The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-01 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL TREATIES.

The delays and disappointments which have invariably
attended the commercial negotiations and commercial
treaties undertaken or concluded of late years between
the British Government and foreign Powers, have
thrown a good deal of unmerited distrust upon that
mode of extending the trade and manufactures of this
country. That distrust ought more properly to be
attached to the department by which these matters have
been so grievously mismanaged ; and the failure of our
previous attempts is so manifestly attributable to an
imperfect acquaintance with the subject, or gross volun-
tary neglect of the best opportunities, that these exam-
ples prove nothing against the advantages which a more
active and enlightened system might assuredly confer re-
ciprocally upon ourselves and our Allies.
The great basis upon which the whole fabric of
commercial intercourse rests, is the growing and es er-
unsatisfied wants of civilized men. The more the
globe is explored, occupied, and peopled, the more need
is there of those productions of nature and of art which
are indispensable to the life and happiness of mankind.
Great Britain is, of all the nations in the world, best
fitted to supply this demand, by the extent of her own
productive dominions, by the power of capital, which
is ever seeking for investment in every shape of enter-
prise abroad and at home, by the energy and skill of
her industrious population, and by the strength and
numbers of her maritime power.
Hence it follows, that Great Britain has a larger
share of commercial advantages to offer than any other
nation. She has it in her power to assist by the legiti-
titnate influence of commerce the prosperity of every
other nation, to open wide markets for their internal
produce, to raise their revenues by increasing the de-
mand for colonial produce and cheap manufactured
goods—in a word, to apply her own mighty commercial
machinery to the development of resources in other
countries which are as yet unknown to themselves and
useless to the world.
It may be inferred from the ini,ifferent success of our
negotiators, that they have seldom held this language.
We are looked upon in Europe as a nation
of merchants, supplicating for privileges we will
not grant to others, and seeking to reap where
we have not sown. At other times reports
have been made by the commercial agents of
Downing-street, framed to suit some party purpose at
home, and intended to assail the defects of our own
commercial legislation, rather than to explain the real
condition of foreign countries. The result has been,
that the British Government, with an undoubted power
of conferring the greatest benefits by a fair system of
commercial intercourse, and able to outbid every other
nation in supplies, in capital, and in navigation, has been
baffled in the paltry attempts which have been ostenta-
tiously announced from time to time as boons to British
industry.
The consequence has been, that the Austrian Treaty,
not having been combined (us had been intended by
the sagacious Minister of that empire) with the
negotiations then pending, but abruptly concluded
at Constantinople, and having been framed with
an entire oversight of son►c very important ele-
ments in the relations between the two countries,
has given no proofs of vitality except in the Bill of
indemnity which was brought into Parliament last
Session to rectify its illegality. The Turkish treaty,
as we showed to demonstration some months ago, had
the effect of creating insurmountable restrictions on
British commerce in some parts of the Ottoman em-
pire, whilst it professed to remove those restrictions in
all. The Neapolitan treaty, which was a fair specimen
of what might be done all over the world by the in-
fluence of common sense, was disavowed and smothered
by Lord Palmerston. The French treaty, after years of
uitless negotiation, was at last brought to the eve of
completion, when it etas frustrated by political occur-
rences, although we venture to affirm, on very good
French authority, that if the matter had been urged as
it might have been by Lord Palmerston, that treaty
would have been signed before our relations with France
had chanced to be put in jeopardy, and would conse-
quently have afforded an additional pledge of peace to
the mercantile communities in both countries. The

inquiries made by Dr. Bowring as to the German
Customs Union appear to have been attended with no
result, and the periodical revision of that system is
allowed to pass without any improvement of our rela-
tions with the large communities which constitute the
League ; whilst, instead of makingithe-most of the supe-
rior liberality of the tariff of Hanover and the northern
German States not belonging to the Prussian Union,
we raise objections to the Stade dues, which involve no
real principle or example of commercial legislation. If
it be an object with us to stand upon a batter footing
with the great German League, the obvious method is to
confer advantages worth having on those States which
have refused to belong to it. Our present tara, with
all its inconsistencies and injudicious duties, at least en-
ables us to cede with a good grace upon points which
are a positive restriction to other countries, although
they only act as a negative and unproductive restriction
to ourselves.
It appears from tho evidence collected by the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons on import duties, that
there are 516 articles in our tariff which produce on an
average 1391. each to the annual customs revenue.
Ten articles produce upwards of 100,0001. and below
500,0001. Nine produce upwards of 500,000/. each,
but these nine articles produce collectively 18,575,071/.
out of the 2.2,122,0951., which is the total amount of
duties collected. In short, those nine articles, being
all of primary necessity and vast consumption, are the
grand source of our national income : a slight propor
tionate increase or falling-off in them is of more im-
portance than all that happens to the other 854 taxed
articles put together. The object of the imposts on the
former is revenue ; that of the imposts on the latter, a
costly and injudicious system of protection, frequently
amounting to virtual prohibition :
But although we admit that there is ample room for
the revision and improvement of our own tariff, we do
not adopt tho sweeping measure of reform recommended
by the Insport Duties Committee. Example may be
one mode of forcing open foreign markets, but negotia-
tion is another ; and in treating of these matters it is
not unworthy of consideration that we have a number
of points to concede, which it is even more important
for other nations to gain than for us to grant.
It is the duty of the Legislature and Administra-
tion to hold the balance evenly between those in-
terests which have acquired the importance of ma-
turity, and those which are yet to be created and
nurtired in the various dependencies of England.
Without doubt there are elements of prosperity in the
world sufficient to meet the undiscovered wants of un-
n gb e
for enrichedm byiits
bporordnueginegnertahteimon,s.
l
w i l l l e
hr.: ammoret a
givesl m
(1.
ny natione x o h
awn igl
another°e
him that takes ;" and the same power whose wealth
own
that cpormodmucertcioen, slikel‘miaernek3i-,n.d. blesses
and energy in time of need equipped all Europe for
war, may employ the same gifts as generally
and gener-
ously for the purpose of opening new channels of com-
munication, promoting new plans of improvement, and
proving that the welfare of each derives its security
from, and contributes its share to, the welfare of all.—
Tinres.

COURSING.—THE GAME LAWS.—A vast
number of informations recently have been laid under the
Game-laws, to recover penalties from farmers and trades-
men for being present at, and assisting in, coursing.
M. M. G. Dowling, Esq. was on Saturday
called to the bar by the Hon.Jurable Society of Gray's Inn.