The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-03 00:00:00

We have received the Paris papers of Thursday.

The " progressive Conservatives," if we may judge
from the language of their organ, have completely
thrown off their allegiance to M. GUIZOT. The at-.

tack:4 of La Presse on the Ministry are more unceas-4
ing and more hitter than those even of the Nationa
itself. In the Presse of Thursday we find the follow-

ing bill of indictment against the Ministry :

" The Ministry has existed for seven years, and not one
session has been signalised by any of those able measures
which alleviate the position of the tax-payers without dimi-
nishing the public revenue. Twenty departments suffer
from the unequal division of the taxes, and impatiently wait
for the more equal partition that has been so long promised
them. The measure concerning the cadastre (registry of
lands) is yet to be presented! The Pension Bill, badly con-
ceived at first, has gone on from report to report ; the Sugar
Bill has to be remodelled ; the reduction in the price of fait
will not take place; the Bill on the liberty of instruction
is still only a promise of the charter; postal reform is threat-
ened with the fate of electoral reform; the Ministry which
fund it inopportune in 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, and 1845,
will find it still more co in 1847. There was only one measure
which could ensure the execution of railways; it was that
which should adjudge the works to private industry, and re-
serve the working of the lines to the State. But this is pre-
cisely the only one which was altogether avoided; all the
most false, most complicated, most contradictory systems
have been engaged in ; at one time they were all amalga-
mated together, and at another opposed to one another. Ali
is a cha, a perfect Tower of Babel! Now, too, they do not
know how to get out of the scrape, and aid the companies of
which the sharehAders :cruse to pay up the legal calls. They
dare not restore the caution-money, and dare not confiscate
it. They do not, in Pict, know what to do; they are wait-
ing until th,2 evil be sufficiently aggravated so as to spare them
the trouble of ,eeking for an efficacious remedy."

After half a column of bitter vituperation, the
article concluder by declaring that the Ministry must
either arise and be doing, or retire.
On the subject of railways the Journal des Dads
has fallowing, which is important as announcing the
inter:Cons of the Government with regard to thome
companies who are unable to execute their con-,
tracts :

" If it be desirable to make an example of the companies
and to show mute que coute, that for the future no one shall
contract lightly with the State, the law must be maintained,
and the companies, after having been summoned to con-
tinue the works, must. if they refuse to do so within the
periods fixed by the cahier des charges, be subjected to the
loss of the caution-money and to the confiscation of the
works already executed. But if, above all, it be desired. as

we helive it cs, that we shall have railways, these Draconian
or Napoleoni,ni measures will not be adopted. It is easy, in
fact, to understand that such acts of severity would nt.t
advance the termination of the railways, but, on the con-
trary, would retard it. For the Lyons Railway, the works
executed and the caution-money represent about 30,000,000 f.
The company which should take the place of the pre-
ient company would, therefore, obtain a premium of
30,000,000 f. The expense for it would be reduced to
270.000,000 f. The diminution is not to be disdained ; and
yet, in the present state of affairs, thet e is no reason to be-
lieve that an association of. serious capitalists could be found
to charge themselves with the railway to Lyons for
270,000,0001. Coercive measures, therefore, would have no
effect. The construction of the railway from Paris to Lycets
would he suspended ; it would be suspended indefinitely,
unless the conditions of the adjudication were to be changed ;
but then it is much more simple to change them in favour of
the present company. Moreover, according to the ea bier des
charges, the process of expropriation against the company
cannot commence for three years, and the process itself
would occupy another year ; so that the rigi,rous system
would cause the loss of four years. Are we not already suf.
tieiently behind other nations ? As regards the company
from Lyons to Avignon, the same argument presents itself
wi: h even greater force The company of the Paris and

