be considered as in existence, or as binding upon the two High Contracting Parties.

The reason of this determination is to be found solely in the conviction that the Treaty in question, according to the experience of the years which have elapsed since its conclusion, has not produced that development in the commercial relations of the Zollverein with Great Britain, which had been looked for. The concession made to the ships of the Zollverein in the First Article, by which the ports between the Meuse and the Elbe are to be considered as ports of the Union, has hardly been found of any practical utility. But what appears to the Prussian Government to militate principally against the efficacy of the Treaty of 1841 is the want of reciprocity unhappily existing with respect to the laws which rule the navigation of the two countries. For while Prussian_legislation, founded on the principle of liberty of navigation, allows British ships to import into Prussian ports the produce of all parts of the world, the ships of the Zollverein can only import into British ports (as regards the enumerated articles, includ ing almost every article of importance) the produce of their own country. These enumerated articles were moreover increased in 1827, subsequent to the Treaty of Reciprocity of 1824, by Thirteen Articles, among which are to be found wool and other objects of primary necessity. So exceptional a measure could not but augment the want of real reciprocity to the prejudice of the Prussian flag.

The Treaty of 1841 does not allow Prussia, as the aggrieved interests and public opinion in Germany, which powerfully supports those interests, would require, to restrict in an analogous manner the admission of British ships; for the Second Article of this Treaty accords to Great Britain the right of the most favoured nation with respect to the importation of sugar and rice.

The expiration of the Treaty at the end of the present year will restore that liberty to the Prussian Government, and a change in the laws affecting navigation has been the subject of its serious consideration.

The nomination of a parliamentary committee to examine the English navigation laws, and to report during the present session of Parliament thereupon, has nevertheless held out to the Prussian Government a hope that Great Britain will at no remote period, by means of a general legislative measure, cause the restrictions to disappear which at present weigh upon German navigation and commerce, and which so notoriously impede the development of the commercial relations of the two countries.

Animated by the desire to see these relations constantly extend, and to avoid everything which could even for a brief space of time retard a development so much to be wished for for both countries, the Government of His Prussian Majesty joins to the preceding notice relative to the cessation of the Treaty of 1841, the following proposition.

The Treaty of 1824, as general Treaty of Reciprocity, shall remain the recognized basis of the relations of commerce and of navigation between the two countries, and shall continue to remain in force as heretofore, as long as notice shall not have been given of its cessation.

The existing status quo shall, moreover, by means of diplomatic declaration, be de facto maintained, and departmental orders shall be issued for that purpose to the respective authorities, in order to afford to the High Contracting Parties the opportunity of coming to an understanding with respect to an application of the principle of reciprocity as perfect and extended as possible.

Notwithstanding the expiration of the Treaty, a modus vivendi would thus be established, which need not terminate till three or six months after one of the High Contracting Parties shall have made a declaration to that effect.

In order to render this status quo endurable to Prussian commerce, and, in as far as practicable, conformable with the principle of reciprocity, the Prussian Government expects with confidence that the British Government, from feelings of equity, and out of regard to the intimate relations which unite the two Governments, will accord to the vessels of the Zollverein the same concession which has in late years been made by Great Britain in favour of other Powers, relative to the ports of the Baltic, a concession which at present greatly injures the interests of Prussia. It

will no doubt be considered but fair by the British Government that the vessels of the Union shall henceforth be permitted to import freely the produce of all the non-Prussian ports of the Baltic, as if those vessels came from Prussian ports, in the same manner as Russian and Hanoverian vessels arriving from Prussian ports of the Baltic are received with their cargoes in the ports of England, as though they had arrived from national ports.

The Undersigned, &c.

(Signed)

No. 4.

BUNSEN.

Viscount Palmerston to the Chevalier Bunsen.

Foreign Office, June 14, 1847.

THE Undersigned, &c., has the honour to acknowledge the receipt on the 13th ultimo, of the note addressed to him on the 10th by the Chevalier Bunsen, &c., giving notice on the part of Prussia and of the other States of the Zollverein, of the termination on the 1st of January next, of the Treaty concluded with Great Britain on the 2nd of March, 1841; but at the same time suggesting that the provisions of that Treaty should, after its expiration, be allowed to remain in force provisionally, until the High Contracting Parties shall have seen whether they may not be able to come to a more satisfactory understanding; provided however, that the privileges granted by Great Britain to the shipping of certain other States, shall be in the meantime extended to the shipping of the States of the Zollverein.

In reply the Undersigned begs to say that Her Majesty's Government has already communicated to the Prussian Government, through Her Majesty's Minister at Berlin, their view of what was understood to be the intention of the States of the Zollverein as regards the Treaty of 1841. In the communication so made, of which a copy is annexed*, the Undersigned had the honour to explain to the Prussian Government, that if the engagements of the Treaty of 1841, have been unproductive of advantage to the States of the Zollverein, they have proved equally so to Great Britain; and that Her Majesty's Government would only regret the termination of that Treaty, because it puts an end to relations which were conceived in a friendly spirit, and from which there seemed at one time reason to hope that mutual advantage to all parties concerned might

arise.

