ABSTRACT
Within ten days at latest the Commercial Treaty which our Ministers have concluded with France will be most likely in the hands of our readers, and we shall then be able to discuss its details more satisfactorily than we can now. In general, there can be no doubt that, if confirmed by Parliament, it will bind us to reduce or abolish the duties on French manufactures, silks, wines, and brandies; and that France will, in return, engage to reduce considerably the duties which she now levies on English manufactures, coal, and iron. These bare outlines are not sufficient to enable us to form a complete judgment of the merits or demerits of this very important treaty, nor do we propose to discuss them; but we think that we may, with some hope of being useful, state the principles by which it will have to be estimated, and the mode in which, as Free-traders, we are bound to view all conventions of the kind.
