The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-15 00:00:00

In the Madrid official lists neither the Three nor the Five
per Cents. are quoted. Exchange on LonJou, 37.

We have received the Paris papers of Tuesday. The de-
bates on the Belgian Commercial Treaty still continued in
the Chamber of Peere. After the high protectionist speech
of Baron CHARLES DUPIN on Tuesday, M. GUIZOT addressed
the Chamber in defence of the Ministerial measure, but not
declaring fully in favour of unrestricted commerce "The
consumers merit all the interests of Government," says M.
GUIZOT, "but the producers also have claims on them." It
would appear that M. GUIZOT has yet to learn that all that
consumers or producers want or require is, to be permitted to
take care of their own interests themselves, without any
intermeddling on the part of the Government, in favour

either of the one class or of the other. He seems now to be
in nearly the same state of pupilage in the science of poli•
tical economy that Sir ROBERT PEEL was three years since;
and when M. GUIZOT shall have had his three years' experi-
ence, he, too, will become a free-trader.
The Journal des Debuts has the following observations on
M. Guizox's speech :

"The consumers merit all the interest of governments, but
the producers also have claims on them. It is production
which provides for the necessities of consumption. What
could ties latter do, if the sources of production were dried
up? This reasoning appears difficult to refute, for this mode
of stating the question of political economy is exclusive and
therefore inexact. M. Guizot had not any difficulty in show-
ing this, and he did so with that elevation of views which
is familiar to him, and which constitutes one of the charac-
teri tic traits of his eloquence. There is, however, in the
judgment which he passed on political economy, a certain
severity which does not appear to us to be altogether merited.
When, he argued, this science perceives a right neglected,
it affords it protection, presents it to the world, and trans-
forms it into an absolute principle. Thus political economy
beheld consumers, took up their quarrel, and demanded free
trade. M. Guizot was replying to M. d'Harcourt, and he
had a right to speak thus. But we may be permitted to
observe that it is not alone in the interest of the consumer
that free trade is called for and defended ; it is also in the
interest of the producers, it is in order to reach the best
possible conditions of a good production. The partisans
of the protective system have always maintained that
• it is better for the country to continue to produce the
articles which it produces at the moment at which they
speak, and that the public interest commands to have
them defended by prohibitive duties against foreign com-
petition. If this doctrine had been always followed
there would be no commerce whatever, and each nation
would fabricate all that is necessary for its own consumption.
Europe would refuse to purchase from America cotton, sugar,
coffee, and spices; America, on her side, would reject all
articles of European manufacture. Mankind would work
much more than they do at present, and would be a hundred
times poorer and more wretched. The partisans of free
trade, on the contrary, maintain that their real interest calls
on nations not to obstinately produce all that is necessary
for their own wants, and that it might be advantageous to
renounce the partial or even total production of certain ar-
ticles, and to consecrate to other works their efforts, which
would be thus far better rewarded. For our parts we are of
opinion that France could at present without loss, and even
with profit, diminish the duty on iron, on certain tissues,
and some other objects. She would receive a little more of
them from foreign countries; she would lose, no doubt, the
profits of this fabrication, and it is on that account that the
protectionists regret such reform ; but she would gain double
on another side, and that they shut their eyes to."
The Debats, albeit it is progressing in the right path, has
yet much to learn on the subject of political economy. By
far the most enlightened views on freedom of trade are those
entertained by the Courrier Francais, which, on this subject,
is far in advance of its contemporaries. In commenting on
the speech of Baron Dueler, it says :
"M. Charles Dupin has charged himself with the manifesto
of the pure Anglo-phobic protectionists. M. Charles Dupin
is as angry against England for having invented the freedom
of commerce as for having abolished slavery. It is well known
that M. Charles Dupin maintains that England has granted
emancipation to the negroes of the Antilles from no other
motive than to ruin the trade of the colonies of all other
nations, and insure to herself a monopoly of the seas. M.
Charles Dupin goes still further in attacking freedom of trade.
