The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-11 00:00:00

THE FRENCH TARIFF AND FREE
TRADE.

" Political Economist" writes to The Times :
Sir,—l am glad to see that Mr. Forster can contem-
Plate without dismay the possibility of a non-renewal
of the French Treaty. Were that to take place, Great
Britain would be able thenceforward to attend to her
ewr commercial and fiscal interests, without reference
to those of France—a position she lost by the Treaty of
1800, and has not since recovered. France would
thenceforward be in the same relation to this country
that Spain now is. She would have applied to us the
rates of her general tariff, placing us in a less favour-
able position than those countries with which she may
have contracted separate treaties which modify it in
their favour.
What, then, should Great Britain do (persuasion
having failed)to counteract this injurious treatment
0.11 the part of France? Retaliate by taxing French
Imports ? "What," I hear a Free trader exclaim,
violate the established principles of free trade, of
w,...hich we have so long been the consistent advocates!"
Yea ; violate the principles of free trade, which,
strictly considered, have never been in force, as they
are already violated by the existing duty, and act
11Pcn the strict principles of political economy, of
Which it is a law that each country should act in
accordance with its own interest. If, then, retalia-
tion is for our own interest, let us retaliate ; if not,
not.
Acting, then, on the established principles of
Political economy, it would be adverse to our interest
to tax any imports which are necessary for the produc-
tion of wealth in this country, and thereby to raise the
Price of them to consumers; but it would in no
respect be adverse to our interest to tax commodities
Which are not absolute necessaries, which, not being
Producible in this country, do not enter into competi-
tion with home produce, and the admission of which
raises no question connected with protection to a
sPecial British industry. Such are imports of tea,
Coffees, cocoa, and wine, which are either not prolUCible -
in this country or can only be produced in
it at such cost as make it certain that they never
Will be produced.
It is, therefore, in strict accordance with the prin-
ei pies of political economy to tax any one a these
articles to any extent desirable for the sake of
revenue; but one of them, more than the others, is
!Pecially suitable for this purpose, because it enters
Into consumption by a niuch smaller and also by a
rcuch richer class of the people than do the others.
This article is wine, and, fortunately for the purpose
in view, about 5,700,000 gallons of this article are =-
Ported into this country annually from France for a
value of about two millions and a half sterling, and
about 5,000,600 gallons of it from Spain for an annual
value of about one million and a half sterling.
I conclude by asking, what principle of 'political
economy would be violated by our doubling the pre-
gent duty on wines from France and Spain, to the
treat advantage of our revenue and to no disadvan-
age to the poorer classes of our population ? If no
81101 principle be violated, I submit the expediency of
bringing under the notice of the Governments of
Prance and Spain the possibility of our having re-
course on the forthcoming occasion to the procedure
above indicated.

•kEMORIAL TABLETS ON HISTORICAL
-HOUSES.
,Six new memorial tablets on houses in London
!Mich have been occupied by celebrated men have
Pa'it been erected by the Council of the Society of
Arts. The residences of an Emperor, two statesmen,
44, Philosopher, and two artists have been thus dis-
oi rn,gshed. These china plaques will now be found as
.011,0 w :-
(h 1 the front of 15, Buckingham-street, Strand,
Where Peter the Great lived for a short time ' • 25,
t.rlington-street, for many years the residence of the
e-tribus Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole; 14,
kavile• row, where Sheridan lived; 35, St. Martin-street,
eicester-square, for some time Sir Isaac Newton's
IP" ; 36, Castle-street, Oxford-street, where James
TY, the painter, received the statesman, Burke;
and 3O, Leicester-square, a new building occupied by
Archbishop Tennison's School, which stands on the
Bite of Hogarth's home.
In former years the Society of Arts have marked
wit tlaeir memorial tablets the homes inhabited by
Burke to Byron, Canning Dryden, Faraday, Flaxman,
Nreoklaisn;i:n, Garrick, Handel, Johnson, Napoleon 111.,
Reynolds, and Mrs. Siddons.

Tler
Royal and Imperial Highness the Crown
z-rincesa of G ermany is expected to visit llngland some time
la July.

AN HISTORICAL CELEBRATION IN
AMERICA.

