THE "TIMES” ON THE NEW COMMERCIAL TREATY.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 22, 2 June 1860, Page 4

THE "TIMES” ON THE NEW COMMERCIAL TREATY.

But this Budget is something more than a Budget; it is a Treaty, and a Treaty contracted with a state far behind ourselves in all commercial and financial respects. It is a Treaty with a Sovereign who has to make ignominious apologies for the prejudices of his subjects, and ask us tohumoor them. So we have to make heavy-concessions, trusting to that immense superiority which enables us to give the vantage to competitors, and knowing that a nation which puts any restrictions on commerce is its own worst enemy. Yet the course which France compels on its Government is in several instances so indecently unjust that it cannot be passed without remark, even if there were no factions ready to profit by it. The Treaty binds us for ever neither to prohibit the exportation of coal, nor to put any duty upon it,, whatever our financial wants or our political extremity. We are thus bound to supply France herself with coal up to the very eve of war and, with fleets steaming against us to allow coal to go we can never tell whither. France puts herself under no such restriction, for, as she exports no coaly her share in this clause means, nothing. Certainly the clause ought to be modified, and we ought to leave ourselves at liberty to forbid, on just cause, the export of the chief munition of modern warfare. Coal, next to the sea, is the great defence of this country, and at the same time the means by which it can be most readily assailed. In one other point also the Treaty is so one-sided that it can hardly pass without some modification. It reserves for France all the advantage she attempts to secure by her Navigation Laws, and denies to us the power of reimposing otlr own code even if we wished it. The English merchant, besides that he has still to meet high protective duties on English goods imported into France against no such duty on French goods imported into England, will further have to struggle against another code of .duties and prohibitions for the encouragement of the French marine. We in this country know by this time that all attempts to favour the native shipowner at the expense of the world at large, though a nuisance to everybody, are most mischievous to the nation itself which makes the attempt. But, even with this steady conviction on our part, it is not agreeable to recognise what we believe to bo at onto a jealousy and a folly. Then, what limits does the Treaty impose to the additions which France may please to make to her Navigation Laws, if a new access of popular frenzy shouldforco it on the Emperor ?• We trust that these clauses, at least, will be amended.

i MISCELLANEOUS NEWS. While the ship Typhoon (just arrived > at Liverpool from Bombay) was on her voy- . age home, and when in lat. 5-24 N., long. . 22 W., the captain saw a large tree, up- ■ wards of 90 feet long, and without branches, ■ but with long fibrous roots, extending from , Bto 10 feet from the trunk. The tree was very thick, and from its general proportions, , the captain believes, would be very destructive in the event of a collision with a ship. This is probably thp great sea serpent, and the fibrous roots the mane so much talked of by other navigators. The Post-office authorities have given notice that, commencing with the March ' mails to be sent from England for Australia, the mail packets between Suez and Australia will call at Ceylon instead of at the Mauritius. The mails for Mauritius and Keunion will still be sent from here with the Australian mail, and will bejeonveyed from Aden by a branch packet. Prom the collected tables published by •'authority of the Registrar-General it appears that the natural increase of the population of London— i. e., the excess of births over deaths—was last year 80,939. The number of immigrants from the country is estimated at 23,000. If this calculation is well founded the gross increase was 54,000, or more than 1000 weekly. A few mornings ago, while the Ist battalion Scots Fusilier Guards were returning to their barracks, accompanied as usual by their celebrated dog “ Bob,” he was unfortunately run over by a cart and killed. “ Bob ” sailed in the Simoom with the regiment to Malta in 1854, and on the declaration of war proceeded to Scutari, lie was present with the regiment to which lie;was attached at the landing in the Crimea, and at the battle of the Alma, where he was returned amongst the list of “ Missing.” After the flank march, howexer, to Balaklava he again joined, after an absence of three days. He was present at the Light Cavalry charge at Balaklava, at Inkermann, and served in the trenches, and at length was at the final capture of Sebastopol. “Bob” returned with his regiment at the close of the war, and marched into London at the head of his corps. “Bob” had been awarded a medal for his services, which he wore round his neck as a memento and decoration. The Queen has conferred the honour of knighthood upon Captain Leopold M'Clintock, the gallant discover of the remains of Sir John Franklin’s Arctic Expedition. An interesting discovery has been made in Peeblesshire. Goldhas been found among the quartz detritus in Glengabcrburn, a small mountain rivulet which falls into the Magget, about a mile and a-half from St. Mary’s Loch. The gold is in small nuggets, some of them resembling flattened split peas. The quantity picked up is in weight equal to half a sovereign. Whether on minute investigation the gold will be found to an extent worth working remains to be seen when the state of the season permits. “ Lord Elgin,” says a Paris letter on March 14, “is actively employed here if completing his mission touching the war in China. There are no difficulties between the Governments of England and France on this subject. Ilis lordship was to wait upon the Emperor to-day, having already fully explained himself to M. Thouvenel.