The new scale of French duties on linens has been
officially issued, and it is as bad as the worst anticipations. It will probably
work us serious injury. But it is not merely as an individual com- mercial question that it is most important. It is ushered in with a disquisition on the reasons for the measure, by the Commerce Minister of France ; and M. Gmzor's Commerce Minister, with his royal master, attaches his name to a farrago of antiquated and exploded political economy, that in England may lurk in some of the obscurest agricultural districts, but there alone. Is this, then, a guage of the commercial intelligence of France, that vaunts of supplying Europe with enlightenment, and especially with enlight- enment in the polity of nations ? Have her economists written for England but not for France ? It seems so. In mere politics, the document is an indication of grievous backsliding. Nothing can be of so great importance to France and England, considered in conjunction, as the maintenance of the best understanding be- tween the two, even if each makes some sacrifice to maintain it : yet, to foster a trade, which, on his own admission, protection has failed to establish, M. CUMIN GRIDAINE risks the effect of a serious slight and injury to England. He does so at a time when he ought to know that the full weight of the injury must inevitably fall on some other French trade—the wine-trade for instance.
