Bread riots continue in Paris, and signs of distress throughout
France are increasing. The exact degree of the pressure it is difficult to learn, as most of those who report upon it speak with a bias. The poet-politician, M. de Lamartine, to whom the trials of a country are the materials for an epic or an oration, publishes in divers journals a long essay, headed "The Food Crisis"; begin- ning, "The poor are possessed by hunger, France by fear," and recommending vast granaries organized by Government. On the other hand, the able and respectable Journal des Debuts authori- tatively declares that the supplies, both at home and abroad, will be ample ; and ascribes the riots in Paris to the fact that " one or two bakers," who had had a brisk sale, exhibited empty shops to a St. Giles's crowd,—not uninstigated, probably, by those factions in Paris that need an occasional conspiracy in order to feel self- assured of their own importance. If a conjecture as to the substantial truth of the prospect for the ensuing winter may be hazarded, we should say it is this. There is no such shortness of supply. in France as to be called dearth, though the rising prices of Europe are decidedly felt. At the same time, depression of trade contracts the earnings of the poorer classes. The rich will live much as usual ; those of narrow means will be condemned to a forced frugality ; the really poor will endure aggravated hardship ; the destitute will be troublesome, from their numbers and their exasperation.
