The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-22 00:00:00

three years after Wards, and twelve years before the period
fixed for giving notice that we meant to de away with
that treaty in 1812, the Secretary of State for Foreig
Affairs had thought it necessary to direct a strong remon-
strance to be made to the Court of Brazils, which repre-
sented that monopoly as a violation of the treaty of Me-
thuen, and aka remonstrated against other grievances. He
was at that time President of the Board of Trade, and
knew that our merchants were so situated as to justify that
remonstrance. Ills Lordship then quoted the rentoilstraiwe
as addressed by the English Ambassador at the Court of
Brazils, which stated that, if the Court of Brazils did not
redress the grievances complained of, Great Britain should
think herself justified in admitting the wines of other fo-
reign nations into bet consumption. This threat, his
Lordship contended, applied to the wines of France, not to
those of Sicily, Spain, or TeneriffZa It was perfectly justi-
fiable then, he contended, by what was there said, that we
should now, it we please, admit the French wines: The
Minister who directA that declaration or threa':, to be Made,
was Lord Londonderry ; and the Noble Lord, he was
sure, would not impute to him any violation of the national
The declaration was made too, when the troops o
that country (Portugal) united with the trooas of cur coun-
try, under the command of the iil/41.0b1e Duke opposite, were
planting the standard of victory on the soil of France. The
country was entitled to do this. He had stated the nature of
the remonstrance—hehad mentioned the Statesman by whom
it was thought necessary, and the circumstances under
which it was made; and he had only to add, that the Am-
bassador who made this declaration sat there—(Hear,
hear)—and was the Noble Lord, who now made the charge
against the Government for determining to take that step
which he had threatened.---(Lord Strangford asked the
date of the remonstrance, and was answered, 1813.) It
was then stated that if the monopoly were not abated, the
Government would take strong steps. He had laboured
to show that there was no foundation for the charge of the
Noble Lord, who had imputed to the Government a viola-
tion of the national faith. In conclusion, the Noble Vis-
count stated, that he had no objection to make to the mo-
tion of the Noble Lord, except to the last part, which re-
lated to the instructions sent to the Commander of his
Majesty's ships at Lisbon. It was unusual to grant such
papers, and that part of the Noble Lord's motion, there-
fore, lie must oppose. There was another part of it—
that relating to the information given to British nier. I
chants—which he would not oppose ; hut the return to
it would be nil, for it was plain that the Government, •
when it was about to make financial changes, could not
give warning to any of the parties who might be interested,
ti.l the changes were brought forward in a regular wry.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH had looked at the treaty,
and did not agree with the interpretation put upon it by
I.is Noble Friend who spoke last. He thought his other
Noble Friend had not been fairly dealt with, and that it
was not possible to doubt that the Methuen treaty was
included in the treaty of 1810. If the Methuen treaty
were a part of the treaty of 1810, he could not doubt that
a notice was required. He was unwilling to enter into the
commercial part of the question, but he could not avoid
saying a few words. The advantage, if any, from the
change must lie considerable. Portugal might resolve
to prohibit our woollens—arid though the consumption
of Portugal was not great—not amounting, be be-
lieved, to more than 300,0001 —yet, in the present
state of our manufactures, and particularly in the
present state of our woollen manufacture, he did not think
it wise to cast that away. It was admitted that the
whole benefit gained to the revenue by the pro-
posed change in the duty on wines was only 240,0001. ,
but it was clear that no Cape wine could be imported
under the new duty, by which, as we understood the
Noble Lord, 112,750/. would be lost. His Lordship ob-
jected also to the policy of increasing the duties on Portu-
guguese wines, the consumption of which was decreasing.
It showed by the effects of the reduction of the duty in
1825, of 89 per cent. on all wines, by which the con-
sumption of French wines was increased 90 per cent.,
while the consumption of other wines was increased only
424 per cent., that there was no chance of any increase
of the consumption of Portuguese wines by the increase of
duty. He observed that the consumption of wine generally
had fallen off last year four hundred gallons. He admitted
that some additional revenue might be got from the duty
on French wines ; but he contended,. on the whole, that
the advantages of the alteration would not answer the ex-
pectations of its author. In conclusion, the Noble Lord
said, that the alteration therefore would be made without
any object, while it violated the treaty ; and if it was in••
cuinbent on States to preserve treaties concluded between
equal powers, it was much more incumbent on strong
Powers to preserve inviolate their faith with weak Powers.

