The Parisians have had an early lesson on the evils
of Protection. M. Thiers, true to his theory that there is a rightful price for corn, insisted on a surtax being placed upon its import, which, as bread was tolerably cheap, did not matter. Now bread is rising so rapidly as to produce fierce discontent, and the Govern- ment, as a first step, has repealed this surtax. The American Gavernment, however, displeased with a tax on its largest pro- duct, put on a differential export duty against France, so the corn so much needed must come to England first, and leave a little profit sticking here in transitie. The Government will shortly be compelled to remunerate the bakers for selling at a low price, as in the time of the Empire, or Paris will be filled with bread riots, the very kind of riots which make troops most unwilling to fire.
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