We pay, I grant, many hundred millions for roads, bridges, ports, railways; but we have these railways, these ports, bridges and roads, and unless we maintain that it is a losing business to establish them, we cannot say that they place us in a position inferior to that of nations who have, it is true, no taxes for public works, but who likewise have no public works.

And here we see why (even while we accuse internal taxes of being a cause of industrial inferiority) we direct our tariffs precisely against those nations which are the most taxed.

It is because these taxes, well used, far from injuring, have ameliorated the _conditions of production_ to these nations.

Thus we again arrive at the conclusion that the protectionist Sophisms not only wander from, but are the contrary--the very antithesis of truth.
As to unproductive imposts, suppress them if you can; but surely it is a most singular idea to suppose, that their evil effect is to be neutralized by the addition of individual taxes to public taxes.

Many thanks for the compensation! The State, you say, has taxed us too much; surely this is no reason why we should tax each other! A protective duty is a tax directed against foreign produce, but which returns, let us keep in mind, upon the national consumer.