" (customs-union,) -has merged into the latter. _ The treaty
providing for the incorporation of Hanover into the -Ger- manic Customs Union has been ratified. The Free Towns and Oldenburg must follow ; and in a short time the whole of North Germany will form part of a league, which, professing Free-trade principles, practises moderate Protection. The accession of Hano- ver to this league has been purchased, however, by pledgee tore- duce still lower the protective duties exacted by the Zollverein : practically, therefore, the cause of Free-trade-may be considered to have gained in Ilermany by the new treaty. The party- with Free-trade tendencies in the Zollverein has also gained an addi- tional number of votes. But the political consequences of the treaty are likely to be more important than the commercial, -It-is another step in the process of gradually Mending the Guinan states into one nation, which, whenever capable lenders gild'''. in Liberal 'or Protestant Germany, (the terms are synonymous,) 'will strengthen their hands to accomplish What the leaders of 1818 have failed to do
The preliminary negotiations of the treaty by which Hanover has agreed to become a member of the :Zollverein were 'so skil- fully concealed, that the announcement of its conclusion vias the first intimation received at Vienna that it was in Progress. The news alloyed the triumph of reaction in Austria: Cembirted with the slow progress of the new Austrian loan, it is a kind of minor handwriting on the wall to disturb the festivities Of the Abso-
