AN  AMERICAN NOMINATION.                    105
" Doubtless," said Rose, " who has the right to vote
for an expense if not he who bears it ?"
" You will have a pretty budget ! This is a fine way
of calling in millions ! And when you open new streets,
you consult the inhabitants perhaps, in order to conjure
up against you the selfishness of private interests ?"
" Whom should we consult ?" asked the innocent apo-
thecary ; " these streets are made for us, I presume, and
our private interests summed up are the general in-
terest."
" Perfect ! perfect !" exclaimed I, laughing ; " they
have all suoked the milk of the same ass ! Good God !
that it should be necessary to hammer into these narrow
brains the great ideas of civilization ! Could they see
the miracles of centralization, they would comprehend at
length that our business is never better done than when
it is committed, without our consent, to the hands of
those who have no interest in it ! And the schools,"
added I, " perhaps it is also the fathers of families who
vote the tax and fix the amount of expenditure ? I
would like to see the total."
" The expense of the schools," said Alfred, eager to
make a display of his wit; "is voted by the whole
people ; education is the common debt ; each one glories
in contributing to it. The day before yesterday, the tax
was fixed for 1862 ; it is two dollars per head for every
inhabitant, without counting what is given by the State."
" Sixteen million francs voted by the sixteen hundred
thousand inhabitants of Paris for the schools of this
great city," exclaimed I ; " such a thing never has been,
and never will be seen ; it is impossible."
" Papa," returned Susan, sharply, " since Alfred says
it, it is true."
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