The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-07 00:00:00

trnina 7int

LONDON, MONDAY. JUNE 7, 1847.

THOMAS
the whole of his Parliamentary career
THOMAS SLINGSBY DU'NCOM
BE has proved himself
to be—in word and act, in heart and soul—a Tribune
of the People. Among all the distinguished Re-
formers of our generation he is conspicuous as about
the most consistuectu lland the most chivalrous. Hence it
is that Mr. D Ehas acquired such universal
popularity ; hence it is
that in all the mutations of
Political partizanship,
in all the fluctuations of public
Sympathy, and in all the changes of the supreme
Government, his name has continued to bethe objecttoo
o f
of national respect, and in a greatue measure
-national affection. Even the nickname which has fallen
upon him in the excitement of electioneering
enthu-
siasm, and which sticks to him like a burr, is in
soil a tolerable indication that he is a favourite somewti
the multitude. " The Finsbury Pet." But Tuomls
DUNCOMBE is more than the Finsbury Pet: he has,
by his courageous and unflinching conduct as a
liberal Tegislator, ensured fur himself the admiration
of every sincere and earnest lover of
constitutional Reform. Both as a Parliamentary
debater and as an advocate of those whose extreme
lowliness denies them all except such generous and
spontaneous assistance as that continually afforded by
the Hon, .Gentleman the Member for Finsbury—as an
assiduous committeeman, and as one whose name is
perpetually _recurring in the division lists, Mr. DUN-
MIME is eminently- entitled to the enviable consi-
deration he hall now for a considerable period enjoyed.
On TAursday evening let, in the course of his

luminous and masterly speech upon Convict Discipline,
Sir GEORGE GREY paid a deserved tribute at once to
the judgment and the humanity of Mr. DUNCOMBE.
We were ourselves particularly gratified with these
observations of the Home Secretary, from a vivid
recollection of the circumstances to which they re-
ferred, as well as from a consequent remembrance,
that in regard to those very circumstances the Ho-
nourable Representative of Finsbury had received
a rather churlish and supercilious rebuff from
the Government. Indeed, the complimentary
allusions of Sir GBORGE GREY can scarcely
be considered as other than an act of expiation, or,
perhaps, we should say of compensation, for the un-
merited manner in which his original proposition
was received. It cannot be forgotten that we are refer-
ring to the terrible narrative of cruelties and brutalities
detailed in the House of Commons by the Hon. Member
for Finsbury several months back, and which narra-
tive he declared to be a by no means exaggerated
description of the conduct habitually practised by the
subordinate officers to the wretched criminals
incarcerated in the hulks. It cannot be for-
gotten, because the miseries depicted by Mr. DUN-
COMBE on that occasion produced throughout the
country the liveliest feelings of horror and indigna-
tion, nor cannot by possibility have escaped the
recollection of the public that, notwithstanding the
Hon. Representative for the metropolitan borough ad-
jured the Government to investigate thecircumstances
which he had declared to be of continual recurrence in
the hulks, and to discover, by the inquiries of intelligent
commissioners, whether or no his allegations were
founded in truth or misrepresentation, his demand
was rejected, his assurances were slighted, and
it was even determined that no Hulks Committee
should be constituted, because it was maintained, for-
sooth, that inquiry implied an anticipatory conviction
of guilt ! Upon these frivolous and erroneous
grounds Mr. DUNCOMBE'S very rational and hu-
mane demands were rejected, and so the matter con-
tinued apparently in abeyance until her MAJESTY'S
Secretary for the Home Department explicitly ac-
knowledged, on 'Thursday evening, that the fullest
investigation had been made into the declarations
of the Hon. Gentleman, and that after a cursory
glance at the volumnious reports transmitted for his
examination by Captain WiLmasis, "he had no hesi-
tation in saying that there was ample ground for many
of the statements which had been brought forward as to
the abuses existing in the huitts." With such an
amende honorable Mr. DUNCOMBE must be personally
satisfied ; but we doubt not but that in his generous
estimation the parties principally aggrieved in the
transaction are the convicts themselves, and that to
those convicts, therefore, the administrative assistance
should be immediately directed.
Reflecting for a moment upon the simple words
quoted from the lips of Sir GEORGE GREY,
what abysses of misery are revealed by their
utterance ! " The allegations as to the abuses in
the hulks are correct," and let it be remem-
bered that those allegations were deleniative of
the most sickening acts of inhumanity, perpetrated
upon a body of helpless and manacled criminals.
Nothing, indeed, could be more calculated to enlist
the sympathies of the true philanthropist in behalf of
the condemned than such a superabundance of punish-
ment. Here, indeed, we would remind Lord
Maims that the explanatory words of CICERO are
immeasurably more applicable than to the arrange-
ments expounded by the Home Secretary. Herr,
indeed, we are very far from discovering that the in-
tentions of penal legislation are being carried into
operation—Ut pcena in paucos perveniat, metus in
omnes. According to the execrable system hitherto
adopted on the hulks there has been a superfluity of
the pcena in paucos, but the very revelation of that
circumstance has rendered the metus in omnes impos-
sible, as the sentiments which might under ordinary
regulations have been those of awe and trepidation
naturally merge into those of wrath and abhorrence
The transition is inevitable, and it is as morally de.
structive as it is inevitable.

