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No. 443, September 18 ^_ l g$g- -L
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. TBANCE. {From our own Correspondent.} ...
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GERMANY. (Fro»i our own Correspondent." ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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No. 443, September 18 ^_ L G$G- -L
No . , September 18 ^_ g $ g- -L
" bheld to the Til ! LEADER , /••_ 959
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. Tbance. {From Our Own Correspondent.} ...
. TBANCE . { From our own Correspondent . } . Paris , Thursday , G £ p . m . The present position of the French iron-masters , who form the vanguard of the protectionists , is veryj > recarious ; and , doubtless , equally unsatisfactory . ^ At one time they are buoyed up by hopes and wafted to the seventh heaven of protection by the courteous reception accorded by the Emperor to their doleful complaints . At another , they are plunged into the lowest depths of despair and thev fill the public ear with lamentations , Sthe prospect of a modification of the tariff held out by f f ri the confidence of his tne
, . Vr .- _ , > < ,,, nnna <>* . n possess those who are supposed to possess commeu <;« u . ™ Maiestv If M . Billaut , when entrusted with the direction of the Home Office , lent the full force of his ministerial support to the protectionists , and even encouraged them to agitate for prohibition . M . de Per-Bionv in his manly speech at the opening of the session of the Conseil Grfndral of the Loire , told the French nation-that is . tosay , the consumers—that they had " longer any material rivalry with England since she had opened to their commerce , as well as to her own , her immense colonies , that it was not her fault if , continuing their system of production at high prices * they ( the French ) did not know how to make better profit by it Cthe lish tem of free-trade ) .
Eng sys .... M de Persigny is the fidtt * Achates to the imperial . / Eneas . He is the devoted follower and personal friend of the Emperor , is deeper in his confidence than any other living man , and is , therefore , presumed to know , not without reason , what is in store for France . That he should have so boldly pronounced in favour of free trade , and have plainly told his countrymen that they were suffering for their own folly , was a heavy blow and great discouragement to the protectionists . Still they endeavoured to put the best face on the matter possible , and said after all it was not surprising M . de Persigny should entertain English notions as to tbeprinciples of trade , since he had been ambassador to perfidious Albion and had become Inoculated with English heresy , but he stood alone ; all who
the rest of the personal adherents of the . Emperor ( are absurdly enough imagined to influence him ) were untainted by free trade and sound , said they . So , the protectionists set about instigating their workpeople to petition in favour of prohibition , whilethey , at the same time ,, circulated anonymously the most disparaging accounts about M . de Persigny . According to theni he was a no bod jr . They refuse him even the name by which he is known , and fancy they say something very cleverly malicious when they call him M . Fialin . They persist in speaking of his brother , the notary in a small provincial town , and talk mysteriously how , when M . Fialin first offered his services to the prisoner in the Conciergerie , Dr . Conneau , and the rest of the friends and followers of Louis Napoleon , looked
upon him and treated him as nothing more or less than a spy . They ( the protectionists ) hint darkly that he is not sincere in his attachment to the Emperor , but has some ulterior object in view . They assort he is not even now trusted by , the Bonal > artists , and speak of a letter , still in existence , and handed about , which was received from Louis Napoleon , in answer to one advising him to beware of SI . Fialin I Since M . de Persigny ' s address to the General Council of the Loire , the most outrageous things are said of him . There is scarcely a . crimo of which he is not accused , in epcxot , while all impartial men , oven those who difl ' er the most widely from him in politics , admit that these accusations are as unfounded as they are
odious . However groat , they say , may bo M . de Persigny ' s devotion to the Empire , even though he push it to fanaticism , he id sincere . He wus imperialist when to be so brought disgrace , ruin , tho prison , and exile . He has never profited by his .. position ,,. to . gamble ab the Bourao , and has hover sold his influence to speculators ; but I am credibly informed that his influence has boon exorcised more than once to soften tho rigours of tho law in favour of bis political ndvorsarios , and that , in the opinion of all honourable men , he has established a clear title to his now motto , " Honour and Loyalty . " Your readers will believe that I should not occupy their attention with what , though it bo the talk of Paris , is nevertheless scandal , unless' I had some other object
m view . What I have written is to show how groat a sufferer is tho chief man in tho state , After tho Emperor , by tho absurd laws which at present regulate tho press , and how disastrous is . fc ooinm . orc ilft ! rrfgfeifl-Wiiich-aEmfl . difr ( arenk . oltttigeawofr ¦—SoWty against one another , and which makes tho expression of personal opinion a high crime and misdemeanour to bo visited with tho heaviest penalties . Wore tho press free , it would prove a safety-valve to tho aoowinonoufl foolings which aro now fostering in the bosoms of tho protectionists . , If thoy wero at liberty to attack . M . doPorsigny in the oojumnsof a publio journal , tnoy would novor droam of retailing their slander privately , ( or no one would listen to them . To speak ill w on © who stands so high Uqs now all the charms , of
