The Times has brought out an important fact, the true
reason for the distinction drawn at Berlin between England and America in the matter of selling arms to France. Count Bismarck has not complained at Washington because a treaty exists between Prussia and America specifically authorizing each power to do the very act complained of, namely, to export arms to the enemies of the other. It was originally proposed by Frederick the Great for the benefit of his own subjects' trade, and was confirmed in 1828, and is in full force now. By the terms of this treaty arms carried by one party to the enemies of the other cannot even be seized as contraband, a clause which might have had a strange effect had the Germans seized a French port and the American rifles in it. They could, however, have taken them themselves on paying for them.
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