M. Rouvier, the French Minister of Finance, has secured a
vote in the Chamber under which the Government is authorised to make a monopoly of - petroleum. That is rather a remarkable incident. The Governments of the Continent are just now at their wits' end for fresh sources of revenue, and in their fear of imposing new taxes on the poor, and of irritating the rich by Succession-duties, they may fall back on monopolies as the least unpopular alternative. In France in particular salt, tobacco, and matches are already monopolies, and a monopoly of spirits, "as in Russia," has been seriously proposed. Such proposals have the greater favour among officials because the populace seem unaware of their inevitable effect, the Socialists, indeed, holding that they should be supported, inasmuch as they will hasten on the day when the State will be sole proprietor of industrial capital and sole employer of labour. If the system spreads, we venture to prophesy that the next great monopoly seized will be that of insurance in all its branches, the State being obviously the one office which cannot fail, and the one, too, which could make insurance universal.
