It was now the turn of the Marne vignerons to
break out. They hold that their trade is embalm injured by the recogni- tion of the inferior products of the Aube as champagne. The worst riots were at Ay and Epernay. At Epernay the wine cellars of champagne manufacturers who import grapes from outside Marne were wrecked. The private houses of wine merchants who are opposed to delimitation were invaded and the furniture smashed to atoms. In some factories the crowds were wading in champagne. There seems to have been little looting—only sheer destruction. Arson was common, but the streams of wine from the shattered bottles in several cases prevented the straw from taking fire. At Ay the people lay down in front of the cavalry when it first attempted to enter the town. The municipalities of Ay and the neighbouring towns signalised the occasion by resigning, and leaving the troops to keep order as best they could. The Chamber has done well to express its confidence in the measures of the Government to keep order, but the whole affair is an extra• ordinary but wholesome commentary on the nemesis which overtakes State intervention. Once the Government has stepped in artificially to pick and choose between the products of a trade which ought to be solely responsible for itself, it is impossible to please one interest without outraging another. The only safe and simple course is for a Government to keep itself entirely aloof from such matters.
