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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3149, 1 August 1881, Page 2

We gather from the British Trade Journal that the new general tariff, which is to be made by the French Government (he basis of the negotiations for all new commercial treaties, was promulgated on the Bth ult., and accordingly, in obedience to mutual arrangement, our present treaty with France will expire on November 8 next. The Commissioners, who will conclude the new treaty, have already been appointed, and will this week enter upon their national labors. So far as one can judge of tbe probabilities of the future by the action of France in the past and her attitude at the present time, the prospects of a new treaty as favorable as tbat which has just been denounced cannot be regarded as hopeful. The cry ot " Protection" has been raised by M. PouyerQuertier, and it has echoed from one end of the French dominion to the other. Protection, according to its advocates, is the panacea for all evils. It is to augment the national exchequer, to restore trade to activity, to develop commerce, to raise wages and lessen prices, and to accomplish numerous other beneficent purposes which fertile imaginations have conjured up and picturesquely displayed to a wondering and delighted people. The patriotism of the ignorant masses has been appealed to, and their patriotism has so far overshadowed their small commodity of wisdom, that to this pernicious nonsense they give the utmost credence After Mr Cobden's treaty came into force both the exports to and the imports from France took a great stride forward, and for a year or two may be said to have been side by side. Soon, however, our imports from France began to outstrip our exports thither, and from 1868 down to the present time, with the solitary exception of the year 1871, we have always bought more from France thao we sold to her. Latterly the excess against us on the trading account has generally been from £10,000,000 to £12,000,000; but if we exclude the transhipments of foreign and colonial produce, it has been from the first much more. Our sale of British manufactures to France has been declining for years. The complete returns for 1880 are not yet published, but the total for 1879 was under £15,000,000, against imports from the same to the value of £38,500,000. In 1871—an exceptional year—we sent France upwards of £18,000,000 worth of our goods. That was the highwater mark, the largest total since being £17,300,000, Our imports from France have been as high as £46,700,000, the figures reached in 1875. These statistics will serve to show how much greater were the benefits derived by France than by England when 20 years ago she partially adopted free trade. But the Ministry of Republican France is bound hand and foot to the clamoring democracy, whom, in an unthinking moment, they deceived by the cry of protection, for the sake of soothing over some awkward difficulties. They have embarked in their course—their backward course—in obedience to the demands of clamor, and not the prudence of statesmanship. Sooner or later — sooner rather than later—the democracy will find that protection is not the sovereign remedy sgainst bad trade, bad harvests, and all the ills to which flesh is heir. But. tbey will have the mortification of reflecting tbat the experience was dearly bought.