The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-24 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.

(From the Merthyr Guardian.)
And what is the reciprocity loudly prognosticated
and gratefully awarded us ? Our Gallic friends, as we
have seen, mock us with foul calumny ; in proportion
as we advance, they, and not they only, recede ; our
liberalism is repulsed, as the Andalusian fair retreats
in the bolero before her impassioned partner. Nay
more ; the before rigorous tariffs are made prohibitory,
as we have seen exemplified in Russia, Prussia, and
the United States, as well as France. We might have
the less cause to complain if the rigidity of the exclu-
sive system were impartially enforced against all other
nations as against Great Britain ; but the fact is noto-
riously the reverse. The bar iron of South Wales is
visited, on entering a French port, with the enormous
duty of 27 francs 50 cents per 100 kilogrammes, that
is upwards of 11/. per ton, or about five farthings and
a half per pound. We are speaking without reference
to the recent modification of it by the French Govern-
ment, which bears about the same relation to the duty
as a feather does to a pound avoirdupois. The iron
of Sweden, on the contrary, pays but 16 francs 50
cents on the same quantity; that is about 7/. 10s. per
ton, or a fraction more than three farthings per pound.
It will be understood that these are but approximate
calculations on the spur of the moment. The price of
bar iron being taken at 6/. per ton delivered at Cardiff,
the tax amounts to nearly 200 per cent. upon English,
and to 125 per cent. upon Swedish iron. It may be
imagined, perhaps, this enormous discrimination arises
from the vast superiority of French commerce with
Sweden relatively to that with England, and to pecu-
liar privileges enjoyed there. Were stiA the fact we
should at once admit the fairness Of the principle. But
great must be the astonishment t the uninitiated on
perusing the illustrative documents to which we shall
arrive in due course. Another branch of national
products continues sn'oject to the same one-sided dis-
crimination, and the rate levied on British coal is to
that laid on nelgian in the proportion of 110 francs to
33, is, nearly four times as much on the first as
on the last. The consequence is that whilst England
exports to France 40,000 tons only, Belgium exports
440,000. tons, or eleven times the quantity. The gross
injustice of this differential partiality cannot be pal-
liated by any reference in favour of indigenous pro-
duction ; if the French miner cannot compete with the
British at a less protection than 110 francs, what valid
reason is that for the monstrous bonus of 77 francs in
110 in behalf of the Belgian ? Common sense and
common honesty dictate an equalization, either by the
reduction of the one or the elevation of the other to
the same level ; nay, more, a decent regard to fair-
ness should incline the balance in our favour if justice
held the scales, as will be evidenced by the following
returns extracted from the French official documents
embodied in the Report of the Commissioners we have
alluded to :

