Class _liaj.l_ 
 
 Book ^F 61 
 
 Gopyright}!^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
Pierre Foncin* 
 
By PIERRE FONCIN 
 
 EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY 
 
 H. H. KANE, A. M., M. D. 
 
 A UTHORIZED EDITION 
 WITH A PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. 
 137 West 32nd Street, New York Publishers 
 
THE LIBRARY «F 
 
 ©«NGRESS, 
 Two Copies Recbve» 
 
 MAY. 3 1902 
 
 COPVnWHT ENTRY 
 
 CLASS (X. XXO. NO. 
 COPY B. 
 
 . — -.. „.. — — ^^^ 
 
 Copyright, 1902, 
 
 by 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., 
 
 J 27 West 32nd Street, New York. 
 
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 Price Printing House, 63 Rutgers Slip, New York. 
 
 Ill K * « < 
 
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 it (. • • • C 
 
 CO* c 
 
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BeMcation. 
 
 To fjiy professor of French and ) 
 friend^ Prof. Antoine Mnzzarclli^ of \ 
 New York^ I wish to dedicate my ^ 
 translation of this inarielously com 
 plete little work (little in size only) 
 of M. Pierre Foncin. 
 
 To Prof. Muzzarelli I owe not 
 only what ability I possess to make 
 this translation but my first knozv- 
 ledge of the book in question. 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Dr. h. h. KANE. 
 
 Dear Sir: I am very grateful to you for your 
 kindness in translating for tfee use of Americans 
 this little volume, the Pays de France. The 
 honor which you have done me I had nevet 
 ventured to hope for. 
 
 The Pays de France was written especially for 
 f oreigMers ; it follows the programme of the 
 Alliance Française, an association which, aâ you 
 know, devotes itself to encouraging the thorough 
 study of the French language and literature and, 
 consequently, to spreading abroad accurate and 
 impartial notions in regard to France and her 
 people. In no portion of the world has this 
 programme been better understood than among 
 Americans. It seems to me that we are 
 witnessing a renaissance of the intellectual rela- 
 tions, which should have never known any inter- 
 ruption, between the two Republics, those of the 
 old and of the new world. The summer courses 
 established at Paris by the Alliance Française 
 
 iii 
 
iv PRÉFACÉ. 
 
 are attended in ever increasing numbers by 
 young Americans, especially by American ladies. 
 Thanks to the initiative of your countryman, 
 Mr. Hyde, French writers deliver lectures every 
 year upon French literature in the American 
 universities and cities. An arrangement has 
 just been concluded between the University of 
 Chicago and the Committee of the Alliance 
 Française of that great city for the organization 
 of courses in French and the conferring of diplo- 
 mas for proficiency in French studies. This 
 mutual coming together of the lands of Wash- 
 ington and of Lafayette, of Lincoln and of Car- 
 not, cannot fail to be a source of delight to lib- 
 eral and enlightened men on both sides of the 
 Atlantic, that ocean, which seemed formerly so 
 wide, but which. Heaven be thanked, is becom- 
 ing narrower every year. 
 
 Personally, I derive greater satisfaction than 
 I can well express, in beholding, not only 
 America gaze with greater intensity upon France, 
 but likewise France turn her eyes more readily 
 in the direction of America. I am well per- 
 suaded that, if we, of the French nation, have 
 lessons to give which will yield you instruction, 
 you Americans are in a position to communicate 
 to us teachings of still greater importance. 
 
 I shall not touch upon politics — with politics I 
 have no concern whatever — but in writing the 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 Pays de France I necessarily indulged in reflec- 
 tions upon the political history of my country. 
 Now I am persuaded that the revolution of 1789, 
 however glorious and however prolific of good 
 results, was not complete, or rather, was quickly 
 obliged to deviate from its first direction. You, 
 Americans, will show us that the inevitable re- 
 sult of liberty is the voluntary union of all liber- 
 ties, that is to say, federation. We in France 
 believed that we could retain under the reign of 
 liberty, the centralization characteristic of mon- 
 archy and Caesarism; this is, perhaps, the most 
 serious evil from which we have to suffer. 
 
 Federation may be defined as the means by 
 which unity and variety are reconciled through 
 the medium of liberty. This is, I believe, the 
 formula of the future. May it apply one day to 
 Europe and, in the course of time, become of 
 world-wide application! The honor of having 
 first put it into operation on a magnificent scale 
 and over an enormous territory, belongs to 
 America. 
 
 Federation, for which peace is also a synonym, 
 will triumph upon our planet only by the dis- 
 appearance of the blind prejudices and unreas- 
 oning hatreds by' which the nations are divided. 
 In order that the nations may regard one an- 
 other with mutual esteem, they must come to 
 kpow one another. In this direction the Pays de 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 France promotes in a modest way the cause of 
 peace, of federation, and of liberty. 
 
 This little book will not cross the sea alone; 
 it carries with it my sincere gratitude to you, 
 dear sir, and also my profound sympathy for the 
 great federation of the United States of America. 
 
 PIERRE FONCIN. 
 
 Paris, August 20th, 1901. 
 
FRANCE. 
 
 France, notwithstanding the infinite 
 variety of the countries formng it, and 
 of the people who are its inhabitants, 
 constitutes one whole, and may be 
 summed up in a single word — Paris. 
 
 Ancient Paris, situated upon its islet, 
 resembles a vessel floating upon the 
 water. According to the ingenious 
 motto adopted by the Parisians, this 
 vessel, though it has been many times 
 buffeted by the tempests, has not sunk. 
 " Fluctuât necmergitur'^ 
 
 PART I. 
 
 NORTHERN FRANCE OR THE PARISIAN BASIN. 
 
 From Havre to Paris.— The Parisian Basin. — Plains of the North. 
 —The Four Zones of the Northeast. — The Plains of the 
 Center. 
 
 From Havre to Paris.— Suppose that we enter 
 France by Havre, the door that opens to us the 
 valley of the Seine, the latter being merely the 
 avenue, framed in green, along which we pursue 
 our way to Paris. The white cliffs of Ingouville 
 that overlook the jetty, bound the plateau of 
 Caux on the south. The other bank of the es- 
 tuary, that low line fading away at the horizon, 
 niarks a corner of rich soil where the grazing 
 
8 FRANCE. 
 
 lands of the rich valley of Auge terminate in 
 the much frequented beach of Trouville, which 
 serves, so to speak, as a Summer boulevard for a 
 portion of Parisian society. Further inland the 
 river winds in and out between its banks, on which 
 we note the workshops which presage our arrival, 
 at Rouen, the ancient capital of Normandy, boast- 
 ing with equal pride of her monuments, and her 
 prominence as a centre for the manufacture of 
 cotton fabrics. Then we see castles upon the 
 hills and charming villages fast asleep upon the 
 edge of the water. Climbing one of the steep 
 heights on the left bank, we perceive in the dis- 
 tance towards the south, the deep cutting, within 
 which flows the Eure, and the immense wheat 
 plains of La Beauce, from which rise the lofty bell- 
 towers of Chartres. Thus we arrive at the Isle of 
 France where almost every name evokes a mem- 
 ory; yonder, Versailles; here. Saint Germain and 
 Saint Denis; further in the distance. Saint Cloud 
 and Meudon, and now, at last, we have reached 
 Paris. 
 
 Thé Parisian Basin. — It is not the purpose of 
 this volume to describe Paris. Those who have 
 visited that city do not require any description^ 
 
FRANCE. 9 
 
 while the persons who are as yet unacquainted 
 with it, would not learn much from any descrip- 
 tion, however detailed. The most exact photograph 
 is powerless to render a physiognomy. Now, Paris 
 has a physiognomy all her own, and if the city 
 exercises such a fascination, it is because in some 
 measure it is a living being — a smiling, radiant soul. 
 Paris is also a geographical center, the center 
 of the Parisian basin. In the distance four bound- 
 aries encase this old depression left by the sea: 
 the plateau left by the Ardennes, and the chain 
 of the Vosges mountains on the east, the central 
 plateau on the south, and to the west, the Armori- 
 can tableland. At the foot of these extends in a 
 semi-circle an unequal border of Jurassic formation 
 crowned by extensive woods which girdle the 
 basin that the cretacean and tertiary seas have 
 often abandoned and then re-occupied. This has 
 gradually become dry ground, narrowed by the 
 deposits from the banks of chalk. These deposits 
 — these leaf - like strata, placed one upon the 
 other, have sunk toward the centre, and have 
 been raised upon their outer edge, forming thus 
 concentric slopes of picturesque relief which 
 break the monotony of the plains and serve 
 
lO FRANCE. 
 
 as a support to their defense, as well as outlining 
 the valleys. 
 
 Observe the rivers Aisne, Marne and Aube. 
 They descend gently from the wooded heights, 
 describe a slight curve, then direct their course 
 toward the Seine, and more or less towards 
 Paris. A still further lowering of the soil 
 would send to the metropolitan stream, tributaries 
 that are diverted from it, such as the Meuse and 
 the Loire, the midway course of which belongs to 
 the Parisian basin. With the rivers, the routes, 
 the canals, the railroads, men and things^all 
 converge towards Paris. 
 
