The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-06-19
The Dastresses OF France.

ment makes an appeal to the benevolent feelings
of the American public in behalf of the French
people of the rural districts, who have lost their
harvest in consequence Of the overflow of the
Rhone, the Saone and the Loire. Almost stimuli
taneously we learn that N. Henri Place, one OF
the directors Of the Credit Mobier, has failed for
some eighteen millions of francs, and that among
his creditors several of the leading celebrities
of the financial and political Bonapartist world.
These are facts pregnant with alarm for every
true friend of France.
| The overflow of rivers in France is far more
serious matter than our freshets here. The latter
never njme the harvest; if they impede travel
| and inconvenience canals and railroads, that is
all that can be said against them. But when the
| banks of the rivers Rhone and Loire are covered
by water, the whole country is destroyed. Mar
row, rapid rivers becomes vast still lakes, miles
and miles across; the whole country, farms, vine
| yards houses, improved land of every kind is
rendered useless: and the peasantry who for ge-
nerations have lived on these fertile plains, sub
sisting from year to year on the produce of their
fields, are reduced to absolute starvation On
these occasions it has been the policy-it has
been o necessity-for the governments Of
France, since the Revolution, to take in hand,
at whatever cost, the feeding Of the un-
fortunate sufferers, who have remained pension
aries upon its bounty long after the waters sub
sided The horrors of similar inundations have
furnished the painters of France with some of
their most enective-because most familiar
themes. The revolts and riots to which they
used to give rise under the old regims constitute
some Of the most thrilling passages of French
history.
The inundation Of this year appears to be
even more terrible visitation of the calamity
than was witnessed in 1s47. 1t is not to be
questioned but hundreds of thousands Of persons
will become dependent on the government for
food. How can that demand be supplied?
In the last annual report of the Credit Mobilier,
an analysis of which we published some days
since, it is urged as one of the leading merits of
the concern that it had, in trying times come
boldly to the support Of the government, and by
its example and pecuniary aid enabled the EN-
peror to surmount obstacles Of no ordinary
character. Nor is there any reason to question
the accuracy Of the boast. The directors of the
Credit Mobilier might, in fact, have said more
cial backstay Of the government +; that without
their encouragement the Emperor would never
have overcome the difficulties which drove him to
sequestrate the Orleans property, much less paid
his share Of the cost of the Eastern war. For
they, and they alone, have succeeded in changing
the character of the French nation; in dissent
mating through all ranks spirit of gambling !;
in breaking down the barriers of distrust which
for the last hundred years have prevented French
men Of small means from embarking their
capital in corporate enterprises 1t was the
astonishing fortunes made by spectators in
the stock of the Credit Mobilier which lured
the public to the stock exchange: and it was
that mammoth concern, together with the
skilful putting it obtained from its creator and
patron, the Emperor, which led to state of
society in which every man who has twenty
francs saved, naturally invests them in venture
n the stock market. Hence-in the hope of profit
on re-sale-the enormous subscriptions for stock
in Louis Napoleon's loans: hence the apparent
plethora Of money and lavish expenditure at
Paris. But-when we add that the Credit Mob-
lier still retains its position in the financial world
and that its operations are more expanded than
ever-it will at once be seen that the stability Of
the expansion it has created, like its own, and
consequently the financial condition of the gov
ernment are all conformity dependent upon the
soundness of the principle on which the Credit
Mobilier rests.
That principle is very simple. Fifty persons.
instead Of keeping their money and using it.
give it to one of their number in order that
he may use it for all. The problem is will he
make more of it than the whole fifty would have
done separately? And the answer, accord
ing to our American notions Of political econo-
my is, that he will not; because, though an ag-
gregate sum is undoubtedly more lucrative than
several smaller separate sums yet the animus Of
the party using the money is more to be regarded
still, as cause of gain If the money Of the
whole fifty belonged to the administrator, he
would make more of it than the fifty would in
using each fiftieth; but as he only owns ff-
tieth of the whole amount he has in his hands,
the law is that he will evince less care, prudence
and foresight in the management Of the same
than the owners would, and therefore that he
will make less than they. This appears to be
conclusive against the Credit Mobilier in the
long run; and consequently against the whole
financial state Of France.
1t is to be hoped that M Places failure is not
the beginning of the CONFUSION; but it looks un-
commonly like it. All these Bonapartists and
stockholders have lived high, and spent more
money than they earned that some of them must
fail is clear, and when they begin, no one can
tell where they will end. Should their failure
be simultaneous with famine in the South, and
the return of disconnected army from the East,
a revolution may be the result
At all events, Louis Napoleon will have enough
La..,o militant raaddlnn with Costa Bic