2OO SCIENCE SKETCPIES. 



The citizens of Issoire, accustomed to having their 

 taxes paid by the people of Clermont and Lyons, 

 would not submit to any form of direct taxation. 

 Had the Common Council said, " We must have 

 so much money; we propose to take it from your 

 pockets by a pro rata assessment," the people 

 would have risen as one man and put the opposi- 

 tion candidates into office. Direct taxation is a 

 confession of barrenness in expedients. Where 

 money is to be raised, it should always be col- 

 lected from foreigners, if possible. This is a 

 maxim in political science, and all successful finan- 

 ciers from Julius Caesar down have acted in accord- 

 ance with it. 



The falling off in the Clermont trade, due to the 

 new wagon law, had made a serious reduction of 

 the revenue. And now appeared the wisdom of 

 tfce mayor's original suggestion. What Issoire 

 needed was prosperity along the whole line. A 

 partial octroi means only partial prosperity. A 

 universal octroi insures prosperity which is un- 

 bounded and universal. 



And so the schoolmaster took a copy of Littre's 

 " Unabridged Dictionary " and the " Dictionary of 

 the Academy," and from these he drew up a list 

 of three thousand eight hundred and seventy-two 

 articles on which the city government might levy 

 the octroi. And the mayor and the City Council 

 sat up half the night to decide just how much 

 octroi each one of these articles should bear, in 

 order to secure the best results to the community. 



The list began : 



