Part 29 (2/2)

--I take it back

--Very well; then I aer Minister; but my plans remain what they are--Utopian ideas

[Footnote 14: The entrance duty levied at the gates of French towns]

[Footnote 15: I understand M Bastiat to mean merely that export duties are not necessarily more onerous than import duties The statement that all taxes are paid by the consumer, is liable to important modifications An export duty may be laid in such way, and on such articles, that it will be paid wholly by the foreign consu country, but it is only when the additional cost does not lessen the dener to produce the same article _Translator_]

XII

SALT, POSTAGE, AND CUSTOMS

[This chapter is an alish Postal Refor in the United States, it is omitted--_Translator_]

XIII

THE THREE ALDERMEN

A DEMONSTRATION IN FOUR TABLEAUX

_First Tableau_

[The scene is in the hotel of Alderman Pierre Thelooks out on a fine park; three persons are seated near a good fire]

_Pierre_ Upon my word, a fire is very coreed that it is a pleasant thing But, alas! howof Yvetot,

”Blow on their fingers for want of wood”

Unhappy creatures, Heaven inspires ht You see these fine trees I will cut the the poor

_Paul and Jean_ What! gratis?

_Pierre_ Not exactly There would soon be an end of ood works if I scattered my property thus I think thatit down I shall get much more for it

_Paul_ A mistake Your wood as it stands is worthforests, for it renders services which that cannot give

When cut down it will, like that, be good for burning only, and will not be worth a sou et that I am a practical man I supposed that h established to put e of stupidity Do you think that I shall a my wood at the price of other wood?

_Paul_ You ing of any wood to Paris?

_Paul_ That will alter the case But hoill you e it?

_Pierre_ This is the whole secret You know that wood pays an entrance duty of ten sous per cord To-morroill induce the Aldermen to raise this duty to one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred livres, so high as to keep out every fagot Well, do you see? If the good people do not want to die of cold, they ht for old, and this well-regulated deed of charity will enable me to do others of the same sort