sugars, and set his learned chemists at home to
discover a native substitute; for sugar was
sold at fabulous prices. Almost every woman
in easy circumstances, spent more money on
sugar than she did on bread. M. Delacroix,
a literary personage, complained at Versailles
of the price of sugar; which was then more
than five francs the pound. ' Ah! ' he said,
in a sentimental tone, 'if ever sugar drops to
thirty sous, I'll never drink a glass of water
without three or four lumps in it.' A
substitute was found, and the juice of beet-
root supplies the place of cane syrup. But
there is one thing which Napoleon probably
did not think of. Beet-root cannot grow
without occupying space on the land; nor
upon any but fertile soil. In short, for
every acre devoted to sugar, the country has
an acre of wheat the less. And we already
have a much smaller expanse of wheat land
than we ought to have, because so much
space is occupied by vines. The strong
temptation to increase the extent of existing
vineyards, has often given rise to serious
alarm, and has been made the subject of
legislation in several of the most famous
wine-growing departments; because there
they cannot produce wheat enough to supply
themselves; and it was thought better that
people should go without wine than that they
should lack bread."

"That would be true," I ventured to
remark, " if wine were an article that could not
be exported and sold, and if bread could not
be bought with the money it fetched."

"Without knowing it," interrupted
Gaudissart, " you have hit the nail on the head.
'Tis the sugar which must set all matters
right."

"How?" I asked. "I am still in the
dark. But I suppose you want a commission
from the sugar-makers. You would like to
stub up all the vineyards of the plain, and
then plant them half with beet-root, and half
with wheat."

"No, no, no! You are now all wrong
again. I would not eradicate a single vinecep,
but would rather plant a great many
more. I certainly would accept a travelling
commission from any respectable house on
earth. I would travel in anything—dolls
or drapery, wines or woollens, fantaisies or
foundered iron. And, as I like to sell a good
article, I would take a commission in the
sugar line; but, as I prize my country's
welfare, it should only be from an English firm."

"That cannot be," I said, looking hard, to
see whether he were in earnest. "West
Indian sugar does not come into France."

"It does not;" said the editor. "But it
will. Wheat we must have, if we are to lead
quiet lives, as no one knows better than the
Head of the State. We can no longer afford
to grow sugar at home. We must raise every
grain of wheat we can. The war, a colossal
fact, stares us full in the face, and it may be
some time yet before we get corn from Russia.
You may judge to what uncomfortable straits
we are reduced, from the necessity which has
occasioned the Imperial decree forbidding
the distillation of ardent spirits from all
farinaceous substances that serve for human
food."

"But you now let foreign spirit in," I
observed.

"Yes; your rum has found its way amongst
us, and I predict that sugar will shortly
follow. I like the decree; because it really
is a piece of national wastefulness to consume
by fire so much good corn as we actually do,
in the pleasant shape of burnt brandy and
blazing punch. I like the decree about
distillation, all the better that I look upon
it as a small instalment of the good cane-
sugar which is sure to come."

"Then you would not be surprised," I
asked, " to wake any morning, and find the
French ports open to English sugars, and
beet-sugar factories thereby instantaneously
stopped?—for it is impossible for an inferior
article to contend for a single day with a
superior one at half the price."

"Of course, I should not," said Gaudissart,
off-handedly. " I have seen too much to be
surprised at anything. The sugar will come
in, and all — or at least a good deal—will go
right."

"We should consider that rather an abrupt
proceeding in England. We are accustomed
to have a good deal of preliminary talk
before deciding on such important measures.
What is to become of the poor sugar-makers,
who have invested enormous capital on the
belief that the present law will be
maintained?"

The editor and Gaudissart made a
simultaneous and similar reply, by shrugging up
their right shoulder, and inclining their head
on the same side.

"In England, we should probably give
compensation. When we emancipated our
West Indian blacks, we paid twenty millions
sterling to indemnify their owners; and it
will be cruel if the beet-sugar growers have
their bread taken out of their mouths for no
other crime than that of having put their
faith in Anglophobic princes."

"It is very true," said the editor. " So
much the worse for them. But, enfin,
what would you have, after all? In France
the only way to have a thing done, is to do it.
To talk about it and to write about it is the
sure way not to have it done at all; for we
should tear one another in pieces before
we settled which was the way to do it. We
have too many men of words who are not
men of deeds also. They would not suit us;
they would drive us mad. Supposing that
we do but get English sugar, the beet-growers
must make the best of it they can afterwards.
And they really have made some pretty little
fortunes during the years their monopoly has
lasted."

"With sugar freely admitted into France,"