The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-19 00:00:00

FREE TRADE IN FRANCE.

The Emperor of the French, there can be little
doubt, though not an autocrat, is now the most
powerful monarch in the world. He possesses far
more weight and influence, exercises more un-
bounded power and sway, and possesses far greater
prestige, than the Autocrat of all the Russias.
Napoleon 111., unlike Alexander 11., has raised
himself to the highest station from private life ;
and, what is more difficult, for a period of now
nearly ten years has maintained himself at the head
of the most high-spirited and civilised, yet the most
changeful and fickle, people in the civilised world.
This is evidence of consummate tact and manage-
ment, as well as of the highest political ability and
wisdom. Yet, with all his courage, with all his
address and good fortune, it must be admitted that
the task which the Emperor of the French has
now entered on is one exceedingly difficult, requir-
ing all his nerve, energy, and tenacity of purpose.
Napoleon 111. has elected at the beginning of this
auspicious year to do battle at one and the same
time with religious bigotry and commercial mono-
poly ; and in his encounter with these moral
monsters every honest Englishman will wish the
French Sovereign good speed, and hail his victory
with loud acclaim. Clergy and corporate interests
may both oppose his Majesty powerfully, but if
he only boldly throw himself on the French people,
and on the mass of right-thinking men in England
and Europe, who have no interest in perpetuating
religious intolerance, or in sustaining the monopoly
of any one class of the community, he is sure of a
certain, if not a speedy victory. Yet, it will be a
victory keenly contested. The priests and prela-
ture of Rome aro, as every one is aware, unscrupu-
lous adversaries, and, like the Moors, delight in
ambuscades and masked batteries. The monopo-
lists of France will, however, combat more fairly
and boldly than the monks and Jesuits. But the
one class of men will contend as strenously to save
their own pockets at the expense of France and the
world as the others will fight for the temporal Go-
vernment of the Pope at the expense of the happi-
ness and prosperity of Rome, the Marches, and the
Legations. Foremost in the opponents of the
newly proposed tariff will undoubtedly be the chief
proprietors of forests. This opposition, led on by
Marshal Soult and M. Decazes, in the time of old
Louis Philippe, frightened the citizen King, and
drove him from his first intentions as to a treaty of
reciprocity with England, some seven or eight and
twenty years ago. The total extent of ground
covered with wood in France now is as great as it
was in 1832 or 1833. It amounts to 17 millions of
acres, or one-eighth of the territorial surface of the
kingdom ; and there are forests found in every de-
partment of the eighty-six, fostered in their growth
and culture by the undue encouragement given to
the smelting of iron by the heavy duties which
were it) 1811 and in 1822 laid on the importation
of foreign iron. But, notwithstanding the number
iml wealth of forest proprietors and maitres de
forges, none of tin in have the least political weight,
influence, or ability, or courage enough to enter
on a course of systematic opposition. The Em-
peror of the French is sure of the support of
the majority of the Chambers against this interest
—he will be sustained by the mass of consumers
throughout the nation ; he will be sustained also
by the intelligent and educated opinion of France,
and the enlightened public opinion of England, of
America, and the world. What cares he, -then, for
the men of dear wood and of dear and indifferent
iron, who would make France and England suffer
to minister to their own private gains? Some Nor-
mans, sonic Orleanais, and some proprietors of the
eastern provinces and the Ardennes may write
pamphlets and make speeches in the Senate or in
the Conseils Generaux against the imperial scheme,
but here the opposition is likely to end.
A cry, probably as loud as that uttered by the
owners of woods.:and tnaitres de, forges will be raised
by the beet-sugar growers, for France is the largest
producer of beet-sugar in the world ; but as the
origin of this industry cannot be traced beyond
1807, and as 40 years elapsed before the manufac-
turer of the sucre de betterave was enabled to cope
with colonial sugar, it is evident that it is an indus-
try which has been nursed, and dandled, and spoon-
fed, into a rickety and unwholesome existence.
One hundred and fifty millions of pounds of this
dear, bad, ill-coloured, and lumpy sugar may be
fabricated in France, for which the consumer pays
more than a better article would cost at Bristol or
at Hamburg. In the vicinity of Lille and Valen-
ciennes, where the yield of sugar is from 16 to
19 tons per acre, and occasionally even 25 tons,
there may be loud complaint and lamentation,
as there is likely to be also on the subject of
cottons. But against St. Dialer, Lille, and Rouen
the Emperor may muster Bordeaux, Marseilles,
Nantes, St. Maio, Alorldix, Dijon, Joigny, Chalons-
sur-Marne, Epernay, Cette, and Paris—imperial
Paris herself; and it will then be at once seen on
which side victory is certain to rest. When it is
remembered, moreover, that in his letter to M.
