BOOK IX. should be strong by land and sea. While he watched over the army he did not neglect the navy. His efforts to develope the maritime energies and increase the tonnage of France, to protect and extend colonial enterprise and to improve his foreign commerce, have been fairly set forth by Mr. Lindsay. In truth, France owes her present formidable navy to Napoleon III. and to his naval. adviser, M. Dupuy de Lôme. A new epoch in the history of the navy, indeed, dates from the accession of the Emperor. 2 But the year 1853, which opened with marriage feasts and prospects of piping times of peace, was destined to close gloomily. On September 21 the Prince Consort, in the course of a letter to Baron Stockmar, touched in the following vigorous words on the political situation: Meyendorff is the Vienna Cabinet. Louis Napoleon wishes for peace, enjoyment, and cheap corn. The King of Prussia is a reed shaken by the wind. We are paralysed through not knowing what our agent in Constantinople is or is not doing. The Divan has become fanatically warlike and headstrong, and reminds one of Prussia in 1806. The public here is furiously Turkish and anti-Russian. All this makes Aberdeen's bed not one of roses.' The Eastern Question had been spreading darkly along the horizon for many months, and under its influence England and France had been drawing closer together— the Court and British statesmen having been fairly forced to acknowledge the sincerity of the Emperor's desire for peace and for an alliance with England. In October the Prince Consort wrote to Baron Stockmar that the relations between England and France had settled into an 1 History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce. By W. S. Lindsay. Sampson Low and Co. 2 Life of the Prince Consort. By Theodore Martin. JX. entente cordiale.' In the following month the Prince CHAP. observed to his old correspondent: Louis Napoleon shows by far the greatest statesmanship, which is easier for the individual than for the many he is moderate, but firm; gives way to us even when his plan is better than ours, and revels in the enjoyment of the advantages he derives from the alliance with us.' By January 7, 1854, the Prince Consort playfully admitted that Palmerston and Louis Napoleon were the idols of the public, ‘the favourites for the Derby!' Simultaneously with the aggravation of the Eastern difficulty in the autumn of 1853 the general failure of the harvest happened.2 The prospect of war appeared in conjunction with that of dear bread-a conjunction of misfortunes calculated to try the foundations of any government. The Emperor met the dear bread question boldly. Formerly the municipal council of Paris had issued bread tickets to the poor in times of scarcity, on presentation of which they received loaves at a reduced price from the bakers. This was municipal charity on a large scale. The Imperial Government met the difficulty by fixing the price of bread at forty centimes, and empowering the bakers to claim from the municipality the difference between this price and the real price, based on the quotations of the various corn-markets of France. When the real price fell below forty centimes, the municipal council was empowered to keep the selling price above the real price, and so to Louis Napoleon appears to have been straightforward (ehrlich) throughout the whole transaction, even where his Ministry suffered themselves to be misled by vanity and Doctrinaire nonsense into kicking a little over the traces. The Emperor Nicholas has now quite gratuitously made for him the position which VOL. III. originally he wished to withhold from 2 The deficiency to be made up G G BOOK. IX. recover the advances made. A baker's fund was established with the guarantee of the city, and, under the authority of the Prefect of the Seine, to regulate matters between the trade and the municipality. By this agency bread was to remain at a fixed moderate price, or nearly so. In addition the Government abolished the sliding scale of duties on the importation of cereals, as prejudicial to speculation in corn-importers being always in fear of a sudden increase of duties. This abolition of the sliding scale created dismay among the protectionists, while it was accepted by the more enlightened portion of the community as an indication of the liberal direction which the Imperial Government would take in commercial legislation. It was the first sign of the Emperor's Free Trade proclivities. The reduction of the tax on corn was quickly followed by a similar reduction on the importation of cattle. Then the immense railway interest to which the Emperor had given activity clamoured for cheap iron and coal. The sudden development of railways had sent up the price of iron and coal until it threatened to put a stop to the lines in progress. For the general interest the Government opened the frontiers to foreign rails and foreign coal at a reduced tariff. The clamour raised was loud, and even threatening; the French ironmasters vowed that they were ruined; Orleanist statesmen, who had been trained to believe in high custom-house walls as the only securities for national industry, predicted disaster; but the thin edge of Free Trade had been applied, and the wedge was destined to be driven home by the master hand that was at the helm of the State. |