Exportations of France in the Year 1832 to the following
Countries :
Francs.
Sweden and Norway .. 2,821,411
Belgium... 50,048,593
England, with Gibraltar, Malta, and lonianlslands 101,737,420
So that, whilst France loads us with discriminating
exactions to the enormous amounts stated above, Great
Britain is her best customer by above two millions
sterling per annum more than Belgium, and nearly
four millions more than Sweden, the two countries so
liberally provided for at our cost. The gross results
of this novel species of gratitude may be thus exhi-
bited :
France imports from— Francs.
Sweden and Norway .. 11,943,761
Belgium.
63,956,052
England
leaving a balance of trade to the credit of Sweden for
nine millions of francs, or 360,000/. ; of Belgium
nearly fourteen millilms, or 560,000/. ; and against
England fifty-eight millions of francs, or about
2,320,000/,.—Ltwo millions three hundred and twenty
thous9,:nd pounds! I So much for economical quackeries,
reciprocity, and free trade. And to remedy these rank
injuries we have had a Committee in Paris at an outgoing
of thousands, who have accomplished literally nothing,
but present us with an assortment of statistical ta-
bles at a charge forsooth of some twenty shillings more
which might all have been collected and arranged in
London, postages included, for at the utmost 501. or
1001. Out of one hundred and twenty-one documents
or tables in this work, six only are the work of the
Commissioners, the remainder having been before pub-
lished and known in either Paris or London, and a
great majority of them in the latter city ; exclusive of
course of the special reports, the first of which occu-
pies seventy-six folio pages, and the last twenty-six
pages, liberally interlarded with opinions and free-trade
disquisition, in lieu of the facts and figures which the
authors alone were called upon to present. In this
abortive result of their labours few thinking men have
been disappointed. An independent nation naturally
rebels against attempts to dragoon her into a system
of concessions, and the good understanding neces-
sary for the fair adjustment of mutual interest can only
be safely effected by time. We have rashly and waste-
fully been working out of season where a waiting po-
licy would best have suited our purpose. We have
lavished with open hand and gratuitously what should
have been hoarded up against equivalents, until France
has little left to ask and we no more to offer. We can
imagine that in the course of time she may relax some
trifle more and graciously appease our murmurs with
a sop, but in the meanwhile we shall have sacrificed
I all our best and oldest friends- and customers as we
have already sacrificed Portugal. It will be no conso-
lation to be told that we can clothe ourselves cheaply in
French silks, or luxuriate hi French wines at a shilling
per bottle ; we hold it both morally and economically,
yea in a fiscal sense also, that luxuries may safely be
loaded with imposts, since their use is optional and re-
mains with classes that can afford to pay them. The
heavy balance against us in our French trade under a
wiser system would have been expended in encourag-
ing the productions of Mexico, of Brazil, and of the
immense continent generally seated betwixt the Atlantic
and the Pacific Oceans, with whom our intercourse is
based on the most favourable footing. We are inces-
santly reminded, indeed, that a portion of France is
even now inclined to a more equitable adjustment ;
that Lyons and Bordeaux have become enlightened to
their true interests, and desire the destruction of the
prohibitory regime. We can readily credit that those
great emporiums, from whence we are supplied with
wines and silks, are sincere in the wish, and that they do
not spare petition or remonstrance, for their craft is in
danger, and they cannot believe in the durability of the
infatuation which has so long ridden this country. But
their cry is feeble and isolated ; where are Rouen
and Mulhausen, with their immense cotton spin-
neries and manufactories ? where Sedan with its
woollen fabrics ; where St. Etienne with its hardwares ;
where Decazevil with his iron and coal works ; where
Louis Philippe, with his mines and forests; where Dc-
lessert with his sugar refineries ; where, we demand,
are all these mighty interests, that they join not with
Lyons and Bordeaux ? Their voice, on the contrary,
is still for prohibition, and their voice has drowned, as
it ever will, the feeble whine of their brethren. Of the
great staple manufactures or commodities of France,
brandy is the only one burdened here with a duty ap-
proaching to a prohibition—for actual prohibitions
there are none. The duty on brandy being 1/. 2s. 6d.
per proof gallon, may be taken roughly at about 500
per cent. on the cost on board, and yet 1,600,033
gallons were entered for consumption in the year
1832. In France, on the reverse, it is almost all pro-
hibition ; cotton goods, woollen cloths, hardware and
cutlery, earthenware, glass ware, saddlery,spirlets.,
for
dis-
tilled other than from wine, refined sugar, &c.,
the catalogue is too long to be gone through ; whilst
coal and iron are admitted only on rates of duty mon-
strously discriminative, and almost prohibitory as that
levied on our side solely on brandy.
Here we close our view of the one-sided manner ik
which we are deluded with Reciprocity and Free
Trade.

tARLISLE.— Lord Brougham and party passed
through this city on Thursday evening from Edinburgh, for
Brougham Hall. It was dark, but his Lordship being ex-
pected, there was soon a considerable crowd collected, while
changing horses at the Coffee-house. His Lordship was re-
cognized among the company in the carriage, and some of the
bystanders enjoyed a little free and easy chat with .
Patriot.