Thanks, however, to the comprehensive reformation
proposed by her MAJESTY'S Ministers in reference to
the treatment of criminals, there is now every reason-
able hope that such grievous abuses of authority as
those recounted by Mr. DUNCOMBE will be
henceforth prevented. Instead of being shipped
off in hundreds and conveyed to penal
settlements in the very ripeness of their in-
famy, criminals will be reserved at home until their
characters have in some measure been cleansed from
their moral leprosy, until, in short, by a wholesome
plan of reformation, they have been drilled into so-
briety and self-respect. Then, and not till then, of-
fenders against the laws will be deported to our colo-
nies, not to enhance the atrocities of their predecessors
at Sydney, at Botany Bay, or at Norfolk Island, not
to pollute our antipodes with congregated crimes,
such as in Gomorrha drew down the flaming thu )-
derbolts of Heaven, but to swell the numbers of an
orderly and industrious population in some embryo
state, presided over by the accredited agents of the
Bjitish Legislature. Already we have indicated the
advantages which must accrue from the scheme of
probation chalked out by the Government, whereby the
persons condemned in the criminal courts will be trans-
ferred to such establishments as the model prisons of
Milbank, cf Pentonville, and of Parkhurst, until by
the evidences of good conduct they have entitled
themselves to the lenities of the judicial power, and
are employed upon certain descriptions of public
works, remunerative or otherwise. Coupled with the
extension of the blessings consequent upon national
education, these beneficent arrangements cannot but
effect a visible and marvellous improvement in the
character of the community. Instead of being ex-
peditiously and economically struck down by the
avenging brand of the law, the criminals will be
reclaimed and restored in an elevated condition to the
comforts of social existence. Instead of being ab-
ruptly strangled by the hangman, or whipped by the
turnkey, or tortured by the medical inspector of the
hulks, or worked to death in fetters at the brutalising
toil of Norfolk Island, they will be lured to orderly
behaviour by instruction, they will be tempted
to virtue by rewards and immunities, they will
be afforded an opportunity of expiating their pre-
viously atrocious proceedings by their subsequent
subordination and propriety of demeanour. In all
this there is apparent on the part of the Administra-
tion a very ennobling aspiration—an aspiration to
become corrective, instead of continuing, as hereto-
fore, destructive. And, what increases our satis-
faction at the endeavours of the present Government,
these aspirations are proved to be capable of actual
realisation by the practical and admirably consecutive
explanation of Sir GEORGE GREY. Government is
hereafter to be characterised by that amenity and
gentleness which time out of mind have been its
antitheses. Ultimately the hornbook and the grammar
must; we are satisfied, supersede the manacles and
the tread-mill: ITay, before a very long period has
elapsed we are persuaded that the schoolmaster will
be receiving the• salary which was formerly among
the perquisites of the gaoler. Until these vast alter-
ations, however, have been definitively accomplished
we shall be satisfied with the promising indications
of our general moral progression; such indications as
are daily being afforded by the innovations upon the
criminal system, and the humanizing tendency of each
of those innovations.

