10 
HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
Walter Winans, Claridge's Hotel, Brook Street, 
W. 
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Brighton. 
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pres Paris. 
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NOTICE. 
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now due, 10/-, post free. If your name is not 
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IMPORTANT NOTICE. 
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mark, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Holland, 
who have not received their usual numbers, are 
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the Office of Messrs. W. H. Smith & Son, Strand, 
W.C. 
* •* * * 
By arrangement with Messrs. W. H. Smith 
& Son, 186, Strand, W.C., "Hamlyn's Menagerie 
Magazine" is on sale on the 16th of each month 
at the following Railway Stations : — 
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SHARP SPECULATION IN THE 
SEVENTIES. 
being a translation of an article on the Taxation of 
Commodities contributed to the " Revue Avicole" 
(" Aviculturnl Review") the fortnightly bulletin of 
The French Society of Aviculture. 
By M. Ch. Scelle. 
Parliament has voted a law for the taxation 
of provisions. The object of this law is to obstruct 
and put an end to speculations and monoeuvres 
tending to upset prices, and to allow the depart- 
mental and communal administrations to assure 
the supply of provisions necessary for the support 
of the people at large. 
The Senate, nevertheless, has limited the tax 
to a certain number of commodities; leaving, how- 
ever, to the military authority the ower of extend- 
ing it, in the war zone, to other goods than those 
which are comprised in the list issued. 
A consulting committee, composed of repre- 
sentatives of consumers nominated by the general 
councils and the prefects, of representatives of pro- 
ducers and intermediaries nominated by the cham- 
bers of commerce and the agricultural societies, 
besides the veterinary sanitary inspector and the 
director of the agricultural services, assists the 
prefect, who, although the advice of fhe committee 
is binding, has every qualification for appraising 
the opportuneness of such and such a tax. 
The fact of the taxation of commodities is no 
novelty, and criticisms of inflated prices have all 
ready been made in other times, as is shown by the 
following document, which by chance and by the 
kindness of a friend of ours, a great conservator 
both by nature and by profession, I am allowed 
to bring to-day before the eyes of the readers of 
the "Avicultural Review." 
FRENCH 
REPUBLIC. 
LIBERTY— LOCALITY 
FRATERNITY. 
AUTHENTIC SPECIMEN 
of the infamous 
SPECULATIONS 
incidental to 
THE SIEGE OF PARIS, 
1870—71. 
The Committee of National Defence, animated 
by anti-republican sentiment, and, in addition, 
characterized by a culpable incapacity in adminis- 
tration, encouraged speculation by neglecting to 
requisition and to tax, from the commencement of 
the siege, all the commodities necessary for the 
maintenance of the population of Paris. 
The outcome of this was deplorable excesses; 
speculators conspired to conceal their goods and 
sell them at the opportune moment, at absolutely 
scandalous rates, as can be proved by the follow 
ing eloquent figures : — 
UTHFXTIC 
Elephant's flesh, per pound 
Bear's flesh, for presents, per pound 
One small sucking-pig was sold for 
Garlic, per head 
Half kilogramme of clarified salt butter 
Fr. 
20 
15 
580 

40 
50 
