GOVERNMENTAL INTERFERENCE. 297 



sirability of restricting trade and commerce is accepted and carried 

 out, the larger idea of the middle ages, that restrictions should be im- 

 posed, not merely on the freedom of commercial intercourse between 

 country and country, but also between districts of the same countr\', 

 and even between man and man, tends to reassert itself and demand 

 recognition and acceptance ; as is demonstrated by a variety of inci- 

 dents on both sides of the Atlantic. In this movement in Europe, 

 France at present takes the lead. Thus, for example, French work- 

 men and employers are apparently now in unison of opinion, that all 

 foreigners shall be rigidly excluded from any kind of work done by or 

 for the Government, and from furnishing any kind of supplies for the 

 public service. Among the bills recently brought forward in the 

 French Chamber of Deputies, and which have received the serious at- 

 tention of the Government, one provides that only French coal shall 

 be used in the navy, and only French oats in the army ; and, in gen- 

 eral, that nothing of foreign growth or production shall be bought for 

 public use, except such articles as are not produced in France. Clauses 

 in existing treaties with foreign nations and apprehensions of reprisals 

 have, it is believed, alone prevented the project of imposing special 

 and differential taxes on all foreign workmen. The committee in 

 charge of the French International Exhibition of 1889, while invoking 

 the co-operation and good feeling of other countries, have restricted 

 all bids for buildings to French firms exclusively, ruling out all foreign 

 firms from participation in the work, even though established in France, 

 and employing only French workmen. The ancient guild system of 

 the middle ages, restricting craft-membership and the employment of 

 apprentices, and claiming the right to exclusively regulate prices, 

 hours of labor, and other conditions of service, is also everywhere re- 

 establishing itself ; the glaziers of Paris leading the advance in this 

 direction, by formally petitioning the authorities for incorporation as a 

 guild, to which no foreigner shall be admitted, and no one not a mem- 

 ber, even if he be a Frenchman, shall be allowed to set glass or make 

 repairs upon windows in French territory. In a discussion of the 

 labor-problem at a recent Catholic Congress in Belgium, the Bishop of 

 Liege is reported as saying that the old trade-guilds must be revived 

 and placed under the guardianship of Christian lay employers and of 

 the clergy. Then each trade or calling must be placed under the 

 special protection of a saint ; and brotherhoods of those engaged in it, 

 composed both of employers and workmen, must be formed for the 

 celebration of the saint's ftte and for participation in religious pro- 

 cessions and funerals, and the rendering of mutual assistance in times 

 of need. But it was also remarked, that while labor was pretty sure 

 to indorse the recommendation of the revival of the guild, it would 

 be equally sure to wholly disregard the ideas of the bishop as to the 

 uses that should be made of it. It should also not be overlooked in 

 this connection, how closely, and yet perhaps unintentionally, the 



