RUSSIA AND ENGLAND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1 Snt,—In your article in the Spectator of April 29th on "Russia and England" you very properly suggest that the best way to bring about a better understanding is to conclude a suitable commercial treaty. As you may soon write again on this subject, it would be interesting to hear your opinion on one of the most disastrous' obstacles to free business inter- course with Russia, apart from tariffs and the other numerous legal hindrances ; I refer to what is practically an absence of legal remedy for enforcing contracts. In concluding a bargain in most other countries a business man feels seoure in knowing that as a last resource the law of the land will protect' him against an unscrupulous trader, but in Russia' this is not so. Nominally, you can, of course, invoke the protection of the Russian laws, but if you are guided by experience of those who trade with Russia, or English traders resident in Russia, you will do nothing of the kind ; you will pocket the loss and decide that doing business in Russia is a matter of confidence purely, and that solvency on the part of a Russian trader does not at all secure you from loss. There are in Russia many firms with whom one may deal with perfect confidence, but so long as doing business in Russia remains a matter of confidence only, English merchants cannot trade as freely there as they are doing in other countries. I should like to sign my name, but as you may possibly wish to publish this, and as I am still doing business with Russia, you will perhaps excuse me if I only enclose my card.—I am, Sir, &c., EXPORT liERCHANT.
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