Note 237 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
The fact, as I learn from my friend M. Michel Chevalier, connected with this Committee of Inquiry—the evidence before which was made the basis of Thiers’ measure—was that Pouyer-quertier, though not a member of it, exercised so much influence with its chairman, M. Paulmier, a deputy of Calvados, that he, being constantly in attendance with witnesses of strong Protectionist views, prevailed on him to put such questions to them, as would make it appear that Free-trade was ruining France. Witnesses of Liberal views, as I have shown, could hardly be heard. Nevertheless, the Committee, as I have already observed, came to no conclusion, and no report was made beyond the informal one of M. Ancel.