The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-02 00:00:00

FOREIGN .AND COLONIAL.

FRANCE.

M. Ledru Rollin and his Commissiogers have in every
district in the provinces exercised the most odious tyranny
to procure if possible the return of those who will be
willing to aid him, either as dupes or accomplices, in his
schemes for betraying the re, üblic. At Rouen the com-
munal schoolmasters,•who are all on the pay of the Mi-
nister of Public Instruction, were convened and com-
manded to sign collectively an engagement to vote for
the government candidates or resign their places. At a
little town called Neufchatel a body of two hundred con-
scripts were stopped by the mayor, put into the Hotel de
Ville, and there kept under lock andley.until they had
voted. Instances are given of electors'being stopped on
their wag, their lists taken from them, and they obliged
to return home, by. hired ruffians. The Memorial de
.Rouen says it is useless making complaints to the Go-
vernment Commissioner, -" who is so good a man that he
refuses to believe any evil of others." The Journal de
Rouen contains accounts of men being beaten, and the
lists taken from them, .because they were not democratic.
The Gazette de Lyons contains accounts of-similar pro-
ceedings in its neighbourhood. It says that in the Place
des Terreaux they were burning heaps of lists of names
which had been violently taken from electors.

It is generally believed,however, that all the attempts
of the-Leclrn-Rollin faction to carry. the elections of Paris
have proved abortive. M. de Lamartine.isat.the head of
the poll; and General Cavaignac, the Governor-General
of Algiers, second.
On Monday night there was a "scene" in-the Cabinet
of the Provisional Government between M. Lamartine
and M. Ledru Rollin. The latter desired he further
postponement of the meeting of the Assembly—the for-
mer peremptorily opposed it:, the latter threatened a
popular demonstration—the 'former treated the •menace
with contempt. M. 'Ledru 'Rollin then declared that he
would have Paris covered with barricades. M.,Larnartine
rose and declared that he set "his colleague at defiance,
that the majority of the government were quite. prepared
for any measure of that description promoted by the Mi-
nister of the Interior, and that they would resort to effec-
tual measures of defence. After this, report says, M.
Ledru Rollin lowered his tone.
A letter from Marseilles of the .22nd instant, says:—
" Last evening, all the democratic clubs assembled about
nine o'clock, in number from '3500 to 4000, and paraded
the streets with about 200 lighted torches, bellowing out
Vive Ledru Rollin!' A bas les aristocrats!" A bas les
culottes (clergy)! ' 'ln the foremost ranks were young
women, representing the goddess of 4.iberty. A portion
of the sans culottes • were headed by the band of the
custom-house officers. This is too bad, and too strongly
identifies the government with the mob. Notwithstand-
ing this chaotic state of affairs, I feel certain all will go
off quietly here, the National Guard being determined on
maintaining order, cattle rti collie. 'I feel also certain
that, unless there be foul work, Thiers and Berryer 'will
be returned. When ail- this' will .end,, Heaven only
knows; in the meantime France is ruined, and it will
require many a long year before she again can raise her
head."

Complaints have been raised both of fraud and the
exercise of improper influence at the late elections both
in Paris and in tae provinces. To comprehend the fraud,
it must be understood that each elector claiming to vote
presents himself at the mairie, and receives there a "carte
electorate," which entitles him to deposit his vote in the
ballot-box. The plan works practically in this manner :
The same individual presents himself over and aver again
at the same inairie, and receives several " carts," or he
may present himself successively at different mairies, and
thus obtain multiple " cartes," which it is said have
openly been offered for sale at prices varying from five to
twenty francs.
The Provisional Government have adopted a decree
abolishing slavery in all the colonies and possessions of
the French republic. The decree is to take effect two
months after its publication in the colonies. An indem-
nity is to be granted to the slave-owners, the amount and
form of which will be fined by the national assembly. All
introduction by hire or otherwise of negroee into the colo-
nies is also forbidden. This clause is especially intended
to prevent the introduction of neeroes from Senegal by
any system similar to that of the Hill Coolies in the Eng-
lish colonies.
The terms on which the Provisional Government have
determined to dispossess the railway companies of the
finished lines are stated to be as follows :—The shares of
the companies will be valued at the average of the prices
which they bore, according to the official returns of the
Bourse, for the six months preceding the revolution of
February; and this price will be paid by the Government,
to the Country in five per cent. stock, to be also valued
at its average price during the same interval.
It was stated on Wednesday, and generally believed,
that M. Gamier pages has, after all, determined to aban-
don his scheme for taking the railways, leaving the
national assembly to decide on the matter.
From a return published in the Moniteur, it appears
that the duties levied on the import and export of differ-
ent articles during the month of March het, was 5,538,472 f.,
whilst in the month of March, 1847, it was 12,030,657 f.,
and in the same month of 1846, 12,355,650 f. The Cour-
tier du Havre says that a reduction of fifteen francs per
100 kilogrammes on colonial sugar is talked of.
The minister of the United States waited on Wednesday
on M. de Lamartine, and presented him with a letter from
the President of the United States, formally accrediting
him as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to the French Republic. In presenting the letter, Mr.
Rush expressed the anxiety which the President of the
United States feels for the prosperity of France, and his
desire to cultivate amicable relations with it. M. de
Lamartine, in reply, said that, as France had been the
first to recognise the independence of the United States,
it belonged, by a just return of Providence, to the United
States to be the first to make an official recognition of the
French republic ; and, so to speak, place its name the first
on the certificate of the birth of French democracy in Eu-
rope. He predicted that the French republic would be-
come strong and prosperous, and he expressed the warmest
sentiments towards the American republic, observing that
the French people felt for those of the United States with
the " heart of Lafayette."