THE OCTROI AT ISSOTRE. 455 



goes on for three years more. There isn't money enough in the 

 city to keep up this surplus. The money can not get out of the 

 treasury unless some one steals it out and puts it into circulation ; 

 and, if I understand you, gentlemen, this is just what you propose 

 to do." 



This speech was the sensation of the day. It was spoken with 

 a blunt earnestness such as well-meaning but ignorant men are 

 often found to possess. Its sophistries were not at first apparent, 

 for the very reason that the speaker himself did not know them to 

 be sophistries. 



It was printed next morning in the Issoire " Etoile," and it 

 made many converts among those who were unable to expose its 

 errors. The landlord of the Hotel de la Poste indorsed it, because 

 the patronage of that excellent hostelry had greatly declined since 

 the cessation of the barter with Clermont. Some of the manu- 

 facturers favored it, for they were looking for wider outlets for 

 their trade, as the market of Issoire was soon glutted, and the 

 octroi increased the cost of manufacture even more than it raised 

 the price of the finished goods. The politicians said that it might 

 be true enough, but plain talk like that would ruin any man's 

 chances in a popular election. Jacques should have remembered 

 that he was a candidate. The parson, who seldom meddled with 

 politics, declared that the address was timely and patriotic, 

 and that the real friend of the laboring-man was the man who 

 gave him justice instead of patronage. He further said that, in 

 his opinion, the mayor and Council were wrong in their theories 

 of wealth. Their fundamental error was this, that they were try- 

 ing to make the people of this city grow rich off each other. He 

 even marched in a procession which went through the streets, car- 

 rying banners inscribed : " Vive Jacques, the Master-Workman ! " 

 " A bas rOctroi ! " " Away with Useless Taxes ! " 



But the reaction soon came, as it always comes in the politics 

 of France, and it was due to the Clermont papers. They pub- 

 lished Jacques's speech in full, with words of great approbation. 



In the Clermont " Liberal " were the head-lines : " Long live 

 Mayor Jacques ! " " Down with the Demagogues ! " " Issoire com- 

 ing to her Senses ! " " The Workingmen repudiate the Octroi ! " 

 " Good Prospects for the Clermont Trade ! " 



It was on the very eve of the election that the Clermont papers 

 were received in Issoire. It was enough. What sophistry had 

 seduced, patriotism reclaimed. The mayor said that, if Jacques 

 was elected, the octroi would be removed at once, every man in 

 Issoire would be ruined, and the city, bound hand and foot, would 

 be delivered over to Clermont. Ten wagon-loads of goods would 

 be sent in the place of one, and not all the money in the whole 

 city would sufiice to pay for them. Then he read from the Cler- 



