§ MR. LIDDELLsaid, he wished to ask the noble Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether any communication had taken place between our Government and the Government of France relative to the equalisation of the duties levied on British coal when imported into the latter country?
LORD STANLEYsaid, that the subject to which the hon. Member's question referred was one on which the attention of the Government had for some time past been fixed. The Government was fully aware of the great benefit which would accrue to British interests, and he believed to French interests also, by the establishment of lower rates of duty on British coal imported into France, than those at present enforced; but, under all the circumstances of the case, and considering the nature of our commercial relations with France, it had been thought better not to enter into any negotiations on this subject separately. Communications relative to it had passed between the two Governments, and from those communications it appeared that the Government of France was favourably disposed—as was also the Government of this country—to making considerable modifications in the present international commercial system.