The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

•
TlMES.—Austria has on so many past occasions
angered her best friends, and filled with despair
those who wish to see the chief State of Central
Europe strong and prosperous, that the world has
become cautious in commending her or in hailing
. any indications of reform which she may give. But
the old Empire has, it seems, now fairly abandoned
its old ways. Not all the Conservative influences
of the proudest of dynasties, of an aristocracy which
well matches it, and of a vast military system have
been able to prevent Austria from receiving the
strong though tardy conviction that greatness,
wealth, and honour are to be found in a liberal
policy. The political form which this feeling has
taken is to be found in the various measures which
the Emperor has adopted during the last four or five
years to reconcile his authority with a fair portion
of self-government among his subjects, and in the
attempts, at least likely to be successful, to bring to
a close the long quarrel between Vienna and the
Hungarian nation. Its commercial form may be seen
in the advances towards Free Trade, which show
that the Empire, in imitation of France and other
Continental States, has determined to accept at last
the great principles which England enounced twenty
years ago. The Treaty of Commerce between Aus-
tria and Great Britain, which we publish elsewhere,
is for this reason an important event. Though
there is undoubtedly something theoretically un-
sound in these international agreements, yet in the
present phase of political development on the Conti-
nent they have their uses, the principal of which is
that they give an advanced commercial nation like
ours the opportunity of pressing on its neighbours
the adoption of reforms which are for their benefit
as well as ours, and of holding them to the
mutually profitable bargain whenever the counsels
of mercantile timidity or selfishness seem likely to
regain influence. This is especially the case with
the Austrian Treaty. Left to themselves, the Aus-
trian financiers would probably have waited another
twenty years before they had the courage to enter'
energetically into the path of Free Trade. The
wisest of them would have seen the better course
and approved it, but have followed the worse. The
mass of the trading class might still have repeated
the fallacies which for so many generations have
kept nations poor and divided. But the Treaties
with France in 1860, and with Germany last year,
have not only roused the emulation of the Austrian
Freetraders, but have given our Government the
power of urging without offence a reconsideration
of the financial system of the Empire. The nego-
tiations have ended in the Treaty which is now before
the country. They have been long and difficult, for
if there be a region in the world where the orthodox
commercial creed of past times has been unassailed
by the spirit of inquiry, it is that which obeys the
Austrian Emperor. Political distrust has aided
commercial jealousy ; and if the efforts of a power-
ful party had not been thwarted, there would have
been no commercial treaty at all, and no loosening
of the Protectionist system for many a day. Hap-
pily, the arguments of the British agents have been
crowned with success. They have been met in a
liberal spirit by the Austrian negotiators, who knew
that their own Ministry and the Emperor himself
had arrived at the belief that Free Trade is neces-
sary for the country, and who accordingly made
less opposition than might have been expected to
the proposed changes. The result is the adoption
of a commercial policy which must in a few years
have momentous consequences in Austria. That
Empire will probably make a more rapid advance
than any other State which has adopted Free Trade,
simply because there is so much room for advance.
In proportion to its population and resources the
Austrian Empire is one of the most backward in
Europe. In no part of the earth are there more
rich and beautiful regions, or greater capacity for
producing all that can make a people wealthy.
The chief populations are well disposed, easily
governed, fairly industrious, and as likely to make
their country prosperous as any North-German
or Belgian. But as yet they have had no chance.
They have been subjects of a monarchy in which
commerce has always held a very low position,
and the rulers have seldom thought of the in-
dustrious class, except to tax them. With this new
year, 1866, we may hope that a new period has
begun, and that these nationalities or principalities,
which have been so ill held together by the soldier
and the official, will in our time be fused into a
more coherent mass by the action of mercantile in-
tercourse with each other and the world beyond.
The Treaty consists of 12 Articles and a final Pro-
tocol. By the last Article it is stipulated that the
subjects and commerce of 'Austria shall enjoy within
the British dominions all the advantages enjoyed
by French subjects, and the subjects of the States
of the Zollverein, under the respective Treaties
concluded by Great Britain with those Powers.
