The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-06 00:00:00

Foreign Mail Packet List.

Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton July:—.
Ditto, via Marseilles July —,
Brazil and Cape Verde. by British pack et July 4.
Ditto, by French packet
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and t llelena July 22.
China, Penang, and Singnvre. via Sou hampton July 2
Ditto, via Maratilles July —.
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton.... July 2
Ditto, via 31araeillea
India (Bombay), via Southampton. July 11.
Ditto, via Slarseilles . ...................... July 51.
Mauritius, via Southampton
..... . July 11.
Ditto, via Marseil e. July 5.
Newfoundland .......... July 5.
Portugal
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon...
United States and British North America, by Bri-
tish packet ... • • ...July 3
Ditto, by United States packet, via Southamp-

ton

Ditto, via Cork

Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry July 7.
West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe July 12.
West Indies and Pacific (except Bahamas, Cuba,
and MexicoJuly 14.
Bahamas, via New York. July 27
Bermuda, ditto
Cuba and Mexico . July 6.
July 9.

The Anglo-A.

Lercial Inquiry.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)

I. VIEENA, June 30.
The Presse publishes the following interesting re-
marks upon the present state of the Anglo-Austrian
Commercial Inquiry :
The official Wiener Abendpost informs us that
the International Inquiry Commission has suspended
its labours in order probably to re-commence them
at the beginning of September. We say " proba-
bly," because the re-appearance of the English
members depends upon agreement to the proposals
of reform put forward by Mr. William Hutt—an
agreement not yet able to be arrived at. In the
often-quoted report of Mr. Hutt the English
demanded that the object of the commission should
be transformed into establishing an ad valorem
maximum duty for imports and exports, with the
co-operation of the English, through responsible
Government officials and by exports, after careful
consideration of the industrial position of Austria,
and that this general duty on value should be altered
into specific duties on weight for the different goods
by the adoption of a more proportionate tariff. The
tariff thus prepared was then to be proposed by
the Government to the Reichsrath as a general
customs tariff, and advocated by it in that assem-
bly. The commercial treaty between England and
Austria would then receive it unaltered in the shape
of an appendix, and would at the same time include
all further arrangements as to mutual traffic locali-
ties.

The Imperial Government acceded to the wish
of the English by appointing high governmental
officials as representing the three departments con-
cerned—foreign affairs, finances, and commerce—
to be members of the commission, but stated that
in a technical point of view it was not in a position
to express itself upon the reform proposed. As the
Reichsrath hadnot yet given its vote upon the gene-
ral customs' tariff, the Government could also do
nothing but adjourn the commission, as it would
have been in the highest degree undesirable to treat
a tariff as the constitution permits and at the same
time to proceed to its radical alteration. It is,
therefore, a matter of course that the English mem-
bers declared their readiness to wait until they re-
ceived the answer for which they had asked, but
decided also, as their conditions were indivisible,
that they could not participate until then in any
further sittings. This brought about the conclud-
ing meeting, and as MM. Hatt and Beaumont have
already left, the adjournment until further arrange-
ments has ipso facto taken place.
" Examining now into the causes of the non-
success of this business, we find them to be manifold
in character, and to be pretty equally upon both
sides. What the English ask, and did ask, is clear
and well weighed; it is based upon the principle
adopted in their country of settling the tariff inde-
pendently and without differential duties, and
offering it then as an object of treaty to all nations
upon equal terms. Added to their co-operation
they would bring with them their experiences, which
undoubtedly were free trading, with regard to tie
final aim. The Austrian Government appears, on
the other hand, as we have often said, not to have
been clear in its commercial policy ; it put forward
an autonomous tariff, differential duties, provisional
state of affairs, commercial treaty—all confusedly
mixed up together. The Inquiry Commission seems
only to have provoked a vague idea that it was a
matter which would last a good long time, and
would, therefore, postpone the fulfilment of the
unpleasant demands of the English, and still more
of the French, to a remote period. It is otherwise
not easily conceivable how so scanty an amount of
knowledge should have been gained respecting such
an institution, its limits, its connection with com-
mercial policy, and its final object, that fully four
months have elapsed without any programme
having been drawn up.
" The same indistinctness was apparent in the
choice of the Austrian members. Members of the
Reichsrath were selected, in the hope that the future
treaty of commerce would pass successfully through
the Chambers. But it was left out of sight that
the inquiry demanded great knowledge and much
time, and that experts would therefore have been
more suitable than Deputies, whose time is in other
respects so fully occupied. The English abandoned
the non-official character of the commission at the
commencement, and showed by the choice of govern-
ment persons that they had far more important
objects in view than the mere collection of valuable
material. Further, the settlement of the period,
which they succeeded in carrying and their constant
hurry, showed that they were neither acquainted
with the previous progress of our commercial policy
nor did they possess experience of the difficult, be-
cause various circumstances of the Austrian State.
But all this might easily have been removed if an
internal difference as to the object of the commission
had not existed from the very commencement in the
views of the two Governments. The Austrian
Government wanted at the beginning merely to
establish a great industrial inquiry with the co-opera-
tion of the English, preparing thereby for itself a
basis for future negotiations, affording the English
at the same time a thorough insight into Aus-
trian productive conditions, and thus rendering
clear the possibility, but also, at the same time,
the measure of its concessions. England, on the
other hand, wanted to negotiate at once. In an
inquiry she understood nothing but the radical re-
form of the tariff in a free-trading sense. The evi-
dence was neither to be so extensive nor detailed as
in the case of an inquiry, but, at the same time,
they desired to subject the other treaty points—
such as right of traffic, &c.—to a very thorough
examination. In all their treaties of modern times

