On Thursday the French Chamber hurriedly passed through all its
stages a Bill for regulating the sale, use, and manufacture of portable cigarette-lighters. The Times correspondent says that the Bill professed "to place at the disposal of the French public an invention which has rapidly become popular abroad." As a matter of fact, the French public had already placed these convenient articles at its own disposal, and of course the gracious language we have quoted only led (in the familiar manner of Protectionist countries) to the declaration that in order to protect the Government monopoly in matches —the worst matches, almost, in the world—a special tax must be placed on portable cigarette-lighters. The match monopoly brings in 21,120,000. The lighters are to be taxed, according to the value of the material, at a rate varying from 2 fr. to 40 fr.
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