Bread, whieh is really in France the "eleff or n
trail Iv dear. When bread is deer in England, it is undouhte liy een t bet still the When bread is deer in England, it is undouhte liy een t bet still the poor tea meat mid potatoes nntl fieh and pmetees. ;led temena: to rub on. This is ma so here. The Freneh pour ii ea tot hnsel, soup, fruit, and vegetebiee. The soup is made without lm:at. Ia nine out of ten cases. IL ia made of vegetables, water, salt, end soMaillleS a little butter. pool' nem who woks his twelv.: 11,:ttr..; per diem will
eat a loaf of' bread of two pomuls, and perhaps a little sausage-meat ;
but either cooked or raw, vegetables, mei soup he will pl.,:far. A poor labouring man in England could »at believe that he Nv011iti not sink with only such nourishment ; and :.et the French working classes are, on the whele, both heelthy and vigorous. I mention all this in order that you may understand how the present minnow; price of bread acts upon all classes, and especially on the mass of :society in France. The four-pound loaf is now at 17.1e sons, which is tsd. in English money. The average price for years past has been 6.1d. the four-pound loaf, or at most 7d. British money. This great difference, then, has excited vast dissatisfaction, and has led already to very sad results. The labouring classes in this, as in every other country, are di- vided into two great categories—the honest, industrious, and worthy, and those who avail themselves of every excuse for pilfering, robbery, and even worse crimes. In France, where even the -very best are noisy and turbulent to a certain extent, the working classes of the better sort have resorted in the provinces to emeutes and uproar against the expor- tation of grain; and to-day new troubles are announced as having taken place at bile. Various incidental causes have led to the local insurrec- tons in the French provinces during the last few weeks ; but the great and capital source of all is the dearness of bread. A French workman who cannot afford to purchase bread enough for himself and his family sm account of its high price, is literally half-starved. It is as necessary to his existence as are meat and potatoes to a London drayman. Be- . aides bread, meat has also fearfully risen during the last twelve months. During seven years, the best joints of meat in Paris, of beef, mutton, and veal, taken together, one with the other, could always be had for 13 sous, or 63.4. per pound. Now the price is raised to 8d. English money, and the French are obliged to deprive themselves of their favourite pot an fen. What would Henry the Fourth say, if he could • now visit France? he, who declared that it was his desire that on every .Sunday all Frenchmen might be able to put a good fat capon into their .pot an feu: Why, the French cannot now afford even a pot an feu of clods and sackings of beef, much more a good rump and a good fowl, as in former days. I admit that the dearness of meat is not so great an evil here as the clearness of bread, but together the evil is great indeed. The last two seasons, both for grass and grain, have not been favour- , able ; fodder and pasturage have been alike dear, and as the exporta- tion of grain has increased withal, it has followed that prices have risen, and that a forced scarcity prevails. Besides the dearness of bread and meat, the state of trade, commerce, and the money-market, are such as to increase the evils to the la'aouring portion of the population. The demands from America are fewer. The trade with Spain has been knocked up. Belgium now supplies herself with multitudes of articles she used to import from France. And the present very uncertain state • • ,a Europe, especially es to the affairs of the East and French alliances, prevents speculation in merchandia, and locks up large capitals. The .3noney crisis in England, and the !urge increase in the rate of discount, • have also produced bad effects. Not one, but many circumstances have conspired to bring about the present wretched state of affairs here, and have tended to prolong the commercial crisis all over France.—Paris Correspondent of the Standard.
Previous page