 Plains of the North,— At the foot of Mont- 
 martre begins the plain — that great northern 
 plain which extends as far as Siberia, and which 
 too often receives from there its icy breezes. Hun- 
 dreds of chimneys send forth a suffocating smoke. 
 This is par excellence, the region of charcoal, of 
 beet root fields and of manufactures. But what sur- 
 prises are in store for the traveler who would take 
 this brief description literally ! 
 
 On this side, as well as on the other, the suburbs 
 of Paris are charming. Here, Enghien and its lake ; 
 there, the wooded heights of Montmorency ; further 
 
FRANCE. II 
 
 still, the valley, the shady forests of Chantilly, and 
 this indented green, which extends along the 
 Beauvaisis as far asNormandy and follows the waters 
 of the Oise, even beyond Compiegne. The naked 
 plain appears again in Picardie, which is cleft by 
 the turfy bed of the Somme, on whose banks the 
 bustling city of Amiens is found, with its houses 
 clustering around its magnificent cathedral. The 
 plain disappears towards the Channel, bordered 
 by tawny downs as far as the graceful wall of the 
 Boulonnais. Beyond the meadows and the busy 
 fields of Artois it descends again into downs and 
 marshy lands, shaken by the waves of the North 
 Sea. It winds through Flanders, environed by 
 a sea of heavy ears of com, golden colza, azure 
 flax and purple poppy. Paved roads skirt the 
 rich farms, and wind through the large villages, 
 with their low-roofed houses, decked with pots 
 filled with flowers. We find the canals, alive 
 with heavily-laden barges, flowing past sugar 
 refineries, workshops and charcoal factories. The 
 French center of this laborious hive is Lille, which 
 extends, even to the frontier, its girdle of suburbs 
 that are towns, and of towns that are cities, 
 such as Tourcoing and Roubaix. Along the 
 
12 FRANCE. 
 
 Lys, the Scarpe, the Escaut, the Sambre, are those 
 lazy rivers flowing sluggishly like canals and 
 subject to control, as in the neighborhood of the 
 Deule. Everything teems with life and with zest 
 for labor. 
 
 The land nourishing this sturdy race is itself 
 deep, rich and strong. It smokes under the in- 
 tense heat of the long Summer days, and takes on 
 in Autumn a mellow smile under the pale sky. 
 
 The Four Zones of the Northeast. — The path- 
 way of the Northeast is the Marne, the trans- 
 parent waters of which glide over the bed of green 
 leaves, and mirror delightful panoramas in the 
 neighborhood of Vincennes, Nogent, Lagny, and 
 far beyond Meaux. The first zone is the plateau 
 of the fertile Brie. It extends as far as the tertiary 
 elevation which forms with Laon and Rheims, as it 
 were, an outer girdle for Paris. Towards Éper- 
 nay, the chalk appears in all its dazzling whiteness. 
 It is the beginning of the second zone, the plain 
 Champenoise, level and naked (save for a few cur- 
 tains of pine) with its sheep browsing on the 
 scanty herbage. 
 
 It attains to the full its melancholy breadth 
 in the plain of Chalons. -But on the south, in 
 
FRANCE. Ï3 
 
 the direction of Troyes, it rejoins the pleasant 
 valley of the Seine, the vineyards of high Bur- 
 gundy, and the wooded ridges of the plateau 
 of Langres; while on the north, in the direction 
 of Rheims and its marvelous cathedral, it meets 
 the celebrated slopes, the vineyards of which, 
 tended with the minutest care and skill, 
 produce champagne ; it stops only when it reaches 
 the defiles of Argonne and the luxuriant foliage of 
 the forests of the Ardennes. 
 
 The third zone is formed by the plateau of Lor- 
 raine, to which we may add the Ardennes. These 
 lofty lands, where the chalk of the Jurassic era is 
 interposed between the schists of slate and vos- 
 gian sandstone, are cold and difficult to cultivate, 
 but prolific in strong, tall and courageous men. 
 Between the ridges, covered with turf or vines, or 
 crowned with dark or threatening woods, the sil- 
 very streams open for themselves luminous gaps; 
 the country, tinctured with a melancholy charm, 
 rolls away into the depths of the horizon, even as 
 far as the picturesque pass into which the Meuse, 
 melts away, at the very doors of Belgium ; as far 
 as the grand fir forests, the inky lakes, the spark- 
 ling cascades, and the stem peaks of the Vosges. 
 
14 FRANGÉ. 
 
 This, more than any other, is the military zone 
 of France, the cuirass that protects her breast 
 All the towns from Givet to Remiremont, and 
 especially Verdun, Toul and Épinal, actually 
 bristle with fortresses. The banks of the Meuse 
 and the Moselle are banks of steel. 
 
 Sedan, which witnessed the worst of disasters, 
 is the country of Turenne. Joan of Arc, in whom 
 the genius of the nation was incarnate, was a maid 
 of Lorraine on the banks of the Meuse. The 
 French citadel, par excellence, is Metz, from 
 which Charles V. was forced to recoil; lately a 
 tower of defence, now a tower of offence. There 
 is but one great center of peaceful science and 
 industry in the northeast, and that is the ancient 
 capital of Lorraine, the beautiful city of Nancy. 
 
 On the other side of the Vosges mountains, 
 which are to-day, a useless rampart, since they 
 belong in their entirety to neither France nor 
 Germany, Alsace, a natural glacis of the mountain, 
 lies on the edge of the trench, dotted with 
 islands that are washed by the impetuous torrents 
 of the Rhine. The fourth zone, a plain rich in 
 hop gardens and in industrial cultures of all kinds ; 
 a prosperous country sown with manufactories, 
 
FRANCE. Î5 
 
 the little groups of which collect themselves more 
 and more towards their center, Mulhouse; a 
 country patriotic and happy so long as it was free. 
 
 The Plains of the Center»— Upon the southern 
 outskirts of Paris, graceful scenes and delightful 
 panoramas abound: Fontenay -aux- Roses, Bourg- 
 la- Reine, the banks of the Bievre, Villeneuve- 
 Saint- Georges, Étampes, Mehm, the epic forest 
 of Fontainebleau, the cliffs of the Loing. Turning 
 to the west we meet again the fruitful, but 
 monotonous fallow lands of the Beauce; on the 
 east, the fine vineyards that carpet the slopes of 
 the high hills of the Yonne. It is only at Orléans, 
 behind its diminished forest, at the bend of the 
 Loire, that the plains of the center really begin. 
 
 At first, the Sologne, whose pestiferous marshes 
 are undergoing a gradual transformation into cul- 
 tivated fields, copses and woods; then, the manu- 
 facturing district of Vierzon and along both banks 
 of the Cher appear the pasture lands of the Berri, 
 which from a distance look down upon the curious 
 hill of Sancerre, where the ancient city of Bourges 
 marks pretty nearly the center of France. In the 
 eastern part of the Berri which is watered by the 
 Indre, and where the Creuse follows a deep de- 
 
i6 FRÀNdE. 
 
 pression, are the chains of pools of the Brenne. All 
 this district, enclosed by the crescent and out- 
 lined by the middle Loire, is remarkably flat; it 
 barely attains a uniform height of 300 to 600 feet 
 above the sea level. It is indeed the southern bot- 
 tom of the ancient Parisian basin. 
 
 The attraction towards Paris has been facili- 
 tated on this side by the gentle slope of the 
 ground, a fact which lends itself to all means of 
 communication. Better still, the Loire, shaped 
 like a pitchfork, the handle of which is in a cer- 
 tain measure held by Orléans, the outpost of Paris, 
 opens in two directions two routes naturally sub- 
 ject to Parisian influence. On the southeast the 
 valley of the river rises by way of Briare and 
 Nevers even to the forest buttresses of ancient 
 Morvan, which supplies Paris with logs conveyed 
 by the river; the valley continues by the Allier 
 towards the Bourbonnais, the cradle of a dynasty, 
 towards the meadows enclosed with tufted hedges, 
 where fat, white oxen that contribute their share 
 to the food supply of the great metropolis, graze. 
 
 On the southwest, the Loire, whose foaming 
 waters make their way over a huge bed strewn 
 with beaches of gilded sand, that changeable and 
 
FRANCE. 17 
 
 wrathful river, subject to sudden floods, descends 
 towards a favored land which has justly been 
 compared to a beautiful garden. But this is not 
 merely an orchard yielding luscious fruit, a park 
 with mellow horizons under a cloudless sky, with 
 shady walks and sluggish rivers charming the 
 eye with their serpentine curves between banks 
 clothed with greensward. It is also a bed of flowers 
 abounding in castles and cities famed in story: 
 Blois, Vendôme, Amboise, Tours, Chenonceaux, 
 Chambord, Chinon, Loches. There is here spread 
 out upon the meadows and amid the flowers a 
 panel of royal and seigneurial history — a veritable 
 casket of the splendid gaieties of the Renaissance. 
 Such is the Parisian basin with its natural de- 
 pendencies. Such is northern France. It is, as 
 it were, supported by two other Frances facing 
 in different directions; the one towards the 
 Ocean, the other towards the Mediterranean. 
 And all these are joined to the interior or central 
 plateau. 
 
