The Express.
London, England, 1852-08-11 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, TIIIIIDAT STRAIN°.
The Moniteur contains the following importan

The treaty of commerce concluded on the 13th of Decem-
ber, 1846, between Priam and Belgium, and respectively
corded into execution from sad after the 10th of August,
1846, expires on the 9th instant. This treaty having been
neither prolcapd nor mewed, the commercial relations of
the twe *natio an replaced nudes the regime of the gene-
ral tariff.

It has long been the knows blood= of the French
government to mob tits Beigiamt as hard as possible
upon this que, and, by the declaration of a war of
tariffs to force Leopold to throw over all
plans of a liberal adesinbitration, and put
himself in the hands of the Jesuits. This
cowardly policy was distinctly proclaimed in those
articles aril. iiranier de Comagnac, in the month of
June, whisk exalted unloose! indignation through-
out Europe. Bat, netwitbetanding this warning, it
was always begs& anti
_particularly since the acces-
sion cl M. Dregs is lobeys to the ministry of to-
=B4ffsires, Viet tbe widen would be settled
, and that the trimly would at least, accord-
ing to tba venal diplomas indoes, be provisionally
prolonged ontib keek emerineste had been con-
shied. Imised. thieseeme 'neared so obvious that
tin sonstmament whisk recently appeared in the
mat at organ., such as the Independance
34, that it wield be adopted, produced little sen-
sation; and so utterly unexpected is the announce-
ment contained in the Mowiteur, that the same Bel-
gian paper renews to-day its former assurance, and
M. Armand Bertin, in the Debate, states that the
treaty would be provisionally continued.
Since the commencement of the ministerial crisis
in Belgium, the question concerning the terms upon
which the treaty would be renewed, or whether it
would be renewed at all, has been the chief source of
diMculties in the formation of a new cabinet. The
behaviour of the catholic party in Belgium during
the whole of this period has been such as to justify
M. Cemegnaes assertion that they desire that their
country should become a province of France. If the
interest of Belgium in the renewal of the treaty had
been greater, the Jesuits would probably have car-
ried the day, and we should have witnessed the dis-
graceful fact of a small kingdom being bullied into
the adoption of a policy in religious matters which
the great majority of the inhabitants hate
and repudiate, simply to prevent commercial embar-
rassments. But the advantages which Belgium
would derive from the renewal of the treaty are hap-
pily not so preponderating as to force the king and
people to submit to the dictates of the French poten-
tate in favour of the papists, and thus to pave the
way for incorporation with France. In fact during
a succession of yeses the commerce of Belgium with
France has been decreasing, while the general pros-
perity of the former kingdom has been advancing ;
so that the maintenance of the differential duties is
not a vital question for Belgium, such as the catholic
party represent it, and indeed of much less import-
ance than the question of national independence and
dignity. In 1838 Belgium exported four mil-
lions kilogrammes of linen cloths, of which France
alone took the whole all but 2 per cent.
In 1841 the exportation fell to three mil-
lions and a half, of which France took 80
per cent In 1845 the proportions exported to
France were the same. In 1830 of two millions ex-
ported France took only 31 per cent. In 1831 the
quantity of cloths exported fell to little more than a
million of kilogrammes, of which 39 per cent. were
exported to France. If, therefore, the French market
was a vital resource for Belgium in 1838, on the
other hand, in 1851 the expectations to France having
diminished by two thirds in relation to the whole
quantity exported in the same year, and to one-fifth
in relation to the quantity exported to France in
11838, such is no longer the case, and Belgium may
snap her fingers at France and the Jesuits. In fact
the industrial activity of Flanders has taken another
direction, and the efforts of the government to open
fresh sources of trade have been crowned with nom-
plete success, Besides, it is absurd to imagine that
all the advantage of the treaty denounced has
been felt only on one side of the frontier. Wines,
thread, and woollen textures, articles of fashion, silks
and other French productions, have been the object
of large concessions made by Belgium to France.
The Belgian producers complain, on the contrary,
that their interests have received no equivalent con-
' cession on linens and threads from France. The
Indepenannee of to-day complains bitterly of the
unworthy conduct or the clerical party, who have not
ceased to perplex the negotiations with France, to
aggravate the difficulties it presented, and to exert
themselves in every way so as to prevent the possi-
bility of a satisfactory conclusion. That party has
not ceased to proclaim the renewal of the treaty
indispensable to the linen trade of Belgium, and pro-