Lyons line LA commenced its works not only from Paris to
onnerre, a distance of 200 kilometres, but also on souse
other points. The company (f the Lyons and Avignon line
has not giveo a single Wow with a pickaxe. The only hold
there is on it. it rigorous measures be adopted, is in its cau-
tion-money, which is 10,00,000 f. But it is certain that
the temptation of a subsidy of 10,000,000 f., arising from
the confiscation of the caution-money of the present com-

party, would not determine the formation of a new coin-
paoy under present circumstances. It may even be supposed
that so long as the embranchment to Grenoble (which will
cost 40,000,000 f., and for which the least advantageous of all
the directions has been adopted) shall remain-. annexed to
the principal line, it will be impossible to find any substan-
tial company to undertake it. Thus the line from Lyons to
Avignon would be indefinitely adjourned. Yet it is a line
of vast importance. The extreme dearness of grain at pre-
sent seems to have come expressly to demonstrateits utility.
If communication by railway had existed between Lyons
and Marseilles, the population of Lyons, and of all the country
which has received the corn of the Black Sea through that
city, would have paid from 6f. to 71. per hectolitre less.
It is from this point of view that political men ought to
judge the railway question, and particularly the two railways
between Paris and Avignon If the Government does no-
thing, or announces the intention to do nothing, we are
threatened with the breaking up of the two companies.
This would be onerous to the shareholders, but less onerous
than the pure and simple maintenance of the conditions of
the adjudication ; and, what is important—what ought to
decide the conviction of the Government and the Chambers
is, that the consequence would be a cessation of the works,
which would be doubly disadvantageous to the public inte-
rest. First, it would be the delay to an unfixed period of
he tn.it important line of railway that it is possible to esta-
blish in France, that of the greatest traffic in Europe, be-
tween he Mediterranean and the Channel or the North Sea,
that of the most important interior traffic. Secondly, it
would be the clo.ing of works which must offer immense re-
sources to the necessitous popu4ai-ns. Deduction made of
the cost of the land, it would be a capital of 400,000,000 f.,
which would be almost entirely disbursed in labour. To the
public powers anxious for the maintenance of order, and de-
sirous to assure the existence of the people, it is a piece of
good fortune. which cannot be allowed to escape. To relieve
the misery of the people the Minister of the Interior pre-
sented, and the Chambers voted with universal acclamations,
two bills for creating work to the amount of 32.000,0001.: in
all. What would be thought if, the day after the vote cr
these laws, a remmeiati4n were made of enterprises causing
an outlay of 400,000,000 f. ? In this point of view, which
under present circumstances is deserving of serious consi-
deration, the two enterprises which we now signalize are
not the only ones to which regard should be had. All
those for which capitals have been united and companies
constituted met it that efforts be made to prevent their dis-
organisation."
The Union Monarchique, the organ of the Para_
pretre, is endeavouring to;excite a persecution against
the Jews, more particularly those of Palestine, by
publishing a pretended letter from Beyrout, reviving
the old calumny against them of murdering a Chris-
tian at the celebration of their Passover. We hope
that M. CahmiEux and the other French Hebrews
will take measures to trace these falsehoods to their
source. It is worthy of observation that these Jesuit
revivers of exploded calumnies are the persons who
complain that the University deprives them of the
liberty of instruction—a false accusation be it re-
membered—yet still it is well that those who join in
the cry should know the species of instruction which
these learned and most Christian men demand liberty
to impart to their pupils.
The Riforme announces that the price of the 41b
loaf in Pat is is to be raised 4e. from the Ist of May.

The-iriC;i;ffiTurro-e in the Paris market on Wed-
nesday 2f. the sack.

The Three per Cents. closed at 781. ; the Five per
Cents., 115 f. 90c.; the Orleans Railroad Shares, 1,233 f. 75c. ;
Rouen, 932 f 50c. ; Havre, 6701. ; Great Northern, 6211.25 c. ;
Avignon, 7721. 50c. ' • Vierzon, 582 f. 50c.; Bordeaux, 516 f.
25c. ; Boulogne, 425 f. ; Basle, 1931. 75e.; Dieppe, 3271. 50c. ;
Paris and Strasburg, 4301. ; Paris and Lyons, 438 f. 75c. ;
No PraSn'rceO, 21
Lyons and Avignon, 4451. ; Bordeaux and Cette, 445 f. ;
s orth-elnd rn O
Spanish Domestic Debt, 301/s.BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON;
CiKl/2E_rll;a.n,, and
XoC IXNGE,APtttx.3O.
P arißordeaux,
6% _
of
5
LA—Paris and Rouen, 36%—Rouen and
Havre, 261%. '

The lion. Rev. Roiyfrt ien, vicar of Battersea, is
appointed Bishop of Sodor and Man.—Observer.