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DECLARATION OF PARIS.
89

The exports from the Prussian ports quadrupled and quintupled the amount at which they stood previously to the war, and this gainful trade to the Prussian merchants put all idea of a political and military alliance with the Western Powers out of the heads of the Prussian people. The business of neutrality was far too lucrative. These facts made a considerable impression at the time on the country, and Lord Albemarle in one house and Mr. Collier (now Sir Robert Collier) in the other moved resolutions recommending various measures for stopping this illicit neutral trade, by means of differential duties on Russian produce, certificates of origin, and retracting the policy of the Order in Council of March 28th, 1854. Nothing however in this direction was done, and the war was brought to an end, after two years' duration, not certainly by any pressure exercised on Russian commerce, but solely by the force of the allied arms at Sevastopol.