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

FREE TRADE IN FRANCE.

Tke 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 Hussies.
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 are, as every oneis 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 in 1814 and in 1822 laid on the importation
of foreign iron. But, notwithstanding the number
End wealth of forest proprietors and maitres de
forges, none of them 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 su3tainzd 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, some 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 wood s.:and maitres do forges will be raised
by the beet-sugar glowers, 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 suers 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. Dizier, Lille, and Rouen
the Emperor may muster Bordeaux, Marseilles,
Nantes, St. Malo, Morlaix, Dijon, Joigny, Chalons-
sur-Narne, 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 com-
menced 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 a
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-
cedently to the period of which we speak, paid wit
the deeime 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-
erso of which we 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 forte 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-
ment, 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, and his power to inaugurate •
system calculated more than any other human mea-
sure to maintain confidence and preserve peace. The
Emperor has the greater merit in adopting this
oourse 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 restrictions—a
system of prohibitive restrictions, chiefly
.the
growth of modern times, for the ancient legisla-
tion of France was rather friendly to foreign
trade. The French tariff of 1791 was from begin-
ning to end a system of prohibition, which either
excluded from France, or laid under heavy duties,
almost all the staple manufactures of other coun-
tries. Manufactured iron in every shape, manu-
factured steel, copper, tin, and cutlery, and all
articles manufactured from any of the metals ;
all fabrics of cotton, wool, silk, or tissues of hair •
saddlery, spirituous liquors, grain, refined sugar,
tobacco, toys, and various other inconsiderable
articles are included in these sweeping restrictions.
Mr. Pitt, Mr. Canning, and the late Mr. George
Rose, as well as Lords Grenville and Grey, were
well aware of the narrow and anti-commercial
spirit of these absurd regulations of the French
tariff. When Mr. Canning was Minister, in 1827,
aided by Mr. Huskisson, by Lord Palmerston, and
by Mr. Charles Grant (now Lord Glenelg), he did
ill he could to combat 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
bave 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
arid execution of a project in which he has been
tctively and earnestly engaged for three-and-thirty
years.—Morning Post.

VOLUNTEER CORPS.

LONDON SCOTTISH.

Last night a general meeting of the members of
this corps was held in the hall of the Scottish Cor-
poration, Crane-court, Fleet-street ; Lord Elcho,
the commanding officer, acting as chairman. The
corps numbers now about 400 volunteers, who
are
about to be formed into six companies; and it in-
cludes in its ranks—besides Lord Elcho—the Mar-
quis of Abercorn, the Hon. Arthur Gordon (a son of
the Earl of Aberdeen), Mr. Arthur Kinnaird, M.P.;
Lord Hamilton, Mr. Duke Hill (a nephew of Sir
James Duke), Mr. Macgregor (a member of the bar),
and many other gentlemen of rank and station con-
nected with Scotland by birth, marriage, or pro-
perty. About sixty of the members of Highland
origin have formed themselves
into a Highland
company, and have decided upon adopting the kilt
as their rifle uniform. The donations and subscrip-
tions towards the funds of the corps amount now to
between £1,500 and £2,000.
Lord ELCHO explained in some detail certain re-
solutions which had been passed, both at meetings
of the Highland company and of the committee
of the corps, on the subject of the Highland com-
pany adopting the kilt as their uniform. He
stated that, while the matter was under conside-
ration by the Highland company, he had written
a letter to Captain Arbuckle, expressing an opi-
nion as to the unsuitableness of the kilt for a
rifleman's dress in the field, aiding that he did not
think he was singular in that opinion, and that
efficiency, comfort, and decency forbade the kilt as
the working dress of a rifleman. By some, he said,
that expression of opinion had been construed in the
light of a slur upon the costume in question. He
was anxious to disclaim being actuated by any such
motive. He never could have wished to cast V. slur
on a dress occasionally worn, for example, by mem-
bers of the Royal family, and which, irrespective
of national associations and sentiments connected
with it, was far more picturesque, in his opinion,
than any he had ever seen. (Cheers.) The kilt
was a dress which he had frequently worn himself,
and he had had the honour of dancing the High-
land fling in it in the presence of our illustrious and
well-beloved Sovereign. (Cheers.) All that he
meant was that he did not think it suitable for the
working dress of a rifleman.
Mr. MACKINNON (interrupting Lord Elcho for a
moment) said the whole corps had such perfect con-
fidence in his Lordship that it was unnecessary for
him to enter into anything like a defence of his
motives. (Cheers.)
Lord ELCHO, after acknowledging this spontane-
ous expression of confidence on the part of the
meeting, proceeded to say that the committee of the
corps had that evening, at a meeting held just pre-
viously to the general meeting, unanimously passed
a resolution to the effect that, having reconsidered
the whole question of the kilt, they, in deference to
the wish of the members of the Highland company,
recommended the corps to sanction the wearing of
the kilt by the Highland company as their uniform
when en duty, in conformity with the resolution
passed to that effect at a general meeting of the
corps on the 12th of September last. His Lordship
concluded by proposing that resolution so passed
by the executive committee for the adoption of the
meeting.
The motion was seconded by Mr. Mackinnon, on
which a conversation, started by a member of the
Highland company, and causing some laughter,
arose as to whether it was to be understood the
members of that company were to wear the kilts in
all kinds of weather, without exception, in which
Lord Elcho Mr. Macpherson, Mr. Macgregor, Mr.
Edwards, Mr. Wilson, and other gentlemen took
part. Eventually the resolution, as moved by Lord
Elcho, was put and carried with acclamation.
A member of the Highland company, who was
dressed in the proposed kilt uniform, was asked to
standup, so as to enable the corps to appreciate his
ensemble, which he did to their apparent satisfac-
tion. He wore a Highland cap, ornamented with
a blackcock's feather, on which there happened to
be a speck of white; whereupon
An elderly gentleman named KERR jumped up.
and with well-affected indignation declared, in a
strong Scottish dialect, that he had never yet heard
of a Highlander showing the white feather.
(Cheers and laughter.) The Highland regiments
from time to time had done more to sustain the
honour of the British flag in well-fought fields than
any other portion of the army; and if the High-
land company of the Scottish Volunteers were to
have a national dress, let it be really national.
Blue was their national colour, and he earnestly
hoped never to see any of them wear a cap in
which there was a white feather. (Cheers and
laughter.)
The meeting then passed to the consideration of
the nomination of officers of the corps.
Lord ELMO reminded the meeting that one of
their regulations stated that the appointment of
all officers was vested by Act of Parliament in the
Lord Lieutenant, subject to the Queen's approval;

