The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-10-01
The State or Society In France.

The State OF Society In France.
Monsieur de Tocqueville, in his recent work
on the Old Regime N France, confesses that he
entertains the most gloomy apprehensions with
regard to the future Of France. The disclosures
made by the French prisoners Carpenter and
Grelet, now in confinement on a charge of having
run away with the funds of the Northern Railway
Company, are not calculated to lead to different
impression. These young men, whose claims to
the title of great fnanciers appear to be very
slender indeed, have beyond doubt fallen vic
Tins to the prevailing extravaganza Of living in
France, combined with the prevailing looseness
with which financial business is transacted. Men
Of their standing, earning small salaries and per-
forming duties which can never occupy their
minds or engross their intellect are placed in
position in which the want of money is their first,
their keenest necessity they desire to live well,
to dress to drive, to dine at good houses to keep
up an acquaintance in the Quarter Notre Dame
de Lorette to appear at the Bourse; their friends
do all these things and not to do them is to con-
sign oneself to obscurity: their own salary for
year will not suffice for month of such life
but they have in their hands, under their control
unchecked uncounted, thousands or hundreds OF
thousands To resist such temptation requires
virtue indeed.
The example of all who surround them tends
to encourage their proclivity to crime They see
the president and directors of railways, bank
managers, and fnanciers of every stripe, whose
utter insolvency they always suspect and often
I'm Twin IN IN fnr
tunes, and leading the ton and style Of Paris.
Nay, looking higher still, they see the Emperor
and his court, picked cut Of the cutters only
year ago, and now plunging into the most reck-
less extravaganza, pouring out money like water,
and living as though they were born princes and
their means had no limit.
1t seems that the wretched young men who are
now in prison threaten, if they are sent back to
Paris, to turn States evidence upon their employ
ers, and to play the part of Samsons in new
GAIA. We apprehend that however much the
Philstines may be frightened by the menace, it
will hardly answer any purpose here; but still we
should not be surprised if it had better founda-
ton than mere bravado. There is no question
but that the Credit Mobilier is one of the most
nefarious, and will prove one of the most fatal
engines Of destruction ever contrived by the in
genuity Of man. New Workers., who are used to
see stocks rise and fall rapidly enough, can have
no hesitation in pronouncing upon the charac-
ter Of an enterprise whose scrip fluctuates from
500 francs to 1900, again to 422, and again
to 1850, in the course Of about thirty months
We know that such rises and falls are not the
fruit Of natural causes. And when the French
prisoners tell us that on realizing handsome
profit, the directors of the Credit Mobilier would
announce loss, and bear the stock in every
way, honest and dishonest, till they had brought
its price down to the lowest ebb, when they
would suddenly buy in, declare dividend Of
about fifty per cent more than they had earned,
pay it to themselves initiate the stock and sell
out-when, we repeat, we hear these stories, and
see the corroborating facts in the records of the
Bourse we cannot 'hink they are without founda-
ton. Nor can the reports Of the French railroads
be examined without similar misgivings. These
French prisoners tell us that the Northern the
Orleans, and all the leading roads of France, are
conducted in the most fraudulent manner; and
that money is invariably borrowed or obtained
by sales of stock to pay dividends. How
do the facts stand? These roads, running
at an average Of q to 24 cents per mile
per passenger, pay Is, 20 and % per cent per
annum. Is such thing possible especially in
a country like France, where the natives hardly
ever travels Railroad men will be apt to reply
In the negative.
In word, IL only portion Of what these
young men say be true, mercantile France is in
most deplorable state, and financial crisis can
not be long postponed. Fraud, lies, and deceit
seem to lie at the bottom Of every commercial
and financial combination; everybody in the
Empire is cheating his neighbor, and, as neces-
sary consequence, cheating himself in the long
run. Everybody is living above his means,
from the Emperor to the walters at cafes, and
consequently everybody must break, sooner or
later. We would not attach so much Importance
to these statements were they not confirmed from
other sources As II is we regard them as trust
worthy, and consider that they may be safely
summed up in the sentence that France Ia on
the eve Of crash only second to that Of 1889.
VINO WILL STUMP VIRGINIA FOR FREMONT p
Tomorrow afternoon Governor Floyd, of Vir-