He affirms that England has formed a design to ruin and
subject the world by means of this detestable liberty, and as
a specimen of the condition with which we are threatened
he unrolls before our eyes the miseries of Ireland, of Portugal,
and of India. It is this commercial liberty which has ruined
these three unfortunate countries, as this sage tactician as-
sures us, with a faltering voice and tears in his eyes; it is
commercial liberty that has cast them down from a height
of grandeur and fortune into an abyss of misery. Ireland
was prosperous while she remained separate from England,
Portugal was wealthy before the treaty of Methuen, and
India was the land of Arabian Nights' fales before the in••
troduction of British cotonnades. The same destiny awaits
us, if we open our barriers to the invasion of British pro-
duce —we shall be inundated, and our wealth and greatness
will be for ever ingulphed in this grand cataclysm. We
shall not now make any answer to the arguments
of M. Charles Dupin, but content ourselves with observing
that if England has been labouring to ruin the other nations
of the earth by this commercial liberty, she has at the same
time been working out her own ruin ; for the fortune of Eng-
land is founded upon the exchange she makes of her own
productions for those of other countries. Now, if all these
unhappy countries are in the end to be ruined, and conse-
quently become no longer able to supply England with their
produce. where will have fled the industry and commerce of
Great Britain? What does M. Le Baron Charles Dupin
think of this !"
On M. Gtazost's speech it has the following:—
" We shall content ourselves with citing only one of the
sophistries of the Government orator. According to M.
Guizot, the question of commercial freedom is a question to
be discussed between the consumers and the producers. Eco-
nomists look only at the interests of the consumers while the
protectionists consider nothing but the interests of the pro-
ducers. The duty of Government is to hold an even ba-
lance between the consumers and producers without suffering
tectioh. see Deg In. urulha s ilartioff, out tins theory, winch
classes the consumers on one side and the producers on the
other, is completely false. The question of freedom of trade
is not debated between the consumers and the producers,
but between the operatives and the capitalists. To whom
are the amelioration of custom-house tariffs beneficial, if
they be not to capitalists? Have not these ameliorations
the invariable results of increasing factitiously the rent of
land and the value of shares in manufacturing undertakings?
If tbey increased in an equal proportion the wages of the
operatives, nothing could be more desirable—no one would
have to complain. But is this the case? Have wages in
England been ever seen to increase in proportion to the in-
crease of the value of land? Has in France the pay of the
workmen risen with the prices of shares? Undoubtedly
not. Nowhere has the protective system raised the level of
the salaries of the workmen and labourers; on the con-
trary, it has lowered them, both directly and indirectly. In
a direct manner, by diminishing everywhere the demand for
the consumption of foreign produce, by raising their prices;
and in an indirect manner by reducing the quantity of ar-
ticles of consumption which the workmen might buy with
their wages. We therefore repeat that the question of
freedom of trade is in debate between the capitalists whose
revenues it increases, and the workmen and labourers whose
pay and profits it reduces. There is no balance to be held
between these two contending interests. All that can be
done is to render justice to the injured workmen by destroy-
ing this machine d'exploitation which the capitalists have
devised for their own profit. Commercial liberty is an ab-
solute theory, for its application alone can make an absolute
justice to prevail over the relations between workmen and
capitalists. This is what M. Guizot has not comprehended,
and ruins his theory."
The Presse is ultra-protectionist in its comments on the
debate.

The adjourned debate on the extraordinary supplies was
resumed on Tuesday in the Chamber of Deputies. The
Chamber was addressed by MM. DE LAROCIIEJAQUELIN,
LEORAND, and DE MELVILLE, who dilated largely on the
misapplication of a portion of the funds asked to the cor-
ruption of the electors in the provinces. The debate had
not concluded when the post left.

The KING had received letters of congratulation on his
recent preservation from the POPE, the King of the Two
SICILIES, the Queen of SPAIN, the Kings of SWEDEN and
BAVARIA, the Grand Duke of TUSCANY, and the Grand
Dukes of MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ and OLDENBURG. They
were presented to his MAJESTY by their respective Ambas-
sadors and Ministers.

