788
1880. the delay which has taken place is attributable to Cd
Zr 56. Foreign Office, to their habitus] procrastination, the desire
to meddle, and I fear also to the willingness on the part of
some of the officials in that department to find fault With
my performance. My position is that of a poacher, and
their feeling towards me is akin to that of gamekeepers
towards a trespasser in quest of game. I am afraid, t00s
that the majority of the Cabinet is not very eager for my
complete success here. The tone of our Court is very hosfile
 to the French Emperor, and in the present nearly”
balanced state of political parties the Court has great
influence. There is an instinctive feeling on the part of our
aristocratic politicians that if the Treaty should prove successful,
 and result in a largely increased trade between
France and England, it would produce a state of feeling
which might lead to a mutual limitation of armaments, snd
thus cut down the expenditure for our warlike services On
which our aristocratic system flourishes. The first attempt
at delaying the Treaty, and perhaps detracting from my
merit in its preparation, was the proposal to revise again the
tariff in England ; and when I had proved the absurdity and
impossibility of doing this, and had induced them to leave if
precisely as I had sent it home, then the Foreign Office
officials fell upon the #ewt of the convention, and by insisting
on certain alterations produced a further delay. The attempt
to substitute fifteen for ten per cent. for the amount of
undervaluation which should subject importers to a fine,
and other attempted changes in this part of the convention,
whilst they caused a further postponement, were calculated to
weaken my influence with the French Minister by revoking
an engagement to which I had become a party, These
points have at last been most unwillingly yielded, after
occagioning me great tromble and annoyance. The clause
which I had agreed to for regulating the doty ~w sngup wes

Fare

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