According to the Times, the relations of England and France
have just been marked by a very noteworthy incident. M. Lon Say was sent here mainly to negotiate a new Treaty of Com- merce, and he pleaded to Lord Granville that in order to sweeten the Treaty, some concessions must be made to great French interests. In other words, he wanted a lower duty on wines. He was told that just now the Treasury could not bear the reduction, and that Spain and Italy already complained of the advantages granted to French wines ; and he went back to Paris, partly in dudgeon and partly to compete for the presi- dency of the Senate, vacant by M. Martel's resignation. When he arrived there, however, he found that the dread of an inter- ruption in the commercial negotiations had produced so bad= effect that, according to the Times' correspondent, he surrendered his claim to the presidency, and is about to return to London, and resume negotiations. We do not vouch for any part of that story, but it looks true, though a half-denial has been published in Paris, and suggests that the benefits derived from the Anglo- French Commercial Treaty are not so invisible to French statesmen as they pretend. Their notion seems to be that if they say they have received nothing, they will get some more, —which is a rather elementary, or even infantine, style of bargaining.
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