A piece of cloth is worth a _hundred francs_ at Bordeaux. It is impossible to sell it below that without loss. It is impossible to sell it for more than that, for the _competition_ between merchants forbids. Under these circumstances, if a Frenchman desires to buy the cloth, he must pay a _hundred francs_, or do without it. But if an Englishman comes, the government interferes, and says to the merchant: "Sell your cloth, and I will make the tax-payers give you _twenty francs_ (through the operation of the _drawback_)." The merchant, who wants, and can get, but one hundred francs for his cloth, delivers it to the Englishman for eighty francs. This sum added to the twenty francs, the product of the _bounty robbery_, makes up his price. It is then precisely as if the tax-payers had given twenty francs to the Englishman, on condition that he would buy French cloth at twenty francs below the cost of manufacture,--at twenty francs below what it costs us. Then bounty robbery has this peculiarity, that the _robbed_ are inhabitants of the country which allows it, and the _robbers_ are spread over the face of the globe. It is truly wonderful that they should persist in holding this proposition to have been demonstrated: _All that the individual robs from the mass is a general gain._ Perpetual motion, the philosopher's stone, and the squaring of the circle, are sunk in oblivion; but the theory of _progress by robbery_ is still held in honor. _A priori_, however, one might have supposed that it would be the shortest lived of all these follies. Some say to us: You are, then, partisans of the _let alone_ policy? economists of the superannuated school of the Smiths and the Says? You do not desire the _organization of labor_? Why, gentlemen, organize labor as much as you please, but we will watch to see that you do not organize _robbery_. Others say, _bounties_, _tariffs_, all these things may have been overdone. We must use, without abusing them. A wise liberty, combined with moderate protection, is what _serious_ and practical men claim. Let us beware of _absolute principles_. This is exactly what they said in the Kingdom of A----, according to the Spanish traveler. "Highway robbery," said the wise men, "is neither good nor bad in itself; it depends on circumstances. Perhaps too much freedom of pillage has been given; perhaps not enough. Let us see; let us examine; let us balance the accounts of each robber. To those who do not make enough, we will give a little more road to work up. As for those who make too much, we will reduce their share." Those who spoke thus acquired great fame for moderation, prudence, and wisdom. They never failed to attain the highest offices of the State.