The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-14 00:00:00

from being echoed by their countrymen generally,
was decidedly antagonistic to their feelings ; and
because our Government, despite its ill-concealed
partiality, has, like all weak persons, contrived to
excite irritation without inspiring respect, therefore
a great injury is to be done to the merchants of the
United States themselves, without the shadow of a

reason. The Cabinet of Washington has not been
long allowed to remain in ignorance of the light in

which its conduct appears to unprejudiced persons,
and it has already received a pretty plain intimation
of the opinions of those, its own countrymen,

who are the best qualified to speak. The
report presented to the Board of Trade of
the city of Detroit, by the Committee previously
appointed to examine into the matter, will be read
with great interest in this country, and it shows un-
mistakably the foolish and random policy pursued
by the American Government. The sum total of
the exports and imports between the British Ameri-
can provinces and the United States during the
forty-two years from 1821 to 1863, leaves a balance

in favour of the United States of no less than

V 62,116,081, the exports from the States exceed-
ing the imports to that amount. The report says
laconically, "With men acquainted with commercial
matters no other argument is needed to prove that
the trade with Canada and the other British posses-

sions of North America has been of vast advantage

to the people of the United States." After this
preamble the committee proceed to examine the
proposed resources for the interference of
the State with commercial transactions so
favourable to the best interests of the people. The
principal argument is found in the fact of the
Canadian Parliament having largely increased the
duties on American manufactured articles, thereby
naturally diminishing the demand for them. The
committee do not content themselves by remarking
that this is no infraction of the treaty, as all such
articles are not named in it, but they point out
very clearly the inconsistency of such a reason,
seeing that on that ground every European nation
would have a just cause of quarrel against the
United States themselves, whose national necessities
have compelled them to raise the duties on imported
articles far beyond anything dreamt of by the Cana-
dian Government. The requirements of the na-
tional exchequer is a sufficient plea for any nation
to urge in defence of the increase of taxes and cus-
toms duties, but it ill becomes the United States to
•
assume the office of censor. The second point
which comes under examination is the want of sym-
pathy felt by the people of Canada and of the Bri-
tish Isles in the efforts of the North to subdue their
fellow-countrymen. The Committee dispose of this
argument in a few straightforward and statesman-
like words. Let commercial treaties, it says, stand
or fall on their own merits. They have nothing to
do with any political affronts or infringement of
national right on land or water. It is beneath the
dignity of a great and powerful nation to rush into
hasty legislation on matters affecting the wellbeing
of 70,000,000 of people because of a supposed want
of sympathy on the part of a people of another
State. It is a question of trade and
commerce, not of likes and dislikes, say
these gentlemen, and any political element
introduced into the matter is altogether foreign
to it. Then, again, comes the argument of the
dangerous competition of the Canadian merchants
with their rivals, especially in the matters of coal
and lumber. The report very justly considers this
competition, so far from being a drawback, to be a
great advantage, and, in fact, a protection to the
populace of the States. Without it the coal and
lumber trades would be left exclusively in the hands
of a few great capitalists, who would, without the
wholesome check of the Canadian trade, leave the
consumers altogether at their mercy. It is well
known, says the report, that the pineries of the
great West are being rapidly taken up by the large
capitalists who will, in a few years, have a virtual
monopoly. Without the check of the Cana-
dian lumber market, these capitalists would
have an absolute control of prices, so
that the progress of buildings, and improving
towns and villages, would be much retarded, while
farming interests would also suffer. As for coal,
these gentlemen of Detroit—no insignificant autho-
rities—are only sorry that Nova Scotia does not
export to the cities of the Atlantic seaboard twenty
times more coal than she does, because the supply
at the West would be much larger and cheaper. As
it is, the American coalmasters are combining every-
where to raise the price of fuel ; and if the compe-
tition of the British colonies were withdrawn, this
great necessity of life would rapidly grow more
scarce and more costly. As for breadstuffs, which
have been a disputed point, the committee asserts
that, instead of being injured by the impor-
tation of Canadian grains, the States are largely
benefited ; and not contenting themselves with
general assertions, they prove their facts by figures.
They take as their sample the 300,000 bushels of
Canadian white wheat which were imported into
Detroit in 1863, and on this they find that the total
charges paid to Americans for labour, freight, in-
surance, charges, and commission, was $108,295
25c., while the revenue would make a further profit
of $3,880. It will take a great deal of argument,
say they, to prove that the States were the losers
by such a transaction ; and to those who contend
that the same wheat would have come in under a
20 per cent. ad valorem duty, they reply that they
would not have received a bushel of wheat with a 2
per cent. duty, because the amount of the tax would
have paid the freight, &c., to Montreal, where it
would have sold for a higher sum than at Detroit.
This is certainly conclusive logic, but the merchants
of Detroit, at least, will hardly need any argument
beyond the logic of the facts with which they are
already acquainted. Detroit is no insignificant nor
profitless city. Its commercial consequence entitles
it to consideration at the hands of the Government,
and Mr. LINCOLN'S Cabinet may find too late that
in fostering the narrow prejudices and angry pas-
sions of the people, they have overlooked and
neglected the true source of national wealth and
national greatness,

Herr VON BISMARK must be now in his glory, for
he is constantly writing despatches, and giving
utterance to his opinions on the various matters of
importance which are now so frequently agitating
the minds of those mixed up in German politics.
He has recently sent a despatch to Baron vox
SCHEEL PLESSEN, in reply to an address which was
presented to the King of PRUSSIA by some of the
chief inhabitants of Schleswig and Holstein. In
this note he says that " the King has received the
address with pleasure, and recognises therein m-
a right perception of the real
pressions denoting
state of affairs." Of course, it is easy to be satisfied
when one is likely to get what one wants ; but, at
the same time, it is amusing to notice how ingeni-
ously Herr BISMARK contrives to make out that all
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sooner all co to the advantage of those whom he
is all along plotting to outwit, and striving
that knowledge
the real state of •
assurance that
Duchies, and that
might and main to circumvent. The
concerned arrive at a "rightperception of
intended to monopolise
villthaffe a.irsprusths.iae better," certainly ; and
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n policy has all along
all control over the
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