Beyond the gratification, therefore, that must be
experienced by the Hon. Gentleman the representa-
tive of Finsbury, at the prospective prevention of the
cruelties inflicted upon those unfortunate wretches
whose temporary homes are the hulks, must be the
consolatory reflection that in time those hulks may
be altogether tenantless. Earnestly, then, do we
congratulate Mr. THOMAS SLINGSBY DUNCOMBE
upon the eulogistic remarks which fell on Thursday
evening from the lips of the Home Secretary. Those
expressions embodied in their very brevity and sim-
icity a
panegyric upon the Parliamentary career
of the Member for Finsbury ; and in such a panegyric
ewoer
iraeli certainty 1
_IIOMAS SLINGSBY DUNCOMBE is—and
,that the multitude will coincide with
deservesl to he--a national favourite.

The Society for Promoting 7 the Amendment of the
Law held their
second
gth. As is usuale reformatione
anniversaryrdi meeting on
n Saturday, Lord BaouoAm
with all public bodies associateesidforn
of public abuses, this society has not escaped sure;
but, inasmuch as the charge preferred against censure;
but,
wholly groundless, the effect has been, as is generally
li
the case where public societies are carped at in 57/1
ungenerous spirit, to impart increased vigour to its

constitution, to elevate its character in the public eye,
and to lead to a wise appreciation of the importance
of the objects for which it was embodied. The society
has been accused of encouraging hasty legislation.
, This is a bare assertion, without a fragment of proof to
confirm its veracity. Supposing, however, the allegation
could have been partially supported, to what would
it have amounted? The society does not pretend to
the art of divination and of infallible foresight.
Laws framed under the auspices of the most talented
legal advisers of the Crown, and which have subse-
quently passed through the ordeal of legislatorial
inquiry, have been frequently found to be seriously
defective within a short period of their enactment.
But this society not only stands free from the impu-
tation thrown out, but it has already established its
merits to public approval for the good it has actually
accomplished, as well as for the beneficial course in
which it is progressing. "In consequence of the efforts
of the society," observed Lord BROUGHAM, at the
meeting on Saturday, " some important measures
had been introduced into Parliament for the improve-
ment and amendment of the law ; some of those
measures had been completed, and others were in
progress." A mere glimpse at some of the names of
those who take a prominent interest in the welfare
of the society will suffice to satisfy every dispas-
sionate mind that precipitate legislation is a result the
least likely to flow from its laudable endeavours.
Lord Brougham, Lord Lyndhurst, the Earl of Devon,
Lord Ashburton, Mr. Bethell, Sir Fitzroy Kelly,
Mr. James Stewart, the Duke of Richmond, Lords
Radnor and Ebrington, Mr. Hume, M.P., Mr. Ewart,
M.P., Mr. Wyse, M.P., Mr. Roebuck, M.P., &c.,
besides many gentlemen of distinction in the various
branches of the legal profession, take an active part in
furthering the objects of the society. The evils of
the enormous expenses attendant upon the transfer of
land we have frequently alluded to ; they were
expatiated on at great length at the meeting
in question, and facts were stated which show
the science of conveyancing in this country
to be both disgraceful and oppressive to a civilized
community. In France and Italy, and other parts
of the continent, land was worth [forty-five years'
purchase, which in our country would not realise
more than thirty years' purchase, by reason of the
vexatious expenses incidental to its transfer. The
expenses, moreover, are not ad valorem. In one case
it cost a party 550/. to come into an estate of 1,5001.
The system tells most severely upon the capitalist of
slender means, for, if he desires to purchase a small
property, he is subjected to as heavy an expenditure
for its acquisition as the man whose purchase money
for an estate amounts to 150,000/. This is a social
evil of a most disheartening character. It is a
leading object of the society we have no-
ticed to emancipate us from this vexatious
thraldom of legal prolixity. Another is, to
suggest the means for having our Acts of Parliament
drawn up in a uniform and intelligible manner. The
loose and confused shape in which many of our laws
are passed is truly reproachful. The judges of the
land are themselves among the first to be constantly
adverting in terms of merited severity to the lax
method in which laws are concocted for their admi-
nistration. Respecting the criminal law, the atten-
tion of the society has been drawn by the Duke of
RICHMOND to the question, whether "its principal
object should not be the reformation of the criminal,
and not be confined to the deterring from crime."
A more philanthropic inquiry could not be entered
upon, and happily, too, it is one which we rejoice to
think is just now engrossing a great deal of public
attention. We congratulate the country upon the
prosperous manner in which the Society; for Promot-
ing the Amendment of the Law is proceeding in
its searching and unbiassed investigations into the
evils and anomalies which have so long and so per-
niciously characterised our legislation.

