A. Liberty, modified by such restrictions as anybody can discover

a private reason for imposing.

160. They [the other side] consider the system of pro. teetion, by means of mode- rate or wisely-poised pro- tecting duties, to he a vain theory. For, in their opi- nion, a tax is a protector, but {only] when it is suffici- ently high to prevent foreign concurrence, by making the price equal at the places where the article is to be consumed ; this system is in reality a prohibition, for if otherwise it does not protect. It is conwiptently absolute in every ease of application. Now, the prohibitive system is a privilege grunted to cer- tain classes of industry ; it is Injurious to the natural de- velopment of those which are not protected, injurious to the interests of consumers, inju ious to those paying taxes by depriving the ex- chequer of its faculty of tax- ing, injurious to those pro- tected, reduced to the small- est profits by the concurrence A. The words " moderate or wisely- poised " let out the inward leaning of the judges. And accordingly, they are found giving a very maimed account of the argu- ment they are professing to describe. The real pith of tint argument is, that every Frenchman who is forced to give three francs to a French ironmaster, for the iron he might have obtained throngli the inter- vention of the merchant of Bordeaux for lieu, is robbed of a franc without any coun- tervailing. advantage in the aggregate to France, as much as if the law said to hint " Throw that ftalle into the sea " and be must throw it. And this because the three francs given to the trade of the maker of iron, arc balanced orer and besides the loss to the consul:al., by two francs taken from the trade of the merchant of Bordeaux and the linkers of the French goods he would export, and one franc taken from the trade of those other French dealers or manufac- turers, with whom the plundered consumer of iron would have expended his franc if he bad been let :date.—This is much too sore matter for the Committee to state dis- tinctly.

of 1 • producers, under a condition of proportionately elevated pries which exclude them front all fo- reign mat kets ; so that in every gauntry inibt-tries have prospered in inverse proportion of the effective protection of the tariffs, and in direct proportion of the liberty they have enjoyed.—/G.

161. In presence of these two contrary °pinions, the majoi ity of your Commission has thought that. in a matter of tariff, nothing. should be absolute ; that in order to obtain a just ponderation of every interest, it ought to consult the situation of every industry and the state of agri- culture; that it ought to conciliate as couch as pos- sible the divers exigencies, in order to insure a common prosperity. and to prepare further improvement to all, by leaving concurrence to act as a stimulus.—Ib.

161 Thus, then, the aim of its constant efforts has been to free our legislation front useless or exorbitant rigours, to satisfy genera! in- terests according to time, and to wants and facts, to pave the way for progressive liberty, but with the careful and prudent attentions which might to be employed even in the most useful improve- ments. You will have to consider its result.—/b.

163. Agriculture, that source of the wittily of states, could not do other- wise than excite the solici- tude of your Commission; its interests, with which the preceding governments do not appear to us to have been excessively occupied, de- served its strictest attention. —It,. A. The majority of theCommission will do anything but tangibly lay down the principle, that all protection is robbing one trade to serve another, with a less to the consumers, who are the nation, besides ; and that the only question is of annihilating the sytein without too sudden shocks. Their object is to say this and not to say it ; to say it in such a manner that they can appeal to it upon necessity, but that it shall be as unintelligible as possible to anybody likely to make use of it to hurry the pro- cess. They are cunning monopolists,—( for the Chamber of the MAO is in fret the Chamber of the monopolists),—aiming at the maximum of what they think the state of public illumination will enable them to effect.

A. The point to be concealed being, that all restrictions are "useless and exorbitant rigours," except so far as excused by the necessity of making the change gradual. The "progressive liberty" of the Commis- sion, is the " progressive liberty " the Eng- lish slave-holders were so much attact ed to and means keeping things as nearly as pos- sible as they are. The state of France is more hopeful than people had an idea of; the monopolists are manifestly driven into flue same corner, where the English West- Indians were two years ago.

A. A sop for the vine-growers and the people of Bordeaux. This is what they have got by making a noise; so trim is the saying of Bentham, that " by nothing but making the ruling few uneasy, will the op- pressed many ever obtain it particle of relief." And the object will be, to try to tempt them by the offer of some kind of monopoly in turn ; as if two national losses would make a gain. And this leads to an observation, which is not without importance; and that is, that two apparently clashing monopolies, may both of them gain. They are both of them pumps, to draw up the water from the general soil fur private use. They may be rivals, and all that one gets may be so flinch taken from the other ; but they may both of them drain the public, for all that.