On the other hand, by the 2d, 6th, and Bth Articles
British subjects are admitted to the privileges of the
most favoured nation, and placed on an equality
with Austrian subjects with regard to the practical
carrying on of commercial operations. But the
chief stipulations of the Treaty are as follows :
Austria undertakes by Article 3 to regulate its
Customs' Tariff so that the duty to be levied upon
articles the produce or manufacture of the British
dominions shall, from the Ist of January, 1867, not
exceed 25 per cent. of the value, in addition to the
cost of transport, insurance, and the like. From
and after the Ist of January, 1870, the maximum
of these duties shall not exceed 20 per cent. of the
value. The articles of State monopolies (tobacco,
salt, and gunpowder), and certain goods comprised
in the present Austrian Tariff, are alone excepted
from this agreement. It will thus be seen that in
a year hence extreme Protection will have ceased
on all but a limited class of articles, that Austrian
trade with the British dominions will be enlarged by
the entrance of all our manufactures at a maximum
rate of 25 per cent. on value; and, furthermore, that
in four years from this time this rate will be reduced
to a maximum of 20 per eent., which it is expected
will give a mean rate of duty of not more than 15
per cent. when apportioned by the Commissioners on
all articles imported into Austria from this coun-
try. Now, though even under a maximum 20 per
cent. duty it is possible to keep up a Protectionist
system, this concession must be considered one of
the greatest victories which Free Trade has yet
achieved. In the Austrian Empire the expenses of
a great army and a complicated official service have
to be met, and the Customs' duties must ever be
among the most ready means of obtaining money.
For the present the importation is not so large as to
give a high revenue at such low rates of duty as suf-
fice in this country, with its enormous import trade ;
and it may be that in not fixing a lower maximum
than 25 per cent. the Austrians have shown a neces-
sary prudence. We may hope, however, that the
experience of three years will be sufficient to indi-
cate that low rates of duty will rapidly bring large
returns, and that when the final arrangements are
made in 1870 the duties imposed by Austria will be
far less than the 20 per cent. which she will still
have a right to impose. The details of the work
have, however, still to be completed. A mixed
British and Austrian Commission are to meet not
later than the month of March in the present year
for the purpose of ascertaining and determining the
value of the various articles of British produce and
the rate of duty which will attach to them. In the
final Protocol Austria undertakes to reduce the duty
on the export of rags, as well as on salted herrings,
and her Britannic ajesty engages to recommend
to Parliament the abolition of the duties payable on
the importation of wood and timber into the United
Kingdom, and also the reduction of the duties pay-
able on wine in bottle to the amount of those pay-
able on wine in wood upon importation into the
United Kingdom. This last article will be interest-
ing to those who are desirous of obtaining the wines
of Hungary. If it tends to introduce into this coun-
try a taste for the very palatable growths of the
Austrian Empire, its effect will be largely beneficial.
We have, on the whole, good reason to be content
with this Treaty, and to congratulate the Austrians
on being so ready to make what many of them
would consider concessions, while we, having already
carried out Free-trade principles, have little left to
offer as an equivalent.
POST.—It is highly improbable that Mr. Disraeli
will be deterred from calling upon the House of
Commons to consider all the questions arising out of
the insurrection in Jamaica by the compliment which
Mr. Bright went out of his way to pay to him the
other day. He will, however, it may be presumed,
not fail to see that the proper time for raising the
discussion will be on the production of the Commis-
sioners' report. The Opposition cannot, in a party _
sense, reasonably object to any demonstration the
advanced Liberals may think it convenient to make
on this matter. Conduct that went to show their
incapacity for the work of administration would be
relevant evidence in another issue. People who are
unable to suspend their- judgment while an im-
portant inquiry is pending are manifestly incompe-
tent to exercise authority in the Legislature. Mr.
