The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-22 00:00:00

seven vessels had arrived at Calcutta from Eng.
land ; one from Boston ; and one from Bordeaux

One of the French Papers (the Messager des
Choral-es) has beet.' publishing a series of arti-
cles in the shape of a literary review, against the
free trade bias, which, it appears to apprehend, the
French Ministry entertain. We must confess
that the ignorance of the first principles of com-
merce which some of the most influential men of
all parties in France have manifested, do not
give us much hope of any French Ministry soon
altogether abandoning the short-sighted policy
to which our contemporary is so warmly at-
tached; but we are induced to notice these arti-
cles of the Messager des C'hatares, on account
of the resemblance they bear to the lucubrations
of the anti-free-traders on this side of the water,
and the singular manner in which the facts and
arguments of one monopolist, are opposed to and
destroy the facts and arguments of another. The
illessager des Chatares, in its third commer-
cial article says, with the greatest gravity :

" In order to obtain success, that is to say, any profit,
in free trade, we must fulfil three conditions :
" Either produce that which no other nation has, or
can have ;
" Or produce cheaper ;
" Or, lastly, navigate at a lower price, or at least at a
price as low as that of rival nations. It may wound our
national vanity, but we must confess that we do not fulfil
one of these conditions."

We will comfort our French friend, by assu-
ring him that he must be mistaken ; for if France
did not fulfil any one of these conditions, it
would be impossible for her long to have any fo-
reign commerce whatever, inasmuch as no trade
can be permanently carried on at a loss to any
party whatever. The French reviewer thus
proceeds:—
" One article only, in tolerable demand, is peculiar to us,
and it is wine, particularly I3ourdeaux wine; but we are
not without rivals in this article, for all the nations of the
English, American, or Spanish races, prefer stronger and
better keeping wines in hot climates; and it has besides
its limit, because, being an article of luxury in the country
which produces it, abroad, it can only be consumed by the
rich."

Whatever weight our French neighbours may
think due to these assertions, it is an indisputa-
ble fact that the wines of France furnish her
with an article of large export, which, under a
system of free trade, would inevitably become
larger. The writer then proceeds in a strain
which would make us believe that he had copied
from the Morning Herald or the Morning
Post, if, unluckily, the lines in italics did not
directly contradict, the often, and hardily repeated
assertions of our unscrupulous contemporaries:—

" Prussia consumes our wine to the amount of a million
of francs, and Sweden to the amount of 500,000 francs."

Haying stated as much as will suit his argu-
ment, our French friend does not mention the
quantity consumed by England, but proceeds
thus :

" The English Cape wines, the culture of which is
rapidlg extending, do not give us much chance of the
consumption of our wines being increased in Africa, Ame.
rica, or Asia."

This is a fine sweeping sentence, full of false
assumption, worthy of the cause the writer ad-
vocates. He continues:—

" We have no article of any bulk or value among our
manufactures which is not to be found cheaper in some
other parts of the world. In the silk trade even, Germany
is already on a level with us ; in the plain silk stuffs (the
only branch which is of any importance) England is at
this moment surpassing us; and the whole of Europe has
long since been beaten by China. Is further proof wanted
to show our inability to cope with these countries?"

We by no means wish all that is said by the
French writer to be taken an pied de la lettre ;
but there is sufficient truth contained in the last
paragraph to make us desirous of impressing it
upon the minds of our own manufacturers.
They complain of French goods interfering with
the produce of their looms, but here is the
charge retorted by a French prohibitionist.
That English manufactures of all kinds do find
their way into France, in spite of prohibitive
duties, is well known to all who have visited
that country ; and although no one can deny
that French silks come to England, yet the
increase in the quantity we manufacture clearly
proves that the employment of our labourers in
silk is not diminished by the comparative free-
dom of importation allowed by us. If we re-
turned to prohibitive duties, French silk goods
would still be imported, but by smugglers in-
stead of by merchants.

A great outcry has been made about the
cheapness of foreign shipping, including that of
France, but let us see what the writer before us
says upon this subject

An official inquiry, made in our ports, has proved
that our navigation is the dearest in the world. At the
time of the expedition to the Morea, the French ship-
owners required twenty francs per ton per month for the
use of their vessels, whilst the American captains, acci-
dentally in our harbours, asked only fourteen, and Nea-
politans found a reasonable profit in twelve francs."
The following sentence, as coming from an
enemy, will, perhaps, have more weight with
those of our manufacturers who place faith in
the fallacious arguments addressed to their fears
and selfishness by the RosiNsoNs and
DAvisEs of the Legislature, than any thing
we could urge. The French political econo-
mist says :

" England has only abandoned so much of her prohibi-
tive system as has been demonstrated to be useless, and
consequently superfluous. In the facilities which she has
appeared to offer to foreign commerce, she has taken care
to stop short at the point which suffices to guarantee her
monopoly. In fact, of what service is it to impose a duty
of 100 or 150 per cent, when one of 15 is sufficient ?
Not only is the excess of duty superfluous, but hurtful,
for it only acts as a premium upon smuggling, whilst the
reduced duty insures its own receipt."
Is it not strange that a man who sees so
clearly the effect of a high duty imposed upon
French goods in England, should advocate a
prohibitive duty on English goods entering
France ?

The article of our contemporary concludes in
a fashion worthy of the Herald. He gives the
following table of the dealings of France with
the respective countries named ; and although he
fears the absurdity of saying that France is a
loser by the difference between the two sets of
figures, contends that they afford a proof of the
wisdom of restrictions on foreign commerce :
" The following seems the state of our commercial re-
lations with the undermentioned Powers in 1825, and they
have not since then improved :.

We Sell. We Buy.
In Sweden and N0rway............ 2,500,000 f. 10,0'0,000f.

In the Netherlands (then) ~,,,,48:000,000' B}so6',OCio
In Prussia 5,500,000 14,500,000
In Italy (Sardinia included) 41,000,000 41,000,000 94,000,000
In Turkey 5,000,000 20,000,000
In Russia
In the State of 2,000,000 6,000,000
And at St. Domingo
We wonder the writer did not calculate what
this annual loss of the French trade must amount
to in twenty years for the purpose of proving
that the merchants of France were worthy of a
mad-house. It would have rejoiced the hearts