The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-13 00:00:00

THE TREATY OF COMMERCE.

Yesterday's Moniteur publishes the treaty of
commerce, followed by a long report to the Em-
peror, by M. Rouher, on the negotiations which
preceded the treaty, and on the advantages to both
countries which may be expected from it. At dif-
ferent times and under various forms, the report
says, the two Governments had exchanged ideas on
the subject of a closer union of the two nations
by means of a treaty of commerce. The treaty
of navigation of January, 26, 1826, was the
natural prelude of a commercial negotiation,
for which the liberal views on the customs
duties held by many statesmen of the Re-
storation, and the initiative taken in 1824
by Huskisson, had paved the way. After the re-
volution of 1830, and in the course of 1832, plans
for developing the commercial relations of the two
countries were discussed, but official communications
on the subject between the two Governments were
not exchanged till 1839. One of the chief proposi-
tions then made by the English Government was
for a reduction of the duties on brandy, wines, and
silks imported into Great Britain, which were, how-
ever, still to pay duties much higher than they will
pay under the present treaty: For this compen-
sation was offered in the shape of substitu-
tion of an ad valorem duty of 20 per cent.
for prohibition, on woollen and linen fabrics,
cutlery, and hardware. Private interests, how-
ever, were powerful enough to oppose success-
fully these moderate reforms though the Govern-
ment was still willing to replace prohibition in many
cases by protective duties of from 20 to 30 per cent.
These negotiations were put an end to by diplomatic
complications arising out of the Eastern question.
They were resumed ineffectually in 1843, and it was
not until a long series of free-trade measures, in-
cluding the Navigation Bill, had passed in England
that they again occupied the attention of the two
Governments. After referring to the memorandum
addressed by Lord Cowley in 1852 to the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, the despatch of the French
Minister of Commerce in the same year, and the
spontaneous revision by the English Parliament
of the duties on certain French articles, the
historical sketch concludes : " A special circum-
stance occurred to give to these relations, time
after time resumed and abandoned, the strongest
activity. Certain annuities of the English debt
amounting to 53,650,000 f. fell in 1860. The extinc-
tion of this charge renders possible great reductions
on certain articles of the British tariff. Official
communications having permitted us to think that
these reductions would chiefly benefit French pro-
ducts, your Majesty authorised the negotiation of a
treaty of commerce with the plenipotentiaries of
Great Britain. In giving this authorisation, the
Emperor clearly marked the character and the ob-
ject of this negotiation. The sole aim of the repre-
sentatives of France was to be the loyal, conscien-
tious, and profound study of the interests of in-
dustrial and commercial classes together with
those of the consumer of that country. No political
consideration of an accidental or temporary or
even permanent order was to be mixed up
with our examination, or to exercise any influence
on our judgment. That the amelioration of com-
mercial relations should have as a corollary the
strengthening of the bonds of friendship between
nations is a great benefit for civilisation. Your
Majesty, who has always shown so firm a will to
maintain intact the English alliance, in spite of so
many difficulties and misgivings, was not indeed
indifferent to this new guarantee given to the peace
of the world. But you apprehended, from the first
day of the negotiations, that the powerful element
of security would be only ephemeral, and would not
be long in degenerating into an element of discord
(une cause dissolvante) if an industrial or commer-
cial interest could be sacrificed in compensation for
a political interest."