THE BUDGET AND THE TREATY.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 263, 27 April 1860, Page 3

THE BUDGET AND THE TREATY.

The various questions raised by the Budget and the Treaty with France have been eagerly discussed during the past week in every part of the country. We can here give only a very brief summary of the opinions expressed at some of the principal meetings which have been reported. ' - The Leeds Chamber of Commerce is of opinion that the proposed change of the French tariff as affecting the importation of linen yarns from Great Britain will not in the least improve the trade in that article.

The Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce has, with only one dissentient voice, 'adopted a resolution praising in the highest terms the great extension of free-trade principles inaugurated by the Budget. At Liverpool and at Glasgow, the wholesale traders in tea, coffee, rice, sugar, &c, have declared against those clauses in the Budget which refer to the charges to be levied on the removal of bonded goods.

A great meeting of the hop factors, held in London, has loudly declared against the application of free-trade-principles to the hop trade, which was maintained to be of an exceptional nature. A resolution was carried against Mr. Gladstone's proposal to equalise the import duty on foreign hops with the excise duty on British hops. The Westminster Reform Union is unanimously in favour of the Budget. The Budget was the subject of discussion at a meeting of the Lancashire Reformers' Union, held at Manchester. Mr. G. Wilson, who presided, pronounced an emphatic eulogium on Mi*. Gladstone's labours. Mr. Bright declared that no Budget had been produced since that of Sir Robert Peel comparable to the one now before the country. Opinions of a like tenor were expressed with all but unanimity by the several speakers. The Bradford Chamber of Commerce approves of the Treaty.

At a meeting of the United Towns Association of Licensed Victuallers at Birmingham, it was resolved that the Budget should be strenuously opposed by the whole of the licensed victuallers of the country, especially that portion of it immediately affecting their vested interest. A meeting of the wine and spirit trade was held at the London Commercial Sale Rooms, Mincinglane, on the 16th February, for the purpose of discussing the clauses of the Budget immediately affecting these branches of tiade, namely, the "import and export charge of Id. per package," the charge to be levied" on the removal of goods under bond," and the " charges on operations in warehouse.'' The various speakers, whilst generally approving the leading principles of the Chancellor's scheme, contended that these imposts would pro»e not only a heavy tax, but also a great impediment to trading operations. Objection was also made to the stamp duties on dock •warrants and contract notes. Eventually, resolutions were passed urging the removal of the clauses in question, and it was agreed that a deputation should wait upon the Chancellor on the subject. The Hull Chamber of Commerce is decidedly opposed to the treaty; chiefly on account of the clauses bearing upon the shipping interest and the exportation of coal. The Home News, of 18th February, says :— From hour to hour the discussion on the Budget spreads wider and wider. All the great towns, Chambers of Commerce, and special industrial interests, are holding meetings to express their approval of the scheme as a \vH6le, bi- to urge objections against particular parts. No Budget has probably ever awakened so much attention. It is even more important than-the great Free-trade Budget which, fourteen years ago, inaugurated a new commercial code; for this Budget goes the length of abandoning, or very nearly abandoning, the last shreds of protection. It is not England merely that is interested in it, or the colonies of England, to whom every item is of moment, directly or indirectly, but all ports on the face of the globe. The progress of snch a measure to completion may well, therefore, be watched with anxiety. It is not to be denied that, while the general tendency of the scheme, is sanctioned by the support of the mercantile classes at: large, who have had sufficient experience of the working of Free-trade principals to be enabled to judge practically of the probable consequences of their furthr application, ■ -there are'some details against wich a strong opposition is afforded in influential quarters. Fortunately the plan is elastic and will admit of considerable modification without being materially weakened in its ultimate force. We believe Mr. Gladstone is not unwilling to make reasonable concessions in certain cases; and that tho clause relative to coals, which was warmly debated in the House of Peers a few nights ago, may be mentioned as one of those instances in which the principal may be carried out in a different and less objectionable form than that proposed in the resolutions* Thus prepared to take.just objections into consideration, the chances in. favor of a hostile majority on the Gonservativft W&4m.eat become coasitaUy diiaiaiaued, '