1 8 FRANCE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 WESTERN OR OCEANIC FRANCE. 
 
 Similarities and Dissimilarities — From Cherbourg to the Forests 
 of the Perche — From the Forests of the Perche to the Head- 
 land of Raz — Between Loire and Gironde — The Basin of 
 Bordeaux — The Pyrenees. 
 
 SîmîIaMtîes and Dissimilarities. — Western France 
 possesses a certain degree of unity, resulting 
 from its position on the Ocean front. Its variety- 
 is infinite. 
 
 From the Channel to the Gulf of Gascony the 
 Ocean gives it a climate of remarkable uniform- 
 ity, in addition to refreshing it with its fragrant 
 breath. 
 
 The Ocean bounds it. At this extremity of the 
 Old World, the migratory hordes were obliged 
 to stay their onward course, and it was here that 
 they maintained their individuality and kept them- 
 selves free for the longest time from all admix- 
 ture ; Celts in Britanny, Basques upon both slopes 
 of the western Pyrenees. 
 
FRANCE. 19 
 
 'The Ocean charms it, contributes to its sup- 
 port, invites it to long voyages, prevents it from 
 turning its eyes exclusively in the direction of 
 Paris, and plays no small part in preserving intact 
 the customs, the traditions and the opinions of 
 western France. 
 
 The Ocean, in its ebb and flow, brought France 
 at an early period into contact with the other 
 maritime nations. It brought to her shores the 
 leather barks of the pirates of the North, and 
 just as it was the accomplice of William the Con- 
 queror, when it enabled him to land in England, 
 so, at a later date, by an inverse movement, it lent 
 itself to the fleets of the English, and permitted 
 the islanders to rule, for a time, Normandy and 
 Aquitaine. 
 
 Such are some of the means by which the 
 Ocean aided in promoting the unity of Western 
 France. But its work remained incomplete. It 
 came into collision with special forms of resist- 
 ance, of which the principal were the differences 
 in the composition of the soil and the want of 
 uniformity in altitude. 
 
 Ancient Armorica or Britanny forms, with its 
 dependencies, a great mass of schist or granite, 
 
20 FRANCK. 
 
 the culminating points of which attain a height 
 of nearly 1,300 feet. 
 
 The lands of the Garonne, on the contrary, 
 occupy the bottom of an ancient tertiary gulf 
 that spreads out, funnel-like, between the central 
 plateau and the Pyrenees. 
 
 The Jurassic threshold of high Poitou, flanked 
 on the north and the south by broad strips of 
 cretacean soil, is a region intermediate between 
 the two preceding ones. 
 
 We see, then, that there are three western 
 Frances, differing much from each other, each 
 containing in addition many other sub -divisions. 
 
 From Chcfbouf §f to the Forests of the Perche» — 
 Let us ascend to the stronghold of the Roule 
 that dominates Cherbourg. Nature had evidently 
 not intended this bay, open as it was to every 
 wind, as a place for a harbor. But now we find a 
 jetty extending for a league, half closing the bay; 
 here a harbor, here basins hollowed in the 
 granite; a town, arsenals, magazines, a shelter 
 for forty ships, all artificial, and accomplished by 
 man's will. The Contentin itself, which is only a 
 great natural dike, struggles obstinately against 
 the ocean, while Granville on its rugged rock 
 
FRANCE. 21 
 
 seems to defy it. But the tempests and the tides 
 have already detached from the Continent the 
 Ang-lo- Norman islands, and hollowed out in front of 
 Avranches the bay in which the pyramidal islet 
 of Mont- Saint- Michel, that masterpiece and relic 
 of feudal architecture, rises from the sea. 
 
 At the base of the Cotentin, the Norman wood- 
 land, which is almost continually saturated 
 with warm humidity, is the true kingdom of 
 verdure. Nowhere else can one find vales clad 
 in a richer green, or wooded hills more leafy or 
 of deeper hue. Lower Normandy, famed as the 
 land of the "Normandy cap," that picturesque 
 headgear with its large white wings, is also 
 par excellence the land of apples and cider, of 
 cheese and of butter. The capital of this plain is 
 Caen, a city of culture and of many ancient 
 churches. The coast is bordered with reefs and 
 cliffs of moderate height. On the south, as we 
 ascend towards Flers, a little center of industry, 
 the ground becomes more elevated; the hill is 
 gradually transformed into a mountain and the 
 grove into a forest. The country is wonderfully 
 adapted to the breeding of horses. It is Norman 
 Switzerland, prolonged on the east by the Perche, 
 
22 FRANCE. 
 
 a wooded mass, the reservoir of rivers which 
 flow away in different directions: the Eure, the 
 Orne, the Sarthe and the Mayenne. 
 
 From the Forests of the Perche to the Headland 
 of Raz. — At a distance, the northwest of France 
 resembles an unbroken forest. There are, how- 
 ever, here as elsewhere, roads, ctdtivated fields, 
 farms and villag-es. But around the fields we find 
 wide hedges from the midst of which rise tall 
 trees, and in the fields themselves apple trees are 
 frequently seen with their trunks half disappear- 
 ing in the green rye or white buckwheat. The 
 by-ways hedged in also and furrowed by the 
 rains, worn away more and more by long use, 
 are roofed with foliage impenetrable to the sun. 
 A house is not visible to the traveler's eye till 
 he stands beside it. One must belong to the 
 country in order to find his way in this labyrinth. 
 Amid this multitude of trees nature has, how- 
 ever, traced great furrows that every now and 
 then reveal suddenly a vast expanse of earth 
 and sky. Such is the horizon upon which, 
 from its mountain height. Le Mans gazes — 
 Le Mans, one of the busiest centers of industry 
 of the district. Such is that exquisite valley 
 
FRANCE. 23 
 
 of the Mayenne, overlooked by the sombre castle 
 of Laval. 
 
 Britanny begins at Vitré, the French city which 
 has best preserved its old stree s and ancient 
 houses. Almost immediately, we come to Rennes, 
 the official capital of the ancient province, with 
 its touch of solemnity and melancholy. But in 
 truth, Britanny has no center. The sea, by 
 which it is confined in a close embrace on three 
 sides, is its sovereign mistress and attracts and 
 retains its homage. Woods of oak, of beech, and 
 in some instances, of pine, heaths covered with 
 golden furze, solitudes, with here and there 
 melancholy pools and a few sickly fields occupy 
 the interior of the country, and life is concen- 
 trated upon the coasts. Follow that stream which 
 furnishes motive power to a mill; a sluice stays 
 its course, and it is at this point that the waters 
 attain their greatest depth, when suddenly, the 
 stream widens into a muddy pool bordered with 
 reeds and closely shut in by woods. Beyond, 
 close by the bridge which is crossed by a roadway of 
 earth, skirting at a distance the sea- coast at the 
 spot where navigation begins, we see some large 
 towns, now huddled in the hollow of the valley, 
 
24 FRANCE. 
 
 now perched on the edge of a plateau, the foot 
 of its ramparts resting on the quay, to which point 
 one of its streets extends 
 
 Two leagues further we behold a real harbor with 
 vessels at anchor, whose sails and fishing nets 
 are drying in the sun, with grazing cattle near at 
 hand, the whole forming a picture set in a frame 
 of placid verdure. 
 
 At length, quite close to the winding of the 
 hill, at the last turn of a tiny river that seems 
 quite like a canal, the estuary widens out boldly 
 into an arm of the sea, and we hear the beating 
 of the surf and the angry roar of the Ocean. 
 
 After this pattern are nearly all the rivers of 
 Britanny, and such is the site of almost all the 
 towns — Dinan, Saint- Brieuc, Morlaix, Quimper, 
 Lorient and Vannes. There are a few excep- 
 tions: Saint- Malo, with the sturdiness of a rock, 
 on its dark peninsula, girt about with ramparts; 
 Brest, placed slopingly on the edge of the deep 
 and narrow cutting which serves it as a port, 
 teeming with the feverish excitement of its busy 
 life. 
 
 The appearance of the coasts is such that it 
 excites admiration; walls of peaked granite, enor- 
 
FRANCE. 25 
 
 mous rocks piled in heaps, high bluffs eaten away 
 at the base, sandy plains half under water, 
 beaches with their wealth of fine sand, and wall 
 after wall of formidable reefs. 
 
 The Ocean constantly gives vent to its fury by 
 threats of loud-voiced rage, except for a few brief 
 Summer days when it is wondrously calm and 
 deeply blue. 
 
 It is at Cape Raz, opposite the island of Sein 
 that it is most to be dreaded. There the earth 
 trembles incessantly under the blows of the 
 monstrous waves. Currents of livid hue hurl 
 themselves across the ruins of the headlands. 
 The abyss foams and rages with a sound as of 
 the caldrons of giants. 
 
 Between Loire and Gironde» — What a contrast we 
 find in the placid calm of the lower Loire ! Even 
 before we have entered the mouth of the river, 
 the shores with their kindly aspect, beginning at 
 the Croisic, the vines and the gardens of Pornic, 
 announce a land of peace and contentment. The 
 rich and populous city of Nantes does not belie this 
 expression. The wide valley is green through- 
 out with parks and pasture lands yielding food to 
 horse and ox. And thus we ascend quietly until 
 
^6 FRANCE, 
 
 we reach Saumur, or crossing the Maine till we 
 enter the land where the broom flourishes even to 
 the foot of Angers, whose gloomy castle is to-day 
 out of harmony with the beaming smile of the 
 modern city. 
 
