The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-23 00:00:00

THE FRENCH TREATY AND THE COTTON TRADE.

We have, as yet, by no means succeeded in con-
vincing the majority of the French nation of the advan-
tages of free trade; but we may hope the evidence
laid before the commission of inquiry, now
sitting in Paris, will remove many long-stand-
ing prejudices. The import and export of cotton
has been one of the chief points of inquiry, and
three delegates from the Manchester manufacturers
have been laying the results of their experience
before the inquirers. The Treaty has not proved so
advantageous to them as they expected,
since while the price of the raw mate-
rial, the machinery, and the fuel is less
in England, the price of labour is much
higher and the hours of labour shorter. The goods
traffic on the French railways is very slow, and
goods sent from Boulogne to Paris are ten days
on the road, while those sent from Man-
chester to London are only thirteen hours. M.
Mich eIC h evalier, the well-km:4n polititical economist,
has addressed a long letter to the Journal des Debats
on the question of temporary admissions. He says
it is not only the cotton-printers who declare they
are ready to run the risk of free trade for their
goods, provided that they can purchase their raw
material free of duty. The net-makers of
Calais hold the same language. •" Give us,"
they cry, " spinning cotton without duty,
and we will agree to admit English nets
duty free also." The muslin workers of Tarare express
similar views in respect of their particular branch.
Commercial monopolies, says M. Chevalier, which
originate in the restrictions of the Custom House,
must come to an end like other monopolies, and the
only monopoly which the Protectionists are likely to
retain is that of personal and malioious polemics.

ENGLISH MUSIC AND FOREIGN JOURNALS..--The
indifference of foreign journalists to every item of English
musical news, save and except an occasional note on
opera, is to us one of the oddest " things of the
time." Not an organ opening, however important
the instrument—not a concert, unless that of some
publisher who is haply en rapport with the foreign
paper—not a notice of an English publication —not &sine()
allusion to any of the numerous topics of almost vital
import to English musicians—finds a space, even of a few
lines, in the pages devoted to the chronicling of the small
beer of every Parisian cafe chantant or minor theatre in
the provinces. Englandmight well be two thousand miles
from Paris (or even at Timbuctoo) for the intelligence
displayed by our neighbours in their scant allusions to our
musical affairs. Our isolation in this was strangely shown,
indeed, by the verdict passed by a foreigner upon one
of our greatest geniuses. who by the self-sufficient Bel-
gian biographer was ticketed as "a musician of some
merit," and credited with the authorship of a work pub-
lished by another of the same name long before the greater
man was born !—Musical Standard.

DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest holders
of whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is r ommended
by the medical profession in preference to French brand . sup
plied in casks and cases for home use or exportation. Quotations
on application to Messrs DUNVILLE & Co., Royal Irish Dis-
tilleries, Belfast ; or at their London Offices, 4, Beaufort Building°
Strand, W.C.