fra) FRESH LABOUES IN PARIS. 757
th of November before his labours were concluded. They
Were of the most toilsome and fatiguing kind. The cir-“umstances
 were without precedent or example, and the
"hole course of procedure had to be created. When the
English commissioners reached Paris, they found that the
French Government had agreed to refer the subject of the
"ates of duty to the Conseil Supérieur, a body rarely convoked,
 and consisting of the greatest commercial men in
France. The Conseil Supérienr took evidence from French
nd English manufacturers and producers, as to the com-Parative
 cost of production in the two countries. Iron had
been dealt with in the Treaty itself, and it was the only
ticle on which the rate was there definitely fixed. All
“her articles were left open. What Cobden and his
%lleagues had to do was in the first instance to prepare
the English witnesses, to collect and shape their evidence,
“nd to have it carefully translated for the Conseil Supérieur.
This tedious process lasted until the end of July. It was
August before the sittings of the definitive Commission
began, The business which Cobden and his two official
%olleagnes had now to do, was nothing less than to go
through the whole list of British products and manufactures,
 and to prove in each case to the French Commis-Sioners
 that from the circumstances of the special trade
they ought to be content with a given duty. Every day
8 two o’clock the three Englishmen sat round a table in
"he of the saloons of the palace in the Quai d’Orsai, with
bout, three times as many representatives of the hostile
Nterests of France. The various products of British industry
 came up in turn. The French Commissioners eried
for their import duty of thirty per cent. Cobden called for
en per cent. Then the battle began. The English num-%red
 no more than the Graces, while the French were as
Many as the Muses. The French, in strategical language,

1860.
Ar. BS.