§ MR. HENNIKER HEATONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, in view of the facts that the products of British Colonies are taxed at the maximum tariff on entering France, while British home products are admitted to France at a lower rate than British Colonial products, and that the British Colonies admit the products of France at the same tariff as regulates the admission of French Colonial products to such Colonies, whether Her Majesty's Government will use its good offices to procure an assimilation of the 888 tariff now charged in France on British Colonial products to the tariff levied in that country on British home products?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E. GREY,) Northumberland, BerwickPerhaps I may be allowed to answer this question. The statement of facts in the question is correct; but if British Colonies do not differentiate between France and French Colonies, it is doubtless because these latter are both Protectionist countries. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, is a Free Trade country, and her Colonies are Protectionist, and France differentiates in consequence between them. There is, therefore, no ground at present for making representations to the French Government.