 Passing through the limpid waters Of the Vienne 
 and the Clain, we gradually ascend the chalky 
 plateau of Poitou. This is the highway from 
 Paris to Bordeaux, the cross road, where in the 
 days of old, the man of the south and the man 
 of the north clashed in deadly conflict many and 
 many a time. 
 
 With the exception of this historic thoroughfare, 
 la Vendée remained in isolation. Here, one 
 always finds the woods and hills of granite, the 
 plain and its wheat lands, the marsh and its flat 
 meadows half submerged. 
 
 The Charente, clear as crystal like all water 
 courses of calcareous lands, passes by the foot of 
 the mountain of Angouleme, furnishes the motive 
 power for paper mills, crosses the famous vine- 
 yards of Cognac, which are to-day ruined by the 
 phylloxera, and becomes muddy in proportion as it 
 nears the sea. 
 
 All this coast, which is horizontal in almost its 
 
FRANCE. 27 
 
 entire length, was formerly eaten away and broken 
 down by the sea. At the present time it is be- 
 coming elevated at certain points, and several of 
 its depressions have been filled up, as, for instance, 
 the ancient gulf of Niort. 
 
 Indeed, no port seems certain of long continuance 
 upon the sea coast of the Charente. Brouage is 
 dead. Rochefort hardly admits of approach, and 
 at La Rochelle it was necessary to dig the huge 
 basins of La Palice at a considerable distance 
 from the ancient port. 
 
 The Basin of Bordeaux*— The lighthouse of 
 Cordouan marks the entrance of the arm of the 
 sea bearing the name of Gironde. To the north 
 are the point of Coubre, the pleasant Royan, and 
 the little calcareous cliffs cut by the sea in the 
 plateau of Charente. (The dialects derived from 
 the langue d'oil are dying away only in the direc- 
 tion of Blaye). 
 
 To the south is the point of Grave, protected by 
 enormous clusters of cemented rocks, a pebbly 
 soil slightly undulating. This is Medoc and its 
 famous vineyards, Château- Margaux, Chateau- 
 Lafitte, Château- Latour. Gascon is the language 
 spoken here, and we find ourselves already in 
 
28 FRANCE. 
 
 the south. At the head of the arm of the sea are 
 two river-mouths, Dordogne and Garonne. But 
 the Dordogne, flowing on the opposite side of the 
 central plateau is a tributary, while the Garonne 
 occupies the lower part of the basin and is the 
 main branch — the real river. 
 
 Shortly Bordeaux makes its appearance, a city 
 of monuments, breathing grace and gaiety, situ- 
 ated in a wide crescent upon the southern bank, to 
 prove more clearly her claim to the title of metro- 
 polis of the southwest. Three leading roads 
 diverge from this center of radiation. Making 
 our way over the Dordogne, we reach the vine- 
 yards of Saint- Emilion, the fertile dales of Peri- 
 gord, with its calcareous plateaus and its oak 
 woods, which are still the haunts of wolves. 
 
 Our way leads us, according to our bent, either 
 to Paris or Lyons. On the south, passing through 
 the Landes, we reach the Adour and Spain. The 
 Landes, besides, do not any longer deserve their 
 name — sandy plains. They were in former 
 times smooth plains scantily covered with furze 
 and heath, marshy and unhealthful, but are 
 to-day salubrious, planted with pines, and the 
 dunes no longer shift at any point along this 
 
FRAJfCÈ. àg 
 
 rectilinear and inhospitable coast, where the break- 
 ers arouse the fury of the Atlantic. 
 
 The Garonne opens to the southwest a third 
 road, this one leading towards Toulouse and the 
 Mediterranean. Blest valley of the Garonne, 
 most highly favored of all, with its golden wines 
 of Sauterne, its orchards, its crops of maize, its 
 pleasant hillsides, its meadows bordered with 
 poplars, and its easy-going towns! Should we 
 turn to the right or to the left, from Agen 
 towards Montauban and Albi, or towards Auch 
 and Tarbes, the very foot of the Causses, or to 
 the threshold of the Pyrenees, we would find but 
 little change in the appearance of the land — the 
 same bright, kindly sky smiles upon all things, 
 inviting to a life of ease. 
 
 Toulouse, the head of Languedoc, is situated half 
 way between the two seas, in a country of greater 
 elevation, but flatter, buffeted by stronger winds, 
 and characterized by greater energy. It seems 
 destined, once the Pyrenees are pierced, to become 
 the principal door of intercourse with Spain. 
 
 The Pyrenees* — The Pyrenees chain of moun- 
 tains that close the harbor of Bordeaux on the south , 
 and which only too effectively separate France 
 
3Ô fHancê. 
 
 and Spain, at their will, is too well-known to 
 tourists and invalids to require any description. 
 
 From Bayonne to Perpignan, what sonorous 
 names and charming scenes ! At the foot of the 
 Basque country, Biarritz, amid the luxurious 
 elegance of its villas, its cliffs and its strands, and 
 at no great distance from Pau, so justly famous 
 for its climate and its wondrous scenery, are the 
 Eaux- Bonnes and the double summit of the peak 
 of the Midi d'Ossau, 
 
 In the Hautes- Pyrénées we have the beauteous 
 valley of Argelès, the health-giving waters of 
 Cauterets, Luz, Bareges, Bagnères, the peak of 
 the Midi de Bigorre, the gap of Roland and the 
 amphitheatre of Gavarnie; towards the sources of 
 the Garonne are Bagnères- de- Luchon, the vale of 
 Aran and the glaciers of Maladetta, and towards 
 the sources of the Ariège are the waters of Ussat 
 and the valley of Andorre. 
 
 Other mountains surpass the Pyrenees in the 
 elevation of their summits and the extent of 
 their fields of snow, but there are none whose 
 sharp profiles cut with greater clearness into the 
 horizon, whose precipitous valleys are at once 
 so wild and charming, whose leafy beeches and 
 
FRANCE. 31 
 
 dark firs, whose vistas of turf mingled with water- 
 falls^ granites^ schists and marble^ are adorned 
 with a light more radiant or more delightful than 
 are those of the Pyrenees. 
 
32 FRANCE. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 FRANCE IN THE INTERIOR OR CENTRAL PLATEAU. 
 
 The Central Plateau as the Crow Flies — General Features — From 
 Limousin to Velay — From Vivarais to Quercy. 
 
 The Central Plateau as the Crow Flies. — (A 
 
 bird's-eye view of the Central Plateau). 
 
 In the interior of France, and as if encased by 
 the uneven rim of its basins and its plains, 
 there is a region squat, hard and compact; this 
 is the central tableland. On the north, the Par- 
 isian basin, on the southwest the basin of Bor- 
 deaux, on the east, the valley and the plains of 
 the Rhône girdle the sides of the plateau, that 
 ancient island composed of granite and of schist, 
 of lava and of basalt, now enclosed as in a prison, 
 by the Continent, and which is no longer even 
 remotely washed by the waters of its nearest 
 neighbor, the Mediterranean Sea. 
 
 The volcanoes that have wrenched asunder the 
 original soil have long been extinct, but they still 
 
FRANCE. $^ 
 
 Stand. Many of their craters have become lakes. 
 On the north, their naked cones, forming a chain 
 of the Dômes, as in a scene by moonlight, are 
 outlined upon their dark pedestals. 
 
 On the south, the Plomb du Cantal forms a 
 central protuberance. 
 
 Other successions of heights composed, some 
 of ancient lands, others, of rocks of volcanic 
 origin extend in regular lines towards the east. 
 Among these are the mountains of la Margeride, 
 those of the Forez and le Velay, and finally, 
 the Cévennes, that mighty barrier forming the 
 southeastern boundary of the whole tableland. 
 
 Such is the solid framework nowhere less than 
 three thousand three hundred feet in height that 
 underlies and maps out boldly Central France. 
 
 On the north, two deep furrows, the Loire and 
 the Allier, quickly widening out into two plains, 
 those of Forez and Limagne, merge in the Par- 
 isian basin. 
 
 On the northwest, across ridges covered with 
 greensward, or crowned with woods, delighting 
 the eye with their moist verdure, we come to 
 innumerable spongy moats hollowed out of the 
 soil, and converging, fanlike in ever closer union. 
 
34 FRANCE. 
 
 to terminate in deep indentations, thus forming the 
 valley of the Cher, of the Indre, of the Creuse, 
 (which well deserves its name), and that of the 
 Vienne, the brown waters of which seem from 
 the very outset to flow in a direct line to the 
 Ocean. 
 
 On the southwest flow the waters of the Isle, 
 the Vézère, the Correze, the Dordogne, the Lot, 
 the Aveyron, the Tarn, all tributaries of the 
 Bordeaux basin. But before reaching the river, 
 each has been obliged to hollow out its own bed 
 in the calcareous heights or causses, those deposits 
 of Jurassic and cretacean formation left by the 
 seas upon the sides of the central tableland. 
 
