The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-06 00:00:00

urgent solicitude, and in 1841 passed the required
prohibition. This was nominally a duty of 20
per cent., but in consequence, of being levied by
weight on a wrong basis of value, it was at that
time 33 per cent., and in a few months was more
than 50 per cent., the duty remaining the same,
while yarns had fallen in price. Although British
and Irish linens and linen yarns were thus ex-
cluded from France, the linens and linen yarns of
Belgium were admitted at half the duties, and,
strange to say, this privilege is still continued.
In order to exhibit the exact difference, we now
append the following tables of the duties charged
on unbleached yarns and brown linens imported
into France from the United Kingdom and from
Belgium. They have been carefully made up, and
give examples of the different classes ; that of the
yarns being suited for the English and Irish, as
well as for the Scotch mode of making up. It can
be no matter of surprise that our exportation has
fallen off, and a mere glance at these will be suffi-
cient to show the good grounds our spinners and
manufacturers have to complain of the partiality
shown to Belgium :

DUTIES ON UNBLEACHED LINEN YARNS IMPORTED INTO

FRANCE.
From Belgium.
61bs. or No. 8, 31bs. or No. 16, 21bs. or No. 24, llb. or No.
48, flb. or No. 96.
p.s.p.bd. p.s.p.bd. p.s.p.bd. p.s.p.bd. p.s.p.bd.
d. d. d. d. d. d. d. d. d. d.
4/ 19 5. 131 ,43- 141 3+ 13,1 2 8+
From the United Kingdom.
11 46 64 28k 7k 311 51 241 31 151
DUTIES ON BROWN LINENS IMPORTED INTO FRANCE.
Duty 01.221b5. English.

•12 *l6 20 above *2O

s. d. s.
From Belgium
„ United Kingdom 64 2 115 5 214 0 274 2 374 4
* The number of threads of warp in 1-sth of an inch.

NOTE.—In order not to complicate the tables, the duties
on bleached linens and yarns are not given ; but the differ-
ence is in a like proportion.

Belgium has for a long period supplied France
with linens and yarns, but with a much smaller
quantity of the latter. Previous to 1843—the
year immediately following the imposition of the
differential duties—there had not been exported to
France much above 900,000 kilogrammes of yarn
in any one year. To prove most conclusively how
this country, under moderate duties, was able to
supply France cheaper—competing successfully
with Belgium—and how the people were quite
prepared to become manufacturers themselves on
getting a lower priced article, it is only necessary
to give the importations of yarns into France at
two different periods—the first under the existence
of high, and the other under moderate duties :
FROM BELGIUM. FROM U. KINGDOM.
Kilo. Kilo.
In 1830,

In 1839;
6,167;090

If, then, a freer trade between Britain and France
is desirable—and a trade can never properly, be
called free until it is unrestricted—the present time
is perhaps the most favourable that has occurred in
our own day for pressing the subject on the atten-
tion of Government. British statesmen have been
gradually brought to perceive that Free Trade has
proved a blessing to the country. The tide has
turned, and every year we may expect to see more
efforts made to overthrow the barriers which sepa-
rate us from other countries. Nor is it otherwise
with France—Louis Napoleon has already shown
himself willing to modify the hostile duties of
France; and, if met by a cordial reciprocity on the
part. of Britain, he might be induced to revise his
tariff, and to admit our goods and manufactures ,
tat such rates as could not fail to create an extensive
trade. When the town of Dundee, on an occasion
not very remote, preSented a congratulatory address
to the Emperor, hinting at the same time that a
free trade ought to be established between the two
countries, the memorial was received in a friendly
and liberal spirit. In fact, of all the rulers that
France has had since the days of the great Em-
peror, Louis Napoleon is the most likely to break
up the restrictive and prohibitory system which
keeps. France in a state of commercial isolation.
He has the power, and we have much reason to in-
fer that, if urged by Britain, he would also have
the will. The course, then, for our merchants end
manufacturers appears clear. Louis Napoleon is
not inaccessible to memorials and deputations.
Let our merchants, manufacturers, and trading
towns memorialise both our own Government and
the French Emperor, setting forth the great ad-
vantages that would arise from cementing our
friendship still firmer by the bond of commerce.
For our agricultural implement makers and textile
manufacturers, France would open up a vast field
of doubly profitable adventure—profitable to the in-
dividual trader, and profitable to the nation, by re-
moving us farther and farther from the possibility,
of war. France and Britain freely trading to-
gether would eventually carry in their train the
rest of Europe. Belgium and. Holland. would fol-
low first, and then the Rhine would be opened to
our enterprise. That noble river—the finest and
most available on the west side of the Continent of
Europe—has hardly more traffic than Glasgow
would put on a moderately-sized ditch. A stray
steamer and a few clumsy corn boats are all that
can be seen on a river which might rival any river
in the British Islands, and that has on its banks
cities, towns, and villages, and an industrial popu-
lation capable of consuming an enormous amount of
British goods, and of furnishing to us timber, wine,
fruit, cattle, flax, an immense variety of fancy ar-
ticles. Offenbach wares, and many other things
which we should take either for consumption or ex.
portation. Germany, however, will not move until
France and Britain have shown them the example,
and therefore we should begin with France. Nor
arc our capitalists and merchants less interested
in this question than our manfacturers. If the
Continent were open to a free trade, we should
supply it with almost the whole of the colonial pro-
duce it requires, because, by our capital, ships, and
steamers, we could do so cheaper than any other
cpuintry. British capital would command both
trades—both export and import—at least until the
Continent has learned to develop its own resources.
The present time, therefore, we regard as the period
when an unusual effort ought to be made to abolish
the restrictive system established by the wrong-
headed politicians of the past. Trade is the true
Peace Society—tending, on the one hand, to reduce
despotism into constitutional rule, and, on the other
hand, to secure order as the necessary condition of
its own existence. And not the least considera-
tion is, that a free trade invading the Continent
would carry in its train the elements of a free
thought.