oses much money every year?

--I am very sorry. But what can I do to help him?

--The Legislature saw that if things went on thus, D---- would either
have to do a better business or close his manufactory.

--But what connection is there between D----'s bad speculations and my
hogshead?

--The Chamber thought that if it gave D---- a little wine from your
cellar, a few bushels of grain taken from your neighbors, and a few
pennies cut from the wages of the workingmen, his losses would change
into profits.

--This recipe is as infallible as it is ingenious. But it is shockingly
unjust. What! is D---- to cover his losses by taking my wine?

--Not exactly the wine, but the proceeds of it; That is what we call a
_bounty for encouragement_. But you look amazed! Do not you see what a
great service you render to the country?

--You mean to say to D----?

--To the country. D---- asserts that, thanks to this arrangement, his
business prospers, and thus it is, says he, that the country grows rich.
That is what he recently said in the Chamber of which he is a member.

--It is a damnable fraud! What! A fool goes into a silly enterprise, he
spends his money, and if he extorts from me wine or grain enough to make
good his losses, and even to make him a profit, he calls it a general
gain!

--Your _representative_ having come to that conclusion, all you have to
do is to give me the six hogsheads of wine, and sell the fourteen that I
leave you for as much as possible.

--That is my business.

--For, you see, it would be very annoying if you did not get a good
price for them.

--I will think of it.

--For there are many things which the money you receive must procure.

--I know it, sir. I know it.

--In the first place, if you buy iron to renew your spades and
plowshares, a law declares that you must pay the iron-master twice what
it was worth.

--Ah, yes; does not the same thing happen in the Black Forest?

--Then, if you need oil, meat, cloth, coal, wool and sugar, each one by
the law will cost you twice what it is worth.

--But this is horrible, frightful, abominable.

--What is the use of these hard words? You yourself, through your
_authorized_ agent----

--Leave me alone with my authorized agent. I made a very strange
disposition of my vote, it is true. But they shall deceive me no more,
and I will be represented by some good and honest countryman.

--Bah, you will re-elect the worthy General.

--I? I re