Viscount Strangfordrequested to know, from the noble President of the Board of Trade, whether he had received any official notice from the French government of the reduction of the tonnage duties on British vessels in the ports of France, or to what extent that reduction was to take place?
§ Lord Aucklandreplied, that Government had as yet received no official notice of any arrangement having been actually concluded by the French government, but they had received notice of the intention of the French government to reduce the duties. As to the extent of the reduction intended, it was to be one-third of the present amount. But the amount was different at the different ports, and various returns were to be collected, and calculations to be made, in order to strike an average, with a view to an assimilation.
Viscount Strangfordasked, whether the assimilation was to be confined to the tonnage duties, or was to include the whole of the tonnage and harbour dues?
§ Lord Aucklandreplied, that there was to be an equalization on each side as to the whole, and, with a view to this reciprocity, 488 the French had raised their tonnage duties, leaving us our harbour dues. But, upon a representation made to the French government, that their tonnage duties were higher than our harbour dues, they had agreed to reduce their tonnage duties, so as to produce an equalization, and an arrangement was in progress for that purpose.