l8 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRlCULTURfi. 



telling against her Agriculture. It may be worth reminding 

 people that, as Huskisson's speech delivered in Parliament 

 in 1823 shows/ it was Prussia which first forced a policy of 

 Free Trade upon us, by threatening retaliatory measures 

 in the matter of coasting trade. I was witness to the 

 great rejoicings among agriculturists in 1864 over the 

 conclusion of the Anglo-Prussian — or rather Anglo-Zoll- 

 verein — commercial treaty, which was considered a distinct 

 step towards Free Trade, and was certainly hailed as a great 

 gain for German Agriculture. " You may now order what- 

 ever you please," so said to me the late Consul Hesse, of 

 Dresden, from whom I was in the habit of buying English 

 implements ; " the duty is a mere nothing." I remember 

 that it was just half a crown on a Ransome and Sims plough. 

 English implements were then badly needed in Germany, 

 because German implement making was still lamentably 

 backward. But that was not the only point. It so hap- 

 pened that immediately after the proclamation of the 

 commercial treaty referred to the periodical " All German " 

 Agricultural Congress and Exhibition took place at Dresden. 

 There were representative leading agriculturists present 

 from all parts of Germany and Austria (which then still 

 formed an integral part of Germany, and was indeed the 

 leading power) . And so one could there hear genuine opinions 

 of all sections of the agricultural community. There was 

 no dissonant note in the chorus of rejoicing. Bismarck's 

 secession to Protection indeed cost him the services of the 

 highest agricultural authority in the land, his colleague, 

 Dr. Friedenthal, a most capable Minister of Agriculture, 

 who resigned at once, deprecating Protection as directly 

 detrimental to Agriculture, in which opinion Prince Bis- 

 marck's " right-hand man " of long years, the " Deputy-Chan- 



^ See "Huskisson's Speeches," vol. i, p. 205 ss. Prussia had 

 threatened us with retahation for the dues which we still levied on 

 Prussian bottoms. The Prussian Minister announced that " His 

 Prussian Majesty desired to substitute a policy of " reciprocal 

 facilities " for that of " reciprocal prohibition." Huskisson seized 

 the point with great eagerness. The Editor of his " Speeches " 

 compares the result of Prussian " facilities " with that of " French 

 Prohibition" in 1831. 



