The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-12-21 00:00:00

and promoting the convenience of the

the interior of railway carriages, and

utside of onanibu

ses, are thickly covered with an-

cement

desmen, ships to sail, auctions, public

things lost and found, &e., none of which pay
while the newspaper, which would give them
far more pul;licity, is neglected, from the simple fact that

the, duty is

sigh, and beyond all reason unequal

Th 3 repeal of the paper duty, though one less pressing
than the foregoing, has been advocated on several

rrr-oinds, each of them entitled to the serious considera-
tion of the Government. As an Excise duty, pressing
directly upon an important branch of our Home Manufac-

. .
it was some years since recommended for abolition,

by a Committee of the House of Commons. Its repeal
would also operate as a boon to the agricultural interest,
for being usually carried on in rural districts, it would

sed employment to the youthful portion of the
peasant population. It would open up sources of trade
by being applied to articles of manufacture, from which
it is now debarred by the restrictions of the Excise. It
would effectually prevent those fraudulent practices, which
it Las been shown cau be so easily perpetrated in the
pnper manufacture, to the injury of the honest trader;
at;,.l it would tend, in a material degree, to promote the
circu:ation of cheap literature of a more wholesome
character than the poisonous trash which now forms the
staple of the reading for the masses. It has been shown,
in the instance of Messrs. Chambers, that the paper duty
111911 C coropelled them t 9 diMutinuc the publication of a

FOREIGN NEWS.

FRANCE

THE EMPIRE

The Senate made no scruple, at the Emperor's bidding,
to fix the civil list at 25,000,000 francs (X 1,000,000 ster-
ling). With respect to the new constitution, however,
they have expressed a desire for modificatiow, which itis
believed will not be conceded by Louis Napoleon.
In financial affairs it has been officially announced by
the Monileur, that there is a deficit of 40,000,000 francs
in the budget of the year 1852.
M. Achille Fould has been appointed " Minister of
State and of the Household of the Emperor."
Prince Napoleon, son of the Ex-King of Westphalia,
who it is now pretty certain will have the place and title
of Lieutonnnt of the Emperor in Algeria, is already occu-
pied in forming the personnel of his administration. His
preferences seem, from old recollections, to turn towards
his former political friends ; and the person who will Very
probably fill the office of secretary-general is M. de Tol-
joet, one of the former colleagues of M. Emile Girardin.
He is said also to have expressed a wish that General de
Lamoiiciere or General Changarnier should be offered
the command of the army ; to which, it is added, the
Emperor has acceded.
The Assemblle Nationale of Thursday states that the
forest of Breteuil, belonging to the successors of Louis
Philippe, was sold the previous day by auction, for nearly
four millions of ifranca, which is considered a high price ;
that two other estates of the family were sold by private
contract, and that agreements for the sale of the remain-
ing property are all but signed.
There has been some hard fighting in Algeria between
the troops and the Arabs. Laghonat has been captured,
and it is believed that the chief was among the slain.
When the last despatch of General Pelisser was sent off,
on the 6th instant, he stated that the fighting was not
over. He was in possession of the citadel, but the troops
were slaughtering the natives in the gardens of the town.

The 111-waiver states that the rumour respecting a
projected conversion of the Four-and-a-Half per Cents is
erroneous.