The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-06 00:00:00

PRESENTATION OF THE CITY PREE-
Dom TO MR. CORDEN—(THIS DilE)

To-day the presentation of the freedom of the City, de-
termined upon by the corporation in March, 1800, took
place in the Council Chamber of the Guildhall.

The testimonial to Mr. Cobden is a box made of English
oak and solid gold.

The right hon. gentleman was introduced by Mr, W
Connell, common councilman.

Mr. Cobden having taken the oaths as a member of the
Fishmonger's Company, to which he was admitted at an
early hour in the morning,

The CHAMBERLAIN, addressing Mr. Cobden, said the
city would have been unfaithful to its antecedents and
added injustice to inconsistency if it had overlooked Mr.
Cobden's great exertions. He referred in eloquent terms
to the beneficial results which the treaty with France
was likely to produce, and to the general commercial
policy of the Emperor, particularly to the relaxation of
the passport system in France. The Chamberlain then
offered Mr. Cobden the right hand of fellowship as a citizen
of London, and presented the testimonial.

Mr. COBDEN, in acknowledging the compliment, was re-
ceived with unbounded applause. He said he should be
wanting in modesty if he were to appropriate to himself
all the merit which had been so lavishly bestowed upon
him in connection with the great question of free trade
upon which they had heard so eloquent and excellent an
eulogium. He had been a humble workman in that
cause with many others, and he must only attribute it to
accident, and not to any exclusive merit on his part that he
had been prominently made the representative of the great
principle to which he had alluded. And he must say that, in
relation to the particular occasion which had brought him
there to receive so high an honour from an illustrious corpo-
ration, he should be trespassing beyond the bounds of truth
and modesty, if he were to say that either he or this country
had much merit in the commercial treaty with France. For
ourselves, we had nearly finished the task of striking the
fetters from our industry. For 30 years we have received
at the hands of successful statesmen—and he might parti-
cularly mention the names of Huskisson, Sir R. Peel, and
others,—an almost complete measure of commercial reform
so far as regarded the question of protection to
ono interest at the expense of the consumer.
There was little remaining to be done, and what
did remain consisted of items which it might almost be said
were allowed to remain on account of their insignifi-
cance. But it was a very different question on the other
side. Now it was remarkable that two countries more
favourably situated and circumstanced than any
other two countries in the world should have remained
so long estranged from each other, and deprived
of the advantage which a mutual interchange of
commodities would give them ; for it was a fact that no
two great nations, so near together as neighbours—so
diversified as France and England—separated, or to speak
more properly, commercially united by 20 miles of sea,
should have been thus estranged. For on one side of the
Channel France had hardly taken the first step in commercial
reform, although she had been the great teacher of nations
in the great truths of political economy, not withstanding that
Turgot and Say had administered the truths of those prin-
ciples, and notwithstanding the noble band of Basile, Che-
valier, and others—notwithstanding their efforts, France
remained the most prohibitive country in the world. It
was reserved for the present Emperor to effect these changes
which had overtasked the power of any of his predecessors.
He had been aided by the most enlightened members of his
Government, by his Minister of Commerce, for whose great
and courageous abilities, he (Mr. Cobden) was glad of the
present opportunity of expressing his most sincere respect.
But it was to the Emperor personally that was due the
great reforms in the French tariff. France yielded silk,
wine, oil, and a variety of other articles which were denied
this country, while on our side we were endowed with
greater riches than were possessed byour neighbours beyond
the Channel. (Cheers.) In fact, nature seemed to have
eiven to France the greatest abundance of that which
could be fa educed on the surface, while there had been
given to us those various ingredients which required the
skill and the intelligence of workmen to fabricate into
those multitudinous articles which provided us with ex-
change against the productions of the whole civilised world.
But it was not in the diversity of the national productions
which these two great countries possessed the unrivalled
extent of means of exchange. Nature had stamped the people
with a genius so different, that they seemed admirably suited
to supply each other's wants, and make good each other's
defects—France with a versatility of taste and ingenuity
touching the laws of producing articles of luxury and taste
—England with solidity, perseverance, and force, aiming
to produce those articles which entered into the con-
sumption of mankind. If he compared French.
men and Englishmen, he should almost say perhaps that
though the Frenchman had more brains in the tips of his
fingers, the Englishman had more brains in the strength
of his arm (laughter.) Now we should be very untrue to
principles and should be wanting in faith as regards the
interest of France which we had not shown in our own
case, if we did not believe that the measures taken by the
French Government would redound to the benefit of
the country. He ventured to say that in ten
years the measures of the last vear—he oie.ni-
oie complete change in the commercial system of
France inaugurated last year—would be looked back upon as
the crowning glory of the reign of the present Emperor,
and he ventured to say that it would be found in France
as it had been found here—that those interests which now
believed themselves to be menaced with the greatest danger
would be found to have derived the greatest benefit
from the change. (Hear.) Lord Aberdeen once said that
the nation that had made great preparation for war was
apt to wish to test the efficiency of its preparation. He
said advisedly that this commercial treaty must be practi-
cally incomplete—he was going to say it was a mockery
so long as the governments maintained the same attitude
as they did now. It was the duty of both govern-
ments to take such steps as would allay the anxiety
of men of business in other countries which must exist so
long as this attitude was preserved. In order to realise the
full benefits of the commercial treaty, he would only add, in
reference to the remark that had been made, he was there
to bear testimony, not only to the complete good faith with
which the French Government observed every detail of the
treaty, but their anxiety thatithere should be no possible mis-
take or misunderstanding as to the :practical arrangement
of the treaty in a satisfactory manner. This brought
him, in conclusion, in expressing his gratitude to the Court
for the honour they had done him on this occasion,
to refer to the circumstances under which the freedom of
their corporation was voted to him. That which gave to
him an essential satisfaction was that, at the time when he
was arranging the details of the treaty before they could be
published, he was assailed. (Hear, hear.) Such was the lot
of all men placed in similar positions, and he did not men-
tion it by way of complaining, but he was assailed at a
moment under circumstances when it was not in his
power to reply, when it would not have been correct and
proper to have done so, when he knew that the circum-
stances of the case when they came to be developed six
months after would justify him and refute his calumniators
—(hear, hear)—but in the mean time,whilst he was power-
less, the only danger that he felt was that during his pro-
ceedings the manufacturing community would be so dis-
couraged by these misstatements that they would not come
to Paris to assist him with that practical knowledge of the
details of their several trades with which he eould not
be acquainted, and without whose assistance it would
have been almost impossible for him to have concluded the
treaty. It was at that time that the Court, has ing no
knowledge of the details of his proceedings, threw the shield
of its protection :over him—(loud cheers)—and it was for
this that he now presented himself, and from the depth of
his heart thanked them for the honour they had done him.
(Loud and continued cheering.)
The Court then broke up, and Mr. Cobden was enthusi-
astically greeted as he left the place.