The Daily Telegraph notices the celebration of the cen-
tenary of the Battle of Cowpens, in a leader, from which we
make the following extract :

On the 11th of May, 181, there was fought, just
within the confines of what is now the State of South
Carolina, a battle—if, indeed, so insignificant a fight
can be dignified with such a name—between two small
bodies of armed men. The Revolutionary war between
rcat Britain and the thirteen insurgent colonies of
North America was then "in full blast ; " and,
although the surrender of General Burgoyne and
of nearly six thousand British troops at Saratoga,
in the October of 1777, had inclined the balance in
favour of the American side, the fortunes of war
seemed, during the winter of 1780-81, to be once more on
the turn, thanks to the vigilant and prudent opera-
tions of the British General, Lord Cornwallis, in the
Carolinas. In the autumn of 1780 Lord Cornwallis had
gained, at Camden, a satisfactory little victory over
General Gates, the same commander to whom Bur-
goyne had surrendered at Saratoga; and, again, in the
April of 1781, a second battle at Camden, between Lord
Rawdon, in command of the British, and General
Greene, of the American forces, had ended in favour of
the former. The letters written at this moment by
Lord Cornwallis to the War Minister at home, Lord
George Germaine, begin once more to breathe a quiet
spirit of confidence in "the restoration of his
Majesty's authority over his misguided subjeCts ; "
and perhaps it is not too much to say—nor will the
assertion, we think, be contradicted by the most
patriotic Americans—that of all the soldiers who
fought in North America for the King in 1776 and
1783, Lord Cornwallis was the most likely to have
accomplished what those who are now alive know to
have been impossible. Distance and that torpid
kind of resistance which is expressed by the Latin
phrase " vis " contributed to negative all
the efforts of Sir Henry Clinton in the North, and of
Lord Cornwallis in the South; but if there were two
battles which more than any others conduced to the
final surrender of the British army at Yorktown, they
were those fought at Saratoga, in what is now the 'State
of New York, on October 17, 1777, and at Cowpens, in
South Carolina, on May 11, 1781. To commemorate the
centenary of the latter victory, there was held,
on the 11th of last month, a celebration at the little
town of Spartanburg, in South Carolina, upon which
occasion a monument was unveiled, consisting of a
column, on the top of which stood the statue of
General Daniel Morgan, the "victor of Cowpens,"
The oration of the day was delivered by one of the
most popular men in the Southern States, General
Wade Hampton, ex-Governor of South Carolina; nor
is it possible for an Englishman to read his address
without cheerfully conceding that it was couched in
eloquent language and conceived in the best taste.
Proceedings were opened by a Charleston clergy-
man, the Reverend Dr. Toomer Porter, who,
in words based upon the prayer for the Queen
in the ritual of the Church of England,
asked for a Divine blessing "upon the Presi-
dent of the United States and upon her Majesty
Queen Victoria." The Governors of the thirteen
colonies which a century since fought against George
111. were represented upon the occasion, and a tele-
graphic message of congratulation and goodwill came
from President Garfield in Washington. Governor
Hampton, the orator of the day, was introduced to
the large audience by his successor, Governor Hagood,
as "one standing upon the soil of Spartanburg, in
which lie the bones of his ancestors, victors in a war
to the triumphant conclusion of which the battle of
Cowpens materially contributed." . . .

In all other respects the oration of Governor
Hampton was strictly historical in its allusions ; nor
was General Daniel Morgan, "the hero of Cowpens,"
unworthy to receive from American lips a well-merited
oblaticn upon American soil. Daniel Morgan was
born in New Jersey about the year 1736, and having
left his birthplace at the age of seventeen he plunged
into what, according to Governor Hampton, were
then "the wilds of the Valley of Virginia." He
began life as a common farm labourer, whence
he rose to the post of a waggoner, and the Revo-
lutionary War ended by making him the trusted
friend of George Washington, who was himself in
command at the Battle of Cowpens, although the
victory was mainly gained by Morgan's horse. The
hostile forces arrayed against each other on that day
were, according to Governor Hampton, not more than
eight hundred and fifty men upon the American,
and about one thousand upon the British side ; but,
according to the " Memoirs of Lord Cornwallis,"
General Morgan had under him more than twelve
hundred men, while Colonel Tarleton, his de-
feated opponent, could not muster more than
seven hundred infantry and three hundred and fifty
cavalry. Be this, however' as it may—and at present
no importance attaches to the numbers engaged upon
either side—the fact remains that the British defeat
at Cowpens was the most serious calamity which had
befallen his Majesty's forces since the surrender at
Saratoga. The war had yet many months to run, but
the victory at Cowpens so t mboldened "the militia"
of the Carolinas that it led in the end to the
final capitulation of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
The day is not far distant when the Centenary
of Yorktown will lead to the conclusion of cele-
brations which have now been going on in the
United States for the last six or seven years. On the
whole, they have been conducted by the victors with
no want of consideration for the feelings of the mother
country while, upon this side of the Atlantic, we are
all of one mind in rejoicing that, nearly a century
since, George 111., having done his utmost to put
down what he regarded as "that worst of crimes' re-
bellion," conceded its independence to the young Re-
public which has now grown into one of the greatest
nations upon the face of the globe.