The Count Di.: DANNESKIOLD SAUSOIC, Grand Equerry of
the King of DENMARK, had an audience on Monday of the
KING, at which he presented to his Majesty the insignia of
the Grand Order of the Elephant, in the name of the Danish
monarch,

The adjudication of the Lyons and Avignon Railway
has been fixed, by the Minister of Public Works, for the 10th
of June.

On Sunday 'IBRAHIM PACRA visited the Blind School.
His Highness, after going through all parts of the build-
ing, and witnessing the mode of instruction, declared that he
had not seen anything in Europe which so much surprised
and interested him as this establishment.
On the Bourse the Three per Cents. were for cash, 84f. ; for Ac-
count, 83f. 95c ; Five per Cents., for cash, 119 f. 90c.; for Account,
119 f. 90c ; Bank of France Shares, 3,430 f. ; Neapolitan, 1011. 50c. ;

Spanish and New Loan, not quoted.
lieitwArs.—The Share-market was heavy, and most of the lines
closed lower. For cash—Paris and Orleans closed at 1,242 f. 50c. ;
Rouen and Havre, 732 f. 50c. ; Avignon, 90tif. ; Strasburg and
Bale, 218 f. 75c. ; Boulogne, 505 f.; Northern, 760 f. Bordeaux,
621 f. 25c. ; Montereau, 400 f. ; Paris and Strasburg, 510 f. ; Paris and
Lyons, 550 f. ; Nantes, 525 f. ; Dieppe, 450 f. ; Fampoux, Vierzon, and
Rotten, not quoted.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, MAY 13.
Central of Spain, 11A—Dutch Rhenish, 6% —East Indian, 3y
Great Indian Peninsular, % —Jersey, %—Louvain and Jemappe, 1%
—Luxembourg, 2 —Madrid and Valentia, I—Namur and Liege, 4
Orleans and Vierson, 1614—Orleans and Bordeaux, 104 Paris and
Lyons Constituted, 7 %—Paris and Strasbourg Constituted, 5%—
Rouen and Havre, 29—Sambre and Meuse, s%—Nest Flanders, 2%.

THE WAGIIORN TESTIMONIAL.—WO trust that at
length justice will be done to the claims of that indefati-
gable public servant Lieut. Waghorn, R.N. Among those
who have recently signified their intention to become sub-
scribers to the Waghorn testimonial is Sir R. Peel ; thus show-
ing how highly he appreciates the exertions of Lieutenant
Waghorn. May we not hope that those exertions, of
which Sir Robert Peel has thus expressed his ap-
proval as a man, will be rewarded by him as a
Minister. The subscriptions to the Waghorn testi no •
nial are the individual offerings of private gratitude fi r the
benefits which we have each of us individually re:eiv
through Lieutenant Waghorn's exertions in openirg th
overland route. But, over and above these individual b ne-
fits, he has also bestowed great benefits ul on us
collectively as a nation, and has, indirectly, materially
added to the power and the wealth of England. These
are national benefits, demanding a national reward ; and for
the sake of our credit as a nation, we trust that this reward
will be not grudgingly or tardily bestowed, but will l tr such as
a great nation should give, and that it will be given at once.

MR. BENTON'S BENEFIT.—We observe that the benefit
of Mr. Benton, the sub-treasurer of Drury-lane, and the civil and
attentive superintendent of the Free List office, takes place to-
day. Mr. Benton's own merits, which are well known and
justly appreciated, would at any time secure him a good benefit,
and with such a bill of fare as he has provided for to-morrow, in-
cluding as it does, Benedict's chef-d'avere, The Crusaders, the
beautiful ballet of La Bayadere, and the far-famed ballet d'action,
Peroese, with Witland as Cliimpanze, we think we may venture to
prophecy that he will have a bumper. He well deserves it.

ROBBERY or 30,0001.—0 n Saturday last a mer-
chant's box, containing bills of exchange and railway scrip to the
amount of 30,0001., was stolen from the counter of the Royal Bank,
Liverpool. It was brought in for the purpose of being deposited
there for the night. There was only 471. In, onsU li the box j
reward is s been offered fur the reel:Pray of IL