The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-04 00:00:00

they were entitled to the support of a Governtri n
who professed in all things to adopt as their m,,0,
" In medio tutissinms• This reasoning, hat,-
ever, had no effect on M. d'Argnut, who with his
colleagues remained inflexible, throwing the respon-
sibility of this unpopular enactment on the majority
of the Chamber, as at present constituted. I.
another bad harvest should follow the two which
have already taken place the price to which cora
will rise in the districts of France will be such
as to excite a clamour against the present Cham-
ber, which nothing will satisfy but the est4blsl -
ment of the electoral qualification on a broader an i
more popular basis.
The next clause of the new law is that wh'et•
imposes a surplus duty on corn imprted in fore;go
bottoms. By the temporary law which was passed
on this subject in the session of 1830, immediately
after the revolution, the surplus duty was fixed at
one franc per hectolitre, or half-a-crown per quarter,
and Ministers on this occasion supported the expe-
diency of maintaining this branch of the duty,
which is in fact a premium in favour of the
shipping interest at the expense of the consumer,
at the rate at which it formerly stood. On this point,
however, although ably seconded by M. de la
Roche, the intelligent representative of the princi-
pal seaport on the Atlantic side of the kingdom,
the Ministry were again outvoted by the overwhelm•
ing influence of the agricultural interest, who, it
they could include importation in foreign bottoms by
means of a prohibitory surplus duty, would virtually
exclude 9-10ths of all the corn required to supply the
deficiency of home production, for not only is the
French tonnage inadequate in quantity to meet the
wants of a season like the present, but the French-
built ships are in general so constructed as to be un-
fit for the navigation of the North Sea, from which
the supplementary supplies of corn are chiefly de-
rived. In spite of Ministerial remonstrance, this
branch of the duty was definitively fixed at one franc
25 centimes per hectolitre, or as near as possible
per quarter—an amount of protection which will go
far to discourage all foreign competition, and which
will of course aggravate the calamity with which
France is now threatened. When the last almanack of
Matthew Laensberg made its appearance, the French
made themselves merry with the solemn
prediction of this formidable rival of our
own Mr. Moore, the erudite editor of the
Vox Stellarum, that the country would be visi-
ted in the year 1832 with the three great calamities
of war, pestilence, and famine. In sober serious-
ness, however, we are already more than threatened
with two of the three; and whether the disturbances
in the west, or the expedition to Ancona, be suffi-
cient to save M. Laensberg's credit as an immaculate
soothsayer, the opening of the ports wid the advent
of the cholera morhus afford a greater proportion of
confirmation to the star-gazer's prophecy, than, per-
haps he expected, orat least than he is accustomed to.

. -
But to proceed with my analysis. The surplus
duties imposed by the general custom-house law,
on the importation of corn and flour by land, are
abolished,

The duties on the importation of corn, flour, and
meal, of species inferior to wheat, ate henceforth to
be fixed with reference to the duties on wheat corn,
and wheat flour, according to the following propor-
tion :—Wheat, 1 franc ; rye, 60 centime, ; Indian
corn, 55 centitnes; barley, 50 centimes; buck-
wheat or French corn, 40 centimes; oats, 35 cen.
times.

An attempt was made by General Demarcay, for
the most violent of the liberal party are the loudest
in their outcry for protection to agriculture, to rain•
:he relative proportion of oats from 35 to 50 cen-
:itnes; but, on being stoutly resisted, this proposi-
ion fell to the ground.

Ot► rice, the duty per 100 kilogrammes, which is
rather more than two hundred weight, if imported
in French bottoms, from countries out of Europe, is
fixed at 2 francs 50 centimes; if in French bottoms,
from European states, from the bonded warehouses,
or by land from Piedmont, 6 francs; but if imported
in foreign bottoms, no matter from what part of the
world, the duty is raised to 9 francs. The duty on
rce exported is fixed at 25 francs per 100 kilo-
grammes ; but, on the motion of M. Salverte, the
duties on the exportation of other species of grain is
regulated by the same scale which fixes the impor-
tation.

In talking over this subject with an intelligent friend
of mine, a Frenchman, well acquainted with the cir-
cumsta►ices of the country, an the habits and con-
dition of the people, he suggested a consideration, t r
rather stated a fact, which ought to have had greet
weight ►n the settlement of a measure of such vital
,mportatice as the corn laws. In consequence of the
excessive subdivision of property, a very large pro-
portion of the small proprietors, who in good years
are able to do little more than raise a scanty subsist-
ence for themselves and their families, are obliged,
in a season ot scarcity like the present,after exhaust-
ing their means, to hire themselves out as labourers
to their more wealthy neighbours. In this way the
amount of labour brought to market so greatly ex-
ceeds the demand, that the positive evil arising from
the high price of corn is materially aggravated to
the working classes, for, after a certain point, as
corn rises wages fall.