Since the above was printed, the Memorial Bordelais of the
21st February has arrived, with the notice of a Public Meeting of the agriculturists and proprietors of vine lands at Bordeaux, for the purpose of petitioning against the oppression co which the landed interest is subjected in France. Its condition is in fact the coun- terpart of that of the manufacturing interest here; being pre- vented from receiving the manufactured produce of this country, by precisely the same injustice which prevents the people of Great Britain from obtaining the agricultural produce of France. The time must be nearly gone by, in which the ignorance or pedantry of governments could force two great nations within sight of each other's coasts to submit to this mutual loss by each refusing to receive from the other what its people wants. The Southern provinces of France say distinctly, that they will either have freedom of trade, or a commercial separation ; and it remains to be seen whether the English will be behind their neighbours in the race of common-sense and justice. As the Three Days of Paris brought on the Reform of Parliament, the commercial insurrection of Bordeaux ought to be the death-blow to the griev- ance of the Corn-laws.
The following is the article from the Memorial Bordelais.
" BORDEAUX.
" VINE. GROWERS COMMITTEE.
" Public Meeting of the Proprietors of Vine Lands. "Pursuant to notice in the public papers, the Vine-growers Committee held its Public Meeting this day, to lay before the proprietors of vine lands the Peti- tion proposed for presentation to the Legislative Chambers. The meeting was very numerously- attended ; so much so, that the great hall of the Chamber of Commerce was scarcely able to hold the persons present. The Petition was read by the Secretary of the Vine-growers Committee, and voted unanimously and by acclamation. " The oppression to which the Southern departments of our country are obliged to submit, begins to assume so serious an aspect, and the last speech of M. Thiers on the Customhouse Regulations presents such a frightful prospect for the future, that we are not surprised to Snit the reaction of public opinion display itself with renewed vigour. The commerce of Bordeaux took the lead; next came the petition of the sugar-refiners, setting forth the wretched effects of the law on sugar, a stupid piece of legislation, a worthy branch of the system of protections that eats up every thing like real prosperity of trade. And now the immense population concerned in vine growing has come forward, to join chorus in cursing the senseless system, of which the Minister of Commerce has had the inconceivable imprudence to give notice. " And as the aggravation of an evil necessarily increases the loudness of com- plaint, the Petition appears to be more energetic, powerful, argumentative, and decided, than any thing that has hitherto been presented to the Chambers on the subject. The fact is, we have got to a pitch of suffering, that puts people past nice attentions to form. It is for the good of the Government itself that it should be made to understand the whole truth. It must be caused to find out, that the influence under which it is now acting, will be its ruin if it does not get rid of its advice. " The Petition points out in the clearest manner the double ruin that is brought upon the vine-growing interests, both by the existing system of taxation, and by the prohibition of foreign goods. It shows how Cris double machinery lays all the vine-growers under the necessity of plying a higher price fur the produce of all the protected interests, and taking a lower price for all the pre duce of (heir own. From this twofold necessity fur paying dear for all the produce of the North of France, and selling for nothing the produce of their two districts, arises the wasting ruin which is eating up property iu our part of France ; and as the 'milled proprietors can look for relief nowhere but in the activity of our foreign commerce, they see in the last speech of M. Thiers the s)mptours of its complete destruction.
" The proprietors of vine lands in consequence state with great candour the dilemma which has grown out of their hopeless situation.
"Of two things, one or the other. Either the Government mint at one and the same time modify both its system of protecting duties and of the taxes, —must on one hand lower the duties so that foreign produce can be imported into France and thus allow of some export trade in return, aid on the other hard, initead of laying the indirect taxes on a small number of articles of our particular produce, which are in this way crushed and ruined, must divide them equally on all kinds of produce, including manufactured, which has no more right to g. untaxed than any other; "Or else, if it thinks that the interests of the manufacturing part of France will not allow of this double and equitable alteration, it must yore up the idea tf making two distinct portions of country lire tender the same system of social regulations, if one of them must necessarily be sacr&i..ed in order that the other may profit by it. A line of customhouses must be drawn through the middle of France ; the North must go on prohibiting, since it.says it must ; the South must both import and export, because it has no other way to keep itself alive. The two divisions, each thus having the commercial regulation. it prefers, may gu on acknowledging the same public law and central government t• while by a customhouse repeal of union, they escape the deadly laceration which would sooner or later grow out of their clashing interests, if an attempt was made to force them under one commercial system repugnant to both parties.
" Such is the conclusion to which the vine-growers of the Gironde have been brought by the distresses that hangover them. Their Petition, of which many thousand copies have been struck off, will show their fellow citizens the neces- sity of the proceeding. Perhaps there is a chance that the Ministry may think there is something serious in such a statement of the question, and will not give into the habit of replying with disjointed epigrammatic points to the earnest and well-grounded complaints of the outlining portions of the population."
It looks very much as if the people of Bordeaux were in earnest. The French Government has been taken by surprise ; it has not had time to get up a distress qf the protected interests.
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