Just views of the Duke Decazes. effects which this law had produced upon the commerce of their country. "It may be said," remarks the Duke Decazes with great truth and wisdom, "that it is that law which has jeopardised the great trade in corn of the port of Marseilles, in the same way as it has directed towards Genoa the exports of ore from the island of Elba, so valuable for our foundries . . . what has taken place in the south is equally brought under our notice from the north, with respect to the port of Antwerp, which has profited by the new law to the detriment of Havre and Dunkirk. In those seas, it is the German flag which has now obtained the advantage, and enjoys the freight which heretofore pertained to the shipping of France."
Abolition, for the second time, of the Surtaxes de Pavillon, July 1873. Unanswerable facts such as these, confirming as they did the lucid and strong opinion expressed by M. Siegfried, showed what a nation may suffer, if it disregard the clear teachings of political economy applicable to all nations, and adopt such ancient and exploded dogmas as those propounded by M. Thiers; hence the Assembly retraced its steps, and by the first article of the law of the 28th and 31st July, 1873, which is still in force, the surtaxes de pavillon were, for the second time, abolished.[1] It is to be hoped that this practical measure will have more effect than the disregarded admonitions of experience and of knowledge, and that the surtaxes
- ↑ M. Thiers, it may be remembered, was thrown out of office May 24, 1873, and, as this Bill was passed on the 31st of July, or only two months after his fall, his political opinions cannot have left much impression on the Assembly which had so recently been under his dictatorship.
