The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-01 00:00:00

on the river, and collected the tallow at the risk of
their lives, and they thought they were entitled to
it. It was hard to be deprived of their hard earn-
ings by the police:
Mr. Combe told them that they had no business
with the tallow on the river ; it was no more their
property than a piece of timber floating on the
Thames. He should discharge those who had col-
lected it from the river, and the tallow would be
detained until claimed by the persons properly au-
thorised by the owners to receive it.
Mr. Neale, who appeared for two men who had
16 cwt. of the tallow, said his client purchased it of
the collectors, giving the market value for it.
Mr. Combe told him they bad no right to pur-
chase the tallow, as they must know that the col-
lectors were not entitled to it. Had any of the
parties who took it from the sewers been brought
before him he should have dealt with them severely.
The destruction of this property had been enor-
mous, and it could not be tolerated that the vast
quantities of tallow should be appropriated by any
thief who chose to lay his hands on it.
Mr. Neale urged that some of it came from the
river, and the parties who collected it were abating
a nuisance.

Mr. Combe said that was all nonsense. They
cared nothing for the nuisance. They collected it
for their benefit. He should not punish the pri-
soners this time, but the tallow must be detained
until claimed by the insurance offices.
Mr. Neale considered it very hard, as his clients
had paid a fair value for the tallow, and did not
know they were running any risk.
An inspector of the M division informed his
worship that bills had been posted in every avail-
able spot, cautioning the parties. The following is
a copy :—" Notice—Any person found stealing
tallow from out of the sewers, or receiving the
same, knowing it to have come from the sewers,
will be prosecuted according to law."
Mr. Combe said that they must have been aware
that they had no right to it.
Late in the day a dealer in marine stores was
charged with having upwards of a ton weight of the
tallow in his possession.
The prisoner said he had a perfect right to the
tallow, as it came to him in the way of business.
Mr. Combe—Then you justify the act of pur-
chasing stolen tallow ?
The prisoner said he did not do that, but the
tallow was brought to him and he bought it.
Mr. Combe said he should not discharge him,
but make an example of him for his impertinence.
He must pay a fine of £5, or to go to prison for one
month.

The fine was reluctantly paid, and the tallow
detained by the police.

THE COMMERCIAL TREATY BET WEE.
FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