the English lay down a percentage of value as a

maximum, and arrange them for an international
committee agreeing upon the reduction of these

value duties to specific duties. This business, which
ordinarily follows the treaty, they wanced, in this
instance, to settle first ; hence the choice of mem-

•••
bers of the Government, which would otherwise
have been superfluous, and hence the hopes of the
projectorx of this Commission to be able in three

months to present themselves to their constituents
in England with the completed treaty. Hence the
disapproval, the discontent with the performances
of the Commission, the withdrawal of the Austrians,

the complaints of the English, and ultimately the
total standstill of the affair.

" The question now arises, What is to be done ?
The object is clearly in sight from the Austrian
point of view, by which alone we can be governed. In
an article of the middle of May we expressed our wish
that the inquiry about to be entered upon by the
Reichsrath in connection with the debate upon the
general customs tariff might, if possible, be combined
with the international inquiry. It is reported that
the Customs Committee has recently resolved not
to accept the general customs tariff, and to request
the Government to set on foot an extensive inquiry
into the subj eat. The way is therefore clearly marked
out. Let the Government now have the prelimi-
nary points and lists of questions fully settled by
experts, whose attendance might easily be procured,
as their time would only be occupied for a few days,
and then distribute these lists in all directions. The

examinations could then be taken uninterruptedly
in autumn in presence of the English. The .Govern-

ment would thus have gained the basis upon which
to draw up a tariff with the enlightened assistance
of such experienced members as the English dele-
gates, including all those ameliorations it so emi-
nently needs, and to settle the amount of the indi-
. _ _ _

vidual duties according to the capability of compe-
tition among Austrian producers. The English
would have all the less reason to be discontented

with this, as they would be able themselves to judge
the circumstances impartially and without prejudice,
and because their practical good sense is far from

desiring to carry over Austria, at one gigantic
stride, into the free trade camp. The tariff would
_ _

next be laid before the Reichsrath. The commer-

cial treaty with England, as well as further com-
mercial treaties, would have to contain this tariff,
and no differential duties whatever, as the latter
have become impracticable by the most favoured
nation clause, and at most carry with them the
danger of tariff reductions coming into favour as
so-called equivalents for counter concessions, to

which our trade, as compared with that of other

nations, is not equal."