Our Trade Relations with the United States. 
By the Hon. Arthur Weber. 
At the April meeting of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial 
Society, a detailed paper by Mr. Nevile Lubbock, entitled " Notes on 
the Washington Mission/' was read, giving a summary of the circum- 
stances and conditions under which the Reciprocity Treaty with the 
United States, was arranged. The thanks of the meeting were accorded 
to Mr. Lubbock, and the paper incorporated in the minutes of the 
Society's Proceedings, (Timehri, June, 1892 p. 218.) The present article 
by the Hon. Arthur Weber forms a fitting supplement to these " Notes" 
contributed by Mr. Lubbock.— Ed.] 
GREAT deal has been lately written on the 
important subject of our American Trade rela- 
tions, and the wholesale condemnation which 
the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States has evoked, 
as expressed in some of our local papers, demands that 
the matter should be placed before the public in the 
proper light. The members of the Combined Court have 
been asked to secure the abrogation of the Treaty, but 
before they attempt to do so, they will no doubt look^at it 
in all its bearings, pro and con, and with that attention 
which such a matter, all important to the colony, 
deserves. 
The first question with which we are concerned is the 
right of the United States to induce this colony, or any 
other colony or country, to give them certain concessions 
which they think, rightly or wrongly, will favour and 
develop their own trade ; and it would be quite futile to 
deny to them, either in fa6l or in principle, such a right. 
This would be against every principle of the law of 
