=Source.=--_The Greville Memoirs_, edited by Henry Reeve, C.B., vol.
viii., pp. 290–292, 293, 294. (Longmans, Green and Co., 1888.)
_January 24._--Clarendon called on me yesterday and told me various
things more or less interesting about passing events, about Cobden and
the Commercial Treaty. Cobden went over to Paris with letters from
Palmerston to Cowley, begging Cowley would give him all the aid he
could in carrying out his object of persuading the leading people there
to adopt Free Trade principles, saying he went without any mission and
as “a free lance.” Cowley did what he could for him, and he went about
his object with great zeal, meanwhile putting himself in correspondence
with Gladstone, who eagerly backed him up, but all this time nothing
was said to the Cabinet on the subject. At length one day Walewski sent
for Cowley, and asked him whether he was to understand that Cobden was
an agent of the British Government, and authorised by it to say all he
was saying in various quarters. Cowley denied all knowledge of Cobden’s
proceedings, but wrote a despatch to John Russell stating what had
occurred, and at the same time a private letter, saying he did not know
whether he would wish such a despatch to be recorded, and therefore to
number it and place it in the Foreign Office, or put it in the fire as
he thought fit. John Russell accepted the despatch, and at the same
time told him he might endorse whatever Cobden did in the matter of
commercial engagements.
Clarendon said that when he was at Paris four years ago for the
Congress, the Emperor one day said to him: “I know you are a great Free
Trader, and I suppose you mean to take this opportunity of advancing
Free Trade principles here as far as you can.” Clarendon said certainly
such was his intention, when the Emperor said he was happy to be able
to take the initiative with him on this subject, and that he would tell
him that it had just been settled in the Council of State that a great
change in their commercial and prohibitive system should be proposed
to the Chambers, which it was his intention to carry out as soon as
possible. But not long after the Emperor renewed the subject, and told
him he found the Opposition so strong to his contemplated measures, and
the difficulties so great, that he had been obliged to abandon them for
the present, and as there is no reason to doubt that the elements of
opposition will be found as strong now as they were then, it is by no
means certain that His Majesty will be able now to do all he wishes and
has announced.
_January 27._--There is apparently a strong feeling of doubt and
quasi-hostility getting up against the Commercial Treaty, and it
looks as if both the English and French Governments would have great
difficulties in the matter. Public opinion here remains suspended till
the Treaty is produced, and till we are informed what the immediate
sacrifices may be that we shall have to make for it, and what are the
prospective advantages we obtain in return. The French Protectionists
are more impatient, and have begun to pour out their complaints and
indignation without waiting to see the obnoxious Convention. Thiers
is said to be furious. So far from any Commercial Treaty like this
cementing the alliance, and rendering war between the two countries
more difficult, it is much more likely to inflame the popular antipathy
in France, to make the alliance itself odious, and render the chances
of war between the two countries more probable. In maturing his scheme
Louis Napoleon has given it all the appearance of a conspiracy, which
is in accordance with his character and his tastes. The whole thing was
carried on with the most profound secrecy, and the secret was confined
to a very few people, viz. the Emperor himself, Fould, Rouher (Minister
of Commerce), Michel Chevalier, and Cobden. All the documents were
copied by Madame Rouher, and Rouher was so afraid that some guesses
might be made if he was known to be consulting books and returns that
were preserved in the Library of the Council of State, that he never
would look at any of them, and made Chevalier borrow all that he had
occasion to refer to. Now the Emperor springs this Treaty upon his
reluctant Chambers and the indignant Protectionist interest. His
manner of doing the thing, which he thinks is the only way by which
it can be done at all, naturally adds to the resentment the measure
excites. They feel themselves in a measure taken in. The objections
here are of a different kind and on other grounds, but Gladstone kept
his design nearly as close as the Emperor did, never having imparted
it to the Cabinet till the last moment before Parliament met. I do not
know how the Cabinet looked at it, only that they were not unanimous.