 Finally, on the southeast, the Cévenole ram- 
 part descends towards the plain with a sudden- 
 ness so abrupt as to leave only a passage for 
 broken torrents, quickly swollen by the tempest, 
 and as quickly emptied, but terrible in their 
 bursts of rage, such as the Orb, the Hérault, the 
 Gard, and the Ardeche. 
 
 General Features» — The central tableland was 
 the heart of the resistance offered by the Celts to 
 the Romans. It might become, in case of in- 
 vasion, the last rallying point of France. Skirted, 
 
FkANCÉ. 35 
 
 surrounded, but not crossed by natural roads, 
 like Britanny, it long opposed a force of inertia 
 to the movement which drew, one by one, the 
 provinces within the orbit of the monarchy. 
 
 Not until the Sixteenth Century did it become 
 royal territory. Like all mountainous countries, 
 it has a climate variable and harsh. In winter 
 it is subject to prolonged snowstorms or violent 
 rain squalls; in summer, to periods of oppressive 
 heat and to mighty tempests. In appearance, in 
 race, in language, it belongs, above all to the 
 South. 
 
 If the pasture lands, with their thick, rich grass 
 are full of cattle ; if the dark fir groves, or clust- 
 ers of chestnut trees with their delicate green, 
 cover the sides of the mountains; if the water 
 that trickles over impenetrable rocks accumulates 
 in the hollow of the plateau in rings of lakes 
 and pools; if much in the scenes presented re- 
 minds one of Normandy, nevertheless, the vire 
 covers the hillsides as with a carpet, the plains 
 are full to overflowing with fruits, and a truly 
 southern sun burns the land to a hue that is 
 either dark, or fiery red. 
 
 The inhabifants, solid, determined, industrious 
 
36 FRANCE. 
 
 and practical, are animated by a gaiety partak- 
 ing somewhat of heaviness, but which is really 
 characteristic of Gascony. In proof of this, 
 watch the natives of Auvergne, as they take part 
 in la bourrée^ their national dance 
 
 The language of the conquerors of the North 
 succeeded in descending the Saône, and from 
 Lyons reached even to Saint- Etienne; it suc- 
 ceeded, in passing the Charente, by the gap 
 of Poitou, and in creeping even as far as the 
 Gironde. It did not enter the central plateau, 
 but stayed within the boundaries of Bourbonnais. 
 
 Montluçon, in the plain watered by the Cher, 
 is a town, the language of which is purely 
 French. Advance a few miles towards the south ; 
 climb the slope of the plateau, the edge of which 
 is occupied by Néris, and you will at once remark 
 the thick consonants and sonorous vowels of the 
 patois of Auvergne. 
 
 From Limousin to Velay. — The rain-bearing 
 winds coming from the Ocean, water, in a special 
 degree the west of the plateau, and cause the 
 verdure there to be of a deeper green than else- 
 where. But, between the thick woods of lower 
 Limousin and those of the Marche, extend the 
 
FRANCE, 37 
 
 sombre and barren ridges of the plateau of Mille - 
 vache, where the traveler may walk whole hours 
 without beholding a single tree. 
 
 Limoges, celebrated for its porcelains, its 
 wooden shoes and its chesmuts, is the great 
 centre of the western region, and the principal 
 station between Paris and Toulouse. 
 
 In the depths of a green valley watered by the 
 Creuse at its source, Aubusson affords shelter to 
 its carpet factories. The Allier is the great 
 artery of the tableland, flowing as it does through 
 the heart of Auvergne, the principal province. It 
 has opened the way to the main railroad of the 
 country, that which establishes direct communi- 
 cation between Paris and Languedoc, by way of 
 Clermont. 
 
 The river Allier is also the road leading to those 
 thermal springs to which visitors flock by the 
 thousand every year; to the magnificent Vichy, 
 where are found the most important bathing es- 
 tablishments of Europe ; to Royat, with its dainty 
 villas and bright cascades; to the Mont- Dore, to 
 the Bourboule. It is the road to favored Limagne, 
 where Clermont reigns, from the summit of its 
 pyal mountain; to the Puy-d^-Ppme, wherç 
 
38 TRANCE. 
 
 its observatory raises its lofty head hard by the 
 ruins of a Roman temple ; to the ancient Gergovie ; 
 to so many Roman churches, the dark sculptures 
 of which leer at us in fantastic figures. In short, 
 it is the road to those wild defiles reaching 
 back, stage by stage, to the very foot of Mount 
 Lozère. 
 
 The valley of the Loire that formerly spread 
 itself out into that vast lake, the Forez, to-day 
 dried up like the Limagne, leads to Saint- Etienne, 
 a great manufacturing city, which, by a happy 
 contrast, while producing the prime necessities, 
 coal and iron, produces also, a delicate and many 
 colored flower, the ribbon. The upper Loire, 
 the mountains of the Velay and of the Viva- 
 rais, have a beauty peculiar to themselves, of 
 which the town of le Puy offers a very strange 
 epitome. 
 
 In the middle of a noble amphitheatre, whose 
 reddish mountains are dotted with forests, and 
 which has on its western side the natural organs 
 of Espaly for a colonnade, from a smiling plain 
 rise needle-like columns of basalt, conical in shape. 
 Upon one of these, a colossal bronze virgin has 
 been erected; upon the others, chapels. 
 
FRANCE. 39 
 
 The smoke- stained city is built on a volcanic 
 eminence, from which it stretches forth its more 
 modern quarters, its streets and its promenades 
 that reach to the very edge of a stream 
 
 From Le Vivarais to Le Quercy* — The slope of 
 the Rhône is no less rich in picturesque scenes 
 than that of the Loire. The mountains of the 
 Vivarais raise their wild and picturesque slopes 
 in successive stages and with clear-cut lines to 
 the very banks of the Alpine river. They extend 
 from Mount Pilatus to Mount Mezenc, and to the 
 Gerbier des Joncs, the source of the Loire. 
 
 It is here that the real Cevennes begin with 
 their crests bathed in light, with their precipitous 
 clefts, with their terrible winds and their en- 
 chanting valleys. The majority of the towns are 
 clustered at the foot of the mountain in some de- 
 pression not far distant from the plain. This is 
 the rude country where the Camisards held in 
 check several armies of Louis XIV. 
 
 Over the Garrigues mountains and stony pla- 
 teaux, deriving their name from the green and 
 stunted oaks with which they are covered, we 
 arrive at the causses — one might as well say the 
 desert. Upon their smooth, gray surface there is 
 
40 . FRANCE. 
 
 neither tree, house, water, nor even any soil 
 upon which a plant will grow ; only scanty herb- 
 age, on which sheep are grazing while at long 
 intervals are seen some natural wells or aven, a 
 sort of dark, yawning abyss. Suddenly this 
 desert comes to an end at the edge of a precipice; 
 it is a valley, or rather an open passage hollowed 
 out by some watercourse through the friable mass 
 of limestone, whilst in the interior of the causse 
 other subterranean corridors wind, other hidden 
 rivers flow with which we are just becoming 
 acquainted. 
 
 Over a slope of fallen earth and a zigzag path- 
 way, between hazel trees and wild gooseberry 
 bushes we descend to the bottom of the valley 
 at first wide enough to form a plain, then narrow, 
 dark and gloomy. Here we meet a town like 
 Mende, lost in the depths of a sort of funnel, while 
 yonder we see the wild and fantastic gorges of the 
 Tarn and Montpellier-le- Vieux, which hidden in 
 the midst of the desert of the Gevaudan remained 
 long unknown. Again, a wide strip of granitic 
 formation descending from the Cantal forms the 
 Rouergue, advances over the Black Mountains to 
 the ver^ threshold of Nat^rouse and intervenes 
 
FRANCE. 4Î 
 
 between the causses of the Upper Tarn and those 
 of the Quercy. 
 
 .Soon scenes of life reappear; noble horizons, 
 wide mountain slopes dotted with verdure, charm- 
 ing brooks flowing between banks of granite, 
 copsewood, meadows and towns, like Rodez, 
 perched upon a kind of aerial observatory. 
 
 Two railroads of recent construction connect 
 this portion of the southern slope of the plateau 
 with Clermont, and the north of France; one by 
 the way of Saint- Flour crosses the famous iron 
 bridge of Garabit, a horizontal fac- simile of the 
 Eiffel Tower, and reaches Beziers; the other, 
 through Aurillac and its rich pasture lands, directs 
 its course toward the Garonne. 
 
 On this side the central plateau advances very 
 far; in Perigord, to the very outskirts of Pe i- 
 gueux; in Limousin, as far as Brive. It encloses 
 with its cliffs that have been eaten away by the 
 successive incursions of the waters, the valleys of 
 the Dordogne and the Lot, girdling Cahors and 
 its calcareous plateau, from which, unhappily, the 
 vine has almost disappeared. 
 
 Thus ten departments belong incontestably to 
 the central plateau which, however, touches upon 
 
42 FRANCE. 
 
 twelve others. It raises one of its ancient vol- 
 canoes at Agde, and sends one of its advanced 
 forts, the Morvan, as far as Nivernais. It covers, 
 in reality, more than a fourth part of the territory. 
 
