The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-16 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

LIMERICK, SEPT.l2.—liTiid regiment, in this
garrison, unexpectedly received a countermand on
Thursday morning, from the Quartermaster-General's
office, Dublin, and will, it is supposed, remain for the
winter. The first division was to have marched hence
yesterday morning for Dnblin, and the baggage was
actually packed up.
The 55th regiment landed in Cork, from Devonport,
en route to this garrison, are also countermanded, and
will remain in their present quarters.
THE CROPS IN THE WEST.

We have lately had an opportunity of inspecting per.
sonally the state of the crops in a large district of this
county, and with regret we are obliged to say that one
universal scene of desolation, so far as regarded the
potato crop, presented itself to our view. We feel as-
sured that, in a fortnight at furthest, there will not be a
sound potato in the county of Galway. The oat crop,
in saving and cutting down which the people were for
the most part engaged during the week, promises a fair
return, but not so abundant as was that of the last year,
and wheat, which is all safely lodged in the haggard,
appears to yield more than an average return. If kept
in the country, there would be plenty of provisions for
the support of the people, but if some check be not
given to exportation, we have the worst apprehensions
for the safety of the nation.
We are happy to state that on Wednesday night the
hardy fishermen of the Claddagh met with more success
than has attended their labours on any occasion during
the present season, several of the boats engaged in the
herring fishery have taken over three thousand each. We
sincerely hope they will prove even more fortunate in
future, and that there will be a good supply of fish for
the use of the poor as well as for the rich. The price at
market on Thursday was 13s. per thousand. Yesterday
there was a good supply of coarse fish at Market.—
Galway Mercury of Saturday.

FREE TRADE IN FRANCE.
At a numerous agricultural meeting, which took place
on the Bth inst., at Fauville (Seine Inferieure), which
was attended by several thousand farmers, agriculturists,
and manufacturers, the Chairman (M. Barbet, Peer of
France) took occasion to attack, in a prepared discourse,
the Free Trade Society. Fortunately, one of the most
enlightened of the members of this association, M.
Anisson I)uperron, Peer of France, was on the platform
beside the chairman ; he immediately accepted the chal-
lenge made by M. Barbet, his impromptu speech being
received with much favour by an auditory that could
not be supposed prepossessed. In his speech M. Du-
perron said that when invited to take part in that agri-
cultural fate, he had not been informed of the attack
which their chairman meditated on a national, serious,
and important association, to which he had the honour
to belong. He was a zealous member of the association
recently and legally formed in favour of the principles
of freedom of trade ; it was, therefore, his duty to take
upon himself its defence, and their indulgence would
excuse him if an attack, entirely unforeseen in a meet-
ing such as that, found him without preparation to meet
and repulse it. No, their association was not inimical
to the national industry, for it had been constituted pur-
posely to aid it in circumstances of the greatest danger
by which it had ever been menaced, and which, perhaps,
many among them did not perceive ; the very existence
of their foreign commerce was at stake. In favour of
their prohibitive system of duties their Chairman ap-
pealed to the measures of reform recently introduced in
Eugland against the same system by that able minister
Sir B. Peel. Those who now held such language should
permit him to say, that they understood neither the cha-
racter nor the tendency of that great revolution ; if they
would grant him a few momenta attention he would
briefly explain it. England had declared the complete,
actual, and radical abolition of taxes on raw materials
entering as primary elements into the composition of
her productions of all kinds. On this condition she
hopes to produce at a very low price, and renounces the
principle of protection by tariffs against similar foreign
productions. Let them consider the consequences of
that measure on the two great industries of which they
there that day represented the interests, in the very
place in which they were then assembled, those were
the agricultural interests and the cotton manufacture.
fie could not speak of their relations of direct trade
with England ; they would undergo but few changes,
so long as they persisted in the tariff regulations of
which their Hon. Chairman had invoked the mainte-
nance. Let them rather speak of the foreign markets,
into which they felt the necessity of pouring the sur-
plus of their products ; where these prohibitions had no
access, where they would experience the inevitable com-
petition of the foreigners, and where they must present
their goods at prices relatively as low as his. How
would they sustain in those markets the competition of
unburdened products, freed from all those charges
which weighed down their own productions, when be-
yond this the inventive genius and persevering activity of
the English producer should be still more excited by the
necessities of a competition he has not feared himself to
attack and provoke ? He told them, with sorrow and
conviction, that if they followed the counsels that had
been given them, their exportations were at an end. Did
they know what their tax on iron cost their agriculture
alone ? He had the right of saying it there, for ho had
detailed the incontestable calculation, even in the tribune
of the Chamber of Deputies, supporting it by the very
documents of his adversaries themselves, and that cam-