forbidden fruit , and the calumnies pass from mouth to mouth , not because perhaps they are credited , but because they constitute a species of vengeance on one of those who have fettered the press . As doctors assert the want of ventilation breeds diseases in the constitution of men , and creates a morbid irritability , so does the lack ' of free ventilation df public questions by the press create debility and the bitterest feelings of personal hostility in the public mind . What is most unfair in the present law is , that the victim of misrepresentation is powerless to defend his character . He is assailed by a thousand enemies , but he can never grapple with one of them . The public may form an erroneous opinion of his acts , yet he has no opportunity of setting them right , because , as the opinion is never made public , he cannot publicly to account before the
refute it . He can call no man tribunals of his country for whispering away his character ; and although he knows he is most cruelly calumniated , he has no redress . It . be fitting retribution that those who have destroyed the liberty of the press should be the first and chief sufferers by their own act , but it is a melancholy thing to see anonymous calumny erected into a system and employed as the only weapon of society against arbitrary government . Little did the Imperialists imagine , when they introduced an act to restrain the liberty of the press , that they were about to establish a law for the encouragement and propagation of " evil speaking , lying , and slandering "—that they were beating down their own guard while they pointed the arms of their adversaries which were to inflict all the more cruel wounds
upon their reputations . If the protectionists were alarmed by the speech ot M . de Persigiiy , they have been fluttered out of their reason by that of M . de Morny . Just when they fancied that they had neutralised the effects of the former gentleman ' s remarks by the unwarrantable misrepresentation referred to , out came M . de Morny with a discours tenr fold more disastrous to their party . He said , on openin" - the session of the Conseil General of the department of the Puy-de-Ddme , "If France had for a long time followed this system ( referring to the improvement of the means of communication ) , if she had terminated her roads and canals , she could , without fear , abandon protective duties ; for it is only the expense of carriage , of
which increases the cost of raw materials and manufactured goods , that prevents us from contending on equal terms with our competitors . " To understand the full effect of these home truths upon the protectionists and upon the public mind , it may be necessary to state that M- de Morhy , besides being President to the Legislative Body and a kind of half-brother to the Emperor , was formerly a protectionist , and a proprietor of iron mines and furnaces . He was the happy speculator in the St . Aubin works , and is initiated into all the secrets of the ironmasters . He knows all their manoeuvres , and is alire to their system of campaigning , and he has gone over to their enemies to show them where his quondam
associates are most vulnerable . He has ruthlessly exposed the hollowness of that great sham , Protection , which he so long assisted to maintain . He has proved that France has no need of it whatsoever . " Improve your means of communication , " says M . de Morny , " and protection is useless ; cheapen the cost of carriage , and you can compete on equal terms against the world . " The speaker thus shows that protection has not , and never liad , a principle at all . It is a mere subterfuge and excuse for idleness and neglect of duties . Take tho sentences quoted , and see how thoy will be read by the poor consumers , that is to say , nineteen-twentieths of the population . Do they not plainly mean to the people that Government—because Government in France does
everything - —having scandalously neglected its duty to improve the means of communication and make them keep progress with the age , and having squandered the resources of the nation on military promenades in Algeria , and such useless , but costly , works as the fortifications of Paris , thoy ( the working classes ) are compelled to pay 50 or 70 per cent , for clothing , tools , and food , more than they would have to do had Government done its duty , and in order that protected manufacturers may make colossal fortunes in ten years ? When this idea penetrates into the mind of Jacques Bonhomme , it will be an unfortunate day for tho protectionists and , the governing classes generally , for tho nineteenth century may have its Jacquerie as well as a former age .
The assertion of M . do Morny reduces tho question of protection to a very simple issue—the completion of the means of communication . When these are finished , wo havo tho best authority , therefore , for knowing that French manufacturers will bo ablo to compote witlx all comers , and on equal footing , without tho nul of protective duties . Wo learn from anothor unimppaohubjlo 'authority *^ lre ^ ima' ^ ot'tlVo * stato ~ t'litit tlio railways in France aro almost terminated , and will bo entirely so in a very few years . Ergo , as schoolboys say , in a very few years proteotion will not bo required , according to a protectionist ' s own showing , and ought to bo abolished If it be maintained ono instant longer , it will bo impossible for any Frenchman to deny that it Is anything more or less than a system of oxtortion administered by tho Government to enable manufacturers to realise exorbitunt and unfair profits , and , in short , to spoil tho rest of the nation .
