Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/470

 more important changes. La Martinique, la Guadaloupe, and la Réunion (or Bourbon), the only three

I then showed him that, though our steamers and sailing-ships were constantly passing his chief ports of Havre and Marseilles laden with produce, of which his people might be in the greatest want, the differential duties imposed by his laws prevented us from landing these goods; and then, turning to his own official returns, I repeated the fact that not one franc of revenue was derived from these dues; so that, while his people were heavy losers on one hand, his exchequer was not benefited on the other. To obtain the sugar, coffee, indigo, and other articles with which, for instance, a Peninsular and Oriental steamer passing his port of Marseilles was laden, it was necessary that they should be carried through the Straits of Gibraltar (still tracing the lines on the chart), cross the Bay of Biscay, pass his other great port of Havre, and be carried on to Southampton, to be there landed, and, most likely, sent by railway to London, where they were bonded, and thence shipped again in either French or English vessels for Calais or Boulogne, and then conveyed across France to wherever they might be required by his people; possibly even to Marseilles or Havre. "Now, Sire," I said, still kneeling on the chart and looking earnestly at the Emperor, "if your people prefer to have what Indian produce they need conveyed to them, in that very roundabout and expensive manner, instead of importing it direct in whatever vessels may be ready to carry the produce to them on the most favourable terms, it is a process to which I, as an Englishman, have no objections to offer, for we carry in our ships not merely the great bulk of the Indian produce, but have also much extra profit from it in the shape of landing, bonding, railway carriage, transhipment, commissions, and so forth; I do not, however, see how your manufacturers can compete successfully with those of other countries, if they are compelled by your Navigation Laws to import the raw material they require by such antiquated and expensive modes as these."
 * [Footnote: *merce with India, by way of Egypt as well as by the Cape of Good Hope.

As the room, in which we were was small and the light not very good, the Emperor had followed my example, and, that he might see the lines and ports more distinctly, had himself, before I concluded, knelt down also on the chart.

In the palaces of France are to be found many grand pictures descriptive of the wars of the Empire, but its artists may now add to the decoration of these walls a far grander and nobler scene, and represent their last Emperor performing a duty to his people of much greater importance as regards their future welfare and happiness, and far more worthy of record than the blood-stained fields of Magenta]*