that the commanding officer would propose gentle.
_ _

men to the Lore-Lieutenant for Commissions
•as officers, after consultation with the council,
and after having submitted the names to a
general meeting of the members of the
corps, who should be entitled to exercise a
veto on cult name. He explained with what care
and impartiality he, os their commanding officer,
had sought to give effect to that regulation ; but
that he had learnt in a conversation at the War De-
partment with Earl de Grey, the Under-Secretary,
that the Government were averse from recognising
in the choice of officers the principle of popular elec-
tion. He had been therefore driven to a selection, in
which no other course was open but to consult the
committee of the corps,•who, in that state of things,
had each nominated a certain number of members of
the corps to be officers; and those who had had the
largest number of votes he (Lord Elcho) was now
prepared to submit to the Lord-Lievtenant for com-
missions. For himself, if the selection had depended
upon him alone as an individual, he confessed he
should have felt much in the difficulty of the Duke
of Brunswick, who was so much pleased with the
coxduct of the Hussars whom he commanded at
Quatre Bras that he took the star from his breast

and " shied" it among them, saying he did not know
which of them to giveit to, since all of them had de-
served it. (Cheers.) His lordship added that the
corps in the first instance would be formed into six
companies, and then read the names of the members
of the corps for whom the greatest number of votes
had been given by the committee, adding that Mr.
George Mackenzie had been already gazetted a cap-
tain, and would serve in that capacity in the High-
land Company. The names were as follows:—Cap-
tains.—The Marquis of Abereorn, Mr. Septimus
Carlisle, Mr. Conway, and the Hon. Ar thur Gordon.
Lieutenants.—Mr. Forrest, Mr. M'Kissock, Mr.
Duke Hill, Mr. Scott, and Mr. lumsden, of Pit-
caple, late a captain in the Aberdeenshire Militia.
Ensigns.—Mr. It. Fisher, Mr. C. Shepherd, Mr.
Sutherland, of Croydon ; Mr. Notman, and Mr.
Belfrage. Of the company formed from members

of tho corps connected with the Oriental Bank
Mr. John Riach had been selected as Captain ;
Mr. J. S. Pender,late Captain of the Perth Rifles,
as Lieutenant ; and Mr, John Macnab as ensign.
Some little disappointment was expressed by two
or three members that the corps had not had an
opportunity of exercising their veto in the selection
as provided by their own regulations. His lordship
explained how, to his own regret, he had been over-
ruled in that respect by the War Department, and
the subject dropped. The selection of non-com-
missioned officers was deferred to a future occasion,
as was also the subject of the constitution of the
council.
After giving three cheers for the Queen, and
another round for their commanding officer, the
corps separated.