riger, des habitudes enracinées et aggravées de dissipation et de gaspillage.

Le xxe siècle continuera sans aucun doute à accroître la productivité de l'industrie et à multiplier la richesse. Ses savants, ses inventeurs, ses industriels, ses capitalistes, ses ouvriers ne chômeront point, ils travailleront sans relâche à augmenter la somme des matériaux de la civilisation et du bien-être. Mais il est malheureusement permis de craindre que l'œuvre de ces artisans laborieux de la production ne continue aussi à être contrariée, par l'aveugle égoïsme des intérêts, que ses fruits ne soient, comme d'habitude, détournés de leur destination utile, et employés à des fins nuisibles.

Pendant que la science et l'industrie multiplient la richesse, le militarisme, l'étatisme et le protectionnisme, en attendant le socialisme, s'associent pour la détruire, et en épuiser la source. Les recettes que le travail annuel des nations fournit au budget des gouvernements ne suffisent plus à leurs dépenses. C'est en grévant le travail des générations futures qu'ils rétablissent l'équilibre. Les dettes publiques de l'Europe ont doublé dans la seconde moitié du siècle. En suivant la même progression, elles atteindront pour le moins 400 milliards en l'an 2000. Quels que soient les progrès de la production, ce fardeau ne dépassera-t-il pas les forces des producteurs? Souhaitons donc et c'est le vœu le plus utile que nous puissions adresser à notre descendance , que le XXe siècle n'excelle pas seulement, comme son devancier, à produire de la richesse, mais qu'il apprenne à la mieux employer.

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APPENDICES.

I.

LEADING SECTIONS FROM THE ENGLISH NAVIGATION ACTS.

ACT OF 1660, 12 CAR. II., c. 18.

An Act for the Encouraging and Increasing of Shipping and Navigation.

FOR the Increase of Shipping and Encouragement of the Navigation of this Nation, wherein, under the good Providence and Protection of God, the Wealth, Safety, and Strength of this Kingdom is so much concerned; (2) Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, and by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority thereof, That from and after the first day of December, one thousand six hundred and sixty, and from thenceforward, no Goods or Commodities whatsoever shall be imported into or exported out of any Lands, Islands, Plantations, or Territories to his Majesty belonging or in his Possession, or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the Possession of his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other Ship or Ships, Vessel or Vessels whatsoever, but in such Ships or Vessels as do truly and without Fraud belong only to the People of England or Ireland, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, or are of the Built of and belonging to any the said Lands, Islands, Plantations, or Territories as the Proprietors and right Owners thereof, and whereof the Master and three-fourths of the Mariners at least are English;

III. And it is further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Goods or Commodities whatsoever, of the Growth, Pro

duction or Manufacture of Africa, Asia, or America, or of any Part thereof, or which are described or laid down in the usual Maps or Cards of those Places, be imported into England, Ireland, or Wales, Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, in other Ship or Ships, Vessel or Vessels whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without Fraud belong only to the People of England or Ireland, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, or of the Lands, Islands, Plantations, or Territories in Asia, Africa, or America, to his Majesty belonging, as the Proprietors and right Owners thereof, and whereof the Master, and three-fourths at least of the Mariners are English ; . . .

IV. And it is further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Goods or Commodities that are of Foreign Growth, Production, or Manufacture, and which are to be brought into England, Ireland, Wales, the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, in English-built Shipping, or other Shipping belonging to some of the aforesaid Places, and navigated by English Mariners, as aforesaid, shall be shipped or brought from any other Place or Places, Country or Countries, but only from those of the said Growth, Production, or Manufacture, or from those Ports where the said Goods and Commodities can only, or are, or usually have been, first shipped for Transportation, and from none other Place or Countries;

