Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-09-26
FROM OUR EUROPEAN cORREsP ONDENT.
yARIETY.

4
PARIS, AUGUST 80, 1916.
The potato crop has probably failed all over the
Continent as well as in Great Britain. LIN Europe
the greatest decline in honest fame, consequence,
and trust is that of the potato, and the consequent
rise in importance OF Indian meal is less remark
able Many savans have attempted to ascertain
the cause of the rot, but yet it remains unde-
ternined ~
La Revue DIES Deur Mondes of the 18th August
contains several articles of interest and value The
second, on the Italian .Arisfocracy, is an acute
and even profound historical dsquistion to be read
by every one who would understand the political
history, condition, and prospects of the Peninsula.
Founded on an immense biographical work Of five
volumes folio, by an Italian officer, PoMPEE LIrrA,
published from 1919 to 1916, it is exceedingly GU
rous in itself for plan and natter Italian history
being comprised and explained in these biographies
of all the celebrated Italian families An able gem
eral history OF the aristocraces of modern Europe
OF the hereditary, privileged and titled orders
would be highly instructive, and serve to determine
the comparative eligibility, evil good, Of the diff
ferent politics. The article treats of Papa annals
and agency in Italy what the Holy See might eff
feet; what it did, rather did not in regard to the
Independence of Italy. How this great question
| stands at present There are four sections the
third, entitled Guelphs and Ghibenes especially
sagacious and novel in lis views. The third article
| is headed Freedom of Trade; the Tariff Systems
French Industry. The writer is a zealot for free
trade but he exhibits both sides of the question for
France, and communicates much information sus-
ceptible of use and proper to be sought by other
countries He ascribes the high prices Of French
fabrics to the restrictive system itself, the tariff,
which renders the raw materials dear. An imme-
diae or early triumph of the free-trade system is
not to be expected here, in the present state OF the
French mind and class interests. Domestic manu-
features would gain and flourish more, on the whole,
by free trade, on the broad philosophical scale !:
great pains taken to prove this by domestic his
tory and foreign example skilfully handled.
| There are few Industries in France, which, under
present circumstances, and considered separately,
would be able to Withstand, without protecting du-
ties foreign competition. The reviewer shows that
this is owing to the tariff and protective system in
general. Great Britain has always enfranchised
| raw materials; France burdens them. He gives a
detailed view of the principal French manufactures,
the state of French shipping and the of its
| decline, and the remedies. With free trade, those
manufactures which have no good reason for ex-
sting" or which belong, by sort of natural privi-
lege to other countries other climates, would
disappear, and so much the better. The article is
ingenious and instructive, but various considerations
and facts favorable to the restrictive system here
are omitted by the writer, who dwells however, on
the peculiar advantages of France for manufactures
| The mutual charges and invectve of Lord GEORGE
BENTINcK and Lord LYNDHURsT are quite match
Tor the quarrel OF Mr.. INGERsoLL and Mr.. WEB.
sTER, which the London press held up as SO odious-
| ly illustrative Of American and Democratic cha
racter and manners, even in the highest stations.
Lord LYNDHURsT's effusons are translated in the
Journal DIES Debats
There can be no superlative takers like the
i Pirons, Diderots, Johnsons, Coleridges. Journal
ism absorbs all subjects--all phrases; and leaves
nothing new for private converse-in Joke, philoso-
ply, criticism, abuse, fiction, truth, or paradox.
i Many high regulations in Paris-namcs in the
utmost vogue-become ridiculous when collated
with their small positive deserts and the real medi-
ocrity or the nervousness of their performances.
The champagne vintage of 1916 promises to
equal in quality that of the most famous years.
| In Paris ten or twelve millions of francs are now
appropriated to the enlargement of old streets, and
the opening of new, to connect distant points. All
are to be finished in three years, with a view not
merely to convenience but establishment
The French phihellenists tell US that Young re-
generated Greece makes, and will continue to make
wonderful advances; that no other State has had
so much to do or has done more within the twenty
five years past; that there never was in so small a
space SO much, at the same time, Of the past, the
present, and the future. The French Government
is about to found at Athens an institute for GER
will be the modern Greek language. and archtec-
ture. Some one of the savans of this capital, emf
nent IN Greek philology and in aesthetics, will be
chosen to direct the Athens school. Annual excur-
slons over Greece-peripatetic instruction--are
embraced in the scheme.
The first page of the National of the 22d instant
consists OF singular commentary on the Paris Cob
den banquet The writer processes respect for Mr.
Golden and regard for all kinds of freedom includ-
ing that OF trade but he argues that the example of
4 Great Britain-taken from an early period down to
the present day, and in connexion with her match
less capital machinery, productive faculties, and
manufacturing facilities and resources-should one
rate TO deter France and second the French protec
tionists. The National would have the most libe
raj commercial relations and treaties with Belgium.
Switzerland, Holland, Northern Italy, the Spanish
penInsula--all the bordering countries between
whom and France there is real community of
political and social interests and must be- in the end
OF ideas and institutions. But the Republican or
gan eschews all close ties, all entanglements all in
volving reciprocity, with aristocratic England and
desPotic Russia, Austria, and Prussia, with whom
France will have to struggle for higher concerns
than those Of barter and sale. The main ideas are
followed out with an original and lofty survey Of
relative condition, objects, and prospects. 1t is
commended, IN copious note, that Adam Smith bor-
rowed largely for every of his works, and par
ticularly for the Wealth of Nations" from French
publications, (Which are cited and that not single
idea or argument Of general nature has been enun
Grated by the orators and writer's of the Anti Corn
Law League, of which the priority does not belong
to French authors. Countries, like Individuals