CURRENT CORN CATECHISM.
(ORIGINAL, AND FOUNDED ON TIIE MATERIALS OF THE PASSING MOMENT.) (Continued.)
193. Journal des Debuts, 9th .11.ne183-1.—Our inten- tion is to examine one by one the principal declarations of opinion which the new Cus- tom-house Law has brought into contrast. We have al- ready given our sentiments upon the Petition of the vine-growers of Bordeaux, by showing that the incom- patibility of interests be- tween the north and south of France, reduces itself to an opposition that exists be- tween the interests of the vineyard, of the Giron(F., and the interests of all the rest of the kingdom. 04. The productions of France; as is well known, are divided into two oppes, ing hosts. On one side, the small nutnbet of those which have the double advantage in price and quality, of being able to brave all competition not only in their own coun- try but in all time markets of the world ; at the head of which stand wines and silks. On the other, the great mass of agricultural and manufac- turing labour, which either very heavy taxis or imper- fection in their own pro- cesses place under a certain disadvantage with respect to foreign goods of the same kind ; in the midst of which are conspicuous, iron, cotton goods.—lb. A. The true statement would be tbis. The productons of France are divided into those which it is the interest of France to make at homer and those which it is her interest not to make at home, but to procure from other quintets by the exchange of goods of the other class. The makers of the goods which France does not want, get possession of the Chamber of Deputies, with a Minister at their head, and then vote that France shall pay them for the goods she does not want, at double the price she could get them elsewhere, and lose the dif- ference as distinctly as if it was voted to be thrown into the sea. This is the projtet of the " conqueting " M. Thiers.
corn,
195. The subject of the contest, is the restrictions placed on foreign importa- tion by the Customs. The de- scriptions of industry which form the latter class, declare that if the restriction is taken away, their French market is gone, and their ruin is inevitable. The wine and silk-men on the other side declare, that if it is kept up, they must speedily fall under the weight of their own over-production; for they produce a great deal .more than can he consumed in France, and the foreigner can only buy in proportion as he is allowed to sell.—/b. A. The true statement is, that it is dri- velling foolery for France to buy at the dear market what she could buy at the cheap, and take three hundred francs from her own citizens for the sake of giving one hundred of it to a favoured class who have contrived, through the contemptible state of the elec- tion laws, to introduce themselves into the Chamber of Deputies ; and that Europe is standing by and laughing, to see whether France will submit to this foolery or not.
A. The merchants of Bordeaux went in no such simpleton's way to work. They said, that to take from them three hundred francs to give a hundred of it to a man in the north and throw away the rest, was a knavery which as Frenchmen they could not submit to. And, like sensible men, they did their utmost to show the various ways in which the gradtml abolition of the general fraud would diminish the suffering to the robbers of the public ; and proposed that time should be allowed them for the change besides. Out of this is made the trumpery piece of sarcasm attempted by the Journal des lit:bats.
see nothing but a chimaera
196. As long as these A. The question never was, whether the
questions are not answered people who plunder France might find it
with respect to corn, and. altogether convenient to give up their corresponding questions with wrong ; but whether it WEIS possible for respect to the other kinds France to submit to the disgrace of being of French produce which are so plundered on the whole. protected by duties, we can in the promise made to agriculture of having at once both a sufficient compensa- tion and an increased sale.—lb.
A. The substantial question is, whether France is to be robbed of three hundred francs to give one hundred of it to the pets of the Minister. The effort of the insidi- ous Minister is to transfer the inquiry, to whether the alteration may be perfectly agreeable to his pets.
If it is asked seriously to what branches of trade capital is to be transferred,--clearly to the honest trades which are to be bet- tered by the demolition of the dishonest. Put the case that the same question was asked by a highwayman. Would not this be the answer?
198 The same page tells A. The man who will submit to being
robbed of three hundred francs to give one hundred of it to another, on the pretence that the Minister has contrived to attach to it the collection of a revenue, is a fool courting a knave. Is Pactolus in this? Here is the Pactolus of M. Thiers.
199. But happily the Me- A. The great and gross fraud is in af- nister of Finance is some- firming, that internal industry is to be im- thing else besides Minister poverished, by doing away the system of of the Customs; and he will taking three hundred francs from the indus- always find out, that the im- trious to give back one. It is in the poverishment of internal in- knavish concealment of the fact, that all dustry will take from him by dozens, the millions that would be saved by the consumer of the which foreign importation is cheap goods, would.be_ i given to French in- dus it try as much as t was given to the to bring in to him by units. —.114 fraudulent iron-masters, over and above his own saving.
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