MR. COBDEN AND THE FRENCH TREATY.
[The following letter, addressed by Mr. Cobden to an intimate friend in Manchester, has been forwarded to the morning journals, and pub- lished by them on Thursday.] " Pails, 82, Rue De 111niversite, May 12. "My dear Sir—I will answer your inquiries as briefly as possible. "I am as strongly in favour of the principle of ad valorem duties as any one in Manchester. But nearly all the c,ountriea of Europe have from mo- tives of convenience, or to avoid frauds, preferred specific rates, and the French Government cannot be induced to take for its rule the ad valorem system. Nor, indeed, is it invariably desirable ; for instance, in the case of iron and some other articles, the English producer prefers specific rates. In goods of a simple and uniform nature, admitting of easy classification, such as yarns and plain cottons though ad valorem duties would be prefer- able, the adoption of specific rats will not be attended with great inconve- nience. If there are other articles of so mixed and varied a character as to defy classification, the treaty has made provision for dealing with them in an exceptional manner.
"England is really not in a position to dogmatize on this question. The French Government are of course aware that our own tariff hardly contains an ad valorem duty, and that even in recent veers we have been engaged in substituting specific for ad valorem rates. At this moment, the wine- growers of Burgundy are holding meetings to protest against our specific duties on wine, which, owing to the alcoholic test, impose 50 per cent more duty on their common qualities costing perhaps half-a-crown a shil- lings on the rarer kinds of claret,' which are often worth more than five h- is that the evil is inevitable, venue system. a bottle in the cellars of the Gironde. My answer to these complaints the neceserties of
The French Government plead, with equal good faith, e
owing to the exigencies of our re their customs service in defence of their specific duties.
"With respect to your other inquiry, there is not the slightest founda- tion of truth for the reports in question. The commissioners now sitting in Paris are not engaged in correcting the imaginary blunders to which you refer. We have no more power than yourself to negotiate for the alter- ation of a word of the treaty. Our duties are limited to the carrying out of the provisions of the 13th article in the manner contemplated from the first, and by the only mode in which it could have been accomplished. The task on which the Commission has just entered will call for the exer- cise of much patient labour; and they who wish to pass a fair judgment on its conduct will wait for the result. Speaking only of the past, I will say that from the time when I was first brought into communication with the French Government, now more than six months since, to the present day, have experienced from them nothing but frankness, straightforwardness, and goad faith. They have never professed to carry out at once a free- trade policy to the advanced stage at which we have arrived in England. They are rather at the point of departure from which Mr. Huskisson started in 1825, with the great advantage of having had our experience to guide and encourage them, and of having to deal with protected interests very much in advance of ours of that time. The French Government has begun with the repeal of duties on raw materials, giving notice that after a cer- tain time the prohibitive system will cease, and foreign manufactures be admitted at revenue duties which will operate as a protection to home pro- ducers. This is precisely the course pursued by Mr. Huskisson, and we know with what happy consequences. "The French Government have entered upon this new commercial policy, not for the benefit of England, but from an enlightened appreciation of the advantages it will confer on the people of France ; and were I to doubt the success of the experiment, or fear that they will not persevere in the career on which they have entered, I should be faithless to those prin- ciples, the application of which has conferred such incalculable advantages and blessings on my countrymen. The present treaty will inaugurate a new era in the commercial intercourse of France and England, and it will only require a few years to develop that state of mutual dependence which forms the solid basis for the peace and friendship of nations. Can it be true that there are sinister influences at work in England to mar if possible this fair prospect ? If so, I trust the mercantile, manufac- turing, mining, and trading interests of the country will prove true to themselves, for in the present case their interests are eminently those of humanity and civilization. Believe me, yours very truly, "RICH/RD CORDMi."
Previous page