We have already availed ourselves of the Cus-
toms Report to give the public a general idea of
the operation of the Commercial treaty in pro-
moting trade between France and England, but
the document in question is too comprehensive to
be dismissed with such partial notice. True it is,
as the Commissioners themselves acknowledge, that
the effects of the French treaty constitute the
most important feature in the return, but a great
deal more remains to be gathered from the figures
before us. The Customs Report is nothing less
than the great ledger of a nation of shopkeepers.
It tells how much we have bought, and how
much we have sold, what articles have been most
in demand, and what customers most profitable.
Besides this, it tells us how much toll has been
taken on these transactions for the benefit of the
Exchequer. One-third or so of the whole national
revenue is furnished by the receipts from Cus-
toms duties, and the great problem of public finance
is so to levy these indispensable funds as to offer
the least possible impediment to the transaction and
extension of business.
The trade of the nation varies, according to cir-
cumstances, both in character and extent. Its ex-
tent may be affected by war, by panic, by reaction
after extravagant speculation, or by the general
state of affairs either at home or abroad. Its cha-
racter may be modified by the goodness or badness
of a harvest, by the occurrence of special demands,
or by legislation directly designed for this purpose.
Last year, for instance, we bought extraordinary
quantities of grain and flour in consequence of the
failure of our own crops, while at the same time we
purchased French clocks, French shawls, and French
wines to a far greater extent than usual, owing
to the removal of the impediments which former
tariffs had placed in the way of such trade. It is
hoped, on the other hand, that we shall sell the
French people our coal and iron and cutlery in
larger quantities than before, and that both nations
will thus get the advantage not only of improved
markets, but more intimate and amicable con-
nexion. These two items—one depending on the
accidents of the season, and th© other produced by
direct legislation—form the most interesting fea-
tures of the present report. We have been buy-
ing corn and wine to an unusual amount—corn
because our harvest failed at home, and wine be-
cause it was thought politic to open and encourage
our trade with France. As regards the revenue, the
effects of these two proceedings have been very dif-
ferent. The increased imports of grain, on which a
nominal duty is still placed, increased our Customs
receipts, but the imports of wine having been at-
tracted by a large reduction of duty caused a con-
siderable loss to the Exchequer.
In the year last past we sold to foreign coun-
tries British and Irish produce to the value in the
aggregate of £135,842,817, to which must be added
£29,827,836 as the value of foreign and colonial
merchandise which we first bought and then sold
again. This is an advance upon the year 1859,
though that was a year of uncommon activity in
the national trade. Our best customers were the
United States, who dealt with us to the extent of
£21,000,000. Then came the Hanseatic Towns,
which, as agents for Germany and other countries,
took our goods to the value of £10,000,000. France
bought five millions' worth, and Brazil four.
Among our own possessions India and Australia
wets foremost with their demands—the former
doing a business of £17,000,000 and the latter of
£10,000,000. In these statistics the most notable
point is not the character of the trade, but its
amount. It had been apprehended, though the
Commissioners did not share the misgiving, that
some reaction would be experienced after the
powerful impulse given to our trade in 1859.
In 1857 we had been overtrading, and a total re-
turn of £146,000,000 was produced in some degree
by enterprises of too speculative a character. The
consequence was shown in the year following by a
decline of the figures to £140,000,000, but in 1859
came an unexpected rebound. The sum total of
our exports, home and colonial together, rose to
£155,000,000,—an improvement, as was fancied,
too great to be maintained The return before us,
however, shows a fresh advance, instead of a de-
cline, for the two items we have given above will
form a total of £165,000,000 and upwards.
Turning now from our exports to our imports, or,
in other words, from our sales to our purchases, we
find that these transactions, which had fallen from
£188,000,000 in 1857 to £165,000,000 in 1858, and
again risen to £179,000,000 in 1859, have actually
advanced in the present year to nearly £211,000,000.
It is no matter of congratulation certainly that we
should have been compelled to expend some mil-
lions of money in buying the corn which our own
fields failed to yield, but we may reasonably rejoice
over the events which have brought cheap and
wholesome wines to our doors. There is one arti-
cle, however, which we can never grow for our-
selves, though our demand for it is enormous.
Cotton cannot be produced at home. We must
needs buy it either from foreign countries or our
own dependencies, and the report shows to what
extent and in what markets our purchases of this
material were conducted in the yearlB6o. We bought
cotton then to the value of nearly £36,000,000, and
of this immense sum no less than £30,000,000 went
to the United States—a sufficient proof of the mag-
nitude of the risk to which we have so often ad-
verted. In the general account, our dealings with
France, Russia, and Egypt figure very prominently,
while India sells us almost as much as she buys
from us. There appears to be no great decline in
any of -our demands, unrefined sugar, hemp, silk,
and brandy being the only four articles of any con-
sequence which we purchased to a less extent in
1860 than in 1859. Of silk we probably took as
much as we could get; in sugar and hemp the de-
cline was not very material, while brandy is said
to be always capricious in its variations.
The actual amount of revenue derived from the
Customs during the period under review was
£23,165,764, and the actual amount of loss in-
curred by reductions of duties, including, however,
the decline in sugar, &c., above mentioned, was

£1,899,302. It will be seen that our receipts from
this department still constitute about a third of the
whole public income, although revenue has been
repeatedly and largely sacrificed for the benefit
and encouragement of trade. The Customs, in fact,
afford excellent ground for our financiers to work
upon. It is possible, as has been often shown, to
reduce duties, and yet, by increased consumption,
to obtain as large a revenue as before, so that
everybody gains and nobody loses. It is expected
that the present loss upon the wine duties may be
at least partially compensated in this way, though
the treaty was framed rather with political aims
than on financial principles. The real object of the
Convention was solo knit France and England to-
gether that the chances of quarrel, and, with them,
the cost of national armaments, might be perma-
nently diminished. It was no bad investment to
sacrifice a million for such purpose as this. Whether
the lighter wines of France Will ever be largely