THE COST OF REVOLUTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 54, 3 February 1872, Page 15

THE COST OF REVOLUTION.

The following paragraph from “The Times” throws some light on the cost of revolution : —“ Some of the members of the Paris Municipality, including M Ranc and several of the most Radical representatives, have published a report upon the present condition of trade and the working classes in Paris. They complain that the revival of trade is checked, not only by the heavy taxation but also by the diminished number of skilled workmen, of whom they calculate that 100,000 have been lost to Paris through death, imprisonment, or flight; of the 24,000 shoemakers, onehalf are missing; the 30,000 tailors have become reduced to 20,000, and other trades are similarly affected. As a remedy for the existing distress, and a method of restoring Parisian prosperity, the report recommends the raising of the state of seige and the proclamation of a complete amnesty. As a comment upon this suggestion, the “ Patrie ” relates an incident which occured a few nights since. The Courcelles hospital is established in some wooden huts, which are surrounded by a paling, and at each point a sentry is posted. On the night in question the sentinal on the side facing the Boulevard Malesherbes was suddenly attacked by two men, who endeavored

to strangle and disarm him, but the noise of the struggle attracted another sentry, on whose appearance the assailants took to flight. The soldier who had been attacked fired his musket and mortally wounded one of the men, who has not been identified, but is believed to have been recently released from one of the prison hulks. The “ Debats” declines to pass any opinion at present upon the proposition for an amnesy, but reminds the authors of the report that their statements only confirm previous experiences of the fatal effects upon trade caused by revolution. A report, drawn up by the Paris Chamber of Commerce, after the revolution of 1848, showed that while in 1847 the Paris manufacturers of ail kinds represented a total value of 1,400 millions, that production fell to 677 millions under the influence of the revolutionary crisis. ‘Parisian revolutions,’ says the “ Debats,” are ‘ expensive things, and it is not ' often, whatever their authors may think, that they in the end are found to be worth their cost.’ Putting aside the question of the propriety of converting a capital city into a fortified town, the “ Debats” observes that from September to June Paris ceased to produce those special articles which were at once its pride and its wealth. During that time the only articles manufactured were ‘ demonstrations’ aud ‘ manifestations,’ and the only exports were prefects and dictators. The other articles of Paris ceased to be produced : but although Paris would not work, the rest of the world would not go without hats, hoots, perfumery, or jewellery, and, consequently, when the existing stocks had been exhausted, other countries set to work to produce the articles for themselves, and the prolonged action of the siege by the events of March gave foreigners time to perfect, themselves in what had hitherto been a Parisian speciality, and to supply a demand which Paris had failed to meet. * This is the explanation of that falling off in manufactures which the authors of the report so much lament: why clothing, modes, and furniture, fail to find their accustomed markets.’ ”