Some day or other she will learn to better calculate her own interests." A second counsellor, a man of practice and of facts, uncontrolled by principles and wise in ancestral experience, replied: "We must not listen to this dreamer, this theorist, this innovator, this Utopian, this political economist, this friend to N*w Y*rk.

We would be entirely ruined if the embarrassments of the road were not carefully weighed and exactly equalized between N*w Y*rk and M*ntr**l.

There would be more difficulty in going than in coming; in exportation than in importation.

We would be with regard to N*w Y*rk, in the inferior condition in which Havre, Nantes, Bordeaux, Lisbon, London, Hamburg, and New Orleans, are, in relation to cities placed higher up the rivers Seine, Loire, Garonne, Tagus, Thames, Elbe, and Mississippi; for the difficulties of ascending must always be greater than those of descending rivers." "(A voice exclaims: 'But the cities near the mouths of rivers have always prospered more than those higher up the stream.') "This is not possible." "(The same voice: 'But it is a fact.') "Well, they have then prospered _contrary to rule_." Such conclusive reasoning staggered the assembly.

The orator went on to convince them thoroughly and conclusively by speaking of national independence, national honor, national dignity, national labor, overwhelming importation, tributes, ruinous competition.