The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-28 00:00:00

FRANCE.

{The following appeared in our Third Edition of
last night,
In the sitting of the Assembly yesterday, M. Thiers
read a report of the Committee of Finance on a pro-
position of M. Proudhon, relative to the tax on revenues.
The proposition, he said, tended to authorise the Go-
vernment to seise one-third of the rents, and the Com-
mittee bad been unanimously of opinion to reject
it. According to the proposition, a tax of one-third
was to be levied after the 15th of July, 1848, on
all property, one-sixth of which was to be given to the
lodgers and farmers, and the other to the Government.
M. Proudhon calculated that the produce of that new
tax would amount to at least 150 millions of francs,
and permit the suppression or reduction of other taxes,
particularly those on articles of consumption, the
most odious of all. M. Proudhon suggested that the
Government once in possession of those resources
might proceed to organise immediately discount banks
in all the districts of France ; create farming and
manufacturing banks, &c. M. Thiers stated that that
proposition bad been discussed during several days in the
Committee, in a financial, moral, and political point of
view. The project originally published in a journal,
subsequently suspended for sedition, contained a direct
and avowed attack against property. It was presented
as a petition of a factious nature, since its author
declared that it should not be presented as a prayer but
an order. I was moreover founded on the denial of
the right of property, and was one of those engines by
means of which so many ambitious men sought of late '
celebrity or power amidst the ruins of social order. M.
Proudhon,when examined by the Committee, declared that
he did not wish to destroy property, but merely to de-
rive from it a temporary resource for the benefit and
protection of property itself. The Committee, however,
had not considered the proposition entitled to considera-
tion. It regarded it as one of those indirect appeals to
citisens to turn against each other the arms that should
only be directed against the enemies of the country.
M. Thiers was of opinion that all those anti-social
doctrines should be discussed publicly and in noonday,
and that they should not be stifled, lest the modern
Erostrates should, like Galileo, complain of having
been condemned without a hearing. He next de—
monstrated the folly of the proposed scheme, and
maintained that it would be impossible to raise
the sum of 1,500,000,000 francs. In 1821 the Govern-
ment had ordered an inquiry to be instituted into
the revenue of the landed property of France, and
it was ascertained that it did not exceed 1,600 millions.
23 years afterwards a new inquiry was instituted, and it
was found to have increased by one-fourth, and to
amount to 2,000 millions, or perhaps 2,200. To-day
that revenue would not be above 1,800 millions. After
recapitulating the different branches of revenue of
which M. Proudhon proposed to confiscate one-third, M.
Thiers showed that not more than 320 millions could be
realised.

M. Thiers contended that it was neither a system of
credit nor a new tax. M. Proudhon wished to establish
that it was an attack against property, as audacious as it
was ably combined; that if there were errors entitled to
pity and respect, there were others unworthy of any in-
dulgence; that the doctrines developed by M. Proudhon
deserved universal reprobation, and, in the interest of
society so deeply shaken, he called on the National As-
seeibly to ratify the judgment of its Finance Committee.
M. Proudhon next asked that his proposition be dis-
cussed on Saturday.
M. Boutel, as Member of the Finance Committee, had
found fault with a passage of M. Thiers' report, in which
he said, that the project of decree on the progressive tax
bad alarmed all the proprietors. M. Boutel was not a
partisan of the savage doctrines of M. Proudhon ; he
indignantly reproved them, but he thought that M.
Thiers was not justified in attacking before hand a pro-
ject of decree presented by the Government.
M. Thiers replied, that M. Boutel was the only mem-
ber of the Committee who had objected to that passage
of his report. He had at first used the word " deeply
irritated the proprietors," but at the suggestion of M.
Boutel he had consented to substitute for them the word
" alarmed."

