The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-05 00:00:00

oN, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 5, 1859,

THE

RMY.

The French Emperor, or his War-office, makes a
very good use of this money. It engages soldiers to
re-enlist, gives all who .do so increased pay, with
great advantages at the expiration of their service.
In a word, the condition of the real, permanent
soldier is very much improved by,the regulation of
this dotation of the army. But the increased burden
of taxation thrown upon. the Peasant classes by
these additions to the- Conscription-law, and by the
increased and unnecessary- number of conscripts
taken, weighs not the lass, especially.upon the rustic
population, and inspires it with sentiments of
diminished respect for military exigencies and
glory.. Another fact well 'worthy of remark is,
that notwithstanding all the advantages promised
and offered to those who will devote themselves
exclusively to the career of arms, they are not taken
advantage of, at least not in the proportion that
might be expected. If a French soldier sees that
he has no chance of becoming an officer, he in
general quits the service. So many comrades pass
over him and gain epaulettes that he is disgusted,
so that it is with the utmost difficulty that the Wai
Administration is able to maintain a sufficient
number of first-rate sous-officers in a regiment.
-Another mistake which,the above facts will cor-
rect is the too general supposition that, in conse-
quence of the large number of naval and military
conscripts raised annually; the number of both ser-
vices must be almost on a war footing; but iirtruth
no more soldiers swell the army from a conscription
of 100,000 than used to do so from the old one of
80,000.. The increased number is merely an affair
of finance, and augments the dotation, not the
number of the army. The aim of the Emperor
Napoleon has been to increase the efficiency and
the wellbeing rather than the number of his
army, and for this we are most ready to give
him due credit, being convinced that the more
the expanse of the soldier is increased, the more
impossible will it become for any country or
government to "keep up multitudinous armies.
These, however, are incidental considerations.
What we have sought to explain is the repugnance
to war and to a military establishment which is
evinced and avowed by the French peasant, and
which already shows on how very tottering a basis
is built a military monarchy when it is made to
repose upon universal suffrage.
Let it here be remarked that what is true of one
expected belligerent is true of the other. For
Austria has adopted not only the French Conscrip-
tion, but the recent additions to it respecting re-
engagements. Here, then, are two great empires
which have destroyed every institution save the
army. They have centralised all authority, and
leave nothing between their Emperors and the
people, from which people are raised at once the
men and the funds to compose and support the
army. Tile population have but to give utterance
to one cry of dissent or dissatisfaction with the
system, and the entire fabric of power crumbles
like a piled up pack of cards.—. Daily News.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN.

The directors of this company state in their re-
port that the net revenue for the half-year ending
the 31st Dec. last, after deducting interest on loans
and all other preferential charges, amounts to
£202,480, to which £4,853, the surplus from June
last, is added, making a total balance available for
dividend of £207,334. From this sum the directors
propose that a dividend shall be declared, payable
on the 21st inst., at the rate of £5 15s. per cent.
per annum, amounting, on £7,197,855 of capital
paid up, to £206,938, leaving a balance of £396.
The increase in the gross revenue for the last half-
year, over the corresponding period of 1857,
amounted to £22,802, of which £16,953 was from
passengers and mails, £6,323 from goods and mer-
chandise, but there was a decrease of £474 from
rents and sundries. The total receipts on 287 k miles
for the half-year amounted to £468,662, the work-
ing expenses to £177,722, the taxation to £22,882,
and the net revenue to £268,059. The improve-
ment ix the receipts was not produced by any ex-
traordinary cause, but was a gradual increase of the
traffic spread over the whole system of the com-
pany's lines. The traffic returns since the com-
mencement of the year 1859 also show an increase
in the receipts. Considerable progress had been
made in providing the additional stock necessary
for working the new lines about to be completed.
Before the close of the present year the company
will be working (including the Portsmouth line,
already opened) upwards of 120 miles of additional
railway. The sum of £19,202 had been expended
on this account. A considerable sum had been ex-
pended, at the cost of revenue, in improving and
altering the old stock of carriages.
The permanent way continued to be maintained
in good order. A further portion of the main line
had been renewed during the past half-year, at an
expense of £10,553, charged against revenue.
A similar expenditure on the main line
under this head might be expected each
half-year, the increased mileage run and the
additional trains required in connexion with the
new lines creating a considerable increase in the
wear and tear on the old line. The doublingof the
Southampton and Dorchester line for the 36 miles
from Southampton to Wimborne was completed,
whereby the working of the traffic on the line was
much facilitated. The contractor was proceeding
rapidly, with the works on the Exeter extension
line. Some delay had occurred in finishing the
station works at Salisbury, at the junction with
the. Salisbury and Yeovil line ; but there was ne
doubt that t ie first portion of that line to Gilling-
hamw would
ldhbneewrelaindoy
fromfor opening early
Eipnsotmhe
spring. ,
which this company had agreed to work, will be
opened on the first of March 40xt. The directors
had also agreed to take the railway recently com-
pleted by an independent company, between Epsom
and Leatherkea d, at an annual rent of .£2,000, with
further conditions for its mergence with this coin-

