The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-06 00:00:00

FRAN CE.

BOURSE, June s.—The market bas been de-
pressed to-day by repeated sales for realisation.
Threes, after having been done at 70f 20c, declined
to 69f 85c ; Mobilier varied from 675 f to 670 f ;
Lyons, 880 f to 873 f 75c; Northern, 885 f to 880 f;
Orleans, 1,340 f to 1,332 f 50c ; Southern, 547 f 50c
to 515 f; Austrian, 516 f 25c to 515 f 75c ; Lombard,

We are almost ashamed to confess the amount
of incredulity and remonstrance confided to us
with regard to the Commercial Treaty. Our manu-
facturers are promised Free Trade with France,
and they hear of numerous concessions that are
forthwith to be made on our side. News of this
sort is apt to fire the imagination. Free trade at
once presents herself as a beneficent goddess, with
her horn of plenty, her attendant Graces, her pave-
meat strewn with various wealth, and the Arts
and Sciences in the background. Everybody looks
for his place in the brilliant inauguration. Many of
our people sent their agents, opened correspondence,
and we have even heard shops, on the other side,
trusting to their industry and mechanical ingenuity
to beat the long odds still reserved by the French.
But, while nothing was wanting on our side, the
expectants have waited, and waited in vain. The
picture of peace and plenty fades from the eye, the
apotheosis of Mr. Cobden dissolves, and in their
stead we recognise the familiar old group of
burghers pleading for their lives before an enraged
King, whom some one propitiates on his knees.
That is the actual phase of the Commercial Treaty,
We have only to reverse the nationalities in the
well known historical tableau, and here see what we
have come to. British manufacturers are proceeding
with heavy hearts to plead before French Commis-
sioners in an out-of-the-way street of Paris, not for
favour, but for existence. They would be only too
happy, so we are told, to stand where they now do,
but in many cases the Commercial Treaty has proved
no better for them than a new name for the Berlin
Decrees. At all events, they have to supplicate for
mercy in a way no Englishman likes to do with a
foreigner. Mr. Cobden, indeed, in letters to inti-
mate friends, goes on assuring us that all is right ;
but how vain the assurance to those who see and
feel all to be wrong!
Two months ago the silk manufacturers, the shawl
manufacturers, and a good many others, half closed
their factories and dismissed their workpeople, not
because they distrusted the operation of the Treaty,
but because they waited to see how it would work.
They wanted to know what the French would take
of us, and on what terms. A great part of the
trade they saw to be gone at once, for with
regard to many fabrics an Englishman has at
present no chance with his French competitors.
Why it is so is a question that need not here be dis-
cussed. We are dealing with facts. A great part
of our trade was suspended at once, and nothing
left but to wait and see what would come in its
stead. Thus far it has been all waiting, and wait-
ing with men of hungry stomachs, and with men
of short credits, is apt to prove disastrous. They
complain that all this waiting has been timed very
inconveniently. They could have waited long
enough before the great blow was struck, just as
the agriculturist waited ever so many years for the
repeal of the Corn Laws, and had time to set their
fields in order. But now the worst is done in
a moment, by a treaty made by telegraph, and the
sufferers are recommended to live in hopes of miti-
gation. There are circumstances under which the
best way to get rid of a house is to put a few barrels
of gunpowder under it, and so heave it up bodily,
leaving the materials to distribute themselves as
they please. When the smoke has blown off, you
walk in to see the result. That is the model of the
financial operation under review. A whole tariff
has been blown up. The system under which manu-
facturers have done their home trade, and a little
besides, has been sent into the air. They are now
waiting to see how it falls. On this point there are
most painful misgivings, and well there may be.
Our manufacturers are invited to send representa-
tives to Paris to beg for terms. This suggests a hun-
dred questions. Why was not this done before, if
it was to be done at all? Before they could
negotiate; now they must beg. Before, they had
something to offer, as well as to receive ;
now they come empty-handed. So long as
King Lear kept his kingdom in his own hands
it was of some use to stipulate about serving-men
and hors:s ; but, the " Treaty " once signed, Gone-
ril and Regan felt the old man and his followers a
bore—as, indeed, they were—and turned them out
of doors. Even as things are, it is shrewdly sus-
pected that the British delegates are invited to state
their case, and thereby to show the French manu-
facturers how to deal with them. What is the good
of their giving information against themselves, and
telling a competitor how they may be most cer-
tainly beaten ? There is usually a good deal of
secrecy in trade. It is found inconvenient to pub-
lish orders or consignments to all the world. A
manufacturer would rather keep to himself the
precise nature of the demand on which he relies.
Now, the very fact of this inquiry shows, that the
French manufacturers who really conduct it, whe-
ther they appear or not, wish to kuow all about
our trade. They may be fair and candid men, bnt
they have hitherto only shown these qualities in
overreaching Mr. Cobden, and our manufacturers
have a shrewd suspicion that they are meant to be
the next victims.

