Oh, I have it.

What was I thinking of?
You are simply going to diminish the expense.

I did not think of that.
-- You are not the only one.

I shall come to that; but I do not count on it at present.
-- What! you diminish the receipts, without lessening expenses, and you avoid a deficit?
-- Yes, by diminishing other taxes at the same time.
(Here the interlocutor, putting the index finger of his right hand on his forehead, shook his head, which may be translated thus: He is rambling terribly.) -- Well, upon my word, this is ingenious.

I pay the Treasury a hundred francs; you relieve me of five francs on salt, five on postage; and in order that the Treasury may nevertheless receive one hundred francs, you relieve me of ten on some other tax?
-- Precisely; you understand me.
-- How can it be true?
I am not even sure that I have heard you.
-- I repeat that I balance one remission of taxes by another.
-- I have a little time to give, and I should like to hear you expound this paradox.
-- Here is the whole mystery: I know a tax which costs you twenty francs, not a sou of which gets to the Treasury.