For instance, it would be absurd to free foreign salt from impost duty; not that in an economical point of view France would lose any thing by it; on the contrary, whatever may be said, principles are invariable, and France would gain by it, as she must always gain by avoiding an obstacle whether natural or artificial.

But here the obstacle has been raised with a fiscal object.

It is necessary that this end should be attained; and if foreign salt were to be sold in our market free from duty, the treasury would not receive its revenue, and would be obliged to seek it from some thing else.

There would be evident inconsistency in creating an obstacle with a given object, and then avoiding the attainment of that object.

It would have been better at once to seek what was needed in the other impost without taxing French salt.