quacy of the law. The penalties of the existing law were, the confiscation of the vessel, and the incapacitating of the captain for employment in the French marine. To avoid the confiscation, the shipowner, who had exposed himself to a sentence of condemnation, sold his vessel in a foreign country, and thus rendered the law illusory. If it happened that he was unable to save her from actual seizure and condemnation, his loss was covered by special insurances. The captain, on the other hand, whom the law had declared incapable of any command, evaded its penalties by merely changing his appellation; while he seemed to embark as super-cargo, or even as a common sailor, he was in reality still the captain of a slave-ship. The minister of marine further confessed, that it was extremely difficult to procure evidence of the offence, on account of the system of denial to which the crews of ships proceeded against were induced to adhere, by the temptation of pecuniary recompences, for which they were wont to perjure themselves before the tribunals."

The committee on the petitions of 1826 had proposed, that they should be referred for consideration to the president of the council, thus expressing an opinion that something ought to be done. The ministers, on that occasion, had succeeded in carrying the order of the day; but they had neither denied nor palliated the facts set forth in these petitions; they had only argued that the difficulties, which lay in the way of applying the law, would be obviated by further experience, and had expressed doubts, whether increased severity of penal legislation would not increase the atrocities of the trade

itself, by increasing the necessity of concealment. They now came forward, however, with a project of law, which, though far removed from the heavy pains denounced against the traffic by England and America, was valuable as a practical admission that there could be no objection to more rigorous punishment, if by that means the object could be secured. The new law enacted, that all the principals in the voyage should be punished with a fine equal to the value of the ship and cargo, and should further be banished from France. This addition of a fine to the actual condemnation of the vessel, was intended to guard against any evasion of the latter. Confiscation had been avoided by disposing of the ship in another country; and it was only to the body of the ship that the penalty attached; but, by the new law, the amount of the fine being once ascertained, it could be exacted from the principals at all times, so long as their persons, or any portion of their funds, remained subject to the jurisdiction of French courts. It was very properly declared, that, among the "principals" connected with such a voyage, should be reckoned the under-writer who knowingly insured it. An amendment to the effect of substituting five or ten years' imprisonment, with hard labour, for mere banishment beyond the territory of France, was rejected. The captain and officers were declared incapable of serving either in the royal navy, or in merchantmen. The punish

ment of the crew was imprisonment; but, with a view to procuring information and evidence, it was provided, that they should be liberated from this penalty, if they made a declaration of the facts

before a magistrate within a limited time. After a good deal of warm discussion, the law passed both Chambers. In the Chamber of Deputies, only forty-four members voted against it, a sufficiently large number, when we consider that France was not approaching an untouched question, but had before her the experience and the example both of England and of America, and that her "West Indian interests," in comparison with the mass of her population, and the sources of her wealth, scarcely deserved to be named when put by the side of those interests which, in Great Britain, were involved, or supposed to be involved, in the continuance of the trade. In fact, the opposition made to the measure seemed to be founded, in a great degree, on a most ignorant, prejudiced, and irrational, jealousy of England-a sort of belief, that, whatever England had found right and proper for herself to do, it would necessarily, just because England had done it, be wrong and imprudent in France to do an application of feelings of national hostility to a question, which seems, more than any other, to depend on principles that ought to be common to the policy of every civilized state. The marquis de Marbois, who presented the report of the committee of the Chamber of Peers to which the project had been referred, after stating, that, though Great Britain now moved heaven and earth to effect the universal abolition of the trade, she had once waged war with Spain to secure a monopoly of it, expressed himself thus:"In this apparent change of policy, it is just to acknowledge that England is ever consistent, ever commercially wise; for her

proscription of the trade now has still for its object the promotion of her shipping interest-the advantages of trade and navigation. These interests would be injured, if England, having deprived herself of the slave-trade, allowed the ships and mariners of other nations to continue engaged in it, and her superabundant population idle while others were employed." The duke de Broglie, in a very fervid oration, used much more becoming and sensible language, and was not so ignorant as to believe either that the marine of England could be much injured by losing, or the French marine much benefitted by enjoying, the privilege of supplying a French sugar-island or two with cargoes of slaves. "I look on myself to be," said the duke, "I will not say a better, but, I trust, as good a Frenchman as any of the orators I am called upon to answer: for that country to which I owe my birth, I cherish a love, I will not say greater than, but fully equal to theirs. I never, however, reckoned hatred of other nations among the duties it claimed from me. I never deemed that patriotism demanded of me, that I should specially abhor such a people, or such a government; but as it regards England in particular, I am free to confess I admire her deservedly for many things. The dignity of her liberty confers honour on human nature. She is a nation far surpassing most others in the true pursuits of civilization, in the arts of industry, and in the science of government. There are men in that country whom I love, men whom I revere, and, among them, I assign the first rank to those who have consecrated the best years of their lives to the abolition of the slave-trade, and

