The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-29 00:00:00

Lord PALMERSTON, on rising to respond, was re-
ceived with renewed plaudits. He said—Gentle-
men, I am so accustomed to the kindness of my
neighbours at Southampton that though I may be
gratified, I cannot say that I am surprised at their
taking this opportunity of evincing their goodwill
and kindness towards me. It is quite true, as your
President has stated, that not only I, bat all my
colleagues—and I may say every enlightened man
who now has anything to do with the Government
of this country—must feel it to be their duty to re-
lieve commerce from those shackles which the igno-
rance or the prejudices of former times imposed
upon it—(hear)—to give free scope to industry by
allowing and encouraging the most ample exchange
of the produce of industry and of nature between
this country and all the other countries of the
world—to increase our own prosperity, and by so
doing to increase the prosperity of every nation we
trade with. (Cheers.) It was an old prejudice, and
I am afraid a still ptevailing one among many per-
sons on the continent of Europe, that commerce is
a one-sided operation ; that in proportion as one
country gains, the other country with which that
commerce takes place must lose. I speak it in the
presence of a very distinguished Austrian statesman,
and he will forgive me for stating that which he
well knows to be true, that in Germany there was
great alarm among the manufacturing - interests
lest the opening of trade with England should
ruin the country with whom he had commercial
transactions. They said we were to deluge them
with our commodities—as if we were t o
present them with those commodities—na if we
were to give them to others without re-
ceiving value in exchange, and as if the value
which we were to take in exchange could, upon a
large scale, be anything in the world except the pro-
ductions of the industry of the country to which we
send our commodities. Those feelings, however,
have altered. (Hear.) We have conquered those
feelings in our treaty with France. (Hear, hear.)
Even that was a triumph over prejudice, which was
accomplished only by the strong arm of What I may
call, for that purpose, despotic power. If the Em-
peror had submitted that treaty of commerce to his
Chamber it would have been rejected by the force of
opinion clinging to the doctrine of protection.
(Hear.) Weil, by the constitution of France he was
enabled to sanction that treaty by his own supreme
act, and now I believe the French nation find they
derive as much advantage from it as we do—(hear,
hear)—it
mnge in fact, as clear as the sun at noon-
day commerce must be equally advantageous to
that u bumei
both parties, or it would cease to be carried on.
(Cheers.) Well, in Germany there is still a great
reluctance to see the benefits which free trade affords
to both sides when it is established. I believe—in-
deed I know—that Count Rechberg is a very en-
lightened statesman—that he is fully alive to the
advantages of the most perfect freedom of commerce;
but he is no
Emperor of the French, pos-
sessed of supremethk like
he
authority to overrule and override
t
all parties ; and therefore, if we do not get at once,
especially with Austria, those commercial advan-
tages which would be so much for the benefit of
Austria and of England, we must ascribe it, not to
any slowness on the part of the Austrian Govern-
ment, but to the nature of things—to the fact that
whereas here in England, enlightened as we are, it
was a long time before we were able to carry those
doctrines into practice, so also with Austria—we
must bide our time, and wait till the Austrian
Government is able—and I trust it soon will be
able—to extend and liberalise its commercial inter-
course with other countries, and to take a wide
step towards rendering perfectly free the com-
merce between the two countries. (Cheers.) I
much agree with what has been said—for I be-
lieve there is no country in Europe with which
England could have a commerce so extensive and
advantageous to both sides. (Loud cheers.) Aus-
tria abounds with things which would fetch high
value here. The natural resources of Austria—the
productions of all kinds, either from its surface or
from its mines—are really something wonderful—
not known enough in England, but well known to
those who have studied the statistical resources—
the treasures above ground and below ground of
Austria. (Cheers.) Well, then, Austria has not
made the same progress which we have in manu-
factures. We mike a great number of things
which would be highly useful to the people of Aus-
tria ; they would gain cheaper things ; they would
gain better things, which they cannot at present
make. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, an extensive com-
merce between the two nations would clearly be
more advantageous both to England and to Austria
than an extended commerce between England and
any other country in Europe. (Cheers_) That is a
doctrine which we have long held, and I believe
the enlightened statesmen of Austria are quite alive
to its truth. Well, I hope that the visit of your
distinguished guest will tend very much to
strengthen Count Rechberg and his colleagues in
the enlightened views they entertain. (Hear, hear.)
He will be able to tell them in Austria what won-
derful progress this country has made within the
last few years by reason of the freedom which has
been given, and the development which has been
given to commerce, to industry, and to manufac-
tures ; and he will point out that Austria would
derive equal benefit by following the same course.
(Cheers.) When, some years ago, it was said that
the restrictions upon the importation of corn ought
to be removed, all the agricultural interest imagined
that they would be ruined. (Hear.) It was feared
that America, and Poland, and Hungary, and all
other places would deluge us—for that was the fa-
vourite expression—(laughter)—would deluge us
with corn, and that the land would go out of culti-
vation. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Well, the very
reverse of that happened. (Hear.) Our agricul-
turists were stimulated to exertion by having their
monopoly taken away—the land is better cultivated
than it ever was before—every year additional tracts
of land are brought into cultivation instead of being
thrown out of cultivation—and the agricultural in-