powers to state that they had no intention of violating Belgian territory.  What was the answer given by Bismarck?  He said it was superfluous to ask Prussia such a question in view of the treaties in force.  France gave a similar answer.  We received at that time the thanks of the Belgian people for our intervention in a very remarkable document.  It is a document addressed by the Municipality of Brussels to Queen Victoria after that intervention, and it reads: 

The great and noble people over whose destinies you preside have just given a further proof of its benevolent sentiment toward our country....  The voice of the English nation has been heard above the din of arms, and it has asserted the principles of justice and right.  Next to the unalterable attachment of the Belgian people to their independence, the strongest sentiment which fills their hearts is that of an imperishable gratitude. [Great applause.]

That was in 1870.  Mark what followed.  Three or four days after that document of thanks a French army was wedged up against the Belgian frontier, every means of escape shut out by a ring of flame from Prussian cannon.  There was one way of escape.  What was that?  Violating the neutrality of Belgium.  What did they do?  The French on that occasion preferred ruin and humiliation to the breaking of their bond. [Loud applause.] The French Emperor, the French Marshals, 100,000 gallant Frenchmen in arms, preferred to be carried captive to the strange land of their enemies rather than dishonor the name of their country. [Applause.] It was the last French army in the field.  Had they violated Belgian neutrality the whole history of that war would have been changed, and yet, when it was the interest of France to break the treaty then, she did not do it.

“A Scrap of Paper.”

It is the interest of Prussia today to break the treaty, and she has done it. [Hisses.] She avows it with cynical contempt for every principle of justice.  She says:  “Treaties only bind you when it is your interest to keep them.” [Laughter.] “What is a treaty?” says the German Chancellor, “A scrap of paper.”  Have you any five-pound notes about you? [Laughter and applause.] I am not calling for them. [Laughter.] Have you any of those neat little Treasury one-pound notes? [Laughter.] If you have, burn them; they are only scraps of paper. [Laughter and applause.] What are they made of?  Rags. [Laughter.] What are they worth?  The whole credit of the British Empire. [Loud applause.] Scraps of paper!  I have been dealing with scraps of paper within the last month.  One suddenly found the commerce of the world coming to a standstill.  The machine had stopped.  Why?  I will tell you.  We discovered—­many of us for the first time, for I do not pretend that I do not know much more about the machinery of commerce today than I did six weeks ago, and there are many others like me—­we discovered that the machinery of commerce was moved by bills of exchange.  I