The account of the meeting of the Royal Agricul-
tural Improvement Society of Ireland, which will be
found elsewhere in our columns, will be perused with
melancholy interest. It proves that the gloomy fore-
bodings with respect to the potato crop have been but
too well founded. It establishes incontrovertibly the
fact, that the fatal disease—which, by destroying the
article chiefly in use for the national food, subjected
the great majority of our Irish brethren to the horrors
of famine, and subsequently of pestilence, induced by
the previous destitution—has again set in, that we
can indulge no flattering hcpes of an exemption this
year from a visitation similar to that which has de-
populated the Irish shores, and paralysed British in-
dustry—that has led to distress and monetary embar-
rassments in every class in either kingdom—that has
quadrupled the interest of money, and forced the
State to become a borrower of no less than 8,000,0001.
sterling, after a prolonged period of profound peace
and tranquillity, and of great national prosperity. It
is, however, in one respect satisfactory to know that
we are forewarned in good time, that the disaster is
not altogether reme diless. The indications by which
the existence of the taint can be recognised are
clearly pointed out. It appears " that it is
chiefly to be found in that part of the stem which lies
under ground, and that it may exist, although the
leaf appears perfectly healthy ; that it is shown some-
times on that portion of the stem near the surface of
the ground, but more frequently near the seed or set,
and presents the appearance of a bruise or dark mark
upon the surface." It is more than probable that
similar appearances were manifested at an equally
early period last year, but that an equal vigilance was
not exercised, and that consequently the sad discovery
was not made until it was too late to obtain a substi-
tute for the infested crop. This is, fortunately, not
at present the case ; there is yet time to sow Swedish
or Aberdeen turnips, mangel wurzel or cabbage plants,
which may be placed in the drills between the potato
stalks without any additional manures and at a small,
expense. Wherever tke disease has manifested itself
prompt and vigorous action therefore is essentially
necessary. The closet scrutiny should at once be
made by every one who has ventured to plant the
precarious and treacherous root in his lands into the
condition of the tubers. If they should be found marked
with the plague-spot, not an hour should be lost in
having recourse to the most active measures.
By so doing a great portion of the mischief and
suffering otherwise inevitable will be avoided,. and
famine, with all its attendant evils, will be driven
from our shores.

happily, too, this year a greater portion of the soil
than heretofore has been devoted to cereal products,
and there has been a corresponding diminution in the
quantity applied to the growth of the potato. The
class of persons, too, by whom it has been planted are
those who will be better enabled to bear the loss, and
who can more readily provide a substitute in the in-
fected fields. For these reasons, therefore, there
is little cause to dread a repetition of the har-
rowing scenes of the past and of the early part of the
present year. We can depend on the energies of
our countrymen, when fully apprised of the nature,
extent, and character of the emergency they
have to encounter and the difficulties they
have to overcome. The real evil is generally
fearfully aggravated by any undue panic; that should
chiefly be avoided. There is not the slightest occa-
sion for any such fear; we are no longer dealing
with a secret and insidious foe ; we know his
strength ; let us nerve ourselves for the contest ; let
us not cast away a chance from apathy or negligence,
but boldly and, manfully face the danger, and there
can be no doubt of the final success of our efforts. In
the meantime we trust that the Agricultural Improve-
ment Society will continue to instruct the public as
to the course to be adopted, and that all competent
persons will furnish the result of their investigations.