When M. Thiers descended from the tribune a great
tumult arose, which only subsided when General Ca-
vaignac appeared at the tribune.
General Cavaignac gave his fullest approbation to
every word of M. Thiers's report and thanked him in
the name of the country for the sentiments he had ex-
pressed. But he thought that M. Thiers should not
have condemned in advance a project of decree that had
not yet come under discussion.
M. Thiers maintained his right, and observed that the
Committee to which the project had been referred had
reproved its principle.
After a few words from General Cavaignac, the inci-
dent was dropped.
M. Marie, Minister of Justice, next laid on the table
a project of decree relative to elections of Judges of the
Tribunals of Commerce. According to the decree, the
members of those tribunals should in future be elected
by merchants, licensed during five years, and having re-
sided two years within the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
M. Marrast next read a letter from M. Bixin, who
tendered his resignation of the post of Vice-President of
the Assembly.

The Assembly afterwards resumed the adjourned dis-
cussion on the 13th article of the law relative to clubs,
which had been referred, with the different amendments,
to the Committee.
M. Coquerel, the reporter, stated that the Committee
had carefully examined all these amendments, and thought
proper to substitute three articles for the lath article. By
the first, it was proposed to prohibit all secret societies,
and to condemn their members to a fine of from 10L to
and to an imprisonment of from three months to a
year. The penalty eight be doubled as resreted the

••••-•••-,•.• JG.I/Ll. uiLiatfil3 were IA) ue
C.lllllloriZed to establith circles or reunions, which were
not of a political nature, on giving previous notice of
their intention to the authorities. Finally, the 15th
article sanctioned the right of all citizens to hold pre-
paratory electoral meetings and to assemble for religious
purposes. _ _ _

M. Vivien observed that the penalties against secret
societies were not sufficiently severe, and proposed not
only to increase the fine and imprisonment, but to de-
prive the members of such societies of their civil rights
during a period of five years at least and ten years at
most.

A discussion ensued on the nature of secret societies,
which M. Vallette was desirous to specify in the law.
M. Dupin stated that the fact of their secrecy consti-
tuted their culpability.
M. Flocon was left at the tribune, combating M. Du-
pin's opinion.

LIVERPOOL, MANCHESTER, AND

NEWCASTLE JUNCTION RAILWAY.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

The opposition (petitioners) to this line having
been thrown out on Wednesday night by the Com-
mittee of the House of Lords, I send you the follow-
ing account of the line from its first introduction into
Parliament :

"This line is intended to join the East Lancashire
line at Burnley, and run north into the York and
Newcastle line at Cowton (near Richmond), in York-
shire, crossing the projected Northern Counties Union
line, which runs to Bedele, and using twelve miles of
that line, the total length being fifty-six miles.
" The company was projected in 1845 under the
highest patronage; the shares were to be 80,000, at 201.
each, with 21. 10s. paid. Several other projects were
in the field to occupy the district; there being nothing
nearer than the Leeds and Thirsk on the east side,
the Northern Counties Union on the north side of the
proposed line, and the Lancaster and Carlisle on the
east side of it, into which the rival Northern Coun-
ties line ran. The only project which survived
was the Lancashire and North Yorkshire Company,
which agreed in committee in 1846 to amalgamate
with this line.

"The Bill passed most triumphantly in 1846, and
the amalgamation took place ; the capital then to be
70,000 shares at 201., and the shares were equally
divided, 35,000 to each company or body of pro-
prietors.

"This line shortened the route between Newcastle-
upon-Tyne and Liverpool 25 miles over any other line,
between Newcastle and Fleetwood 541
miles, between
Newcastle and Preston the same, between Newcastle
and Manchester 181 miles, and to Bury 38 miles ; it
commanded the traffic between those places, and of
course the north of Ireland via Fleetwood. The coal
and coke passing over the line was calculated at an
immense extent, and the line itself occupied a rich
grazing country : it shortened the communication
between the terminii considerably more than the
Northern Counties Union line.

"Mr. Hudson had agreed to pay six per cent. on half
the capital for making the twelve miles running west
from Bedale to the Northern Counties Union line, in
other words, that part WlO to be common to both