--My hogsheads, I presume. --And what would happen were he to vote for a reduction of the army and your military establishment? --Instead of being made a Marshal, he would be retired. --Do you now understand that yourself? --Let us pass to the fifth hogshead, I beg of you. --That goes to Algeria. --To Algeria! And they tell me that all Mussulmans are temperance people, the barbarians! What services will they give me in exchange for this ambrosia, which has cost me so much labor? --None at all; it is not intended for Mussulmans, but for good Christians who spend their days in Barbary. --What can they do there which will be of service to me? --Undertake and undergo raids; kill and be killed; get dysenteries and come home to be doctored; dig harbors, make roads, build villages and people them with Maltese, Italians, Spaniards and Swiss, who live on your hogshead, and many others which I shall come in the future to ask of you. --Mercy! This is too much, and I flatly refuse you my hogshead. They would send a wine-grower who did such foolish acts to the mad-house. Make roads in the Atlas Mountains, when I cannot get out of my own house! Dig ports in Barbary when the Garonne fills up with sand every day! Take from me my children whom I love, in order to torment Arabs! Make me pay for the houses, grain and horses, given to the Greeks and Maltese, when there are so many poor around us! --The poor! Exactly; they free the country of this _superfluity_. --Oh, yes, by sending after them to Algeria the money which would enable them to live here. --But then you lay the basis of a _great empire_, you carry _civilization_ into Africa, and you crown your country with immortal glory. --You are a poet, my dear Collector; but I am a vine-grower, and I refuse. --Think that in a few thousand years you will get back your advances a hundred-fold. All those who have charge of the enterprise say so. --At first they asked me for one barrel of wine to meet expenses, then two, then three, and now I am taxed a hogshead. I persist in my refusal. --It is too late. Your _representative_ has agreed that you shall give a hogshead. --That is but too true. Cursed weakness! It seems to me that I was unwise in making him my agent; for what is there in common between the General of an army and the poor owner of a vineyard? --You see well that there is something in common between you, were it only the wine you make, and which, in your name, he votes to himself. --Laugh at me; I deserve it, my dear Collector. But be reasonable, and leave me the sixth hogshead at least. The interest of the debt is paid, the civil list provided for, the public service assured, and the war in Africa perpetuated. What more do you want? --The bargain is not made with me. You must tell your desires to the General. _He_ has disposed of your vintage.