FRANCE. 



343 



so near the shores of Australia. In January, 

 1884, M. Ferry explained that the recidivists 

 sent to New Caledonia were not positive crimi- 

 nals, and promised that, in the event of any es- 

 caping to Australia, extradition would be ap- 

 plied for, expressing at the same time his belief 

 that the feeling in Australia was prompted by 

 annexation thirst. A bill was introduced by the 

 Government into the French legislature in the 

 spring, to provide for the transportation of 

 recidivists, or persons convicted of repeated 

 offenses of a certain class. This excited fresh 

 protests from the Australian authorities. The 

 English Government continued negotiations in 

 the interest of the colonies, but did not assume 

 the determined attitude they desired, which 

 would have prompted the French legislators 

 to pass the measure in a most undesirable 

 shape. M. Ferry insisted that it was purely a 

 home question. The object of the bill was not 

 only to remove relapsed criminals from France, 

 but to place them in a condition of compara- 

 tive liberty for the purpose of reclaiming them. 

 M. Courbet, who was commissioned to report 

 as to the effect of the bill, advised keeping the 

 criminals in restraint. Other inquiries showed 

 that there was not room in New Caledonia, 

 where there were only 160,000 hectares of ara- 

 ble soil, for a large addition to the present 

 criminal population, which is about 6,000. In 

 the summer Lord Lyons protested again against 

 the recidivists bill in any form. When the bill 

 was reported by the senatorial committee in 

 August, the intentions of the Government as 

 to the destination of the recidivists had 

 changed. Cayenne was declared to be a 

 healthful country, the failure of the former ex- 

 periment being due to mismanagement. Four 

 fifths of the recidivists were to be sent there, 

 the remainder going to New Caledonia. The 

 classes of offenders who come within the pur- 

 view of the bill are those convicted of lar- 

 ceny, breach of trust, obtaining money on false 

 pretenses, destroying trees or crops, obscene 

 conduct, enticing young persons for immoral 

 purposes, and begging or vagabondage under 

 suspicious circumstances, who have undergone 

 imprisonment a certain number of times with- 

 in ten years for the same offense, or other 

 crimes or misdemeanors. The prisoners are to 

 pass a period of probation in the agricultural 

 penitentiaries of France. The skilled artisans 

 will be sent to New Caledonia, and the rest to 

 Cayenne, to be employed by the colonists, or in 

 state factories. Land will be allotted to those 

 adapted for agriculture. Their families will 

 be brought out to them, and to the unmarried 

 facilities for obtaining wives will be offered. 



The Sugar-Tax. For the benefit of the beet- 

 growers and sugar-refiners, a bill was carried 

 through the Chamber by the Government in 

 July, imposing a sur-tax on foreign sugar. The 

 improved methods in the manufacture of sugar 

 invented in Germany, in conjunction with the 

 sugar bounties, stimulated production, chiefly 

 in that country and in Austria, to such an ex- 



tent as to produce a crisis in the sugar-trade 

 throughout the world. This was consequently 

 the branch in which the Government was first 

 persuaded to grant the protection that was 

 demanded by agricultural and industrial inter- 

 est alike, particularly as the duty would shut 

 out German competition for the French mar- 

 ket. The new law raised the import duty on 

 manufactured sugar from three to seven francs 

 per metric quintal for a limited period, ending 

 August 31, 1886. The French production of 

 sugar increased only from 415,000 tons in 1875 

 to 420,000 in 1884, while the export declined 

 from 230,000 to 120,000 tons. In Germany 

 the manufacture increased from 290,000 to 

 925,000 tons, 600,000 of which were exported; 

 and in Austria from 235,000 to 600,000 tons, 

 300,000 of which were exported. Those coun- 

 tries had wrested from France the trade with 

 Italy, Spain, Greece, Roumania, Egypt, and the 

 Levant, had established a demand for beet- 

 sugar in England, and were now entering the 

 home market. The machinery in the German 

 refineries was acknowledged to be better than 

 was used in the old-fashioned processes still 

 followed in France, extracting 10 per cent, of 

 the weight of the beets in sugar, whereas in 

 French factories only 5 to 7 per cent, was ob- 

 tained. 



The Tax on Wheat. The French Government, 

 like the German, has been subjected during 

 the agricultural depression to a strong pressure 

 from the land-owning interest to save it from 

 the effects of American competition by pro- 

 tective duties. The prohibition of American 

 pork was a concession to this class, which, is 

 more powerful than in Germany or in Great 

 Britain, because it includes so large a propor- 

 tion of the voting population of France. The 

 desired duty on wheat would benefit a much 

 larger class of agriculturists; but a measure 

 that would enhance the cost of living while 

 French industry was sorely pressed by foreign 

 competition, and while wages were depressed 

 and hundreds of thousands of workmen out of 

 employment, would aggravate the crisis, and 

 prove disastrous to the party that carried it 

 through. All the legislation of 1884 was ar- 

 ranged with reference to the elections of 1885. 

 The financial administration of the Govern- 

 ment was its most vulnerable point. While 

 agriculture, manufactures, and shipping were 

 suffering from a crisis, the Government was 

 exposed to complaints for not taking the right 

 course to sustain agriculture and create new 

 resources for industry, while spending 500,- 

 000,000 francs a year upon public works, and 

 100,000,000 upon public schools, and embark- 

 ing in unprofitable colonial enterprises which 

 had cost already 300,000,000. A comparison 

 with the period when the country enjoyed pros- 

 perity under the Conservatives and Moderate 

 Republicans, and the treasury was cautiously 

 managed by men like Leon Say, was most 

 likely to arise in the minds and influence the 

 votes of the rural population who were clam- 



