l as diffused by the fortunate
classes with regard to the deplorable condition of France and the
absolute necessity existing for some radical change in her Government.
"O yes, you get along very well with a Republic in the United States,
where you had cheap lands, a vast and fertile wilderness, common schools
and a general reverence for Religion and Order to begin with; but just
look at France!"--such was and is a very general line of argument. If
the French had been equally divisible into felons, bankrupts, paupers
and lunatics, their hopeless state could hardly have been referred to
more compassionately. All this time France was substantially as tranquil
as England herself, and decidedly more prosperous, though annoyed and
impeded by the incessant plottings of traitors in her councils and other
exalted stations to resubject her to kingly sway. A thrifty, provident,
frugal artisan may often seem less wealthy and prosperous than his
dashing, squandering, lavish neighbor. France may not display so much
plate on the sideboards of her landlords and bankers as England does;
but every day adds to her ability to display it. While Great Britain and
the United States have undertaken to vie with each other in Free Trade,
France holds fast to the principle of Protection, with scarcely a
division in her Councils on the subject; and she is consequently
amassing in silence the wealth created by other Nations. The Californian
digs gold, which mainly comes to New-York in payment for goods; but on
that gold England has a mortgage running fast to maturity, for the goods
were in part bought of her and we owe her for Millions' worth beside.
But France has a similar mortgage on it for the Grain supplied to
England to feed the fabricators of the goods, and it has hardly reached
the Bank of England before it is on its way to Paris. A great share of
the golden harvests of the tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
now find their resting-place here.

"But what," asks a Say-Bastiat economist, "if they do? Isn't all
Commerce an exchange of equivalents? Must we not buy in order to sell?
Isn't Gold a commodity like any other? If our Imports exceed our
Exports, doesn't that prove that we are obtaining more for our Exports
than their estimated value?" &c. &c. &c.

No, Sir! commerce is _not_ always an exchange of genuine equivalents.
The savage tribe which sells its hunting grounds and its ancestors'
graves for a few barrels of firewater, whe