The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-05 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, FRIDAY,
The 27foniteur contains an Imperial decree con-
ferring the rank of grand officer in the Legion of
Honour on Vice-Admiral Count Serra, commander -
in-chief of the Sardinian navy. The same decree
nominates four other officers, in the same service,
to the rank of commander ; six to that of officer
and 18 to that of knight, as a reward for the ser-
vices rendered during the war of Italian indepen-
dence.

Th• Constitutionnel makes the following remarks :
—" The Lisbon journal brings us wonderful news.
An English fleet, with 12,000 men on board, is at
this present moment expected at Lisbon. What
can these 12,000 men be sent there for ? To pro-
tect Portugal against the execution of a treaty con-
cluded between France and Spain, in virtue of
which the Government of Queen Isabella is to
cede to France the Balearic Isles and Navarre, in
exchange for the annexation of Portugal ! In
publishing this intelligence the Portuguese journals
maintain their gravity, which is more than we can
do. An English fleet with 12,000 men on board
for operations on land, a treaty ceding Navarre
and the Balearic Isles to France, Spain absorbing
Portugal, constitute altogether one of the best
canards we have heard of for many a day. Far
from seeking to throw any doubt upon the state-
ment, we will only congratulate the Portuguese
journals in this effort of their inventive powers. It
is hardly possible to be more successful in rivalling
Punch."

A letter from Nice, of the Ist says :—" The Olaff
returned to Villefranche the day before yesterday.
She brought back to Nice the Grand Duchess
Maria, who had gone to pass the Easter week at
Rome. There appiars not to be any doubt that the
departure of the Empress Dowager of Russia has
been deferred, and that her Majesty will be still
here when the Emperor and Empress of the French
arrive." It is stated also that a petition to the
Emperor, praying that the title of Count de Nice
may be conferred on the Imperial Prince, is being
numerously signed in all the towns and villages of
the county ; and that the ladies of the city are
signing a similar petition to the Empress.
The delegates of the Commercial Committee of
that important city have, consequently, drawn up
a statement, disapproving M. Magne'f, scheme, and
they have sent copies of it to the members of the
Legislative Corps. The document is as follows :
Until the year 1854 foreign wines, on their en-
trance into France, were subject to the following
duties :

Ordinary wine, imported by land, 16f. 50c. the
hectolitre, the decime included.
Ordinary wine, imported by sea, 36f. 50c. the
hectolitre, the decime included.

Five wines, whether imported by land or sea,
110 f. the hectolitre, the decime included,

The four years 1850, 1851, 1852, and 1853 have
given the following results with respect to ordi-
nary wines :

years. Hectolitres received Hectolitres Duty levied.
iu entrepot. consumed. Francs.
1850 .. 4,34 U 593 .. 15,951
1851 .. 4,430 .. 682 4'. 17,604
1852 .. 9,400 .. 627 16,756
1853 .. 26,880 .. 863 .. 22,863

45,050 2,765 73,174
Being on an average 690, hectolitres yearly, having
produced the Treasury a revenue of 18,260 f. Under
the same regime and during the same years fine
wines gave the following results :

1850 .. 4,570 .. .. 2,602 .. .. 275,589
1851 .. 3,970 .. .. 2,638 .. .. 279,092
18.52 .. 3,760 .. .. 2,851 .. .. 308,115
1853 .. 4,880 .. .. 3,614 .. .. 360,14.5

17,180 11,705 1,222,941
Being an average for each year of 2,926 hectolitres,
having produced to the Treasury a revenue of
305,735 f.; or a total average for all foreign wines
of 3,617 hectolitres having produced the Treasury
a revenue of 323,983 f.
The duties on foreign wines were abolished in
August and September, 1854, and replaced by a
duty of 25 centimes or with the deckme 271 cen-
times.

The four years which followed this change give
he following results for ordinary wines :
_

Hectolitres Received Hectolitres Duty Levied
Years.
in Entrepot. Consumed. Francs.
1855 403,520 .. 395,542 112,354
1856 .. 330,300 .. 325,476 .. 97,557
1856 .. 618,910 .. 611,377 183,512
1858 .. 108,350 .. 100,710 30,287

1,461,08 J 1,433,087 423,710
Being an average consumption of 358,272 hecto-
litres, having produced to the Treasury an average
revenue of 105,927 f.

During the same period fine wines figure on the
Custom-house book as follow :
Years. Hectolitres Received Hectolitres Duties levied
in Entrepot. Consumed. Francs.
1855
1856
1857
1858

71,220 69,400 20,600
" Being an average consumption of 17,350 hecto-
litres, having produced an average revenue of
5,150 f. to the Treasury.
In a word, when we compare the two periods
we find the average results have been—
Average from 1850 to 1853:
Importation. Consumption. Du lea
Ilectolitres. Hectolitres. Francs.
Ordinary wine 11,260 .. 690 .. 18.260
Fine wines 4,295 2,926 305,735

25,5.55 3,616
Average from 1855 to 185 S :—•

323,995

Ordinary wine 365,270 ..353,272 .. 105,927
Fine wines

383,075 375,622

111,077

In fine, if we decompose the origin of the wines
imported, we find that of the 375,000 hectolitres of
ordinary wine imported on an average each year of
the second period, more than 300,000 are Spanish,

and of the 17,000 hectolitres of fine wines more than
8,000 are likewise Spanish.