VIII. And it is further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Goods or Commodities of the Growth, Production, or Manufacture of Muscovy, or of any the Countries, Dominions, or Territories to the Great Duke or Emperor of Muscovy or Russia belonging; as also that no Sort of Masts, Timber, or Boards, no foreign Salt, Pitch, Tar, Rosin, Hemp or Flax, Raisins, Figs, Prunes, Olive-Oils, no Sorts of Corn or Grain, Pot-Ashes, Wines, Vinegar, or Spirits called Aqua-Vitae, or Brandy-Wine, shall from and after the first day of April, which shall be in the Year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty-one, be imported into England, Ireland, Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, in any Ship or Ships, Vessel or Vessels whatsoever, but in such as do truly and without fraud belong to the People thereof, or some of them, as the true Owners and Proprietors thereof, and whereof the Master and three-fourths of the Mariners at least are English: And that no Currans nor Commodities of the Growth, Production, or Manufacture of any the Countries, Islands, Dominions, or Territories to the Ottoman or Turkish Empire belonging, shall from

and after the first day of September, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty-one, be imported into any the afore-mentioned places in any Ship or Vessel, but which is of English built, and navigated, as aforesaid, and in no other, except only such foreign Ships and Vessels as are of the Built of that Country or Place of which the said Goods are the Growth, Production, or Manufacture respectively, or of such Port where the said Goods can only be, or most usually are, first shipped for Transportation, and whereof the Master and three-fourths of the Mariners at least are of the said Country or Place; .

XVIII. And it is further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the first Day of April, which shall be in the Year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty-one, no Sugars, Tobacco, Cotton-Wool, Indigoes, Ginger, Fustick, or other dying Wood, of the Growth, Production, or Manufacture of any English Plantations in America, Asia, or Africa, shall be shipped, carried, conveyed, or transported from any of the said English Plantations to any Land, Island, Territory, Dominion, Port or Place whatsoever, other than to such other English Plantations as do belong to his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, or to the kingdom of England or Ireland, or Principality of Wales, or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, there to be laid on shore; .

ACT OF 1662, 14 CAR. II., c. 11.

XXIII. And whereas some Doubts and Disputes have arisen concerning the said late Act, For increasing and encouraging of Shipping and Navigation, about some of the Goods therein prohibited to be brought from Holland and the Parts and Ports thereabouts; (2) Be it enacted and declared, that no Sort of Wines, (other than Rhenish) no Sort of Spicery, Grocery, Tobacco, PotAshes, Pitch, Tar, Salt, Rozin, Deal-Boards, Fir, Timber, or Olive-Oil, shall be imported into England, Wales, or Berwick, from the Netherlands or Germany, upon any Pretence whatsoever, in any Sort of Ships or Vessels whatsoever;

ACT OF 1663, 15 CAR. II., c. 7.

V. And in regard his Majesty's Plantations beyond the Seas are inhabited and peopled by his subjects of this his Kingdom of England, for the maintaining a greater Correspondence and Kindness between them, and keeping them in a further Dependance

upon it, and rendring them yet more beneficial and advantageous unto it in the further Imployment and Increase of English Shipping and Seamen, Vent of English Woollen and other Manufactures and Commodities, rendring the Navigation to and from the same more safe and cheap, and making this Kingdom a Staple, not only of the Commodities of those plantations, but also of the Commodities of other Countries and Places for the Supplying of them; and it being the Usage of other Nations to keep their Plantations Trade to themselves:

VI. Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted, That from and after the five and twentieth day of March, one thousand six hundred sixty-four, no Commodity of the Growth, Production, or Manufacture of Europe, shall be imported into any Land, Island, Plantation, Colony, Territory, or Place to his Majesty belonging, or which shall hereafter belong unto or be in the Possession of his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, (Tangier only excepted) but what shall be bona-fide, and without Fraud, laden and shipped in England, Wales, or the Town of Ber wick upon Tweed, and in English built Shipping, or which were bona-fide bought before the first day of October one thousand six hundred sixty and two, and had such Certificate thereof as is directed in one Act passed the last Sessions of this Present Parliament, intituled, An Act for preventing Frauds, and Regulating Abuses in his Majesty's Customs; and whereof the Master and three Fourths of the Mariners at least are English, and which shall be carried directly thence to the said Lands, Islands, Plantations, Colonies, Territories, or Places, and from no other Place or Places whatsoever; any Law, Statute, or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding;

...

See English Statutes at Large.