486 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



with it in the open market, the colonists found the competition 

 too severe, and thinking themselves on the verge of ruin, they 

 cried to the government for help and protection. The colonies 

 of France were regarded as so important to its commerce and its 

 navy, that the government laid a heavy impost upon domestic 

 sugar. I believe governments never intermeddle directly in the 

 control of human industry without doing somebody a harm ; and 

 excepting where allowed in some qualified cases as the rewards 

 of inventive genius or skill, or as a security to the beneficial 

 uses of capital, which otherwise could not be brought into use, 

 monopolies of every kind combine all the elements of injustice. 

 The effect of this irnpost was at once to ruin a large portion of 

 the manufacturers of domestic sugar, and arrest the progress of a 

 cultivation destined to exert the most beneficial influence upon 

 the general interests of agriculture. The fixtures and establish 

 ments in different parts of the country fell into other hands, at a 

 ruinous sacrifice to their original proprietors. The West India 

 proprietors became more clamorous, for avarice was never yet 

 satisfied with any concession, and the impost was still more 

 increased. The elasticity of skill and genius have defied the 

 pressure. Improved modes of manufacture have been discovered, 

 by which more sugar is obtained from the same amount of the 

 raw material, and obtained at a cheaper rate ; and in spite of the 

 heavy imposts, the manufacture is highly profitable, especially to 

 those persons who bought already made to their hands the old 

 manufacturing establishments. 



In 1842, the production of beet sugar in France reached the 

 enormous amount of 67,717,685 Ibs. It had in some years, as 

 it must evidently vary with the seasons, been even more than 

 this : and there is no reason to suppose that it has decreased. 

 In some parts of the country I have seen several factories of 

 recent erection. When the value of the leaves and the pulp for 

 the fatting of animals is added to this actual creation of wealth 

 out of the earth ; when the wages received by the innumerable 

 persons employed in the culture of the plant, and the fabrication 

 and refinement of the sugar, are also taken into view ; when the 

 admirable preparation which this culture makes for the succeed 

 ing crops ; when its beneficial influences upon the commerce of 

 the country are considered ; and when, especially, the whole is 

 regarded as the product of healthy, well-requited, and free 



