4 APRIL 1846, Page 11

The debate in the French Chamber of Deputies on the

Belgian commercial treaty closed on Thursday ; when the bill was adopted by a majority of 209 to 36. As exhibiting the advance of Free-trade principles in France, and still more for the opinions expressed on the Free-trade policy of Sir Robert Peel, the discus- sion was invested with some degree of interest. The Free-traders supported the bill as pointing in the right direction. M. Guizot defended it on narrower grounds; and spoke cautiously on the subject of Sir Robert Peers policy. One of his positions was, that England was more commercial than agricultural, France the reverse; and a commercial system which might snit the one would not suit the other.