The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-13 00:00:00

different moans equally legal of obtaining a determined re-
sult, it was most advisable to adopt the ono most in keep-
ing with public tranquillity and with public order,thatwhich
incontestably offers to passions the fewest opportunities of
bursting forth and troubling the State. Hence, inesitably
followed that, to put an end to the prohibitive system, the
measure of a treaty of commerce which was clearly indi-
cated by the Constitution of 1852, was far preferable to the.
introduction and discussion of a project of law which might
open the door to all sorts of lamentable incidents, and at
least lead to indefinite delay. It was thus that the treaty of
commerce between the two high centracting parties was
ushered into existence. This treaty bears the stamp of the
difference of the respective situations of the twe States.
England, already far advanced on the path of free trade,
completes the reform of her tariff with a firmness of resolu-
tion which has something grand about it, and will cause
universal sensation. She is faithful to the end to the con-
sumer, who is her mariner' a compass. According to the terms
of the treaty, all protective duties must be abolished in Eng-
land two years hence from this date ; in reality they will
cease long before that as regards the majority of them. The
English tariff will after then comprise only those fiscal
dues established nearly always upon produce which have
no equivalent in home production, as sugar, tobacco, coffee,
and wine. As regards home produce, as spirits or paper, or,
again, jewellery, and which the English legislator thinks
it its duty to tax to assure the revenues of the State, or sub-
ject to a stamp duty, they will be subjected, whenthey come
from abroad, to a Customs' duty, regulated according to the
amount of the Excise duties themselves, with a slight aug-
mentation, when the case requires it, to represent the addi-
tional charges which result for the producer from the Excise
regulations. It is thus that French brandies will pay 225
francs per hectolitre, while spirits of home manufacture
will continue to pay 220 f. The difference is scarcely per-
ceptible. At present the duty on French brandies is 412 f.
per hectolitre. It would make a long list to publish those
French articles of produce which, under the new treaty,
will find a market in England to the great satisfaction of
the consumer, but not without opposing some categories of
English manufacturers. All articles in silk and the
in-
numerable articles of Parisian industry, as dress, bronzes,
ready-made clothes, seem likely to have a large sale on the
other side of the Channel. Wines not adulterated by
brandy, such as those of Bordeaux (claret) and even of
Burgundy, a portion of those of the Mediterranean coast,
will in future only pay a duty of 28 francs per hectolitre,
instead of 158 francs. Thus a bottle of ordinary claret will
cost little more in London than it does at Paris. It is no-
thing less than a revolution which is about to take place
in the imports of France to England. A simple reading of
the treaty of commerce will do away with all the objections
which an attempt has been made to create in England, and
which were reproduced in France in an English point of
view. It was said that, by the terms in which it was
drawn up the treaty shackled the liberty of England to-
wards other nations than France, and relatively to the alte-
ration or establishment of duties at home. It was also as-
serted that it infringed upon the very principle itself of free
trade. None of those fears have any foundation. The treaty
does not interfere in the slightest degree with the in-
ternal and external independence of England. Everything
which ought to have been provided for in that respect has
been provided for. As regards the exactions of the principle
of free trade, a glance at the text of the treaty will suffice
to show that they are scrupulously observed on the part of
England, and it could not be otherwise when one of the two
English negotiators was that illustrious orator, Mr. Richard
Cobden, for whom Free-trade is not an opinion but a faith.
" The French Government having as a starting point a
tariff far more restrictive even than that of which Hu.skisson
commenced the reform in 1824, and having, moreover, to
deal gently with (ntenayer) prejudices which seemed deeply
rooted, and which presented themselves with such small
conciliating attractions. was necessarily obliged to stop con-
siderably short of the limits to which the English Govern-
ment have gone. But it is already a great progress to sweep
away from our tariff the avalanches of prohibition which
had been amassed there by furious hatreds under the Con-
vention and the Directory, and to replace them by duties at
which the maximum, fixed at 30 per cent, for a first period,
will be reduced to 25 on the Ist of October, 1864. It re-
sults, moreover, from the terms of the treaty that as the
duties of 30 per cent. are maxima, they will not by any
means be applicable to all merchandise indiscriminately (a
leaueoup prey).
