Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/464

 nobler idea ever emanated from the mind of man. It had for its object peace and good will among nations, and no structure, hitherto erected, ever conveyed a more striking impression of "the abodes of Peace" than did the Crystal Palace of 1851. To it, all nations were invited to send specimens of the natural and cultivated produce of their soil, and the manufactures and arts of their people.

In that marvellous structure, two great and good men for the first time met—Richard Cobden of England and Michael Chevalier of France. Men of such great intelligence could not fail to see how numerous were the articles exhibited which were required by the people of both countries where they could not be economically produced, but which were heavily taxed, merely for the special benefit of the few who produced them, to the great loss of whole communities; and that, consequently, productions and manufactures were limited by a system of protection, alike iniquitous and unnecessary for the purposes of revenue. They, therefore, resolved to do what they could to modify the tariffs of both countries, especially France, and thus to secure a more free interchange of those articles each country produced more cheaply and more abundantly than the other. The result of their labours was the Commercial Treaty of 1860.

Although, by the great changes in the English tariff, carried into effect by Sir Robert Peel (1842-46), the duty on French goods had been much reduced in England, and on a great number of articles altogether abolished, France still maintained high duties on most manufactured articles, and, indeed, prohi