Now, there are consolations for mistaken gene-
rosity. Providence and the Drama avenged King
Lear on his ungrateful daughters. There are con-
solations for a bad bargain, when a bargain must be
made, and even for the simple or innocent victim of
downright roguery. There is something to be said
for a weak compromise when it takes the form of a
free transaction, as in the well known exchange of
gold and brass arms between Glaucus and Diomede.
But there really is nothing to be said for a great
act of generosity which we have been cajoled into
disguising in the form of a bargain, when there is
no bargain at all. We have neither the glory nor
the profit. We neither act up to our own in-
stinct, which is commercial generosity; nor do we
follow the French example, and make it real bar-
gain. We are wholly at a loss to see what the un-
adorned Mr. Cobden has done that the most be-
starred Duke, or Marquis, or K.G. might not have
done just as well. Nothing is so easy as giving
away everything that anybody asks for. There is
some difficulty in selecting the proper gifts and re-
cipients of the gifts, but there has been no selection
here. We have given everything, without the
credit of giving, for a consideration that turns out
to be nominal. We might have given to all the
world—to Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany,
but we have not even gone through the form of
giving to them, as they come in for the gift by
their old Treaty rights. Being compelled to give
a great boon to Spain, because she had a right to
the same as we gave to France, whether she de-
served it or not, we obtained not even the shadow
of an equivalent, and showed how little heart we
had to give by screwing an old debt out of her.
Thus, at the very time that we have made the
greatest sacrifices, we figure before the world as
hard bargainers and reluctant givers. It is the
common story of private life, when a man, having
devoted his life and his fortune to some ill-chosen
objects of interest, carelessly affords them the ex-
cuse they have long desired for neglecting, insult-
ing, and abusing him, and, as far as they can, ex-
tinguishing him altogether. Had the Chancellor
of the Exchever proposed and carried, as mere
measures of finance, all the concessions of this treaty,
leaving France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and
Italy to folly our example if they pleased, we could
not possibly have been in a worse condition than
we are now ; and, though it is possible these States
might have called us fools, they could not have
made us out knaves, which we have no doubt they
will take an early opportunity of doing under the
provisions of the treaty.— Times.

THE CHURCH-RATE ABOLITION BILL.—The
second reading of this bill, which was originally fixed for
the 14th, is postponed until Tuesday, the 19th inst., when
it is to be moved by Lord Lyveden.
THE REV. C H. SPURGEON.—The friends and
admirers of this popular preacher met at New Park- street
Chapel on Monday evening last to take leave of him for a
short time, as he is going to have a tour through Switzer-
land and will be absent from his congregation about two
months. Mr. Spurgeon has for some time past complained
of great weariness, brought on, no doubt, by his indefati-
gable zeal. The amount of his labours may in a
measure be estimated when it is stated that for the
last seven years he has preached on an average 10
sermons a week, always to large congregations, but
sometimes to as many as 30,000 souls at one thee,
besides other public duties. There appears to be
no doubt that his physical and mental energies greatly need
a relaxation from such excessive toil. However, he has
several engagements to attend to in some of the principal
cities in Germany while absent from England. The esteem
in which he is held by thousands in London was manifested
on Monday evening, as the chapel was crowded to excess.
&Nem' addresses of good-will and affection towards him
and his wife were delivered by his deacons and elders
During Mr. Spurgeon's absence various eminent Ministers.
will supply his place, both at Exeter-hall and New Park-
street. It is the intention of the building committee to get
as
the new Tabernacle so far advanced towards completion
to hold a monster meeting in it on Mr. Spurgeoßis return,

The author was much disgusted when on his
return to India, after a short absence, to find one
of his skik,arees, a low caste man, had been con-
verted to Mohammedanism, and had enlisted in one
of the infantry regiments under the author's com-
mand, thus spoiling a capital skik,aree to make a
moderate soldier. The remarks on the breeds of
horses used in India, show that Captain Shakespear
is a thorough judge of horse-flesh, and in spite of
his doubts about the lasting qualities of the feet of
the Australian horses in hot climates like India,
Australia will furnish the best horses for the Ser-
vice after Arabia, and there is no reason why, by
judicious crossing of the different breeds, a
superior animal may not be produced. As
regards temper, it should be borne in
mind that the horses in Australia are bred
wild, and except when run into the stockyards to
be branded, and again to be sold, they are, to all
intents and purposes, as wild as the mustangs of
the American prairies. If handled young they
would be as tractable at any other horses, and their
hardiness and lasting qualities are not to be sur-
passed. '1 he work concludes with a chapter on the
Light Irregular Cavalry of India, their accoutre-
ment, training, and discipline.