Whatever opinion may e m respect conduct of M . de Morny as a speculator and a gallant man , it is impossible to deny that he has done good service to the cause of free trade . I can readily believe that his speech was in obedience to a mot d'ordre , in which case it is all the more acceptable , as the foreshadowing of a . progress towards commercial freedom . Be that as it may , the President of the Conseil-Ge ' nerai du Puy-de-Ddme has scattered the protectionists in dismay , and compelled them to give way . The manufacturers . in the department of the Cher have presented a note to the Prefect and General Council of that division , in which , amid many doleful lamentations and artful misrepresentations , they say , " The
industry we represent has no exclusive pretensions to , and does not ask for , an absolute protection ; it knows how to make to the progress of international relations the concessions they require ; and we only ask for a thorough and conscientious inquiry into the great question , of protection to national industry—inquiry promised long since , and always adjourned , as if light and truth were feared in this matter . If it results from this inquiry that France , -in the present state of her credit , with her civil , political , and financial constitution , with the diversity " of her aptitudes , the immense variety of her
wants , and the possibility she possesses to satisfy them without recourse to foreign nations , with the extent of her territory , the internal character of her means of transport , the dispersion of the elements of her manufacture , is able , without fear , to compete in the production of iron with Sweden and England , so exceptionably favoured , we shall know how to submit to this decision . Better would it be , perhaps ^ far French industry to have a definitive legislation upon our customs dues * , however large it might be , than the precarious , irregular , and uncertain statei under which we live . That which French
trade seeks above all things is stability and security . The capital it requires , and which forsakes it at this moment , will only return when trade is seated on these two broad bases , and tohen the right sliall be withdrawn from the detractors of French industry which they arrogate to themselves to attack and disturb without cease . In the case that from the inquiry we solicit should result a new legislation giving satisfaction to the theories of free trade , immense sacrifices , Monsieur le Preset , would be imposed upon our country ; but we should not be alone in having to support them . In France the prosperity of the metal trade is not only the cause of those who exercise it , bat it is that of the soil and landed property . The proprietors of forests and minerals , the lessees of coal mines , carters and workmen , will have to share with us the consequences of an unequal struggle ; and if our interests are vanquished theirs also will perish , and at the same time . " Freed from the verbiage and
menaces which disfigure this document , the commonsense signification is , that the iron-masters abandon the principle of prohibition for which they have hitherto stoutly contended . They abandon also the principle of absolute protection . They are willing to make concessions to the requirements of international relations Nay , they profess to be ready to give up protective duties altogether if a conscientious inquiry should prove that they are unnecessary to French trade . If the inqnirv be conscientious , if the judges be impartial , and the protectionists be sincere in their profession to abide by the results , Protection is dead and buried ; but wnfornd have been made
tuuatly specious offers of the same ki so often previously , and as odea . shuffled out of , that no credit can bo attached to these gentlemen ' s sincerity or to their good faith . . The sole object pf this lachrymose supplication for inquiry is to obtain that the decree which admits English and Belgian iron at low rates may not be renewed at its expiry , on the 17 th of next month , so that the protectionists may continue the exploitation of their countrymen , during which profitable operation thoy ask to have free-traders' tongues tied by law , in order that they may not be disturbed or have their consciences alarmed by being reminded of their robberies .
Germany. (Fro»I Our Own Correspondent." ...
GERMANY . ( Fro » i our own Correspondent . " ) September 15 . As if it wore to confirm the truth of the remarks in my last letter upon freedom of discussion , a batch of edicts havo lately been promulgated , " -some of whioh I shall quote ; thoy will enlighten your readers as to the relative position of the Government and the people , better than words of mino can do , Tho Bavarian Government has commanded tho edict of tho Federal Diet rBundeBacihluaal , M , . tHk , . T . oLy .-4-85 . 1— . whioiwnnnfrninfi- *
general regulations for tho prevention of misdemeanours of tho press to bo laid before the Bavarian Diet—a preliminary stop to its Introduction into Bavaria . Tho edict in question has long since boon in force among nil the other con fedora tod states , or rather let its say , It has boon forced upon tho people by tho confederated prlnoos , except Austria , Prussia , and Bavaria . In Austria tho stringency of tho measures against tho pross precludes all thought of any fresh moans of repression . It is needless in Prussia , because tho Prussian proas-laws of I 1851 , say . rather ukasos—to employ tho word law In
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1858, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18091858/page/7/
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