164. if your Commission A. An attempt, a k Criole, to preserve have not thought fit to d. e- the slavery, by mixing it up with immediate itself tself to the examination unlimited emancipation. If not, the Com- mit, application of a special mission would not have said that they " una. cistern, and so decide be- tween tI e economical school and the admiustrative tradi- tions [precerleutsj, it has ne- vertheless unanimously re- jected the system called il- limited liberty, the sudden adoption of which would cause trouble in the commercial domains, would disturb the actual order and violate public faith. —lb.

A. Here the Commission let out the cloven foot. They recommend the French public to believe, that it is advisable to go on paying unnecessary prices with a national loss, in hopes that at some undefined and un- definable time the French monopolist will offer the article as cheaply as the French free trader. Their argument is of the same

calibre as if they said to the owner of land, " Do not lay out your capi-

tal on the portion of your land you know will pay ; but luy it out on the portion you know will not, in Lopes that it will do by-and-by." This is what M. Thiers would call making a conquest of the land.

A. The meaning of the Commission is this. " That the monopolists gain," they say, " we will call experience. That other people lose the amount twice over, we will call theory. And then we will say that your Commission prefers the light of experience to the arguments of theory." The truth being all the time, that the fact of other people losing the amount twice over, is just as much matter of experience as the other, if the Commission will only take the experi- ence of the proper persons. The Commission, however, think they have settled the point to all eternity; and they proceed without hesitation, to avow that in fixing the articles of the tariff, they pay not the slightest attention to the fact that France is the loser by each and every act of robbery, but confine themselves entirely to the question whether the several robbers de- clare their respective robberies to be "pro- fitable " to themselves.

A. That is to say, the basis of the deci- sions of the Commission has been the mag- nitude of the sum gained to the monopolists and lost twice over by the rest of France,— (viz., once by a corresponding diminution of business to some other French traders, and once more by the loss to the consumers, who are the nation),—combined with a due and

discreet reference to the check arising from the smuggler.

The understanding of the misery of this basis, depends upon a clear comprehension of the way in which the gain to the monopolist is lost

twice over by other parties ; or what in England has been called the double incidence of the loss. It' the loss only fell once, or to its simple amount, there would be a balance, and all that was lost through the foolery would be the expense of maintaining Customhouses. But it is because the loss falls twice over, that the law literally says to the un- happy Frenchman, (to parody the Parisian's description of the Veto), " Throw that franc into the sea ; and thou must throw it." 166. Your Commission preferring the light of expe- rience to the arguments of theory, has devoted its time to the investigation of facts ; and convinced that there can be nogeneral maxim ap- plicable to the numerous in- terests embraced by a cus- toms' system, has called be- fore it the different branches of industry ; it has studied their situation, in order to fix the degree of protection that should be granted to them ; and, in fixing each of the articles of the tariff, it Las diminished or augmented them, according as that fix- ation seemed necessary and profitable to the interest which they reyntute.—lb.

167. Consequently, the basis of the decisions of the Commiss• has been the known utility of the object, and a comparison with the sum paid as a smuggling in- surance.—Ib. 165. No one has ever de- nied cheapness to be an ad- vantage ; but it would be at- tained inure safely, more use- fully, by the concurrence of national labour, than by an unseasonable rivalry of fo- reign labour.—Ib. nitnottsly rejected the system called illimited liberty," but that they rejected the sudden adoption of illimited liberty. Their object was to confound the question of unlimited liberty, with the question of its being intro- duced all ut once and without gradations.

A. Oddly enough, this is not a descrip- tion of the system of throwing the third franc into the sea, but of smuggling. Na- tions will probably continue to be obliged to throw away the third franc, till they come to a united opinion, on what has been openly avowed in England,—that "the smuggler is God Almighty's knight-errant, in defence of honest people against knaves and block- Leads."

A. The principles are, that any French trader shall be allowed to injure other French traders and the nation to double the amount of his own gain, to any extent he may de- clare he finds convenient and the smuggler will allow. And for this boon, the 260,000 electors are to return a Chamber that will adhere to the existing order of things.

It is very probable, that the Commission "has properly performed the task confided to it."

(To be continued.)

168. Such a state of things is highly detrimental:to mo- rality ; it excites, it cumin- rages, disobedience to the laws ; it is ruinous to rega- 1 it trade, it is a burden on those paying oxes, and with- out any advantage to the trader, who degrades him- pelf by employing it.—Ib.

169. The above, gentle- men, are the principles which have directed the Commis- sion in its labours. You will judge whether it has pro- perly performer! the task you confided to it.—lb.