The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-24 00:00:00

, come brisk, exports would be made on a large scale; the
merchants in the departments, who dare not purchase
through fear of an extraordinary fall in prices, which
might produce a glut, would be anxious to supply them-
selves through a dread of a sudden rise; the manufac-
tories would become active; labour, that element of
order and security, would act upon consumption; and
consumption, acting in its turn on labour, would give it
fresh activity. The objection made to raise the draw-
back to 10 per cent. is the heavy charge it would impose
on the Treasury, but this objection would fall to the
ground if the drawback was limited to a certain amount
of goods. For example, 300,000,000 E worth exported
with a drawback of 5 per cent. would cost the Treasury
15,000,000 f. (600,0001.) It would be sufficient, however,
when raising the drawback to 10 per cent. to fix
15,000,000 f. (600,0001.) as the limit of the sacrifice to be
made by the Government. The charge on the Treasury
would remain the same, but it would have a more
prompt, immediate, and energetic action, and better
suited to the crisis through which we are passing. In
place of exporting merchandise to the value of
300,000,000 f. (12,000,0001.) slowly and with difficulty,
150,000,000 f. (6,000,000/.) worth might be sold rapidly
under the spur of a double amount of drawback, and such
a movement would cause the remaining 150,000,0001.
worth to be bought up either for home consumption or
for exportation. As to the political bearing of this
sacrifice of 15,000,0001., it may be explained in a few
words. The manufactories for spinning and weaving
employ 1,600,000 persons, who earn on an average 22
sous (11d.) daily. If those factories are abandoned to
their own resources, the production will be diminished
by one-half, and 800,000 operatives will be deprived of
employment, which, for four months, represents a sum
of 87,000,000 f. (3,480,000/.) Thus the Government
may, by an outlay of 15,000,0001. provide employment
for 800,000 operatives who suffer most amidst our
population."

This is a plan which will, no doubt, be looked upon
by the Protectionists as the perfection of wisdom,
and yet it differs nothing in principle from the plans
of M. PROUDHON. M. PROUDUON would at once
confiscate one-third of all the property of France to
provide employment or relief Rir the ouvriers gene-
rally, and his plan is denounced as Communism. The
Constitutionnel proposes to take from the taxation of
the country a smaller amount, to be devoted to
the purpose of providing a smaller amount of
employment for a smaller class of ouvriers, and
that plan is called Protection ; but it is the same in
principle as the plan of M. PROUDHON. The taxa-
tion must necessarily be levied upon the property of
the country, and should be devoted only to the pay-
ment of the expenses of the State. Any diversion of
any portion of the taxation of the State to the pay-
ment of bounties such as those recommended by the
Constitutionnel, necessitates the levying of such addi-
tional sum from the tax-payers, and is, pro tanto, a
confiscation of their property and for the same object for
which M. PROUDHON would confiscate their property.
The only difference between them is this, that M.
PROUDHON applies the principle of confiscation
directly, the Constitutionnel applies it indirectly; to
parody the mot of SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, " A
Protectionist is a Communist with a circuntbendibus."

