This is only
half the secret.
There is a natural increase of wealth in every country. Keep that
natural increase in the country where it is made, and there will always
be a surplus left after the mere live and wear expenses are paid, and
this surplus can be used either to support an army or to build
macadamized roads. This then is the other half, without which she would
be where we are: France legislates to keep her wealth in her own country
- and her loss on that canal is only one plum out of her heeping bushel.
The foreign sapper and miner does no work on French soil. His field of
operation is the whole American continent, beginning in Canada and on
down through, without a skip, till he reaches Magellan and the Horn,
scattering his due bills all the way.
The French law-maker, in spite of his clatter, is without a peer, and he
dwarfs none so much as our own, who will become the butt of his own
sneer if he ever gets his eyes open.
This foreign master of the art of governing legislates in the interests
of his own people, who are the only source of his country's power or
greatness, and he leaves the income of the large farm or small one where
it is made.
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