government for a loan of 5,000,000 E, but the only
result was a dilatory answer that did not suit the views of
the Company. Penetrated, therefore, with a sense of the
importance of not suspending the works, the administration
of the Company, as the Report went on to state, had decided
on proposing to raise a loan of 5,000,000 f. on
ll
mortgageof
the railroad. This proposition was well received by the
meeting, and the generousconductand spirited
in
c of one of the
principal shareholders, M. F sid e°
degree to this result. That eminentbankerthas offeraedgthreaatt
in case the loan of 5,000,000 f. shall be subscribed for, he will
purchase the 4,000 reserved shares at par, notwithstanding
their present depressed price (285 f.), and until the loan shall
be realized, or Government shall come forward to help the
Company, he will open a credit to the Company in his books
to the amount of 600,000 f. The report of the Board of
Management was unanimously adopted, and the proposals
contained in it fully agreed to.
CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION.—The following is a summary
of the report made by the President of the Tribunal
Civil de Premiere Instance at the recent opening of the
annual Session of that Court : —The number of causes
entered on the list from November 1, 1837, to the same
day in the present year, was 9,151 ; increase upon the
preceding year, 809. Number of causes remaining unde-
cided on the lst of November in the last year, 1,444; new
causes, 7,449 ; total, 8,805 ; increase upon the preceding year,
1,043. Number of judgments delivered, 9,143 ; causes with-
drawn or settled out of court, 447; remaining to be tried,
2,4985; increase upon the last year, 1,054. Orders for con-
finement as a paternal correction, 340—viz., boys, 231 ; girls,
109. Personal arrests, number of visa of processes by the
verificator of the gardes du commerce, 1,848; Frenchmen
arrested, 437 ; recommandations of Frenchmen, 143 ; fo-
reigners arrested, 27 ; recommandations of foreigners, 9. In
all, 616 arrests or rec9mmandations, and 2,464 processes,
criminal and correctional cases. Entered at the register's
office, 12,442 ; at the Procureur-General's office, 12,540 ;
increase upon the preceding year, 1,060. Number of priso-
ners interrogated, 9,452 ; increase upon the preceding year,
812 ; committed, 5,656 ; set at liberty, 3,795. Number of
cases referred to the examining magistrates, 5,242; cases
determined upon, 4,101 ; remaining under investigation, 1,327.
Total number of persons in custody during the year, 2,023 ;
remaining on November 1, 324; orders for trial before the
Court of Assizes, 676 ; before the Tribunal of Correctional
l'el;..e. 1,349 ; hefore Tribunal of Sia,ple Police, 4 ;
tiers of ciismissai of complaints, 1,573 ; orders founded or.
the incompetence of the tribunals, for commissions to examine
witnesses, &c., 609 ; total of orders, 4,211. Number of