L.: It is needless to higgle with me. Communicate your views to Monsieur le General, your representative. For the present, he has voted away your vintage. J.: Confound the fellow! But tell me what you intend to make of this last cask, the best of my whole stock? Stay, taste this wine. How ripe, mellow, and full-bodied it is! L.: Excellent! delicious! It will suit Mons. D., the cloth-manufacturer, admirably. J.: Mons. D., the cloth-manufacturer? What do you mean? L.: That he will reap the benefit. J.: How? What? I'll be hanged if I understand you! L.: Don't you know that Mons. D. has set on foot a grand undertaking, which will prove most useful to the country, but which, when everything is taken into account, causes each year a considerable pecuniary loss? J.: I am sorry to hear it, but what can I do? L.: The Chamber has come to the conclusion that, if this state of things continues, Mons. D. will be under the necessity of either working more profitably, or of shutting up his manufacturing establishment altogether. J.: But what have these losing speculations of Mons. D. to do with my wine? L.: The Chamber has found out that, by making over to Mons. D. some wine taken from your cellar, some corn taken from your neighbour's granaries, some money kept off the workmen's wages, the losses of that enterprising patriot may be converted into profits. J.: The recipe is as infallible as it is ingenious. But, zounds! it is awfully iniquitous. Mons. D., forsooth, is to make up his losses by laying hold of my wine? L.: Not exactly of the wine, but of its price. This is what we denominate _premiums of encouragement_, or bounties. Don't you see the great service you are rendering to the country? J.: You mean to Mons. D.? L.: To the country. Mons. D. assures us that his manufacture prospers in consequence of this arrangement, and in this way he considers the country is enriched. He said so the other day in the Chamber, of which he is a member. J.: This is a wretched quibble! A speculator enters into a losing trade, and dissipates his capital; and then he extorts from me and from my neighbours wine and corn of sufficient value, not only to repair his losses, but afford him a profit, and this is represented as a gain to the country at large. L.: Your representative having come to this conclusion, you have nothing more to do but to deliver up to me the six tuns of wine which I demand, and sell the remaining fourteen tuns to the best advantage. J.: That is my business. L.: It will be unfortunate if you do not realize a large price J.: I will think of it. L.: The higher price will enable you to procure more of other things. J.: I am aware of that, Sir. L.: In the first place, if you purchase iron to renew your ploughs and your spades, the law decrees that you must pay the ironmaster double what the commodity is worth. J.: Yes, this is very consolatory.