CHAPTER XXIX

THE FRENCH TREATY.

I the summer of 1859 M. Michel Chevalier paid a visit to 1859.
Dnglang, which led to one of the most important chapters Zr. 5.
2 the life of Cobden, as well as to a very important episode
2 the relations between England and France. To M.
Chevalier, Free Trade was an article of religious conviction.
fn hig early manhood he had been one of that truly remarkblo
 bang of men who between 1830 and 1840 devoted
thomgelyeg to the principles of Saint Simon, to propa-38ting
 them in every country from the Seine to the Nile,
“4 to carrying them out in their own lives and persons
"ith the forvid enthusiasm of the first followers of Saint
Prancis, It was they who first succeeded in setting indus-Tia]
 Questions before political ones in French opinion; and
‘hough their organization split upon the rock of certain
heooratio fantasies, the wide social views connected with
% remained deeply stamped on their minds. They made a
lofinite impression in France, and prepared the way for
he evens of 1848. So early as 1832 M. Chevalier had
Shown the bias of his views by a paper on the Mediterranean
Tstom, proposing the construction of railways throughout
Burope on a scale which then seemed chimerical enough.
thi he dwelt upon the facilities that would be offered
or travelling from one country to another, and how these
wilitica «would sposdily bresk down the barriers of