"The two decimes, which in our tariff are added to all
duties inscribed, will be comprised in the maxima of 30 and
2.5 per cent. The country must accustom itself to the idea
that it cannot export much without importing much in re-
turn. We must also make up our mind to take into conside-
ration the public consumer, who, by a strange aberration, has
hitherto been ignored as an inert body, liable to be moulded
into any shape. Moreover, the customs must resume their
natural destination, to provide revenues to the State,
which is onlypossible, at least when manufactured articles
are in question, under a system of moderate duties. The
principal raw materials, and especially cotton and wool, do
not figure in the treaty, because the Imperial letter has re-
served that subject for the Legislative Body. There is
reason to believe that in this respect no objection will be
made to render the enfranchisement complete. As regards
coal the treaty announces a first reduction for the let of
July next. Without pretending to divine the secrets of
the future, it appears to us impossible that this article
should not be completely enfranchised ; the interests of the
manufacturing industry require it, and persons welt in-
formed on the subject are convinced that our mines will
easily stand the trial.
" In short, owing to the treaty, a first application is
made to French industry of the principle of personal re-
sponsibility, which is the fundamental law of modern so-
ciety. It is done, as was necessary,:with care and caution,
but it is nevertheless a decisive step. If this first step is
successful, as there is no doubt it will be, it will be gra-
dually followed by others. And how can French industry,
so intelligent and so skilful, and so often seen full of the
knowledge of its strength, fear a system which has shed so
many blessings not only in England, but in Switzerland, in
the Zollverein—we might say everywhere—for everywhere
outside France the system of a liberal tariff has been tried
in different degrees since 1846, and everywhere it has suc-
ceeded.
" Once accepted by the English Parliament, it is certain
that the treaty of commerce will be the signal for a general
reform of the tariffs in Europe and throughout the world.
It is a signal service which the two guest nations of the
West will have rendered together, and the effects of which
will ever be on the increase ; but what at once assures to
the treaty the support of enlightened men is that it forcibly
bscomes at once a pledge of peace and amicable relations
between the two powerful States whose rivalry has too
mften agitated and devastated Europe, costing themselves
so mach generous blood and treasure. This treaty is also
a gisarantee for tho peace of the world unless there may be
some sudden and unexplicable explosion of hateful prejudices
which once dominated oar policy, but the return of which,
despite some unpleasant rumours, we cannot credit. The
whole of Europe desires peace, because she knows that
peace is the condition of all progress, and Europe has given
the most satisfactory and the most natural interpretation to
the Treaty. Coming events cannot fail to respond to these
happy auguries of the European public against sombre
prognostications. How can it, in fact, be imagined that
statesmen or political assemblies can be found anywhere
now disposed with levity to overthrow the well-founded
hopes of a peace for which the -whole world has sighed so
long ?"

In consequence of the great and important changes which
the Commercial Treaty with France and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer's Budget will have on the commerce of this
country, we repeat them in The Sun of this evening.
The following is the Treaty of Commerce between
Her Majesty and the Emperor of the French,
signed at Paris, January 23, 1860, and the ratifi-
cations of which were exchanged at Paris,
February 4, 1860 :
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland and his Majesty the Emperor of the
French being equally animated with the desire to draw
closer the ties of friendship which unite their two people,
and wishing to improve and extend the relations of com-
merce between their respective dominions, have resolved to
conclude a treaty for that purpose, and have named as
their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say :
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom if
Great Britain and Ireland, the Most Hon. Henry Richard
Charles Earl Cowley, Viscount Dangan, Baron Cowley, a
Peer of the United Kingdon, a Member of Her Britannic
Majesty's Privy Council, Knight Grand Cross of the
Most Hon. Order of the Bath, Her Majesty's Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of the
French, and Richard Cobden, Esq., a member of the
British Parliament.
His Majesty the Emperor of the French, M. Baroche,
Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Legion of
Honour, &c., a Member of his Privy Council, President of
his Council of State, provisionally charged with the De-
partment of Foreign Affairs, and M. Rouher, Grand Officer
of the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour, &c.,
Senator, his Minister and Secretary of State for the De-
partment of Agriculture, Commerce, and Public Works.
'Who, after having communicated to each other their re-
spective full powers, found in good and due form, have
agreed upon and concluded the following articles :