Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-14 00:00:00

tail; n in expressing their opinion ; if there was, it was
gOntrary to,anything:he hadniet with -oit.'Changei'tind.
he thought the whole nountry had approved of the
proposal. • -
Mr.:R., A. MAcFre said he- was very sorry, indeed, to
hear it stated that this treaty was afavourite with the
country. _ He was not aware. that the country had had •
--any opportunity of discussing .it, and of forming an
opinion upon it. Now, they were engaged in no party
strife. (Hear, hear,). This was not a, question con-
nected with one Ministry or another ; and Certainly in
that chamber it would never, e viewed in-a party point
of View. (Heart hear.) . From the very first it had
, been the ;noblo:charactar•of the_ Chamber of Commerce
of Liverpool 'thaf, it had been independentin forming
.its opinions, and that it had men 'within it of all
political parties;;
.that ,they- had worked harrnoniously,
together, arid he had no doubt they would continue to—
do ,so. .No yr; in .reference to •public opinion on this
treaty, let them look at the press of the nation, andthey''
would find that in the great Wfiig party, of the Liberal
party, froni whom the treaty hadeulanated, thete Ware
very important ,diversities of opinion. They found the.
London press differino, and be found in' that very
_sensible paper, the. QaBgo4pOornmontvea/th, some. very
pungent remarks in reference to this treaty. The very
able editor of that paper said
Ireartdy approving of free-trade, as mostuf the economists
of Great Britain no* 'do, some, at least, Will b inclined to
• qupstion whether in this nelo treaty with France the country
has Trade even a tolerable bargain. To call the measure a
measur.; office-trade li"inereiy an ahuSe of terms • and when
coMe.to examine thq,p,epise items, we are unwillingly con-
strained to conclude that we have tar the worst of the bargain:
The precise nature of the measure seems ti be this—we are to
give to. France those articles and commodities that will render
France richer—we are to receive from .France those: articles
and commodities:that will fetilier"-Britain pourer. This is a
. commercio.l.treaty with a vengeance.., Netrything .we. give to
'France will 'make France stronger, both commercially and fo.:
. 'warlike purposes ; everything Ptanee will give. to us will b 2
only articles of consumptioa for the classes who are better off
than their neighbours: Such a treaty is only a delusion as it
stands . It is for:the rich in both ways, andmot for the masses:.
To call this tree-trade is to snake a joke of the term. Louis
'Napoleon has fairly outwitted Mr. Cobden: if this be Mr.
Cobden's doing. ;

He heartily agreed in-those view& (Laughter.) NOw, I
if . in• the great Liberal partYitherd: was a diversity of
opinion, such agile had described, it would ill become
.thefChamber to say that the conntry'had made Sup its
mind in behalf of the treaty. Nor did they know what
diversities of opinion Might have existed, nay, might-
even stilt exist, perhaps,' in her Majesty's Government
'itself, in reference to the treaty. He had had very '
sincere pleasure 'in being 'present, and in hearing the
most eloquent speech Of Mr. Gladstone to. the; House of
Commons on 'Friday night, when' that genCeMan. said
all they asked for was -.an- impartial and 'searching
inquiry.' The. GoVernMent of the 'country then Wished
the people to express an:opinion after impartially and
thoroughly investigating the,,great subject ; ' and .the..
House . of Commons, the representatives of the'
people . had expressed the- same wish. It 'was
conceded by all parties that time wiis neces-
sary. to give them. an ' opportunity of consider-
ing the whole question ; now, then, was_ their
Aline, and although they might have political' opinions,
and might think that as a whole the 'treaty 'would be
injurious. to 'the country, . yet the Commons left: it to this
and other similar bodies to. consider the treaty in its
commercial'aspect. Perhaps the chamber might, extend
the examination to the budget; because the budget and
the. treaty were- inseparable. If one failed, the other.
would:fail ; 'at all events, if -the treaty in its provisions
was not accepted, the budget would require to 'be..
renewed. He had looked over the treaty, and would ga
into'one or'two items of its provisions. Every man was
:presumed to kno* best his oAn trade—(laughter)---and
he would therefore" allude to sugar. Ile found that
refined sugar was mentioned, but he found no provision..
for treacle. (Laughter.)' He mentioned that to shOW
that there were defects, and • that the treaty
bad . not .been thoroughly deliberated upon.
There were only two men at the making of the treaty-,:-T
Mr. Cobden, a very able and very trustworthy_ man
indeed, :one entitled to all the high compliments Mr.
Gladstone passed. upon himin the Hohie• of Commons
,e-and M. Rouher, aVery eminent 'Frenchman, brought
up to the bar.; and therefore it was no wonder if good-
COlodea should have failed to :see all the `English -
interests in this. matter. • Now to.proceedto clause 3
the one subordinate,' or- tributary: clause; which; was
exceedingly important. lie agreed with other gentle-
men'that there • could be no onesidedness in trade ;hut
he did.object to the attempt at introducing, o'nesidedness
into a treaty, and thit.was so in the case of this treaty;
from bpginning to ;end. Article '5 said (without arty ;
reference to. future circumstances, and binding herself I
irrevocably), her Britannic Majesty engages , to re."
commend to Parliament' to enable her to abolish
the duties of importation on a -long list of articles.
Amongst them was coal, _of which the consumption in
these islands had increased by reason" of our manufac- •
turing and mercantile engagements, at an extraordinary
rate; and in the Edinburgh. Review they-were told that
the stock in our island Was extremely limited—so:much
so that it might be exhausted in 300 years. Now, it
became exceedingly important in a political point of
view, that there should be some restriction placed, on
the' export of coal ; but here under this treaty; it became
impossible for this country to put any restraint on the
export of this, the grand instrument for
.promoting our
commerce and manufactures, and the most important of
.all munitions of war. . Again, article 12 said, " The
subjects of one of the two high contracting Powers: shall
in the dominions of the other enjoy the same protection
as native;snbjects in regard to the, rights of property in
trademarks and in patterni of every description."
Here the- subject of Patents wad ignored. He
would bring a subject forward now that had not
generally received much of public opinion. It might.
not be known that he, as a sugar refiner,' had been
asked to pay as much as £lO,OOO a-year for.the use of
a 'patent; and yet, herd. was the French refiner at
liberty to send his goods—manufactured by the same
process, but withoat having to pay for the use of the
patent2--•into this •country, 'to eompete, with the British
manufactured goods taxed to the extent .huhad 'men-
tioned, by a monopoly of the Great Patent Laws. At
sgeli a rate as that, Great Britain might,soen lose her