The reason assigned by the Chevalier Bunsen for the notice thus given by Prussia and the other States of the Zollverein, is the want of reciprocity in the navigation laws of the respective Contracting Parties. But that no great benefit has resulted to Great Britain from that indirect trade with Prussian ports, which the state of the Prussian law enables the Prussian Government to grant, is sufficiently manifest from the fact which has already been stated to the Prussian Government, through the Earl of Westmorland, namely, that in the year 1846 only four British vessels of the aggregate burthen of 530 tons, found it their interest to avail themselves of the privilege which, under Article I of the Treaty, British vessels enjoy of entering Prussian ports from third countries; and the Undersigned cannot therefore but believe that however insignificant the corresponding advantages may be which are derived by Prussia from the provisions of that same article, the concession made by Great Britain by this Article may at least be regarded as a full equivalent for that which is made by Prussia. The Undersigned would also beg to observe, that if the principle of strict reciprocity is to be assumed as the indispensable basis of the commercial relations between Great Britain and the Zollverein, there does not seem to be any good reason why that principle should be confined in its application to the navigation laws, nor why it should not also be applied to the tariffs of the respective parties.

As however it appears, from the Chevalier Bunsen's note, to be equally the desire of the Prussian Government, as it assuredly is of the Government of Her Majesty, to endeavour by negotiation to come to an

understanding more conducive to the interests of both parties, the Undersigned will refrain from further examining this portion of the question at present, and will at once state how far it will be in the power of Her Majesty's Government to accede to the wishes of the Prussian Government as stated in the Chevalier Bunsen's note.

Her Majesty's Government are ready to consent that the provisions of the Treaty of 1841 shall provisionally remain the acknowledged basis of the trade and navigation between the two countries; but the Undersigned would at the same time suggest that the term of notice to be given of the cessation of such provisional arrangement should be six months rather than three, as the latter term might not afford sufficient time for making the arrangements which would be necessary previously to a change of the commercial relations between the two countries.

With respect to the additional concessions which the Prussian Government requires in order to render this provisional arrangement, as the Chevalier Bunsen states, endurable to Prussia, the Undersigned has to express his regret that the advantages accorded by Great Britain to certain other States as regards the ports of the Baltic, should be considered to have been injurious to Prussian commerce. That they should be so was assuredly not the intention of the British Government, which, in granting those advantages, was solely guided by principles of equity.

The privileges accorded to such of the above-mentioned States as are German States, but not members of the Zollverein, are only such as in consequence of their geographical position those States would have acquired under the Treaty of 1841, if they had become members of that Union; and surely the Government of Prussia could not expect that Great Britain should withhold from States which have always treated British commerce in the most liberal manner, advantages which those States might have acquired by associating themselves with a system of commercial policy less favourable to British interests. Her Majesty's Government have, on the other hand, no desire to withhold from Prussia such of the advantages in question which Prussian vessels do not already enjoy; and the Undersigned has accordingly to say, that the British Government is willing, during the existence of the proposed provisional arrangement, to consent that Prussian vessels, together with their cargoes, when coming from any port between the Meuse and the Elbe, and between the Trave and the Russian frontier, shall be admitted into the ports of the United Kingdom and of the British possessions abroad, in as full and ample a manner as if the ports from which such vessels may have come were all within the dominions of Prussia. This would add the ports of Mecklenburg and the port of Lübeck to those with respect to which Prussian vessels have already enjoyed the above concession.

As regards the privileges which have been granted to Russian vessels arriving in Great Britain from Prussian ports, the Undersigned has to observe, that those privileges apply only to vessels arriving from the two or three Prussian ports at the mouths of rivers which have their sources in, and which flow through, a great portion of the Russian Empire. The concession made to Russia is therefore precisely similar in principle to that made to Prussia, as regards the ports between the mouths of the Elbe and of the Meuse. The British Government was able to make both of these concessions under the existing provisions of the British law; but the concession now sought for by the Chevalier Bunsen, as regards the ports of Riga and other Russian ports not situated at the mouths of Prussian rivers, could not be granted by the British Government without the sanction of a fresh Act of Parliament; and although Her Majesty's Government would have no objection to introduce a bill into Parliament for granting the privilege in question, and would hope to be able to obtain the assent of Parliament thereto, if such a measure would be likely to promote a permanent commercial arrangement with the Prussian Government, yet Her Majesty's Government would not like to undertake to propose to the Legislature a law of this kind for a merely temporary purpose. PALMERSTON.

The Undersigned, &c.

(Signed)

COMMUNICATIONS

BETWEEN THE

REPRESENTATIVES OF AUSTRIA, PRUSSIA, AND RUSSIA, IN SWITZERLAND,

AND THE

PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF BERNE,

ON THE OCCASION OF THE ASSUMPTION BY THE LATTER

OF THE

FUNCTIONS OF FEDERAL DIRECTORY.

(76)

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty, 1847.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY T. R. HARRISON.