To which, if you would permit me, I would reply, they would likewise support a number of persons in my cottage.
However this may be, Hon.

Minister-Manufacturer, knowing that I should meet with a cold reception were I to ask you to renounce the restriction imposed upon your customers, as I have a right to, I prefer to follow the fashion, and to demand for myself, also, a little morsel of _protection_.
To this, doubtless you will interpose some objections.

"Friend," you will say, "I would be glad to protect you and your colleagues; but how can I confer such favors upon the labor of carpenters?
Shall I prohibit the importation of houses by land and by sea ?" This would seem sufficiently ridiculous, but by giving much thought to the subject, I have discovered a way to protect the children of St.
Joseph, and you will, I trust, the more readily grant it since it differs in no respect from the privilege which you vote for yourself every year.

This wonderful way is to prohibit the use of sharp hatchets in France.
I say that this restriction would be neither more illogical nor arbitrary than that which you subject us to in regard to your cloth.
Why do you drive away the Belgians?
Because they sell cheaper than you do.

And why do they sell cheaper than you do?
Because they are in some way or another your superiors as manufacturers.
Between you and the Belgians, then, there is exactly the same difference that there is between a dull hatchet and a sharp one.