t of it a
thousand dollars," as we do to have it remarked by our sage
representatives, "We have paid to England the _tribute_ for a thousand
gross of knives which she has sold to us."

For the reason why Turpin's act is not a _purchase_ is, that he has
not paid into my safe, with my consent, value equivalent to what he
has taken from it, and the reason why the payment of five hundred
thousand dollars, which we have made to England, is not a _tribute_,
is simply because she has not received them gratuitously, but in
exchange for the delivery to us of a thousand gross of knives, which
we ourselves have judged worth five hundred thousand dollars.

But is it necessary to take up seriously such abuses of language? Why
not, when they are seriously paraded in newspapers and in books?

Do not imagine that they escape from writers who are ignorant of their
language; for one who abstains from them, we could point you to ten
who employ them, and they persons of consideration--that is to say,
men whose words are laws, and whose most shocking sophisms serve as
the basis of administration for the country.

A celebrated modern philosopher has added to the categories of
Aristotle, the sophism which consists in including in one word the
begging of the question. He cites several examples. He should have
added the word _tributary_ to his vocabulary. In effect the question
is, are purchases made abroad useful or injurious? "They are
injurious," you say. And why? "Because they make us _tributary_ to the
foreigner." Here is certainly a word which presents as a fact that
which is a question.

How is this abusive trope introduced into the rhetoric of monopolists?

Some specie _goes out of a country_ to satisfy the rapacity of a
victorious enemy--other specie, also, goes out of a country to settle
an account for merchandise. The analogy between the two cases is
established, by taking account of the one point in which they resemble
one another, and leaving out of view that in which they differ.

This circumstance, however,--that is to say, non-reimbursement
in the one case, and reimbursement freely agreed upon in the
other--establishes such a difference between them, that it is not
possible to class them under the same title. To deliver a hundred
dollars _by compulsion_ to him who says "Stand and deliver," or
_voluntarily_ to pay the same sum to him who sells you the object of
your wishes--truly, these are things which cannot be made to