As usual, the French Protectionists find that moderate Protection does
them no good, and they are clamouring for an increase in the duties on foreign corn. M. Menne, now President of the Tariff Committee, therefore proposes to raise the duty on wheat and flour to 50 per cent., equivalent, says an ex-Minister of Commerce, to a tax of *d. a head, or 31d. a family, per diem. The Government naturally shrinks back, but it is feared that it will yield, the peasants affirming that, without the increase, agriculture must stop. Most of them eat their own produce, and will not feel the tax; but all indus- trials and all wine-growers will suffer grievously, and the cities will be full of distress. Unfortunately, the French system. under which, in times of scarcity, bakers are ordered to sell bread at a fixed price, and compensated out of the octroi re- ceipts, prevents this distress from being fullyfelt ; but the work- men pay on all other articles, such as wine, brought within the gates. For the present, the price of bread is low, even with the present tax of 30 per cent., but a bad harvest or a war would make the position of all industrials outside the great cities almost unbearable. This collision of interests between peasants and workmen is adding all over the Continent much bitterness to the social war.
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