A letter from Hamburgh dated the 29th ult. states
that the dearth of provisions has occasioned a frequent
interchange of notes between the states composing the
German Customs Union, and that delegates are named
to meet in congress at Berlin, to agree upon new re-
gulations, and a new tariff of duties upon corn and
the other necessaries of life.

The Treaty of Commerce and Navigation be-
tween Naples and Prussia, acting in the name of
the Zollverein, which was concluded the 27th
January last, has just been ratified. It establishes
perfect reciprocity, and enacts, first, that merchandise
and products coming from Prussia and the states of
the Zollverein shall pay 10 per cent. less than the
merchandise and products coming from other states
now pay according to the Neapolitan tariff; and next,
that Prussia engages itself to obtain the consent of
the Zollverein to the importation of oil in casks to the

states of the Zollverein at 20 per cent. less than it
pays at present.

A letter from Rome of the 22d ult. says—

" I should in vain attempt to tell you the painful effect
caused here by the intelligence of the death of the Li-
berator of Ireland, Mr. O'Connell. From the Sovereign
Pontiff himself down to the lowest inhabitant of the Queen
City, all hearts are profoundly sad. On 15th June a solemn
mass of requiem will be celebrated in one of the principal
churches of Rome, and the first of Italian preachers, the
Rev. Father Ventura, will pronounce the funeral oration of
the great man who has rendered so many services to the
Catholic world. The heart of O'Connell is now placed in the
ancient church of St. Agatha, which is served by the priests
of the Irish College. They are to celebrate a solemn service
for the illustrious deceased next Monday, and it will be the
friend of O'Connell, the venerable Dr. Cullen, superior of
this pious and learned community who will officiate."

Cardinal MICARA, Dean of the Sacred College,
died on the 24th ult., at the age of seventy-two.

Madrid papers of the 30th and 31st ult. have been
received.

M. BRUNELLI, the Pope's Nuncio, arrived in
Madrid on the 29th.

Senor PACHECO has given his sanction to the pro
tocol agreec4 in London between the representa•
tives of the four powers, authorising intervention is

Portugal.

Count MELLO, it was reported, had separated him-
self from SA DA BANDEIRA, and retired towards the
Spanish frontier, where he was organizing a force
for the renewal of hostilities.

The rumour of the restoration of EsPARTERO to a
his honours has been revived.

MADRID, BOLSA, MAY 31.--The Three per Cents.
were done at 29i for cash ; the Four per Cents.
at 18 ; the Five per Cents. at 181 ; the Debt without
Interest at 5i ; and the Coupons at 15.