FRANCE. 43 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 SOUTHEASTERN FRANCE, OR THE SLOPE OF THE 
 MEDITERREAN. 
 
 Extent of Southeastern France — Jura and Franche-Comté — Saône 
 and Burgundy — Lyons and the Rhône — The French Alps — 
 Savoy and Dauphiny — Western Shore of the Mediterranean 
 — Lower Languedoc and Roussillon — Eastern Shore of the 
 Mediterranean — Provence — Corsica. 
 
 Extent of Southeastern France. — The Alps, 
 Mount Jura and the Vosges, the central tableland, 
 the Pyrenees, such are the limits of the four 
 corners of Southeastern France. The deep de- 
 pression which it occupies is a tertiary basin com- 
 parable to those of Paris and Bordeaux, but quite 
 different in shape, running lengthwise like a 
 huge cleft, instead of rounding itself into a semi- 
 circle. 
 
 This basin is composed, in reality, of three 
 different depressions, the plain of the Saône, 
 the valley of the Rhône and the shore of the Med- 
 
44 * FRANCE. 
 
 iterranean. It is the Mediterranean, which, being 
 united with the water- shed, receives all of its 
 waters; it is the sea that sends thither in puffs a 
 warm breeze, forming towards the noith the suc- 
 cessive limits of the zones of the olive, the green 
 oak, the mulberry tree and maize. It is from the 
 Mediterranean that those great natural roads 
 issue, the direction of which explains, in large 
 measure, the history of Southeastern France, viz., 
 the road along the seacoast, prolonged by way of 
 the entrance to Naurouse as far as the Garonne, 
 and that of the Rhône and the Saône leading on 
 one side to the Seine, and on the other to the 
 Rhine. 
 
 Jura and Ff anche-Comte»— A calcareous plateau, 
 the mass of which is wrinkled by parallel furrows, 
 themselves split by many fractures, valleys or 
 ^^;;2 to /encircled by fir trees, gaps or defiles 
 which the rivers, and particularly the Doubs, cross 
 in cascades of foam ; springs hidden in the copses 
 at the foot of crumbling cliffs; a climate rough 
 and changeable ; snows upon the mountain crests 
 and vines ripening at their feet; a race of men 
 tall and strong, a little slow, but industrious, 
 thoughtful and tenacious — such are Jura and 
 
FRANCE. 45 
 
 Franche- Comté — such are the people of Franche- 
 Comté. 
 
 On the mountains they are breeders of cattle, 
 makers of Gruyère cheese; on the edge of the 
 plain they are vine-dressers ; elsewhere they 
 are dealers in toys, or ironmasters and workmen, 
 while clockmakers are to be met with everywhere. 
 The center of the last-mentioned industry is 
 Besançon, the ' ' old Spanish city, " nearly encircled 
 by the river Doubs closely walled in and sur- 
 rounded at a distance by powerful forts. 
 
 Other works defend the different passes of the 
 mountain, and, above all, that which leads from 
 Pontarlier to Neuchatel and to the Roman country. 
 On the northeast the road to the Rhine is guarded 
 by Belfort, that orphaned child of Alsace, the 
 heroic defence of which, in 1870, is commemorated 
 by a huge lion carved out of the rock of its citadel. 
 
 Saone and Burgundy» — The Saône, which has 
 opened for itself above Lyons a passage towards 
 the Rhône, formerly covered a portion of Bur- 
 gundy with a lake. It has remained a peaceful 
 river, abandoning regretfully its fair meadows 
 with their pleasant horizons. Its valley is one of 
 the richest portions of France for the raising of 
 
46 PRANCE. 
 
 wheat, maize, and crops requiring cultivation. 
 Its hills upon the right banks are covered with 
 those noble vines that produce the wines of Bur- 
 gundy, and their celebrated brands of Chamber- 
 tin, clos Vougeot, Gorton, Pommard, Volnay and 
 Meursault. 
 
 To the north, Dijon, the ancient capital, its 
 youth renewed, the necessities of the present time 
 having made it the center of an intrenched camp, 
 protects the tunnel of Blaisy, the culminating 
 point of the grand, historic road leading from Paris 
 to Lyons and the Mediterranean. 
 
 Not far from there, on Mount Auxois, the an- 
 cient Alesia, a monumental statue erected in mem- 
 ory of Vercingetorix, indicates the spot adjoining 
 the line of separation between the water- sheds 
 of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic where the 
 South conquered the North, and where Julius 
 Caesar changed for centuries the destinies of Gaul. 
 
 The girdle of plateaux, extending to the north 
 and east of Dijon, on one side towards the fort- 
 ress of Langres, on the other, towards the ancient 
 Roman city of Au tun, is covered with high woods. 
 Towards the middle of the plain the industrious 
 Chalons is the starting-point of the canals diverg- 
 
fRANCÈ. 47 
 
 ing towards the Rhine, the Meuse, the Marne, 
 the Seine and the Loire. On this side the coal- 
 bearing basin of Blanzy has given birth to the 
 greatest métallurgie establishment in France, the 
 enormous works of Creusot. 
 
 In the meadows of the Charolais graze the great 
 white oxen whose flesh contributes to the sus- 
 tenance of Paris. Macon and its vineyards, 
 Bourg and its church of Brou, that masterpiece 
 of Gothic art blended with that of the Renais- 
 sance, mark the southern border of lower Bur- 
 gundy. 
 
 Lyons and the Rhone* — Just after its escape 
 from the glaciers of the Alps, the torrent of the 
 Rhône has hardly recovered breath in the Lake 
 of Geneva, when it darts forth afresh, forces the 
 Jura, and at first seems inclined, as formerly, to 
 join the Lake of le Bourget and the river Isère; 
 it turns now to the north, now to the west, skirting 
 the plateau of the Dombes, studded with tiny 
 ponds, and, reaching Lyons, hurls itself against 
 the Cevennes which compel it to take a new 
 winding course, 
 
 Lyons occupies an incomparable situation. 
 Ascend Notre-Dame de Fourvière and look. At 
 
48 ÈRANCÈ. 
 
 its feet, near the confluence of the Saône and the 
 Rhône is the site of the old city with the vener- 
 able church of St. John ; between the arms of the 
 two water- courses, bordered by enormous quays, 
 stands the modern city with its palaces and its 
 immense square of Bellecour; beyond the Rhône 
 is the commercial quarter of the Brotteaux, re- 
 sembling a chess-board of streets running at right 
 angles; on the north, the suburb of la Croix- 
 Rousse where the workmen live in houses occupy- 
 ing successive elevations and arranged in concen- 
 tric groups like an amphitheatre; further in the 
 distance, are the two green-framed openings of the 
 river and its tributary, outlines of towns, work- 
 shops and fortresses seen only dimly in the mist. 
 
 Lyons is the principal city of provincial France, 
 the metropolis of an entire region given over to 
 industry, the heart of the defence of the southeast ; 
 in short, by reason of its prolific display of scien- 
 tific, artistic and literary activity, it is in a meas- 
 ure a second capital. 
 
 A thick fog too often envelops Lyons and 
 hides both banks of the river from the eyes of the 
 traveler descending the Rhône. But after the 
 smoky chimneys of Givors and Vienne have been 
 
FRANCE. 49 
 
 left behind, it is seldom that the sun is not in 
 evidence. 
 
 Then Mount Pilatus shows itself, and on the 
 west, the tempest beaten tablelands of the Vivarais 
 begin, while on the east, the plateau of lower 
 Dauphiny come into view. On every side flourish 
 those vineyards whose most renowned growths 
 are Côte- Rôtie, the Ermitage and Saint- Péray. 
 
 Then the mountains become closer, while at the 
 same time they give passage to the wide tributaries" 
 of the Isère, of the Erieux, of the Drome ; these 
 mountains surround Valence, situated on the edge 
 of its productive gardens, they look down upon 
 the iron mills and the lime works of the Ardeche, 
 shutting in the wild scenery of Viviers, and they 
 approach each other so closely that the river at 
 Donzère has barely room to squeeze through, 
 literally gnawing away the foot of the cliffs as it 
 passes Beyond this, the first olive trees are seen 
 — we are just entering Provence. 
 
 The French Alps — ^Savoy and Dauphmy» — Ex- 
 tending from the Lake of Geneva to the Mediter- 
 ranean and the valley of the Rhône, the Alps 
 form in France a wall of imposing thickness. The 
 çubordiuate Alps of Savoy stand out like mag- 
 
50 FRANCE. 
 
 nificent staircases, of which the threshold is a 
 smiHng plain, while the steps give lodgment to 
 villages and forests. 
 
 They abound in delightful scenes, such as the 
 shores of Lake Geneva, with Evian and its mineral 
 waters; the gorges of le Fier, the romantic lake 
 D'Annecy, the noisy city of Aix, with its baths 
 near the sombre lake of le Bourget, and the old 
 castle of Chambery. 
 
