INTRODUCTION. 47 



governments of Europe, so to shackle and im- 

 pede the free operations of the people, as to in- 

 duce a belief that they are incapable of protecting 

 their interests, and like infants who have not cast 

 aside the swaddling clothes of dependence, re- 

 quire the salutary restraints of discipline and 

 guardianship. This is even the case in republi- 

 can Switzerland, where in many of the towns of 

 the Canton of Vaud, the farmer does not open 

 his sack of grain to expose it for sale until a cer- 

 tain hour at which the municipality have decided 

 he shall be at liberty to treat with the purchaser. 

 He must also close it at another fixed hour, after 

 which no public sales of grain, or other produce, 

 can be made in the market place on that day. 



Such regulations do not, however, affect his 

 private transactions, as beyond the jurisdiction of 

 the municipality of a market town, he may act 

 at pleasure in the disposal of his produce. We 

 adopt the wiser course, which leaves every one 

 free to direct his business as he may deem most 

 conducive to his interest. Commerce, like the 

 flowing stream, always finds its level, and pros- 

 pers most when least fettered by the hand of 

 protective legislation. 



The interference of France in the affairs of the 

 vintage, may be ascribed in part to her system 

 of finance; as the amount in which the proprietor 

 of the French vineyard is annually mulcted, 

 forms no inconsiderable item in the revenues of 

 the public exchequer. To retard the period till 

 the grapes are fully ripe and fit for the press, is 

 one of the professed objects of the interdict, as 

 though the cultivator of the vine could not as 



