The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-02 00:00:00

DUPIA'S REPLY 7'o M. CHEVALIER.

M. Dupin has communicated to the Journal des
Debats the following reply to the recent letter of
M. Chevalier :

"Raffigny en Morven, Sept. 24.
" Monsieur,— I need not have answered you, for
you did not write to me ; it was to the public papers
you addressed your letter, and it only came to my
knowledge through the Journal des Debats, my old
and illustrious client. I wished at first to maintain
silence on the subject, and leave the public to pass
judgment on it, as both my speech and your letter
were before it.
" But, on reflection, it appears to me that I cannot
leave the question as you have stated it, nor accept
the discussion transferred to a field that is not mine.
I had no intention of discussing either the Treaty of
Commerce itself, or the figures of our Customs
tariffs. In commercial matters lam neither a
theorist nor a practitioner ; I am incompetent,
and must decline to meddle therewith. Only in
the legislative and international point of vie w
I have always shared the opinion which long
prevailed among our most illustrious states,
men and financiers (as M. de Villele, Count Roy,
and Baron Louis), that a State like France ought
not to bind itself by treaties of commerce, which,
when once contracted, if they are found disadvan-
tageous, leave no alternative but ruin or war. They
thought it best to proceed by means of tariffs, which
can be modified by one's own act when the conduct
of our neighbours renders it advisable and our own
interests command it. This opinion is stated in vol.
iv. of my "Memoirs," p. 153. Subsequently another
theory, at first timid, then bolder and ably advo-
cated, prevailed over its rival—the theory of free
trade, more or less radical ; and hence has proceeded
the treaty of commerce between France and Eng-
land, which you rightly call one of the most im-
portant acts of contemporary politics and the
change of the commercial system of France.' This
treaty, you cannot deny, has excited what our jour-
nals sometimes term movements in opposite direc-
tions. Now, far from elevating myself into a judge
of what I can very imperfectly appreciate, on ac-
count of imperfect knowledge, this is what I said of
it in 1860, immediately after its appearance, before
the same assembly in which I spoke this year—
perhaps for the last time.
" The Treaty of Commerce with England has
made noise enough. Which of you has not heard
it? I will not now analyse all that one side has
said to extol it with enthusiasm and to predict the
most fortunate results ; or the other, to draw from
it, with bitterness, the most disastrous forebodings.
Both parties have certainly gone too far, for. the
truth is never in extremes, For myself, I sincerely
hope that the advantage promised us from this ad-
venturous negotiation may exceed the inconve-
niences that are apprehended.'
" Whichever party my internal convictions may
have inclined to 1 maintained this prudent reserve ;
and when in one of the most animatei sittings of
the Senate last Session, the article of the supple-
mentary convention relating to the importation of
British fish and the injury which it was said must
result to our fishermen and our navy was discussed,
I remained only a spectator of the struggle, admir-
ing with the pleasure of a friend, the singular
powers of debate displayed by M. Rouher, the Mi•
nister of Commerce. But I was also I admit, forcibly
impressed by the careful report of my venerable col-
league, Admiral' Romain-Desfosses, and by the
sonorous voice of Admiral Rigault de Genouilly,
when with so much dignity and warmth of heart
he pronounced the elope of his brave brothels in
arms and shattered your arguments by a fierce
broadside.
" In 1861 the question had undergone no change
with me, and I should have waited till the Ist of
October, when facts will begin to solve the question
which I only propounded. But what has happened
in the interval P Why, that this treaty, in which
the two nations have made so many unequal steps
towards each other, and which
.both theorists and
practical men had represented as a pledge of con-
ciliation, peace, and concord, has only procured us
from certain English public speakers and influen-
tial journalists injurious treatment and attacks,
sometimes made in tho harshest language. Our
political tribunes had sufficiently repelled these as-
saults, and it was to them only that I meant to
reply, without entering at all into the intrinsic
value of the treaty or discussing the merits of the
negotiators. I was indignant that speakers at
English dinners and meetings should have presumed
to assign limits to the development of our naval
forces. The question lay therefore between me and
the English (and for that reason, I believe, the pub-
lic was somewhat of ray opinion). Assuredly, there
was no ground for your taking up the matter as
personal to yourself; you are therefore mistaken in
wishing to make this retort upon the stranger ap-
pear to be an attack against the intentions and acts
of the Government of my country.
"I am far froth throwing any doubt on the devo-
titakof my honourable colleague to the Government
of the' Emperor; but I request him to be equally
just to me,' and not to endeavour to make my
opinion suspected because I do not accept all his
theories as an economist. No one acknowledges
more sincerely all the great things the Emperor
has done, and wishes to do, to add to the power and
honour of France; but even this does not destroy
the right of discussion when it is necessary. I re-
gard M. Michel Chevalier as a very able man, com-
bining great scientific acquirements with brilliant
talents as a writer. His substantial merits have

opened to him the doors of the Academy, where I
am his colleague, and where I have often differed
from him in opinion without any feeling of hostility
existing between us. He is my colleague in the
Senate, and I may, perhaps, sometimes differ from
hi,n, even on the results of the treaty if occasion
should arise. . . But, whatever may be my opi-
nions, and however much I might have desired to
see the protective system treated somewhat less

abruptly, I will never give him any just ground for
inferring that lam a partisan of the continental
blockade,' the despotic rigours of which I never

approved, and of ranking me with those obstinate
old men of whom Horace speaks, who will never
give way, but obstinately retain, unmodified, to the
close of their career, the ideas which they had
adopted in early youth :

"‘- Quia turpo ducunt parer() minoribus, et qua)
" 'lmberbes didicere, senes perdenda fateri.'
You admit, however, that I am far from being
retrograde, for you own that I have always pro-
fessed and practised the theory of the free defence

of accused persons in presence of political persecu-
tions; the theory of constitutional doctrines when

attempts were made to exclude them; and what is
more, especially at the present time, that I have

always advocated the doctrine of Galilean liberties

against Ultr.4montane doctrines. Add to this that

I am, like you, for the consolidation of the kingdom
of Italy and for the abolition of slavery wherever
it may exist. Pardon me only for not being a Free-
trader and Anglomaue in the same degree as your-
self.

"I hope, then, in my turn, that you will take in
good part these ex plauat ions, which, while reserving
the freedom of my opinion, make no attempt to
limit yours. " DUPIN."

EXTRAORDINARY OUTRAGE ON A LADY.-011
iday night a young lady of the highest respectability
was returning from a place of worship. Her friends
placed her in a cab, and told the cabman to drive her to her
residence in the neighbourhood of Rathmines. The ruffian,
finding the lady alone, turned his horse up the old Rath-
mines Road, in the direction of Miitown, and on reaching
e secluded part of the road made an attempt to commit an
assault. The lady fled through the field, and was pursued
by her assailant. The ground being greatly flooded
she got into a stream which nearly reached her
arm -pits. From this position her savage assailant
dragged her back into the field. But still her courage and
presence of mind did not desert her. She struggled vigor-
ously, and succeeded in wresting herself from his grasp
and fled, her assailant still in pursuit. In the course of her
flight she arrived at the edge of the Miltown quarry, and
plunged down the steep precipice. Providentially the spot
from which she sprang was close to a sloping edge, down
which she rolled to the bottom, and thus escaped with a
few severe bruises. Had she jumped at one yard's distance
from the spot she chanced on, she must inevitably have
been dashed to pieces. The ruffian, seeing that she es-
caped his pursuit, turned and fled, and has not yet been
captured,--,Freeman's Journal,