Count von Billow made an important speech in the Prussian
Diet on Wednesday. The tone of his address, which was chiefly addressed to the Agrarians, was most con- ciliatory. It was, he said, the duty of the Government to protect with impartiality agriculture, commerce, and industry, and he was convinced that Prussian agriculture was in need of powerful support. Turning to the Rhine and Elbe canal scheme, which has provoked such vehement opposition amongst the Agrarians, he combated the view that it was calculated to promote the interests of industry and commerce at the expense of agriculture. On the contrary, the object of the system of inland waterways was to benefit all portions of the Monarchy equally. Personally he was convinced that the canal from the Rhine to the Elbe would benefit both interests ; that " a splendid market would be opened in the West for the superfluous products of the agriculture and of the forests of the East." Farther than that, he said that the canal would enable the products of Eastern Prussia to com- pete in the markets of the West with the advantages of cheap inland freights and of that "assured protection by means of tariffs against foreign competition, which we must see that they obtain, and which we will see that they obtain." This is naturally taken to mean that the Imperial Chancellor is ready to advocate an enhanced duty on foreign grain. It will be curious to see how this speech is received in America-
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