MR. COBDEN AND THE FRENCH TREATY.

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1470, 9 November 1860, Page 5

MR. COBDEN AND THE FRENCH TREATY.

If Mr. Cobden had been in Parliament dnr ing the session whicb is now drawing to a close much of the misrepresentation which has been industriously propagated respecting the French Treaty would have been blown to the winds ; but as.no man can be in two places at once, the member for Rochdale, in bis Parisian retreat, has had to endure much calumny and a good deal of vituperation io his honest desire to serve his country, by making the extension of commercial relations between ourselves and a great neighbouring Power a better bond of union than improved firearms, militiamen, volunteers, and shot-proof ships. We know of fay/ things in the history of English journalism, and the tactics of party manoeuvres, more discreditable and unpatriotic tban the systematic falsehoods which have been heaped upon the French Treaty by a portion of the piess, which lauded it to the skies when first mooted in the House, and it was covertly assented to by her Majesty's Opposition, who allowed it to passr through Parliament without a division. If the" Chancellor or the Exchequer's Budget had contained no proviso for the appeal of the duty* op paper, much of the hostility to which tbe treaty has been subjected since it beoarae.W would have been spared; but the powerful interests in the press aud beyond it winch that" proposition called into action have never ceased to , . 5 0W unmerited obloquy on an instrument which wtll be the means of rendering incalculable good to this country and to France,— an amount of good, too, supposing the blessings ot peace to be continued to us, which will lucrease with every succeeding year, and will, prove superior in its peace-preserving tendencies to all the alliances which crowns aud diplomatists can cement through the instrumentality of mere physical force and fear. Mr. Cobden, although he is not in the House of Commons, is well initiated in the mysteries of the game which has been played in and out of Parliament in connexion with the French -treaty, and in a letter lo a friend, which has found us way into the newspapers duriug the last two or three days, he gives expression to the same view respecting the ultimate triumph of hts mission that have already been expressed •>y ihe members of the various deputations of manufacturers from Yorkshire, Lincashire, Staffordshire, and various parts ot Scotland, who have recently visited the French metropolis lu , connexion wft.li the more promineijt features.

a__HH___a___!»______t_»»-* !■■ ii l<j of the treaty. In thi* letter be declares, «Up to tbe present moment. I bare experienced nothing but candour and straightforwardness in my dealings with the French Government, while all the misrepresentation, falsehood, and difficulties which I have bad to encounter bave come from the English, side of tbe channel.* This is the outspoken opinion of a man engaged heart and soul, in the conscientious discharge of a duty than wbich none more important can be committed to a subject of the Queen— a man who refused a seat in Lord Palmerston'a Cabinet beciuse be felt that he could serve hia country better and more independently in soma such position as the one to which he has beea called. It is a remarkable fact also, in reference to the falsehoods to which Mr. Cobden refers, tbat the most venomous and personal have proceeded from sources from whioh he bad a right to expect' aid in breaking down the monopoly which has so long estranged England and France by ihe barriers of tbe Custom house— persons who are free-traders except when their own personal interests are at stake, but are ready to; sacrifice any principle the moment they think they are likely to suffer by it. •' Nothing," .continues Mr, Cobden, " dis* gusts me more than the cowardice and want of honest principles^ our own politicians. -Anything for a momentary pry which may give a triumph over a ppliticat' opponent seems t6 be the motto of our party men. You will see that in less than a couple of years all our politicians •vill be eager to cla[m the merit of baying always been frierjdlyjp fcfae. French, Treaty." It was io this expectation, doubtless, that While " the Conservative deader in the House of Commonsi spoke against the treaty, he studiously refrained (rom ; voting against it, and be permitted non? of; his subordinates to. propose . amendments to anyVof its features, and the objept was appare_t-T-namely, that he might be able on a futmje,day to take credit for himself and his party. in^. permitting it to pass Without opposition, .. ;.,.' •• Another subject is introduced into Mr. Cobden's letter whioh will be less acceptable to some of our transatlantic cousins— a comment on a cominu i ation which appeared in a leading New YorK journal, fiom tbe pen of its Paris correspondent, relative to the celebration of the 4th of July iv that city, arising out of an entertainment at which Mr. Cobden was present, Into this communication was introduced a dialogue ia which Mr. Cobden took, and in which he spoke with considerable freedom of the Marquis' of Lansdowne, and some of the great personages at the English Court. Mr. Cobden is evidently annoyed at tlie author of the Paris letter, for he describes the paragraph as " one of those rascally acts of eavesdropping for which American writers are so notorious. There is a good deal of the paragraph," he says, « wbichagrees with what I have thought ; but whether I expressed it in private conversation is more than I could swear to, as no one expects to be made responsible for private gossip. There ought to be the punishment of the pillory or the stocks revived for those who publish in newspapers the unguarded remarks which fall from a man in private conversation, when he frequently speaks more to provoke a reply and keep people from going to sleep over too serious an interchange o£ views " Iv this there is much tb which right-minded people on both sides ofthe Atlantic will give their assent. It is undeniable that too many Americans, male and female, hive accustomed themselves to retail through the newspaper press the tittle* tattle of the drawing-room and the boudoir, when people give expression to their opinions in all the confidence of unrestrained private friendship. Any credit whic|. the offenderamay gain by :. baying access to good society is more than counterbalanced by.the deplorable use to which they turn the privilege. But the great force of Mr. Cobden's well-timed letter consists in aa honest exposure of the frauds and falsehoods which have beeu so long and systematically indulged in by the English' writers. respecting the Treaty between France and this coantry, the pacific effects of which they dread, and whicb, when literally carried out, will prove the greatest imginable" blessing to the people of both countries.— European Times, Aug, 27. ■ ■ i» — .