The LORD CHANCELLOR was called upon as a
lawyer to interpret the treaties on the laws of nations, and
their Lordships were called on to put on the garb of
lawyers, or, at least, as lawyers to examine these treaties;
and it was because he could not find the shadow of a shade
of a violation of those treaties that he had given his sup-
port to his Noble Friend, and, for one, was a willing party
to propose a new arrangement to Parliament. Asa ques-
tion of notice and strict form had come before their Lord-
ships, he must remind them that they were then discuss-
ing, for the second time, the supposed budget of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer—they were acting on rumours of
what was not then proposed, and it would be better and
more consistent with the usual course of proceedings to
wait till the subject was brought regularly belore them by
justice,
they Bill. If they came to examine the question of
they must inquire into how notice was to be given, and
what was to he considered due notice; though, for his part,
he denied altogether the necessity of giving notice, the
article which spoke of notice being vague and indeter-
minate. He must apologize to his Noble Friend the late
Secretary of State (Lord Goderich) for taking up the
parts of the argument which he had so ably treated ;
but perhaps his Noble Friend had been so much occu-
pied with the commercial part of the question, that some
of the legal part had escaped his attention. He would
next direct himself to the economical and commercial part
of the subject ; and asked what was the essence of the
Methuen treaty ? Net that England should, at all
times, give an advantage to the wines of Portugal—not
that England should not make the wines of Portugal pay
as high a duty as those of France ; but that, so long as we
thought fit to give an advantage to tie wines of Portugal,
so long should our woollens be admitted into Portugal ;
and that, so soon as England should thick proper to alter
this unalterable treaty (which, however, it was provided
should be alterable) so soon were we to stiffer the penalty
of losing the market fur our woollens in Portugal. But
then there was the 26th Article of the Treaty, which they
were told by the Noble Earl, nobody but the Noble Lord
could construe.—(llear, and laughter.)—Now, if any
lawyer, or any body wearing the garb of a lawyer—or
even a layman—had, in the presence of his late venerable
and Learned Friend (the Lord Chief Justice of the King's
Bench), propounded so monstrous a proposition, as that
no Member of Parliament was to understand a ex-
cept the Member who had brought it in ; or that no-.
body could understand a treaty, except the High Con-
tracting Parties that were bound by it ; or the Plenipo-
tentiaries that had concocted it ; or the Ambassadors
Extraordinary, or the Envoys Extraordinary, or the
Secretaries of Legation, or the Clerks of Legation who
had signed it—he could figure to himself the utter in-
dignation wherewith that Learned and distinguished
Person would have heard that proposition. But if
his departed friend could be made aware that a pro-
position so strange, so monstrous, had been advanced
by his own seed—in his own House, of which he was
so distinguished an ornament—in the great Court of
Appeal—the highest Court of the realm, in which the
Noble Members sat as Judges—in which the advancer of
the doctrine was himself a Judge—be could not paint in
his mind anything like the indignation of the late Lord
Ellenborough, since never could he suppose circumstances
under which the Noble Lord could be induced to believe in
the possibility of such a consummation.—(Hear, hear,
and laughter.)—Tlterefore he begged once and again to
protest against the doctrine. That the Noble Lord
(Strangford) was the true person to go to, to construe
that treaty, he did not repudiate ; but he paused before he
could accede to it. His only exception was—not to say'
lie (Lord Strangford) was not the person, but simply to
object to his monopoly in the construing of this article.
He (Lord B.) claimed his fair share of it as a lawyer and
a Member of the House, just as strongly and as pertina-
ciously as if his name had been signed at the bottom of the
treaty beside that of his Noble Friend.—(Hear.)—Now,
in the first five-and-twenty articles there was a great
change effected in the relations of the two countries, and
a regular code of laws laid down, which extended over a
vast surface of our commercial concerns. The twenty•
sixth had reference to all fotmer treaties, declaring what
it was advisable to suppress, and what it was proper to
yi:11
ednid(ile,ronsrottatungmteenasgne
Portuguese.—(Hear,
gveia:lrt:ltailant the Noble Na
soliadb,el,egohfL. ref
continue. And now, what was the force of the expres•
(p 4
page—namely,
e;a—ni (Strangford) d: )1
But still he was not altogether ignorant of it, and there-
fore, when the Noble Lord took a word out of that side,
and put it into the other—into the English (a word,
of the omission of which he had complained).—he was
entitled to offer an opinion. Now he thought the admis-
sion of that word aided him. He did not object to the
Portuguese interpolation—(A laugh)—for what followed?
According to the natural and ordinary functions of that
word, it was opposed to what had preceded-it. And ad-
mitting that this poiats at the Methuen treaty, as it hat