§ MR. GRAVESasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether Her Majesty's Government consider the Duties imposed under the recent French Navigation Act to be Customs Duties, and as such if British Shipping is not entitled to be placed on the "most favoured nation" footing under the Commercial Treaty of 1860?
§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDSir, both before the passing of the new French law respecting differential duties to be imposed on merchant shipping, and subsequently to its passing, Her Majesty's Government have addressed through Lord Lyons communications to the French Government, and have based their representations in behalf of this country not only on the verbal construction of the Treaty and second supplementary Convention of 1860, but on general grounds, and have asked for an early reply, as the matter is one of pressing moment to the mercantile interests of this country.