combination against
British commercial interests, or was it the reverse? It is no cabinet
secret--it has been publicly proclaimed, both by the French and Belgian
Governments and press, that the indispensable basis, the _sine qua non_
of that union, must be, not a calculated amalgamation of, not a
compromise between the differing and inconsistent tariffs of Belgium and
France, but the adoption, the imposition, of the tariff of France for
both countries in all its integrity, saving in some exceptional cases of
very slight importance, in deference to municipal dues and _octrois_ in
Belgium. When, after previous parley and cajoleries at Brussels,
commissioners were at length procured to be appointed by the French
ministry, and proceeded to meet and discuss the conditions of the
long-cherished project of the union, with the officials deputed on the
part of France to assist in the conference, it is well known that the
final cause of rupture was the dogged persistance of the French members
of the joint commission in urging the tariff of France, in all its
nakedness of prohibition, deformity, and fiscal rigour, as the one sole
and exclusive _regime_ for the union debated, without modification or
mitigation. On this ground alone the Belgian deputies withdrew from
their mission. How this result, this check, temporary only as it may
prove, chagrined the Government, if not the people, and the mining and
manufacturing interests of France, may be understood by the simple
citation of a few short but pithy sentences from the _Journal des
Debats_, certainly the most influential, as it is the most ably
conducted, of Parisian journals:--"_Le 'ZOLLVEREIN,'_" observes the
_Debats, "a prodigieusement rehausse la Prusse; l'union douaniere avec
la Belgique aurait, a un degre moindre cependant, le meme resultat pour
nous.... Nous sommes, donc, les partisans de cette union, ses partisans
prononces, a deux conditions: la premiere, c'est qu'il ne faille pas
payer ces beaux resultats par le bouleversement de l'industrie
rationale; la seconde, c'est que la Belgique en accepte sincerement es
charges en meme temps qu'elle en recuiellera les profits, et qu'en
consequence elle se prete a tout ce qui sera necessaire pour mettre
NOTRE INDUSTRIE A L'ABRI DE L'INVASION DES PRODUITS ETRANGERS, et pour
que les interets de notre Tresor soient a couvert._" This is plain
speaking; the Government journal of France worthily disdains to practise
mystery or attempt d