Fould the Emperor is but completing a work coin-
monced seven years ago, and which yet remains to
be crowned with perfect success, all candid and
fair men in every civilised country will lend him
generous support. It was—it ought not to be for-
gotten—by an impel ial decree of the 22d November,
1853, that the customs duties on the importation of
coal and iron were materially reduced. Coal, ante- ,
cedentiv to the period of which we speak, paid wit
the decime 55 centimes per 100 kilogrammes from
the Sables d'Olonne to Dunkirk. Upon the re-
maining portion of the frontier it paid 33 centimes
by the land frontier, except in certain places by the
Meuse and the Moselle. From the date of the de-
cree of which wo speak, however, the zone from the
Sables d'Olonne was declared to have but one duty,
amounting to 33f. for French, and 88f. for foreign
vessels. Antecedently to the decree a double duty
to that levied on coal was levied on coke. But
faom the date of the decree it was provided that
coke was only to pay a half beyond what was levied
on coal. It was the same Sovereign who, in 1853,
made these beneficial alterations, who abolished
the distinction between iron smelted by coal and
wood, and lowered the duty on fonte brute, on rails
for railroads, and on steel. The work unfinished
seven and five years ago, he now seeks to perfect in
1860 or 1861 ; and whatever men in this country,
on the Continent, or in America may think of the
origin of his power, of his general system of govern-
meat, or of his extraordinary and marvellous career,
every philanthropist and lover of his species must
wish him success in the renewal of the attempt to
liberate commerce and set industry free. In pursu-
ing a policy of this kind, while he greatly subserves
the general interests of France, he also grandly
subserves the interests of England, of Europe, and
of the world, by lending the immense weight of his
influence, his ability, arid his power to inaugurate a
system calculated more than any other human mea-
sure to maintain confidence and preserve peace. The
Emperor has the greater merit in adopting this
course inasmuch as he opposes himself not merely
to the policy of his uncle, but to the policy of the
last three Bourbon Sovereigns. The First Napo-
leon, as well as the last three Bourbons, laid France
under the most. galling commercial restric. tie
e fil
Y 0
1 tata
growthsystem ofof modernprohibitive
to foreicm
tion of France was rather frien y _ b
Sat
by manu-
factured nd prohibition,ero fhweoli
,icychar
dutieseithern ed ounnl.l
ided
trade. The French tariff of 1791 was from begin-
ning
te
times, for
restrictions,ein ancient
excluded from Fiance, or laid u
na
and ecruyt cutlery, shape,
ning to end a system o
almost all the staple manufactures
of the metals;
of
all fabrics of cotton, wool, silk, or tissues of hair;
articlesaft rees
do
lisel taaelnliti!ffl a:C:1; if:id(11: irft:ionnin,
these sweepingly
saddlery, spirituous liquors, grain, refined sugar,
tobacco, toys, and various other inconsiderable
restrictions.
Mr. Pitt, Mr. Canning, and the late Mr. George
Rose, as well as Lords Grenville and Grey, were
pirit ofwtEhleeisiemarb.sut•d Canningr regulations aat iso
An
no s
tt
ehre,
nFrench
:
well aware of the narrow and anti-commercial
Mr. lluskisson, by Lord Palmerston, and
by AI r. Charles Grant (now Lord Glenelg), he did
all he meld tetombat the vicious system of our
neighbours, but in vain. Lords Grey and Mel-
bourne, as well as Lord Palmerston, struggled in
the same cause from 1830 to 1834—indeed, we may
say till 1841—but scarcely with more effect than
their predecessors. Laborious and convincing re-
ports were published by able, well-informed com-
missioners sent to France from England, but their
remarks and reasonings produced no amended
tariffs or commercial treaty. For our time was re-
served the crowning of the work ; and, as it will
be the especial glory of the French Emperor to
have earried the decree in France, so it will be, we
trust, the peculiar felicity of the present Chief
Minister of the Crown to witness the arrangement
and execution of a project in which he has been
actively and earnestly engaged for th.ree-and-thirty
years.—Morning Post.