The Express.
London, England, 1862-07-17 00:00:00

[Stamped, Id. Additional.]

Mies ci the adroit, sad to the modality ead isdifferenee
of almost the whole public, prohibitionist views had

become sovereign, and exercised their power with
that intolerance which is the attribute of an
illegitimate authority. (Cheers.) If any ray of light
pierced those artificial combinations, it was extinguished
with ea much eagerness as is shown in extingnishing a con-
flirtation. Han economist of matured convictions had the
courage to raise his voice, he was attacked with indignation.
He was but a Utopian or a traitor ; he wanted to sacrifice
the industry of his country w the cupidity of England.
(Cheers.) To these economic prejudices, and terrors
often sincerely entertained, were superadded those
political protons and animosities which imprudent
minds can so '
easily excite between two powerful nations,
each of which is justly mead of itself. (Loud cheers.)
How were such obstacles to be encountered—obstacles so-
_

cumulated by selfish interests, but consolidated by time and
by general indifference ! What reason was there
oil to dread the unpopularity that would at-
tend that courageous re-action spinet inveterate errors?
How eagerly would hostile minorities misrepresent the pro-
jects of the French government, accuse it of weakness, and
calumniate its honest intentions ! lam not afraid, there-
fore, to confers that when Mr. Cobden, supported by the
powerful aid of my hon. friend M. Michel Chevalier—
(cheers)—laid before my sovereign the expression of
his profound convictions and his vast experience,
he appeared to be usdertaking the defence of a desperate

cause. The partimus of prohibition, intoxicated by some
secondary sueressen. had ►droitly taken posuasioa at Siba
avenues of authority, and believed the citadel impregnable.
But this was to confess • doubt of the superior views of

the groat man to whom the destinies of Franoe are oon6ded,

aadot the power of truth. Now, the eminent member
for Rochdale had learned, in the long millets
which have distinguished him, that truth, ike prayer, if it

sometimes marches &lowly, yet never fails to arrive at the
goal. The sovereign who, in his period of solitary prepara-
tion for the high mission which he fulfils today, had been
an attentive witness of your economic revolution, and of the
development of prosperity and greatness which had been its
fruit, knew all the fecundity of that great law of mehanges
which Sully, in his conversations with his king, called a law
of Providence. The Emperor had meditated on thosesalunary
doctrines of competition which, for the good of all, and asps.
daily of the least favoured patio; kindles courage, exalts
tbo faculties, increases, to a tenfold degree, the effective
powera.iand summons at need genius to its aid. Be called to
mind those noble words pronounced by one of your great
statesmen, Sir R. Peel, " l hope that my name will
one day be blessed in the poor man's cottage ;" and
so he disdained that ephemeral popularity with
which privileged classes surround thrones, that he might
await that popularity which time develops, and which pos-
terity consecrates. (Reiterated cheers.) Uninfluenced by
any other conaideratiou than three of the public good, he did
not hesitate to take upon himself the direot personal responsi-
bility of that reform which had cost the statesmen of Great
Britain ten years of toil and conflict, and io doing so he justly
estimated his own strength, and the affection of his

people ; for after a moment of astonishment and nomi-
nees the phalanxes of French industry ranged themselves
with confidence under the new flag be raised. (Cheers.)
As for the puerile charge of weak subservience to a foreign
nation, he well knew that all—and you, gentlemen, before
all others—would see In this treaty only a pledge loyally
given to au alliance necesstry foe the peace of the world—

amid amend-46 fresh guarantee offered to Meditation.
(Renewed cheers.) Such were the obstacles, such were the
motives, which caused the signature of France to be affixed
to the commercial treaty of 1860. That treaty bad

to encounter stubborn idvereariee io the Rouse o
Commons, but placed under the high protection
of Mr. Cobden, defended by the inociatesteLlo ex-
perience of the Lonourable president of this banquet,

sustained by the engaging eloquence and powerful rationing
at the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was approved by

parliament. (Cheers.) If lam not mistaken it now meets
among you with nothing but unanimous adhesions, slums

this mitertaiument is offered to me by the represents.
tives of all political shades. And now, if 1 have not wearied
out your kind attention, allow me to mention some of the

resisits obtained by the treaty which unites us. The filet.