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of Saturday and
yesterday.
The Moniteur of Saturday publishes the following :
"The Government of the Republic yesterday received
the following telegraphic dispatch:--' The Austrians
entered Ferrara on the 14th inst., to the number of
5,000; they occupied the principal posts of the city, and
levied a war contribution. The Pope protested, and the
Chamber of Deputies unanimously voted a proposed
league between all the states of Italy against Austria.' "
The particulars of this irruption of Austrians into
the Pontifical dominions, and of their speedy retreat,
will be found among our Italian intelligence.
The Bien Public of Saturday has the following.
It is interesting, as being the appreciation by M. DE
LAMARTINE of the character of M. LEDRU ROLLIN:--
" The Siècle desires to know our opinion of M. Ledru
Rollin. The day after the barricades M. Ledru Rollin,
still thrilling with the revolutionary tradition of the
Montagne, appeared to us a republican a great deal too
crimson. M. Ledru Rollin gravely deceived himself in
his calendar. He for an instant dreamed of a govern-
ment of intimidation. This was tearing France in two,
and there was his error. And this error, we do not fear
to say, enormously contributed to disaffect the country ;
the 45 centimes especially clenching the prose of the
bulletins. And now, as we are anxious above all things
to be just, we think it right to declare that M. Ledru
Rollin allowed himself to be led away, in those circum-
stances, by two bad genii who held the pen by his side.
His speeches are evidently better than his circulars. He
is only a tribuue on the surface, and we believe there is
in him the stuff of a man of government."
The question of the ouvriers is again occupying
public attention. The present state of this impor-
tant question shows the infinite dangers that every
state must incur which does not take political eco-
nomy for its guide ; the greater portion of the evils
from which France is now suffering may be traced
to the false step adopted by Provisional Governments
in instituting the ateliers nationaux, and in holding out
the hope that it was possible for any Government to
organize labour.
The Minister of Public Works has just drawn up
a series of regulations relative to work by the piece
in the ateliers nationaux. The works are to consist
in the improvement of the national departmental and
the cross roads, in improving navigation, construct-
ing railways, extracting stone, sand, &c., and are to
be confided exclusively to the men of the ateliers
4eationa4 x. ,During the first fortnight a minimum
pay of one franc a-day is assured to the men, and
any man refusing work is to be immediately deprived
of assistance from the State. Each man engaged is
supplied with a livret, signed by the engineer direct-
ing the works, and containing the principal condi-
tions to which he has to submit.
The examination of the project for the Constitution
in the Bureaux is now nearly finished, and it is sup-
posed that the Members will terminate their labours
to-day.
The Moniteur publishes a decree of the Chief of
the Executive Government, conferring the decoration
of the Legion of Honour on several of the Garde
Mobile .
The claims upon the credit of 200,000 f., voted as
compensation for the damage done in the days of Fe-
bruary, amounted up to the 10th inst. to only
167,000 f., and it is not expected that any further im-
portant demands remain to be made.
By recent decrees Rear-Admiral BRIIAT has been
nominated Maritime Prefect of Toulon in the room
of Vice-Admiral PARSEVAL DESCHENES, .Rear-Ad-
miral LAPLACE, Maritime Prefect at Rochefort, in
the room of Captain VAILLANT; Vice-Admiral PAR-
SEVAL DESCHENES, Inspector-General of crews in
the ports of Cherbourg, Brest, and Lorient ; Vice-
Admiral HAMELIN, Inspector-General of crews at
Rochefort and Toulon ; Vice-Admiral CAST, member
of the Admiralty, in the room of M. HAMELIN; and
Captain VAILLANT, member of the Admiralty, in the
room of M. VERNINAC.
In the sitting of the National Assembly on Satur-
day, M. GOUDOLIAUX, the Minister of Finance,
brought forward his proposition for a loan, and in so
doing made a statement explanatory of the presen
state of the finances. He said—

" That his predecessor had presented on the Bth ult.
the modified budget of 1848, in which it was errone-
ously mentioned that the receipts would exceed the
expenditure by 4,600,000 f. After carefully examining
that project, he had ascertained that the hopes enter-
tained by M. Duclere could not be realised. He would

now sub-mit to the Assembly the result of that examina-
tion, together with the means he proposed in order to
cover the deficit of that year. He trusted that that
expose would dissipate any exaggerated uneasiness, and
that with a severe economy, and a prudent reserve in the
vote of laws tending to increase the expenses, it would
be easy to meet all difficulties. He was sorry to inform
the Assembly that different branches of revenue had

'alien off considerably. The diminution in the proceeds
of the direct tax would amount to 20,000,000 f., and the
indirect tax t060,000,000f. The tax on mortgages,valued
at 45,000,000 f., would not afford more than 20,000,000 f.;
that on successions, estimated at 30,000,000 E, would
produce nothing; the project on insurances, which was
to give 5,000,000 f., had been withdrawn; and
the
25,000,000 f. of the National Loan having been paid in
Treasury bonds, and not in specie, were unavailable.
M. Goudchaux calculated that the deficit would not
be lass than 135,000,000E,and that, with various other ex-
penses, it would amount in all to 209,000,000 E, to meet
"ich the Government had no other extraordinary re-
source than the loan of 150,000,000 f. concluded with the
Bank of France. The Government had, accordingly,
resolved to make an appeal to public credit, and propose
to the
.National Assembly to empewer it to contract a
loan of from 175 to 200 millions which would enable it
to satisfy all the demands of the'State. M. Goudchaux
inext read a project of decree, the first article of which
declared. that the loan of 250,000,000 E voted last year,
not having been executed, was null nod void. By the
second article, a credit of 13,000,000 E Bente was to be
opened in the Ministry of Finance, which would be paid
in monthly instalments of 7i per cent. from the 7th of
August. The Minister, in conclusion, announced that
the Government found it necessary to maintain the tax
on salt and liquors until 1850."
The discussion on that decree was fixed for Monday.
In the course of the sitting on Saturday, the Assembly
also decreed the Mobilization of 300 battalions of Na.
tional Guards.

It is rumoured that M. ARMAND .AIARRAST will be