LIVING IN BRITANNY. 117 



already enough. Tliero is at the present moment talk of 

 the clog-tax for next year ; and now that the French have 

 got a dictator who does what lie chooses to do without 

 asking permission from any one, and wlio in the actual 

 financial state of the country wants money, there seems 

 some probability of the measure being put in force. It 

 would be a capital thing, and quite in the interest of the 

 sportsman, notwithstanding the tax on his kennel. 



It is curious and refreshing to an En2;lishman to notice 

 the " rapprochemenV^ which is gradually taking place in 

 the price of living in England and in Britanny, which may 

 be called the cheapest part of France. England has been 

 reducini]: taxation for the last ten vears, and France has 

 been increasing it ; our commerce, unchecked by revolu- 

 tions, has nearly doubled itself, and theirs has remained 

 stationary, and in consequence the price of living on each 

 side of the channel is rapidly becoming equal. If the 

 duty on wines were placed on a more moderate footing, 

 there would be a complete equality. Why, in the name 

 of reason and good fellowship, do not English gentlemen 

 exert themselves on this subject? It is one wliich espe- 

 cially falls within the sportsman's province; for who is 

 there who does not relish a glass of good wine either in 

 the field or when he has his legs under the mahogany? 

 Instead of drinking cheap and bad claret, or else good 

 claret so dear as to be ruinous to moderate incomes, we 

 could, if the duty were reduced, have excellent wine at a 

 low price. Burgundy too, that wine of princes, would be 

 equally accessible, and we should not have to endure coun- 

 terfeits, or sigh for it in vain, as at present. Champagne 



n 3 