Whatever may be the resolve of the ruler of
France with respect to the difference with Austria,
one thing seems to have been generally ascertained
and admitted—the people of France display no
alacrity, no eagerness, or desire of war. On the
contrary, the reports of every provincial authority
concur in representing the population as more than
indifferent to the martial struggle in prospect.
This, with respect to some classes, is perfectly na-
tural. The French have become almost altogether
a commercial or industrial people, . When one goes
amongst them, there is but one cry heard--that of
a desire faire des ajfaires ; and to pursue fortune
and advancement is the only path that is left open.
But the peasant is a stFanger to these calculations;
and he especially is the depository of all those im-
perial traditions of glory which have introduced
the Legion of Honour into so many cottages. Still
the French peasant shakes his head at the mention
of war; and the French housewife does more.
She corrugates her brow, and looks unutterable
things, indicative of the strongest aversion to mili-
tary glory, and the price at which it is to be pur-
chased.
A number of causes kindle the aversion of the
French peasant class for war. There is a horror of
the excise, or of what are called the droits reunis,
and a kindred dread of the new taxes which come
in the shape of centinzes additionnels. But we will
confine ourselves, for the present, to a description
of what especially disgusts the French, men and
women, with war—the conscription, and the new
regulations which have come to reinforce it.
The French conscription during the reign of the
Bourbons, legitimate or quasi, raised nominally
every year 80,000 youth of twenty-one years
of age. Of these 80,000, however, scarcely
more than one-half joined their regiments ; and
those who did join generally got placed on the
reserve, and were sent home after four years' ser-
vice. A father of a family who wished to exempt
his son from service did so either by subscribing a
yearly sum of no great amount, or by paying
down about £6O for a substitute. The con-
scription, in fact, did not fall heavy upon the
rustic communities, and mothers when they did
part -.with their sons, felt that it was but for a year
or two. Since 1853, and especially now, the con-
scription is quite another thing.
In the first place, those who do join the army
remain in it for at least eight years. If they have
learned a trade they forget it ; if they have a sweet-
heart they lose her. Next of all, it is no longer
80,000 conscripts, one half of whom joie their corps,
but 100,000 conscripts, all of whom must . either
join or pay. When 100,000 are taken, the result
is, in general, that all the valid or war-worthy
youth of the district are taken. All, indeed, do
not join the army. But the parents who do not
suffer the loss of their children suffer severely in
pocket.
To explain this, it must be stated that the Em-
peror Napoleon has introduced a new law, called
that of the Dotation de l' Armee. .This law abo-
lished the old system of parents supplying each an
especial reniplacement for their sons, which certain
companies used, to furnish. The Government now
receive the money, and in return grant the exemp-
tion. Instead, however, of laying out this money
in paying young recruits, it is handed over to the
credit of the army dotation. Of the 100,000 men
raised for the Conscription, not 80,000 enter the
depots; therefore the Government receives redemp-
tion from 20,000 or 25,000 conscripts whom it really
does not replace. The price of redemption is about
3,000 f., or £l2O. Multiply this by 20,000 or by
25,000, and we have the sum of £3,000,000 sterling
raised annually upon French parents, and chiefly
from peasant parents, for their offspring, and this
over and above what was raised or paid previous to
1850.