Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/489

 de pavillon will no more find a place in the statute book of France. For the present, vessels of all foreign countries are placed upon the same footing as those of France, except with respect to the Coasting trade between its ports, from which foreign vessels are, as a rule, excluded, except those of Spain. Richer in agricultural products than most other countries, and, with a population very largely engaged in the cultivation of the soil, the French people will, no doubt in time, see the many advantages that they themselves would derive, were this trade, also, thrown open to the competition of the ships of all nations; not, that any nation could manage it so well and profitably as themselves, resident as they are on the spot, but, the fear of competition from others would have a marvellous effect in rousing French Shipowners, as it did those of England, to greater efforts on behalf of their own interests, apart from the interests and well-being of their country.

It may thus be hoped that France will not again be found in the crooked road of retrogression, but that, having under innumerable difficulties and after long years of political discussion, often in the midst of civil wars and great changes in her constitution, achieved victory over the antiquated dogmas of a cumbrous and ruinous system of protection, she will continue in the clear path of progress, which so well becomes a nation endowed by nature with the richest soil and finest climate in Europe. Possessing a population, whose industrious and frugal habits will enable her to maintain for centuries yet to come the relatively high