The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-23 00:00:00

GENERAL THoMPSON AND THE CON-
TINENTAL FliffE-TRADE MOVEMENT.

In an age, as in youth and in his prime, the as-
sociate and literary legatee of Bentham is the same
ardent apostle of the Greatest Happiness Principle;
and, as ever, is ready to illustrate his precept by
practice. He is now in the van of the agitation
for the completion abroad of the edifice whose
foundation-stone he may be said to have laid at

home ; for, as Mr. Cobden, to his own infinite
honour remarked, on the termination ef the labours
of the League, the ever-zealous, never-flagging
first practical assailant of monopoly and restric-
tion in this country was the author of the " Cate-
chism of the Corn-laws." As such he must ever be
remembered with the admiration due to an origi-
nating, vivifying genius, as compared with the
claims of copyists and followers, however merito-
rious. Mindful of this character, more so than
many of his own ingrate and oblivious countrymen,
the Belgian Free-trade Association, whose address
calling for English assistance in behalf of the forth-
coming Congress at Brussels in September next we
lately published, requested the aid of the veteran,
who bad assisted as one of the deputation, in the
same capital and for the same purpose, with Mr.
W. Ewart and others, in 1847. He responds with
the promptitude that might be expected from one
of his uniform antecedents. With a view to
popularise the objects of the Congress through the
medium familiar to the educated classes on the
Continent, lie places at the disposal of the As-
sociation a pamphlet in French, written by him
several years ago, together with a preface, bringing
down the history of politico- commercial progress,
to the present time, and apropos especially of the
present Belgian movement. From the letter to the
London agent of the Association conveying this
donation, which has been gratefully accepted, we
are permitted to make the following interesting
extract :

" The history of the pamphlet is remarkable. It was
composed by me in 1834, at the express invitation of
Dr. Bowling, who was at that time on a kind of diploma-

tic mission it Paris. The translation was executed by M
Benjamin Laroche, since deceased ; and we laboured at
together, with all the precautions familiar to those who
have been engaged in preparing documents for publication
in the languages of the East. It was printed by a Pari-
sian printer, and on the very day contemplated for publi-
cation (which I. think was the 17th of Nov.) came informa-
tion of the dismissal of the Liberal Ministry in England.
Dr. Bowring's mission was at an end ; our Parisian pub-
lisher took alarm at the possibility of the publication being
unpleasant to the Government of the day after such a
change; and the work could never be got into anything
like general circulation. In 1847 the present reprint in
stereotype was made at Blois, at the instance of an Eng-
lish friend residing there. But again the publication was
found impracticable. Having never been able clearly to
ascertain the reason, I will not hazard any vague sur-
mises. But the fact was there, that nobody would sell the
pamphlet or assist its circulation. Perhaps under the
auspices of the Association, the air of Belgium might be
found more favourable to the work and its object. I look
back with great pleastree on the share I was enabled to
take in the proceedings of the Congress in 1847. The
slight hold a Liberal has on the support of a constituency
in England under the absence of the Ballot. joined to the
virulence of religious parties whom I had done all in my
power to assist in the hour of their distress, dismi.sel me
on the first opportunity from Parliament, and cut me off
from the power of placing anything like public character
at the service of the Association. The will, however, is
the game, though the power is for the present departed."
The power has not departed ; far from it. The
example of a man at General Thompson's time of
life, and so well entitled to repose after such pro-
tracted and inestimable labours, being ready to
put lance in rest once more, is in itself a potent in-
centive to those who have yet their spurs to win in
the coming campaign against restrictive conti-
nental tariffs, now staggering under the blows
just dealt in respect to coal and iron in Bel-
gium, and sugar and a variety of imports in
France. It is not merely the copyright of the
pamphlet that the General places at the dis-
posal of the Association, but the stereotype plates,
which he has had printed at his own cost ;—therein
adding another item to the large aggregate of ex-
penditure, amounting to many, many thousands of
pounds, incurred by him in the gratuitous and one-
rous prosecution of a cause productive of substan-
tial profit, as well as extensive fame, to others. We
have seen an impression from these plates. The
pages are very large, and the type is very small,
arranged in the well-known mode of summarising
the contents:in marginal notes, and notes interwoven
in the text, so familiar to the readers of the "Catho-
lic State Waggon," "Taxes on Knowledge," and
the innumerable original brochures and reprints
from the Westminster Review that had made the name
of Col. Thompson a household word to liberal ears,
and a sound of terror to monopolists for a long
series of eventful years. Bradford, for which the
gallant author sat when the last Congress met, has
since awakened to the importance of what was then
being attempted, if not to gratitude towards the
leader of such attempt. That, and most of the
other large towns of Yorkshire, are preparing to im-
part the strongest' possible British industrial signifi-
cance to the commercial and manufacturing gather-
ing of the nations at Brussels in September next.
The invitation of the Newcastle Chamber of Com-
merce to all Associations of a like nature in the
United Kingdom to follow its spirted example in
sending a repreneentative to Brussels, or to con-
tribute to the expenses necessary to the efficiency
of the machinery now hieing employed in Lon-
don towards that end, is experiencing a most
gratifying response. At its meeting, on Wednesday
week, the Commercial Association of Manchester
resolved to open a correspondence with M. Corr
Vander Maern, the President of the Belgian Free-
trade Association, and his colleagues in London.
The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and the nu-
merous other bodies in this great focus of trade,
will, we trust, hasten to lend their aid in every way
to an agitation which has very recently effected a
most important modification in restrictions upon
the ingress to the Continent of two main staples
of British produce, and whose ultimate object is
the universal practical establishment of the great
fundamental principle—that the lowest duties com-
patible with the strictest fiscal necessities is the
soundest course of action, political, social, and
pecuniary, that any State can pursue.—Liverpool
Albion.