, .
prestige, her pre-eminence, her .first 'Place altogether.
And, although the treaty,' should be improved, it would,
nevertheless, involve either an abrogation or a thorough
'reform of the patent laws. 'll,e, pointed this out to
shovi that while the subject of trademarks had been
looked td, an 'equally important matter—the 'Patent
:Laws—had been altogether ignored. He did not blame
-Mr. Cobden for this ;-that gentleman could not be ex-
pected to be up in every subject, and it ,was well;
therefore, that the government had given time to those
intergsted in the working of the treaty to consider it.
Article .18 provided' that "The. "arrangentoits of the
preseut Treaty of. Commerce are applicable to Algeria,
both for the exportation 'of her produce, and for the
importation of British goods." Algeria ! Where were
the Blitish colonies once mentioned throughout the
whole,text of thiS treaty ? (Hear, hear.) The British
Colonies did not appear once throlighoht the whole of it.
(Irear,,hear.) Before England derived any benefit by:,
sending her manufactures and products to France, a
French ship could bring any goods and we 0100 adniit
them, no.matter whether they were of French produc-
tion or merely imported' into France, from other
countries, and re-exported to Great 'Britain. Now we
could not look at the treaty without a reference to.-its
concomitants in the budget, in order to make up the
deficiencies involved by loss of revenue under the treaty.
The- commercial Daily List told them that, in aid of the
charges of the Customs' establishment, 'there was to be
levied a rate upon packages, at one penny -per package,
and Upon goods in bulk, according to the unit rn
which • they are entered. The sugar trade would be
thus very seriously affectei. Very common Manila
sugar was imported in . small bags. His firm
bought. 6,000 bags of sugar on the day of the pro-
duction of the budget, which sugar weighed about 225
tons, and. upon that cargo there would consequently be
6,000 pence to pay. He was sure Mr. Gladstone had
quite overlooked the' effect of such a clause as that.
The tax was to be viewed in" the light of a penitlty,
which they were called on't'o pay, or rather 'which they
were expected to pay, but would never be 'called upon
to pay. (Laughter.) The grand bonding system of
our country was to be interfered with. It was stated
by the Chancellor that he prOposed to lay moderate
charges upon certain warehousing proceedings performed
in. the Customs' offices, for the benefit 'o'f the importer.
Why, in that very cargo of sugar that he had mentioned,
the charge would be 4' per cent. ad valorem, and he
had had cargoes where it would be equalto '24 per cent.
ad valorem. It would, in fact, deprive Liverpool
of being the great depot whence bonded goods
were circulated throughout ' the whole of the
bonded warehouies of the country.. The truth
was that the treaty was onesided. It was one-,
sided in one' way—there was so much power given
to the Emperor of the French that there was no maxi-
mum in its provisions, nothing to bind him fast, whilst
we were unable to move without feeling ourselves un-
comfortable. We had no power of bettering our