who now, in the declining vigour of their days, devote what yet remains to the abolition of slavery. I take actions as I find them, not tracing their motives with a malicious satisfaction, as if to find out, when no necessity requires it, the reasons of professions decidedly honourable, or to endeavour to surprise, in the workings of the human heart, interested motives, and the selfish impulses of our nature. At all events, in this case, when the British ministry zealously seeks to effect the abolition of the slave-trade, when it urges, and begs, and prays others to abet its efforts, I do not see any reason to impute to its motives any other interest than that of justice and humanity. Gracious God," exclaimed he "of what importance is it to England, mistress as she is of the sea, mistress of India, mistress of seven-eighths of all the colonies of the world, mistress as she is (thanks to our tardy deliberations) of the commerce of South America-of what importance to her can be the internal government of affairs in two petty islands such as Martinique and Guadaloupe-in two islands of which the most extensive contains not 10,000 free inhabitants, of which the richest scarce reckons up fifty land proprietors sufficiently out of debt to rescue their estates from passing into other hands, if a compulsory sale was rigorously enforced-of two islands of which scarce a person in France knows any thing more than that it costs thirty millions a year to keep them in some sort of beggarly existence ?"

The finances still continued so prosperous as not only rendered it unnecessary to impose any new tax, but left a considerable surplus revenue to be applied to public

objects. From the statements of the finance minister, it appeared that the receipts of 1826 had exceeded those of 1825 by upwards of fifteen millions of francs. The supplies for 1826 had amounted to 983,940,350 francs; the excess of income over this expenditure was 5,119,365; so that, after having provided, during last year, for the expense of the occupation of Spain, distributed 3,000,000 of francs in bounties to the fisheries, given 10,000,000 for the encouragement of manufactures by bounties on exportation, and paid 9,200,000 for arrears of services and unforeseen services, the government found more than five millions of unappropriated surplus in the treasury to commence the ways and means of the current year. The minister proposed to fix the credits for 1828 at the same amount as those of 1827; estimating the expenditure of the current year at 915,729,742 francs, and the income at 930,091,361. Adding to the fifteen millions of surplus revenue which would thus exist, certain prospective savings which were anticipated, he calculated that the revenue of 1828 would exceed the whole expenditure of the year by more than twenty-two millions of francs, something less than a million sterling. It was not proposed to take advantage of this surplus to reduce taxation by the same amount, but to employ it in giving additional support to several branches of the public service which had hitherto been too parsimoniously endowed. Among others, an increase of 150,000 francs was to be given to the department of justice; 700,000, to the department of foreign affairs; 6,000,000, to the ministry of the interior, for the construction of

canals, roads, and bridges, and the general encouragement of industry; and 4,000,000 to the ministry of ecclesiastical affairs, to increase the endowments of the parochial clergy-a favour which the clergy of France showed no disposition to reject, as being inconsistent with either their faith or their respectability, although the Catholic prelates and priests of Ireland had refused a similar boon as a degradation, when it was proffered, or intended to be proffered, by the government of England. The committee to which the projet of the ways and means had been referred, expressed in their report a wish for the abolition of the lottery, but they expressed it in vain. Two hundred millions of francs (8,000,000l. sterling) were voted for the army, and an equal sum for the navy.

The agriculturists of France, like those of England, complained of low prices, although, with the exception of Great Britain and Spain, there was no country in which corn was so dear as in France; there were likewise many complaints of commercial embarrassment, and of want of employment for the labouring classes. M. St. Cricq, president of the French board of trade, admitted, that a large portion of the population was badly fed, badly lodged, and badly clothed; and he made

use of the fact to refute the assertions of the agriculturists, that they were suffering from over-production, by arguing that, while such was the state of great numbers of the people, there could not, in the nature of things, be any excess of production beyond the wants of the country. The official statements, however, of M. St. Cricq seemed to show a rapid improvement in the manufactures of France during the few preceding years. In 1816, the amount of cotton worked up in France was only twelve millions of kilograms, whereas the average consumption of 1824 and 1825 was twenty-six millions; and that of 1826 had increased to thirty-two millions. In 1816, 400,000 kilograms of silk were imported; in 1824 and 1825, at an average, 650,000 kilograms; and in 1826, the importation rose to 800,000, besides a great progress annually made in the production of native silk. In 1816, the wool, native and foreign, manufactured, was estimated at forty millions of kilograms; in 1824 and 1825, the average was forty-eight millions; and the calculation for 1826 was about the same. In 1816, twenty-four millions of kilograms of sugar were refined; the average for 1824 and 1825 was fifty-five millions; and in 1826, the quantities refined had increased to seventy-two millions.* In the

of France, and laid before the directors at their half-yearly meeting on the 26th of January, 1827:

fr.

63,000

C.

Cr.

fr. C.

643,007 90

23,777 75

fr.

2,037,000 00

Second dividend, 18f.......

1,222,200 00

Reserve upon 67,000 shares, 9f.

611,100 00

The report further stated, that the bills, &c., carried to a new account, amounted to 102,710,563f. 13c. The number of accounts current was 1,800. Bills on hand had increased to such an extent, that those falling due on the 31st of October exceeded 21,000, amounting to 20,500,000f., out of which 3,124,000 were bills still in arrears. On the 30th of November, the Bank

975,175 20 3,417,793 27

4,392,968 47

had more than 20,000 bills to receive, amounting to 17,350,000f., out of which 2,571, amounting to 1,847,000f., were protested. On the 31st of December, there were 21,360 bills, amounting to 24,885,000f., out of which 2,865, equal to 2,854,000f., were not regularly paid, but had all been since taken up at the Bank.