M. Ferry's Ministry has decided to make a bid for
peasant votes by raising the duty on corn, now so low as to be useful chiefly for statistical purposes, to four times its amount—that is, to 2 fr. GO e. per quintal, or 12 per cent. upon the average value. This is about equivalent to a duty of 5s. per quarter in England, assuming the average price to be 40s., and is not very courageous. It will not be sufficient to restore wheat-growers' profits, as much threatened in France as in England, while it will raise the price of corn to all non-producers. It is said, too, that a large section of the peasantry, who eat their own produce, will be irritated at the favour shown to their neighbours, while all manufacturers are protesting and forming organisations for defence. One bread-riot in a great city would shake M. Ferry more than any discontent at cheap corn ; and such a riot is possible, the artisans being already much distressed. They feel the effect of that depression in the great trades which is observable everywhere, and which has not yet been thoroughly explained, and are, of course, ready to believe that the Government, with its expenditure and its "plots for the benefit of the rich," is the cause of their suffering. The degree of this suffering, especially in Paris and Lyons, is said to be quite unusual, the dread of cholera having diminished the influx of foreign visitors, and increased the desire of the rich to get out of the crowd.
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