any 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.

--But what do you propose to do with this poor hogshead, the flower of
my flock? Come, taste this wine. How mellow, delicate, velvety it is!

--Excellent, delicious! It will suit D----, the cloth manufacturer,
admirably.

--D----, the manufacturer! What do you mean?

--That he will make a good bargain out of it.

--How? What is that? I do not understand you.

--Do you not know that D---- has started a magnificent establishment
very useful to the country, but which l