which I name with sincere delight, and with • pride for my
country which you will pardon, ia, in spite of some bitter
recriminations, the resolute and courageous attitude of
French industry on the morrow after the facts were accom-
plished. Dazzled for • moment by those new and unex-
pected borizoos, our industrial population soon regarded
them with calmness and serenity. Costing aside antiquated

pronou:a and material, they hare demanded from mechanic

art its most perfect machines, from science its
most novel applications and boldest methods.
They have flung themselves into the conflict with confi-
dence and vigour, inspired by that profound idea of Roger
Bacon—"the youngest are the oldest—they profit by the
experience of their predecessors." What a grand and noble
spectacle is that of the application of all the living forces,
all the intellectual faculties of man, to those fruitful
straggles which issue in public wealth and prosperity.
(Cheers.) And what more striking proof can there be of
the benefits flowing from the treaty of commerce? Without
it would not those activities, that productive power, which
are destined rapidly to increase the well-being of
the nations, would they not have remained inert sod dor-
mant like those precious sources, nTgleeted or unperceived,
which flow unproductively into imbterranaous lakes? This

transformation of the economic ideas of French industry
has just received its ratification. Your august sovereign,
plunged in sorrow by the premature lose of a prince not less
eminent for his high capacity than for his illus-
trious rank, and inconsolable notwithstanding the
pious sympathy tendered to ber by Great Britain
and Europe, was pleased, almost as a homage to him who
was no more, to open the great arena of the Exhibition to
the industries of the world. Disdaining the policy of ab-
stention recommended to some by precept and example, our
manufacturers flocked to it with eagerneas, and have midis
their rivals judges of their efforts and their progress. Cer-
tainly they have admired the successes obtained by English
industry under the incentive of liberty, but with feelings of
noble emulation, not of narrow jealousy—(cheers)—and
with that religious conviction which God everywhere re-
serves for the activity sad labour of his least favoured
children. (Great cheers.) The second result which I have

to state ia, in spite of the receut date of our com-
mercial reports, that of the reciprocal and profitable
development of exchanges between the two coun-
tries—a development which has mitigated the pain-
ful perturbations caused to the world's commerce
by that fratricidal conflict which is raging beyond
the Atlantic. Gentlemen, I have not yet sufficiently
indicated the most striking feature of the conven-
tion of Id6o. That act was not merely a commercial
regulation between two countries. It was the proclama-
tion in the name of two great nations of the principles of
free trade—(great cheers)—of which you have been the

leaden, and which are destined to penetrate all legislations,
and to stimulate the activity of all peoples. Already the
public authorities in France, following the initiative of the
chief of the state, have broken through onr old legislation on
cereals and raw materials. France yesterday signed treaties
of commerce with Belgium and the Zollverein. (Cheers.)

again into oblivion after the light lavished ou it by the
To-morrow ebe will sign that which she is negotiating
genius of Adam Smith? (Cheers.) Did the backward with Italy. (Immense cheering.) TM banner of eco-
legialation of other nations exercise an unhappy influence I nomic reform will thus continue its triumphal march.
over ours? I cannot tell. To my thinking the commercial laws These exchanges which we see growing in extent, those
of the Restoration were determined by considerations foreign relations multiplying in number, those interests that are
to political economy. That government was tormented by l becoming intermingled and mutually identified, the wealth
the idea, not devoid of piestige, of reconstituting the tern. I that is increasing among nations, the augmented welfare of
tonal aristocracy which had been crushed by the French the maims which is its inevitable consequence,
revolution. The factitious elevation of the price of all the I the high reciprocal esteem which springs from
products of the sod, that flagrant violation of the rights of relations which every day render more frequent
, the ma= of the people, that direct cause of general im. I the extinction of political pensions and sneleatimimosities—
povensAiment, appeared to it a precious element of success. lobeers)—are not all these things so many Arm bases for a
Exorbitant duties were imposed on the importation of cereals durable pesos between the nations? (Renewed elisms.)
• and of all articles of food. French industry ought to have Are they not sure pledges of progress without convulsions,
protested, but it preferred to obtain as the price and without reaction ? (Loud cheers.) Ah, gentlemen, let
of its adhesion the blind maintenance of all those us not disturb these nascent harmonies by our faults
prohibitions which prevented the importation of rued our wayward impulses; let us never mime so
, manufactured produce. (Cheers.) The government of tervible • responsibility before God and man, (Chess.)
July manifested at intervals some tendencies towards as. I propane, with all the emotion of • soul profoundly me-
, franchisement ; but the burthen was too heavy to lift. Its rimed, a tenet to tbe close albums of the British and the
timid efforts were destined to remain without effect. The Preach nations. (Loud and kmg.continued cheering.)
political and electoral organimtiou of the country placed ! Yr. COWIN, M.P., said their distinguished guest oon-
power in the hands of those who were directly interested in chided his eloquent speech by proposing the cordial and
the restrictive system. Hence for many years, thanks to friendly allismce of England and France, and the chairmen
I the co-operation or the weakness of governments, to the ma- had idled upon him to respond to that toast. He bad the