It is under these circumstances that the Govern-
ment proposes on the occasion of the Law on the
Budget to tax foreign wines on their arrival in
France with a duty of 12f. the hectolitre, a duty
which, according to the preamble of the bill, is to
bring to the Treasury an additional revenue of
1,170,000 f. In order to obtain such a result the
consumption must rise to 106,000 hectolitres a year.
An examination of the preceding figures will
show that such a result cannot be obtained. If with
an average duty of 25f. the hectolitre a duty which
was only 15f. for wines arriving by land (and all
Spanish wines may arrive by land) there entered
only 690 hectolitres a year from the year 1850 to
1853, how can it be expected that with a duty of 12f.
—that is, of only 3f. the hectolitre less—there can
arrive nearly 100,000 hectolitres—that is, nearly

150 times as much ? On common wines 15f. the hec-
tolitre, and the decime represented 16;1c. the litre,
12f. and the decime will represent 131-c. The dif-
ference to the consumer will not be felt, and no im-
portation will take place. The hopes expressed in the
Budget must consequently be reduced to their real
value, and we must admit that the importation of
ordinary wine will fall to the old figure, or nearly
so-690 hectolitres—it may reach 800 or perhaps
1,000 hectolitres, and the Treasury will receive at
most the sum levied previous to the year 1854,
viz., 20,000 f. As for fine wines, an article of
luxury of which the value is so high that a dif-
ference of Inc. the litre will not stop the con-
sumption, it may reach the average of late years,
viz., 17,000 hectolitres, which will produce, at 12f.
and the decime, 225,000 f., which, added to 20,000 f.,
gives 245,000 f. ; being an increase of 134,000 f.
over the produce of the existing regime, which is
111,000 f. Thus, with the supposition of a large
importation of fine wines equal under the regime of
duties to that which took place under free trade, a
surplus may be expected, not of 1,170,0001., but of
134,000 f.

Can a surplus of 134,000 f justify a measure so
opposed to the liberal principles proclaimed by the
Government ?

Six years' experience had proved that the
free introduction of foreign wines could not injure
the wine production in France, as in the year when
importation was greatest (610,000 hectolitres in
1857) there only entered an inferior quaatity by
11 per cent. of the annual average production of
France (45,000,000 hectolitres). This experience
was a good example given by the agricultural in-
dustry to manufacturing industry. Not a com-
plaint was heard, not a voice demanded the re-esta-
blishment of the duties, no agricultural or commer-
cial interest was found injured. On the contrary,
the consumer profited by the influence of the im-
portations on prices, and the people by an abundant
and wholesome product. Commerce had large pro-
fits ; the marine and railroads were largely employed,
and the payment abroad was effected not in money,
but by the exportation more and more active of the
proaucts of French industry. The proof of this last
fact would be easy to give, for Spain particularly.
These favourable results are not the only ones. The
influence of the foreign market has maintained a
normal equilibrium in the prices of our own markets.
The deficiency of our harvests could not paralyze
our export trade, and the progress which the
French themselves taught to Spain in the art of
getting in and preparing the wine made of the
Peninsula a sort of annex to our wine-producing
districts. These districts see with pain that in a
fiscal point of view, which certainly will not be
satisfied (and which, even were it satisfied, will be
in all cases without real importance), they are ex-
posed to the risk of losing the advantages of a liberty
which, with so much reason, is sought to be con-
ferred on all the articles of international traffic.
They hoped, on the contrary, that, strengthened
by the Treaty concluded with England, by the ini-
tiative which it took in 1854, in admitting foreign
wines for French consumption, our Government
would demand especially of Spain to reduce to a
reasonable rate the duty of about 150 f. the hecto-
litre, which was levied on the wines of France.
The taste for articles of luxury is progressively
developed in Spain ; and the day that a treaty
will open freely the Pyrenees to our Bordeaux and
Champagne wines a great exchange trade will be
established, and will contribute, by all the indirect
means of public prosperity, to enrich the Treasury
much more than the re-establishment of an illusory
duty of a nature to inevitably paralyse transactions.
We mention Spain particularly, because its wines
enter for more than in the entire sum of the imports
of France ; but the same reasons for exchange exist
with all other wine countries. The more importa-
tion is facilitated the more shall be developed
the exportation not only of the wines so esteemed
and so various of all the wine-producing countries
of France, but also that of the other products of our
agricultural and manufacturing industry.
Ordinary wine is an object of current consump-
tion, bought by a class who can pay a certain price,
but who cannot go beyond it. The price of ordi-

nary wine is from 30 to 45 centimes the litre. A
duty of 131 centimes is a duty of 30 per cent. at the
minimum, and which may be raised to 45 per cent.
When the principle of prohibition has just
been abolished, when every duty exceeding
30 per cent. has been declared to be a prohibitive
one, it would be a matter of regret that to the detri-
ment of the consumer, to the detriment of commerce,

in opposition to the titerests themselves of the
French wine producers, a prohibition which nothing
can justify should be established. We believe that
it will suffice to indicate to the Government the
true state of the question to induce it to give up a
measure to the consequences of which it behoves
us to direct its most serious attention, iu order that
nothing should occur to diminish the satisfaction
felt in these parts of the country at the liberal and
salutary measures which we have been the first to
welcome.