We have received the Paris papers of Friday and
Saturday.
The affair of the Chamber of Peers and of M. EMILE
DE GIRARDIN is the great subject of comment. The
nature of the charge made by M. EMILE DE GIRARDIN,
and for the bringing of which M. DE PONTOIS moved
that he be summoned to the bar of the Chamber, ap-
pears from the following article in the Consii-
tutionnel ;
"It is this day that the Chamber of Deputies will examine
in the bureaux the decision by which the Chamber of Peers
has summoned to its bar M. de Girardin, Deputy, the respon-
sible editor of the Presse. Before according or refusing the
authorisation to proceed against that gentleman, the Cham-
ber of Deputies ought to be informed of all the facts which
may affect its vote. The Chamber is guardian of the in-
violability of all its Members, and ought not on slight
grounds to deliver them up to any tribunal whatever. The
higher the tribunal which summons a Deputy to its bar,
the more circumspection ought the Chamber of Deputies to
exercise in the previous examination which it makes of the
case. This is the state of the question. The Presse as-
serted that the Epoque had existed by the traffic of promises
of peerages, which were sold for 80,000 f. each. It was asked
in the Chamber of Peers whether that could be considered an
insult to the Chamber, and whether consequently, art. 15 of
the law of March 25, 1822, was applicable. It is certain that
there is something obscure, and which ought to be
cleared up, in the assertion of the Presse. If we are well
informed, M. E. tie Girardin said on Thursday in the
Chamber, in the midst of a numerous group of his colleagues,
that he had in his possession proof that a sum of 80,000 f. had
been paid into the office of the Epoque, in exchange for the
promise of a peerage—such promise being besides made with
the knowledge of a Minister! However the individuals who
treated with the Epoque did not, it appears, obtain a return
for their sacrifice, the complete execution of their
bargain, since they were not afterwards nominated peers. If
the facts have passed in that way—if M. E. de Girardin can
give proofs of it, or even if there are strong presumptions in
favour of his aliegation, it is impossible that the Chamber of
Deputies can authorise the proceedings. In fact-Ist, the
consideration of the Chamber of Peers is not involved in the
question, since none of its Members is designated, even in-
directly by the journalist; 2dly, the true culprit, in that
hypothesis, is the Minister who was aware of the shameful
bargain, and not the journalist who denounced it. If it is true
that a journal was able to sell privileges of theatres, titles
of nobility, promises of peerages, &c., the offence consists
in having authorised such bargains, and not in revealing
them to the world. We can, therefore, only consider the
resolution of the Chamber of Peers as the beginning of an
investigation. The Chamber of Deputies has the matter now
before it, and it has a right to interrogate that one of its
members who is concerned in the matter, and to arrive at
the truth."

From a long article in the Presse we quote the
following :
"Did the Presse say that the peerage has in its ranks
peers who have purchased their nomination by money ? No ;
the Presse said nothing of the kind ; it only said that pro-
mises of the peerage were sold for 80,000 f. I It said nothing
more. The Chamber of Peers admits the peers, but does not
nominate them ; and it only admits them after an investiga-
tion into their lives and conduct. Thus, as Vice-president
Barthe and M. C. Dupin justly observed yesterday, in no
case can the enunciation of the Press. be considered as ad-
dressing itself to the Chamber of Peers. Far from seeing
in that enunciation an offence, the peerage, on the contrary,
should have considered it as the cry of a sentinel watching
over its honour, especially when it was uttered by the only
journal which has constantly defended it."

After alluding to some analogous cases in which a
different course was pursued, the Presse says—
" Would not M. de Girardin, as a deputy, have had the
right, in the sitting of the 11th February, to ascend the tri-
bune after M. Gustave de Beaumont, and to say : The Hon.
Gentleman who has just en umerated several facts relative to
the publication of a journal has declared to you that he
would not add others because the Chamber is too much
fatigued. Let me, however, add one: a promise of the
peerage bas been made to a person worthy in every respect
to be promoted to that dignity; but that promise was made
on the condition that he would assure the prolongation of the
existence of a Ministerial journal about to die, by means of
the payment of a sum of 80,000 francs ?' Would M. de
Girardin, in expressing such a fact at the tribune, have been
more exposed to be called to order than were M. Dupin and
M. Luneau in speaking of places in the Cour des Comptes
sold for money, or than M. Gustave de Beaumont in recount-
ing how much the concession of a certain privilege for a
theatre had brought to the cash-box of a certain journal?
Would not M. de Girardin have been in the plenitude of his
right? Assuredly. Explain then how a fact, which he
would have been allowed to declare at the tribune without
being called to order, can transform itself into an offence,
because he printed it before saying it, instead of saying it
before he printed it? The Chamber of Peers, which at first
had only the desire to enlighten itself with respect to a fact,
when once on the incline, allowed itself to follow without
clearly perceiving it, the attraction of an unreflecting sus-
ceptibility. That is what will certainly be shown to it by
the discussion which cannot fail to take place at the ti ibune
of the Chamber of Deputies, which M. de Girardin is impa-
tient to ascend, not to excuse himself, but to reject indig-
nantly the offence done to his character, his principles, and
his convictions, by those who have supposed that he could
have for one single moment the intention to cause the
slightest injury to the consideration of the peerage and of its
membeis."

