A grand Free-trade demonstration was held in Paris on Sunday,
when exceedingly telling speeches were delivered by M. Frederic Passy and M. Raoul Duval. The former directed his speech to re- fute the assertion that what might be good for one nation in this matter was very bad for another. If that were to be applied to Free-trade, he said, it might as well be applied to chemistry. It was just as true that chemistry, though very good in England, was not applicable to France, as that Free-trade, though very good in England, was not applicable to France. M. Raoul Duval appealed to experience. In 1860 it was said that France would be ruined by the competition with England, but in fact, France bad sent to England, as the result of the Commercial Treaty of that year, twice as much as England had sent to France. Supposing Eng- land were to close her markets against France, by way of reprisals for French Protection, the calamity to France would be frightful, —and M. Duval might have added, the calamity to England, too. The French intelligence on this subject is evidently on the in- crease, and in many respects, it is the natural result of prosperity. Prosperity opens the eyes very quickly to the sources of that prosperity, and to the best means of increasing it.
Previous page
