FRANCE. 



FRERE, SIR H. B. E. 



345 



parliamentary committee, appointed in accord- 

 ance with the resolution adopted by the Cham- 

 ber, pursued during the year its investigations 

 into the conditions of labor in the various 

 seats of industry. 



The Lyoos Silk Industry. The Lyons indus- 

 tries have been seriously affected by foreign 

 competition. Cheap German and Swiss fabrics, 

 containing from 60 to 90 per cent, of cotton, 

 nearly drove the pure silks out of the market. 

 The manufacturers became merchants and sup- 

 plied their rivals with raw materials, while the 

 weavers were left without employment and 

 driven into other occupations. Some of the 

 factories began making the mixed goods, but 

 the duty of 360 francs per quintal on cotton 

 yarns placed them at a disadvantage, as the 

 Germans paid from 45 to 48 francs, and the 

 Swiss only 4 francs. To enable them to com- 

 pete, the Government, in 1883, decreed the 

 temporary admission free of duty of fine yarns. 

 As the coarser yarns were chiefly used, the 

 manufacturers were not much benefited. When 

 the period of temporary admission drew near 

 the close, deputations appealed to the Govern- 

 ment for its prolongation, but were met by 

 counter-appeals from Lille and the other cot- 

 ton-manufacturing towns. 



In the latter part of 1884 there was an acute 

 labor crisis in Lyons. The Government afforded 

 partial relief by pushing forward the works of 

 fortification in order to give employment to 

 the idle mechanics. The municipality distrib- 

 uted aid and planned new public works, for 

 which it would be necessary to raise a new 

 loan. The crisis did not start in the silk in- 

 dustry, but in the manufacture of hardware. 

 The cholera caused a depression in the leather- 

 manufacturing and in the building trade. Final- 

 ly, the silk industry stood still. 



The Cholera. In June the cholera broke out 

 in Toulon. Thousands of people left the city, 

 conveying the disease to Marseilles and other 

 places. The disturbance of business produced 

 in the south of France was a greater calamity 

 than the epidemic itself. The mortality in the 

 two cities where it first appeared was serious. 

 As many as 80,000 people fled from Marseilles. 

 In the autumn cases appeared in Paris, an 

 event which increased the economic distress by 

 keeping away many of the tourists on whose 

 patronage a large part of the population depend. 



The Phylloxera. The exertions which have 

 been made recently, especially in 1883, to ex- 

 tirpate the phylloxera, or confine its ravages, 

 have met with gratifying success. "When this 

 destructive insect first made its appearance 

 there were 2,465,310 hectares of land in 

 France devoted to vine-culture. In 1883 the 

 area had diminished to 2,048,586 hectares. 

 The phylloxera, and the extreme cold during 

 the winters of 1879 and 1880, destroyed to- 

 gether 859,352 hectares of vineyards. There 

 were 442,628 hectares replanted; but no ef- 

 forts could make the cultivation successful on 

 the infected spots. ^Besides the blighted lo- 



calities, 642,978 hectares more were attacked 

 down to 1883. Instead of increasing in rapid 

 progression, as had been the case previous to 

 1883, the increase in 1882 being 60,374 hec- 

 tares, the infected area showed a diminution of 

 315 hectares at the end of that year. The area 

 protected or restored in 1883 was 72,137 hec- 

 tares, against 49,793 in 1882. There were 17,- 

 792 hectares flooded with water, 26,323 treated 

 with sulpho-carbon and carbonates, and 28,012 

 planted with American vines. 



The Hngnes - Morin Affair. One of the most 

 celebrated cases of recent years arose out of 

 the irresponsible practices of the private de- 

 tective agencies in furnishing testimony. A 

 detective named Morin, in seeking evidence 

 against a husband whose wife sued for a di- 

 vorce, accused him of improper relations with 

 a Mile. Royannez who became the wife of Clo- 

 vis Hugues, the Radical Deputy for Lyons, 

 a famouS poet and orator. Madame Hugues 

 brought suit against her traducer, but becom- 

 ing exasperated at numerous adjournments of 

 the case, shot him in open court, inflicting a 

 fatal wound. The Chamber of Deputies in 

 consequence of this episode passed a measure 

 for the regulation of the private detective of- 

 fices. Madame Clovis Hugues was tried and 

 acquitted, although private vengeance is not 

 usually condoned by public opinion or by the 

 courts in France. 



The Republic of Andorra. The republic of An- 

 dorra has given rise to a dispute in which the 

 politico-religious conflict of the Third Repub- 

 lic is interwoven with a feud of the dark ages. 

 About 1400 the Counts of Foix and Urgel end- 

 ed a struggle extending through centuries by 

 dividing the suzerainty over the Andorrans. 

 These rights became vested in the Kings of 

 France and in the Bishops of Urgel, and were 

 exercised in the appointment of judges to pre- 

 vent smuggling. The Bishop of Urgel com- 

 plains that the French judges interfere in poli- 

 tics. There is a conflict between an Ultramon- 

 tane and feudal party and a party of liberal 

 ideas imported from France. Hence the com- 

 plaint of the Spanish prelate, and representa- 

 tions from his Government. 



FRERE, Sir HENRY BARTLE EDWARD, an Eng- 

 lish statesman, born in Wales, March 29, 1815; 

 died at Wimbledon, May 29, 1884. He en- 

 tered the service of the East India Company in 

 1833, from the preparatory school of Hailey- 

 bury, where he was the first in his class. 

 Reaching Bombay after an adventurous jour- 

 ney by the unusual route through Egypt and 

 the Persian Gulf, he was appointed to a labori- 

 ous post in the revenue department at Poona, 

 in which he was of service to Mr. Goldsmid in 

 improving the system of collecting taxes. He 

 there acquired a remarkable knowledge of the 

 history and character of the Mahratta people. 

 In time he succeeded to Mr. Goldsmid's post 

 at Candeish. His method of revenue assess- 

 ment among the Mahrattas was so successful, 

 that it was applied to the whole of the Bombay 



