The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-26 00:00:00

contemplate a &aided freo-trade movement as keenly
effectual escapb from the Austrian trammels, Aus-
tria might, through the mediation of Hanover, put
in lb! veto. Hanover, on the other hand, has re-
served the right of cancelling the treaty, as soon as an
universal German customs' union be formed ; it is
Gee, therefore, at once to negotiate with Austria
and the southern states on the formation of such
union, free to deliberate with Prassia's opponents on
schemes which meditate the annihilation of Prussia's
commercial independence and political station. On
the whole it appears to many that the treaty imposes
fetters on l'russia alone, and that the time is not far
distant when M. von Mantenffel will him-
self be obliged to throw off those fetters,--
that is to say, if he shall be able to do so
without coming into too serious conflicts; for Austria
will certainly not willingly relinquish the hold
which, through its paramount influence in Hanover,
it has now got over Prussia in this momentous
contest for the direction of German commercial in-
terests. Without the treaty of 7th September,
Prussia could at all times secure its junction with
Hanover by adopting the Hanoverian financial tariff,
thus putting an insnperable bar between itself and
the Austrian schemes. By means of that treaty,
Prussia has, it is true, effected a junction with
Hanover, but upon a basis which gives it
no safety; it has, in fact, made Hanover the
lever of Austrian attack, whereas Hanover formerly
offered the fulcrum for Prussian resistance. Had
the Prussian government acted boldly a few months
ago, and joined Hanover with the Hanoverian tariff,
leaving to the option of the southern states to follow
or not, it would have a firm and clear position, which
perhaps no degree of boldness will now enable it to
gain. Its former associates in the Zoliverein, sup-
ported and instigated by Austria, will raise demands,
to which l'russia cannot accede without falling com-
pletely under Austrian influence. A split in the
Zollverein seems inevitable; and Bavaria will
probably wise the opportunity of heading a
southern union ; while Prussia, though it'
gives up its junction with the south, will
be prevented, by the Austrian influence in
Hanover, from shaping its own free course. And
unless Prussia succeed in establishing for its?lf a
free-trade tariff, it cannot on the long run ward oft'
the customs union with Austria, however strong its
political objections may be. Not only the Prussian
protectionists would perpetually push the measure,
but the free-traders, too, when they gave up the hope
of a free-trade tariff, would grasp at the benefit of extend-
ing internal free-trade from Stettin to Venice, and from
Aix-la-Chapelle to Hermannstailt, over a population
'of seventy millions. It is difficult to conjecture how
the Prussian government will get out of the trying
predicament in which it is placed. At all events,
one can do it no better service than by giving timely
warning, and stating all the impending difficulties in
their fullest force. The Prussian Chamber never
gave a more damning proof of its incapacity on mat-
ters of real practical importance than when it lately
passed over the Hanoverian treaty, with a few re-
marks equally trivial and scanty. Tho Kreu:-
Zt.itittv of this evening states, in excuse of the
treaty, that Ilanover itself would, on political
grounds, not have consented to a tariff wholly un-
acceptable to Bavaria. That is no excuse.
Prussia's task was, to consider its own policy,
not Bavaria's wishes. The article further promises
that the duties ou iron shall be reduced 25 per cent.
Who can promise that? Will the southern states
;
consent if they remain with Prussia? Will Austria
allow Hanover to consent if Prussia be reduced to a
union with this state alone? "The Prussian govern-
mentw,Nadraspptchaers
fur-trade
bo firiiily
pnnciplere resolved
reducing d
to
oandianm
the
duties; persons who, addicted to protection, might
work against this, will be dropped." The dis-
missal of M. von dcr lteydt, the protectionist minis-
ter of trade, has been hinted at often enough,
without his making any signs of relinquishing office.
The difficulty of an advance to the Gee-trade prin-
ciple for Prussia is, however, not got over by a mere
change of persons.
A semi-official notice in the Frankfurt Pest Gazette
disavows the articles formerly givenas official reports
of the Diet's proceedings, and designates them as
mere expressions of the views entertained by the
majority of the federal committee entrusted with
preparing the reports for publication. Future ar-
ticles will be strictly abstracts of the IKet's protocols.