Part 11 (1/2)
Mr Siht the railroad from Paris into Spain to present a break or terminus at Bordeaux?
This question he answers affir the numerous reasons which he adduces in support of his opinion
The railroad froht (he says) to present a break or ter in this city should thus be forced to contribute to the profits of the boatmen, porters, commission merchants, hotel-keepers, etc
It is very evident that we have here again the interest of the agents of labor put before that of the consumer
But if Bordeaux would profit by a break in the road, and if such profit be conforouleme, Poictiers, Tours, Orleans, and still more all the intermediate points, as Ruffec, Chatellerault, etc, etc, would also petition for breaks; and this too would be for the general good and for the interest of national labor
For it is certain, that in proportion to the number of these breaks or tern, etc This system furnishes us the idea of a railroad ative railroad_
Whether or not the Protectionists will allow it, most certain it is, that the _restrictive principle_ is identical with that which would maintain _this system of breaks_: it is the sacrifice of the consumer to the producer, of the end to the means
XVIII
”THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTE PRINCIPLES”
The facility hich e is all-i; and we norance, when he once brings himself to proclaim as a maxim that there are no absolute principles
We enter into the legislative halls, and find that the question is, to determine whether the laill or will not allow of international exchanges
A deputy rises and says, If we tolerate these exchanges, foreign nations will overwhelland, coal froium, woolens from Spain, silks from Italy, cattle from Switzerland, iron from Sweden, corn froer be possible to us
Another answers: Prohibit these exchanges, and the divers advantages hich nature has endowed these different countries, will be for us as though they did not exist We will have no share in the benefits resulting froian mines, from the fertility of the Polish soil, or the Swiss pastures; neither e profit by the cheapness of Spanish labor, or the heat of the Italian clied to seek by a forced and laborious production, what, by es, would be much more easily obtained
assuredly one or other of these deputies isThere lie before us two roads, one of which leads inevitably to _wretchedness_ Weof responsibility, the answer is easy: There are no absolute principles
This maxim, at present so fashi+onable, not only pleases idleness, but also suits ambition
If either the theory of prohibition, or that of free trade, should finally triumph, one little laould form our whole econon trade is forbidden_; in the second: _foreign trade is free_; and thus, es would lose their importance
But if trade has no distinctive character, if it is capriciously useful or injurious, and is governed by no natural law, if it finds no spur in its usefulness, no check in its inutility, if its effects cannot be appreciated by those who exercise it; in a word, if it has no absolute principles,--oh! then it is necessary to deliberate, weigh, and regulate transactions, the conditions of labor ht This is an iive to those who execute it, large salaries, and extensive influence
Conteht to s ould die in a few days, if provisions of every kind did not flow in towards this vast ination is unable to calculate the ates, to prevent the life of its inhabitants froe And yet at thisone htful possibility On the other side, we see eighty departments who have this day labored, without concert, withoutof Paris How can each day bring just what is necessary, nothing less, nothing enious and secret pohich presides over the astonishi+ng regularity of such coularity in which we all have so ihtless, a faith; on which our comfort, our very existence depends? This power is an _absolute principle_, the principle of freedoht which Providence has placed in the heart of allto it the preservation and aive its na so much forecast when allowed its free action What would be your condition, inhabitants of Paris, if a minister, however superior his abilities, should undertake to substitute, in the place of this power, the co to his own supres into his own hand, and deciding by whom, how, and on what conditions each article should be produced, transported, exchanged and consu within your walls; although misery, despair, and perhaps starvation, may call forth more tears than your warmest charity can wipe away, it is probable, it is certain, that the arbitrary intervention of governs, and would extend a you the evils which now reach but a small number of your citizens
If then we have such faith in this principle as applied to our private concerns, why should we not extend it to international transactions, which are assuredly less numerous, less delicate, and less complicated?