 But Savoy's greatest charm lies in the fact that 
 on the horizon of each of its scenic tableaux is 
 outlined the dazzling profile of the glaciers and 
 the snowy summits of the great Alp chain, and 
 that, towards sunset, Mont Blanc* seems to float 
 in an azure sea, and to gleam and glow in myriads 
 of dazzling tints 
 
 *The height of Mont Blanc is about 15,000 feet. Of late years, 
 it has been proposed to build a railway with an elevated shaft 
 almost to the summit. The work ii to be done in three sections, 
 an open-air railway, a. Tower and upper tunnel. The first sec- 
 tion is to start near the Sallanches-Chamounix line and to go 
 along the left side of the Arve valley to Tacouney, 1,100 metres 
 above the sea, where the lower tunnel is to begin. The engineers 
 propose that it should run on the left shore of the Tacouney 
 glacier toward the peak Gros Buchard on the Aiguille du GouLer. 
 The lower tunnel will be about 3^ miles in length, and end at an 
 altitude of 3,843 metres (12 605 feet,) where a hotel will be 
 erected. The upper tunnel is to be in two parts, the first under 
 
PRANCE. 51 
 
 At the base of this king of European mountains, 
 the folds and the breaks of the Alpine chain fur- 
 nish numerous natural passes from France into 
 Italy. By way of the narrow pass of the little St. 
 Bernard, la Tarentaise, watered by the Isère, com- 
 municates with the valley of Aosta, still half 
 French in language. 
 
 Over the pass of Mont Cenis, the narrow Mau- 
 rienne, through which the Arc flows, conducts us 
 directly to Suse. The tunnel of Fréjus, nine 
 miles long, leading in a straight line from Lyons 
 to Turin, has supplanted the ancient, classic roads 
 followed by travelers and armies. 
 
 The Graian Alps, the stern summit of which is 
 Grande-Casse, are less visited than their neigh- 
 bors, the Alps of Dauphiny. Grenoble, situated 
 
 the Dôme du Goûter, i}4 miles long, ending at a height of 4,362 
 metres (14 307 feet ) The second part will continue to the Great 
 Plateau, under the Rochers des Bosses and end. at the Petits 
 Rochers rouges, 4.580 metres above sea (15,022 feet.) The sum- 
 mit of the Petits Mulets is no metres higher and cannot be 
 reached by rail on account of the ice, but will be gained by an 
 elevator. The true summit is 220 metres higher, and must be 
 reached on foot, or else by rope railway. The cost is estimated 
 at 21,000,000 francs, or $4 250,000. The line will be an electric 
 cog-railway, and the power is to come from the waters of the 
 Arve. It is expected that travelers can be landed at the Aiguille 
 du Goûter in July, 1902.— [Ed. Note ] 
 
52 FRANCE. 
 
 on the banks of the Isère, at the outlet of the rich 
 valley of Gresivaudan, in the midst of a magnifi- 
 cent circle of mountains, the solid capital of that 
 Dauphiny which has produced so many great cap- 
 tains, is the usual center of excursions. 
 
 From Grenoble we go to the waters of tfriagé" 
 and Allevard. We visit on the north, in its awe- 
 inspiring solitude, the convent of la Grande- 
 Chartreuse; on the south, we are confronted by 
 another group of calcareous rocks no less pic- 
 turesque, the Grande- Moucherolle; on the east, 
 we are face to face with the slate or granite' table- 
 lands, the gloomy abysses, the glaciers of the 
 Grandes Rousses and of le Pelvoux, overlooked 
 by the Barre des Ecrins from its height of 13,500 
 feet. 
 
 A road very much frequented is that which as- 
 cends from Grenoble to Vizille, crosses the wild 
 scenery of L'Oisans, and, over the pass of le 
 Lauteret, reaches the sources of the Durance, 
 Briançon, and the pass of Mount Genevre. 
 
 In proportion as we increase our distance from 
 Grenoble in a southerly direction, the Alps 
 gradually become bare and denuded of their 
 natural mantle of wood or turf, finding themselves 
 
FRANCE. 53 
 
 exposed without defence to the wind, the frost, 
 sun and rain, crumble away and become seamed 
 with ravines, or fall slowly into pieces. 
 
 The sight of this crumbling of the mountains is 
 particularly saddening in the Devoluy. Vast works 
 of re-foresting and renewing the turf have been 
 undertaken in this region in order to restore the 
 outer covering which has been torn from the 
 mountains, and also to put an end to the torrents. 
 Already, the Drac, the Buech and the Durance 
 flow more uniformly, and no longer with the same 
 torrential floods. 
 
 The Western Shore of the Mediterranean: 
 Lower Languedoc and Rousillon. — On the other 
 side of the Rhône, the torrents descending from 
 the central plateau are even more terrible than 
 those of the Alps, because their fall is more 
 abrupt. These streams have been known to rise 
 in a few hours from 33 to 38 feet, and then, after 
 this fit of transitory madness, subside again 
 to their usual condition of a mere thread of water. 
 
 They bring to the river, or they deposit at their 
 mouths, upon the flat sea- coast much alluvial 
 matter. They have thus formed along Lower 
 Languedoc a succession of deltas close to each 
 
54 FRANCE. 
 
 other, a slender barrier of sand, thus creating a 
 new coast, cut here and there by a few openings 
 or graus^ confining marshes bordered by reeds, 
 willows, statices and tamarisks. Gales of unex- 
 pected violence descend now from the mountain, 
 and again from the sea, strike the plain where the 
 vigorous vine spreads on all sides its verdant 
 branches. 
 
 The porte of Cette is the principal outlet of this 
 enormous vineyard, the most productive of all 
 France. 
 
 The towns are situated at some distance from 
 the marshes, the fevers of which are even to-day 
 dreaded. Among these towns are Nimes, an 
 ancient Roman city, that proudly displays its 
 Arena and its " Square House," and which, owing 
 to the neighborhood of the coal- bearing basin of 
 Alais, has become a manufacturing center; Mont- 
 pelier, a city devoted to the interests of learning, 
 proud of her museums and promenades; Béziers 
 and Narbonne, noisy marts of commerce; Car- 
 cassonne, at the extreme limit of the Mediterra- 
 nean belt, with a lofty town that is a model of the 
 military architecture of the middle ages. 
 
 Here the Çéveniacs make way for the Corbieres 
 
FRANCE. 55 
 
 on the other side of the entrance to Naurouse. 
 The Aude pierces, in grand defiles the calcareous 
 walls that serve as a pedestal to the Pyrenees, 
 while at the same time it separates Languedoc 
 from Rousillon. 
 
 Then, the vine-bearing plain, narrowing an in- 
 stant, widens out anew, while far in the distance, 
 the Canigou lifts to the horizon its proud crest. 
 Perpignan appears surrounded by a scarf, almost 
 Andalusian, of tufted trees and market- gardens. 
 
 The sky becomes higher and more translucent, 
 and the sun hotter. The coast attains a greater 
 elevation, and the marshes have disappeared. 
 The mountains descend and bathe their feet in the 
 sea, and afford the shelter of tiny ports to the 
 fishing smacks; the pomegranate and the orange 
 tree bloom in the gardens; the roofs are hidden 
 beneath the shade of the micocouliers; the hill- 
 side, rising in terraces, produce that intoxicating 
 wine, which, when it ages, is called rancio. 
 
 Wide and sonorous valleys ascend with widen- 
 ing course, and make their way across the 
 Pyrenees, and pasture lands succeeding pasture 
 lands terminate in the precipitous passes that lead 
 to Spain, 
 
56 FRANCE. 
 
 The Eastern Coast of the Mediterranean: Pro- 
 vence. — To the breakwater of the Pyrenees, on 
 the other side of the Gulf of Lyons, facing the 
 east, is the mole of the sharp- peaked mountains of 
 Provence, which are themselves supported on one 
 side by the Cottian and Maritime Alps, on the 
 other by the Alps of Dauphiny. 
 
 The latter, in a supreme effort, have raised 
 towards the south Mount Ventoux, the naked back 
 of which, at the edge of the valley of the Rhône, 
 attains an elevation of 6,300 feet. At its base, it 
 commands Orange and its ancient theatre, wind- 
 swept Avignon with its rock of les Doms and its 
 palace of the Popes flanked by formidable walls, 
 the fountain of Vancluse, celebrated in the strains 
 of Petrarch, and the rich plain of Comtat. 
 
 In the distance, the river with its swift, golden 
 waters, passes between the old castle of Tarascon 
 and Beaucaire, whose fair, even in recent times, 
 resembled that of Nij ni- Novgorod. Under the 
 walls of Aries, no less celebrated for the costumes 
 and beauty of its women than for its Roman ruins 
 and its Roman church of Saint Trophime, the 
 river becomes more placid, then divides itself, and 
 with its languid arms embraces la Camarque, 
 
FRANCE. 57 
 
 wliicli is half meadow, half marsh, a stretch of 
 land which, while not under cultivation, is 
 naturally rich and must soon yield to the mastery 
 of the plough, 
 
 The pebbles, cartied down "by the Dtiranee, 
 formed in ancient times the desert of the Grati, 
 èi5:tending as far as that little inland sea, the pool 
 of Berre. This impetuous Durance, which at one 
 time threatens to submerge the valleys, at another, 
 struggles along in a huge bed in the form of in- 
 significant currents of muddy water, is one of the 
 highways of the southeast. 
 