On Saturday the Chamber of Deputies met in the
Bureau; to appoint a committee to decide on the ex-
pediency of acceding to the request of the Chamber
of Peers for the appearance of M. EMILE DE
GIRAEDIN at their bar. In the first bureaux M. DE
GIRAUDIN declared that he intended no disrespect to
the Peerage, his only object being to unmask the
Ministry. The Committee chosen consisted of
MM. PAILLET, LEON DE MALEVILLE, LAVIELLE,
MeItNY, GILLON, DELANGLE, ST. AIGNAN, COU-
STITRE, and D'HAUSONVILLE. Of these all, except
the two first, have declared that the request of
the Chamber of Peers should be granted.
The Journal des Debats has a long article demon-
strating the necessity of the immediate adoption of
free-trade principles by France. It is a homage to
the truth, and a proof of the correctness of the
principle of our free traders, that the adoption of
free trade by England would force other nations
either to become free-traders, or to cease to be
traders at all.

" We must admit (says the Journal des Dgats) that the
adoption of free trade by England influences neighbouring
nations, and France more than any other, to adopt the same
system. In fact, England, where the prices are high, is
about to become the receptacle of the overplus of all pro-.
ducing countries. It is always to her that any
overplus will be sent, inasmuch as she pays better, and
is able to consume the whole. Thus the free trade in corn
in England is a guarantee against too great a fall in prices
in other markets. Still more, we believe that a part of the
grain from our north-western provinces will be exported to
England. In that respect likewise we shall suffer a loss,
and as France on an average produces scarcely sufficient
grain for her consumption, we must apply to foreign coun-
tries for a supply, and we must attract them by establishing
freedom of commerce, and not repel them by the sliding
scale. With respect to the stock of corn to be derived from
countries denominated productive, we must remark that we
experience much disappointment with respect to the United
States. We flattered ourselves that the opening of the
Erie canal would brine. a considerable quantity of wheat and
flour to New York, bu't as yet we have been disappointed.
We read in a circular issued by one of the most eminent
houses in New York, Prime Ward and Co., dated ;15th of
May, that at Buffalo, which is the harbour of Lake Erie,
notwithstanding the facilities afforded by the season to col-
lect large supplies—notwithstanding the attraction of high
prices in New York—notwithstanding it was known that
several ships were waiting in that city to load corn for
Europe, there was but a trifling supply of wheat and flour
arrived. The boatmen on the canal who had assembled at
Buffalo in expectation of finding a good freight for New
York were offered a reduced price for t heir labour. Wheat
was quoted at a high price at New York ; and a barrel of
flour, which generally sells at 4i to 5 dollars, was worth 8
dollars. Thus the experience of this yaar gives every day a
formal contradiction to all the liars manifested on the subject
of the competition which might be raised against our agricul-
turists by foreign produce it it was admitted free into our mar-
kets. On the one hand,it has become evident that the quantity
to be drawn from countries termed productive is limited ; on the
other hand, it has been ascertained that when the markets
of the great states of western Europe were brought into tree
communication with the productive countries, it was not our
price which was reduced to theirs, but theirs, on the contrary,
which was raised to ours. The experience of this year is,
therefore, perfectly conclusive in favour of the system of free
trade in provisions, but it demonstrates particularly that the
system by which we would endeavour to prevent that. liberty
scarcity,
duringto ex extend
dpurroaitliiobnitioonf thehetheens
ge-
nerally to all articles of fbod, admits of no excuse.
The Committee of the Chamber of Deputies ap-
pointed to examine the project of law for renewing,
psyrosbteambleof
until the 31st of October, the authorization to import
freely into France all sorts of grain, had, with the .

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