The French Government evidently feels the necessity of making great
efforts to conciliate the peasantry, who are in a bitter state of discontent. It agrees, it is asserted, to add /5 per cent. to the duties on cereals, with reductions, how- ever, if their price goes up, and it will even risk Russian wrath by raising the special duty upon Russian wheat. An arrangement, moreover, is to be made with the Rail- ways, by which bulky articles necessary for agriculture shall be carried at low rates, and the distribution of agricultural produce shall be made easier. Farther, it was agreed at a Cabinet Council held on Tuesday, that the heavy duty on the transfer of agricultural land should be reduced by 45 per cent., and that in estimating the value of an agricultural succession, the mortgages shall be deducted. To meet the loss of revenue, the succession-duty for collaterals will be increased, and the stamp-tax on receipts, now 5d., will be 10d. -on sums exceeding 220, and 20d. on those exceeding £40. 'This is a shifting of taxation from property on to business, which is at variance with English notions, and is curiously indicative of the change which comes over opinion when the property-owners are small men and count by millions.
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