The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-20 00:00:00

f;,'::.‘ourtb Xbition

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

FRANCE.

Committee of the Assembly met yesterday,
and in answer to various questions put to him, M.
Baroche, Minister of the Interior, made the following
statement relating to the society of the 10th Decem-
ber. He declared that the Society referred to had
been exclusively instituted for beneficent
and charit-
able purposes. Its acts were public, and its statutes
had been in conformity with the law submitted
to the authorities. Its institution had nothing of a
political character, and up to the present it was,
as an association of beneficence, blameless. He
believed, he said, that the acts that occurred on the
occasion of the President's return had been grossly
exaggerated, and erroneously put to the account of
the Society of the 10th December. An inquiry
was now going on into the charges brought
against certain members of the association, and if
by their conduct they had made themselves
amenable to the law they should be punished. At
the same time he thought it was scarcely con •
sistent with justice to censure so useful a body
for the acts of a few of its members, even in case
at should appear that those who had com-
mitted assaults were really members of the society.
He then read a report on the state of the country, of
which the Constitutionnel gives the follo wing re-
sume :—" The policy of order and conservatism pur-
sued by the Government continues to bear fruit.
Commerce and industry scarcely feel the usual falling
off at this period of the year. The greatest activity
reigns in the manufacturing districts, although the pre-
sent period of the year is what is called the dead season.
In the month of August the official figures, of which we
have received communication, show for the produce of
the indirect taxes and revenues an augmentation of
4,225,000'. as compared with the corresponding month
of the year before. It is true that some hundreds of
francs may arise from the increased postage on letters,
but there not the less remains an augmentation of
nearly 4,000,000 f. due to general prosperity. The
indirect taxes and revenue during the first eight
months of the yell. amount to 474,000,000 f., or
25,000,0001'. more than in 1849. Such are the
figures which the Government of the President of
the Republic can show to its friends and its ene-
mies. This augmentation of 25,000,000 f. also
would have been still more considerable were it
not for the deficit which the salt duty presents in
consequence of the exceptional supplies procured in
1847. Without that circumstance it would have been
upwards of 30,000,000% If it be asked in what
branches of the public revenue the increase of
25000,000 f. is procured, it will be found that the
registration and stamp duties are down for 17,306,000 f.
It is known that, after the revolution of February,
real property had become unsaleable, and this improve-
ment shows that such property tends to acquire greater
value. But what merits, above all, the attention is the
improvement in the indirect taxes. The duty on
p)table liquors give an increase of 4,603,000 f.,
and on the receipts of the other items there is an im-
provement of 2,842,000 f. The sale of tobacco has
procured 3,103,0001. additional to the Treasury. Is
not this a proof of the increased comfort of the
labouring classes ? If they use more wine and to-
bacco, the reason is that they have better wages. The
import and export dues, the navigation dues, the
various customs' dues, also show an improvement.
The Pest-office returns have increased more than
1,0J0,000f., but a part of that sum arises from
the augmentation in the postal tax. Two
branches of the revenue alone show a dimi-
nution, colonial sugar and salt ; on the former it
is 4,800,0001., but that is compensated for by an aug-
mentation of 4,815,0001. on home made sugar; on
salt the decrease amounts to 5,550,0001., proving that
the augmentation in the consumption will not make
up the duty taken off. To sum up—the 25,000,000 f.
of increase on the first eight months of the year lead
to the hope that the whole year will give an increase
of at least 40,000,0001. If it be considered how
great an amount of additional comfort for the
working classes this augmentation represents, can it
he wondered at that the President of the Republic has
received so many testimonies of sympathy and grati-
tude in all the agricultural and manufacturing dis-
tricts which he has gone through ?"