1830.] on Ajj'airs in General. 103 



compelled to take them,, or, if she did promise to take them to-day, can 

 we doubt that if she found their taking injurious,, she would find means 

 to make it practically null and void to-morrow ? It is no question of 

 rival manufactures, for we have no wine manufacture ; and if all the 

 wines of France were poured into England, the only result would be 

 that we should have excellent wine cheap, and that our lowest popula- 

 tion would enjoy a luxury now restricted to the superior classes. It 

 would not shut up a single workshop, nor cause a single pair of scissars 

 the less to be made. On the contrary, it would probably cause a great 

 many more workshops to be opened, and a great many more pairs of 

 scissars to be made ; for every means of rational and natural enjoyment 

 brought within the reach of the labouring classes, naturally stimulates 

 their exertions to possess it. On France, the first effect would clearly 

 be, to conciliate the commercial interest, now the most powerful interest 

 of France, to this country. Merchants seldom volunteer a quarrel with 

 their best customers, and the grand staple of France is the vine. Wealth 

 flowing into the hands of the French merchant would also produce its 

 effects in the purchase of foreign produce, and the direct result would 

 be a demand for those articles of luxury and use which can be furnished 

 by no country but England. 



The common arguments for the Methuen Treaty are now grown 

 childish. Portugal will not throw herself into the arms of Spain an 

 hour the sooner or later because we pay dear for bad wines. Portugal 

 hates Spain, and will hate her though we were at the bottom of the sea. 

 The friendship of Portugal is worth nothing to us. The friendship of 

 France is of the highest importance; and when the former, too, cannot 

 be had but by a heavy tax, and the latter costs nothing, but is joined 

 with our indulgence in one of the finest luxuries of nature, the man 

 or the politician who would pause on the subject must be a simpleton, 

 even though he were the president of the Board of Trade. 



(C Five or six thousand pounds, in addition to the amount already sub- 

 scribed, is now wanted to carry into effect the new street from Waterloo 

 Bridge across the old site on which Mr. Arnold's theatre originally stood, 

 and thence to Gower-street, Bedford- square, where the communication 

 with the high north road is already effected. Surely, this plan of such 

 admirable utility will not be permitted to fall to the ground for the want 

 of so paltry a sum. Is the government asleep ?" 



" The strain at a gnat and swallow a camel" system is curiously 

 exemplified in this business. The Pimlico palace, a monster of architec- 

 ture and extravagant expenditure, has already cost nearly a million, and 

 will cost half as much more before either King or Regent will ever 

 drink a cup of coffee within its walls. Here a few thousand pounds 

 would effect a most desirable public object, but no money is forth- 

 coming. 



By driving a street through the Seven Dials and the whole district north 

 of the Strand, a mass of moral evil as well as physical would be broken 

 up ; a great addition made to the comforts of the metropolis, and no 

 trivial one made to its beauty. Yet Government shrinks from the attempt. 

 The Waterloo Bridge people have already suffered too much for further 

 experiments. Arnold's Theatre cannot wait for the slumbering wisdom 

 of our potent, grave, and reverend Seniors of the Treasury ; and the 

 possibility of securing this admirable line of communication between the 

 North and South of TLondon will in a week or two be at an end. 