Bright and his friends are arguing in the most
cogent manner possible—by acts and deeds—against
the organic change they desire to compass. They
are strengthening every opposing conviction, and
adding weight to all the doubts that are entertained;
and the circumstance that they are sincere, and pas-
sionately in earnest, is an aggravation of that which,
if it be not morally a crime, is a grave political
offence. But, although Mr. Disraeli may not feel
bound to interpose between. Mr. Bright and the
Ministry, it would be an amazing blunder if he
were to anticipate the serious debate that must
eventually take place. There is no safe ground On
which the composition of the Commission may 'be
impugned, and, practically, the report will go far to
determine if the suspension of Mr. Eyre can be jus-
tified. It may, indeed, be contended generally, on

the theory of Government, that the step waiiinjudi-
mous and unfair ; but, on the whole, those who
look at it from that point of view would lose rather
than gain by the premature expression of their or'
nion: Mr. Cardwell has distinctly stated that suspen-
sion in this case does not imply censure, and so inter-
preted and guarded it may admit of explanation. Th.e,
Cabinet accepts the responsibility involved, and it
is obvious that the Commissioners' report will ab-
solve or condemn the authorities in England as well
as in Jamaica. It is fair to assume, for the present,
that her Majesty's Ministers have not yielded to,
clamour, but acted upon a proper apprehension of
their duty ; and it would be agreeable also to sup-
pose that Mr. Bright and his party only desire FA:
tice. That, however, is plainly inconsistent with
their proceedings, and with the language they hold.
It is but too evident that they are animated by re-
vengeful feelings, and it does not seem to occur to
them that if they throw their power into one scale
the balance may be maintained by corresponding
action on the other. Mr. Eyre's partisan's cannot
be at a loss for argument, and intemperance in
speaking and writing is contagious. No one reason'
ing soberly could say that Nonconformist mission-
aries were emissaries of sedition, who went about
preaching republicanism ; but before the controversy
had gone far, this, and a great deal more, would be
affirmed as a matter of fact. Such a conflict is very
much to be deprecated; it would be humiliating to
the nation; and, inasmuch as it is idle to remon-
strate with the daily agitators of the question, we
can only hope that those who feel quite as strongly
as they do will endeavour to observe the forbear-
ance which must in the end tell in their favour. No
doubt it is extremely irritating to read what *r•
Bright chooses to say on the subject. We may think
that his parallels are almost profane, and that his
propositions are excessively offensive; but this de-
clamation is simply intended " to split the ears 0'
the groundlings." It cannot in anywise affect the
result, and we may be satisfied that ultimately 'lO.l
will be done, and the honour of the country vindi-
cated. The policy of the Government must be regu-
lated by the opinion of Parliament, and in both houses
there will be a majority capable of looking above the
prejudices of sects, and of disregarding the rheto-
rical vehemence which is employed to pervert tin
common understanding. Mr. Eyre's friends re?:
perceive the propriety and the expediency of waiting
patiently for the report of the commission. It Is
scarcely possible that Ministers, on the eve of a see'
sion in which they will have to encounter many
difficulties and much opposition, can be influenced
by any pressure which even Mr. Bright is able. to
bring to bear on them ; and, in point of fact, they ar.e
pledged to abide by their own measure. Nor Is.
there any reason to suppose that Mr. Cardwell Is
exempt from human fallibility,and, however he Inap
have been afflicted by Governor Eyre's despatchesl.
the fanatical vituperation which has been poured out
upon his devoted head must have produced its na-
tural effect. The Peelites, too, who are, as it were'
the salt of a Whig Cabinet, will support one 14°-
other, and their great master taught them to eon'
sider the interests of the country without respect to
parties. Moreover, the selection of the comas:
stoners, much as it has been objected to, is to a ca'
taro extent evidence of a straightforward and lto.
partial purpose; and in examining the report
.theit
make Parliament will have the assistance of emurn
lawyers who can look at it dispassionately, and in°
judicial frame of mind.