 As we ascend its stream, we have behind us, oil 
 the south àmid the Alpines, the deserted town of 
 les Baux, a kind of mediaeval Pompeii, and pass- 
 ing close to Cavaillon, famous for its melons, and 
 near several ancient Vaudois villages, we reach 
 the peculiar sluice protected by the fortress of Sis- 
 teron, upon the extreme frontier of Dauphiny. 
 
 Between the river Durance and the sea extends 
 the true Provence, with sharp peaks, high walls of 
 chalk, white, yellow or gray, rocky plateaux 
 scantily covered with evergreen oaks, with junip- 
 ers, lavender, sage and thyme, dry pasture lands, 
 traversed by grazing flocks, unproductive hills on 
 
58 FRANCE. 
 
 which are planted almond trees, figs and olives, 
 narrow valleys where the fields of red earth fringe 
 rivulets concealed beneath the reeds and oaks, 
 where, at long intervals, we see some green oasis 
 of irrigated meadows bounded by rows of plane 
 and mulberry trees. 
 
 Such are the surroundings of Digue, of Aix, of 
 Draguignan, and all the Provencal cities. A 
 sparkling sun in a cloudless sky gilds everything 
 with a delightful smile, especially along that 
 "azure coast" from Marseilles to the Italian 
 frontier. 
 
 Marseilles is the "harbor of France " upon the 
 Mediterranean, the greatest of French seaports. 
 With its factories and brick- works ever increasing 
 in importance, its forests of masts, its packet- 
 boats going and coming from every quarter of the 
 globe, its shady walks thronged by strollers, its 
 Cannebiere, where crowds of people talking and 
 gesticulating in most lively fashion hurry along; 
 where representatives of every race elbow each 
 other, Marseilles, with its noble buildings and its 
 steep hill of Notra-Dame de la Garde, with its 
 double girdle of blooming gardens and blue sea, 
 with precipitous rocks rising from the edge of the 
 
FRANCE. 59 
 
 plain and above the waves, the ancient Phocaean 
 colony has a physiognomy and a charm peculiarlv- 
 its own. 
 
 Toulon, backed against magnificent mountains, 
 whose summits are crowned by fortification - 
 shelters in the recesses of a splendid roadstead ii.. 
 shipyards, its fleets of torpedo boats, of cruiser.; 
 and iron clads. 
 
 And now the cacti and the palm grow luxu 
 riantly in the open country. As we leave Hyercs, 
 our eyes are gladdened by the sight of orange 
 trees. The country assumes an aspect more and 
 more African in its character. 
 
 The tableland of les Maures and the Esterel are 
 covered with cork trees. The cultivation of early 
 vegetables as well as of early fruits and flowers, 
 contributes to the adornment of the country. 
 
 Beneath the shelter afforded by the Alps, the 
 climate is so mild that the river resorts, foremost 
 among which are Cannes and Nice, attract in ever 
 increasing numbers, tourists and seekers after 
 health, as well as the adventurers of both conti- 
 nents. The favorite haunt of the latter is the 
 Casino of Monte Carlo, in the principality of 
 Monaco. Finally comes Menton, the last French 
 
 J 
 
6o FRANCE. 
 
 city on the Italian side, which resembles a hot- 
 house with its atmosphere even warmer and fra- 
 grant with delicate perfumes. 
 
 Corsica. — With Provence is naturally connected 
 Corsica, an Alpine region, though separated from 
 the Alps. Some ten of its summits exceed 6,500 
 feet in height, while several approach 9, 100, The 
 highest of all, Monte Cinto, lacks 325 feet of being 
 as elevated as the peak of the Midi de Bigorre. 
 
 Skirting the marshy borders of the eastern 
 coast, gulfs of granite, or of limestone are lapped 
 by deep and lucent waters; these are encircled by 
 mighty mountains, clothed in verdure of many 
 hues, whose sides open the way to wide valleys, 
 affording, in the distance, glimpses of peaks 
 covered with snow rearing their summits heaven- 
 wards through a gilded mist, behind forests of 
 olives, of green oaks, chestnuts and fir trees. 
 
 Monotonous heaths, on which the asphodel 
 blooms, alternate with melancholy maquis thickets 
 and smiling villages surrounded by orange trees 
 and vines. Penetrating perfumes emanate from 
 copses of rose-wood and resinous forests. In 
 Cape Corse springs gush forth in waterfalls be- 
 neath green arbgrs, Tq the nprth of the immense 
 
FRANCE. 6 1 
 
 foadstead of Ajaccio, cliffs of varied hues, green, 
 black, yellow, or red, are cut into pyramids or in- 
 dented bastions. 
 
 The variety of scenery presented in Corsica is 
 charraing. The population of the island, so origi 
 nal in its character, with its independent spirit, 
 joined to a profound veneration for France, 
 wedded as it is to the vendetta and famed foi* 
 hospitality, is not the least interesting subject of 
 study furnished to the tourist. 
 
02 PRANCE. 
 
 PART V. 
 
 FRANCE IN HISTORY DURING THE EARLY CENTURIËS 
 
 AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Pre-historic Times — Gaul — Feudal France and its Heroic Age — 
 Decline of Feudalism — Formation of Royalty — Of the Middle 
 Classes and of Unified France. 
 
 Pre-historic Times. — A whole world of men ex- 
 isted before the dawn of history. Several of these 
 pre-historic races lived in France. They were at 
 first savages with long" and narrow skulls, hunters 
 armed with stone hatchets Contemporaries of 
 the mammoth. Then came the reindeer age with 
 its cave-dwellers, workers in bone and wood, 
 whose remains the spade has brought to light in 
 the beautiful caverns of la Vezere. 
 
 Finally came invaders with heads short and 
 broad, tillers of the soil and weavers, accompanied 
 by domestic animals. These soon provided them- 
 selves with weapons of bronze ; they preferred to 
 live in dwellings raised on piles. It was they who 
 
FRANCE. 63 
 
 built the menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs and the 
 celebrated lines of Cornac. 
 
 Gaul. — The true ancestors of the French are the 
 Gauls, those adventurous warriors, eloquent and 
 light-hearted, reckless and generous, masters of 
 the whole country included within the Pyrenees, 
 the Alps and the Rhine, whence they had swarmed 
 over the north of Spain and Italy into the valley 
 of the Danube, and had founded a state even in 
 Asia Minor. 
 
 Gaul, at first independent, then conquered and 
 civilized by the Romans, became Christian. 
 
 In the fifth century the country suffered from 
 the invasions of barbarians who, while devasting 
 it, invigorated it with blood. It was then gov- 
 erned by two dynasties of Prankish kings ; then in 
 the middle century it fell into a state of horrible 
 anarchy, a pregnant chaos, from which a new 
 society was born. 
 
 During the preliminary period of French his- 
 tory, several striking figures stand out boldly from 
 the darkness. Let us mention Vercingetorix, the 
 heroic man of Arverne, the defender of the inde- 
 pendence of the Gauls, the ill-starred adversary 
 of Caesar; Antoine, the wise emperor, who was a 
 
64 FRANCE. 
 
 native of Nîmes; St. Blandine, the young Chris- 
 tian slave, tortured in the amphitheatre at Lyons, 
 the first martyr of the Gauls, who glorified alike 
 Christianity and her womanhood by her endurance 
 of suffering and her resistance of temptations; 
 St. Geneviève, who revived the fainting courage 
 of the people of Paris on the approach of Attila; 
 Charlemagne, the most illustrious chieftain of the 
 Franks, the founder of the ephemeral empire of the 
 west, the conqueror and organizer of Germany, 
 who restored letters; that great captain, whose 
 exploits, handed down from father to son, became 
 the theme of song and story in the middle ages. 
 
 The principal monuments of this period are 
 temples, amphitheatres, theatres, gates and 
 bridges built by the Gallo- Romans. They bear 
 witness to the material prosperity of Gaul during 
 the first four centuries of our era. These are 
 numerous, particularly in the south, at Nîmes, 
 Arles and Orange. 
 
 As for Christian art, it was long content to copy, 
 while disfiguring them, the remains of Gallo- 
 Roman art in its period of decay. 
 
 It was only in the eleventh century that it be- 
 came original. 
 
FRANCE. 65 
 
 Feudel France in its Hetoic A§:e* — Iberians and 
 Ligurians, Celts and Belgians, Phoenicians, Greeks 
 and Romans, such was in some sort the rich and 
 solid paste of which ancient France was formed. 
 The wise institutions of Rome kneaded it; from 
 the shock of the Barbarians, Burgundians and 
 Wisigoths, Franks and Scandinavians, it derived, 
 as it were, a mighty and fermenting leaven. In 
 this manner feudalism was born, and, with it, the 
 French nation. 
 
 In the tenth century France has her chiefs, her 
 lay lords, and her lords of the church ; her hier- 
 archy of suzerains and vassals. The lords divide 
 the soil among themselves; they inhabit strong 
 castles within which they are absolute masters. 
 They have as subjects slaves and serfs; in the safe 
 recesses of their castles they barely recognize the 
 normal authority of a king. 
 
 The society has one faith, Catholicism; one 
 system of law, the feudel law; one language, the 
 French language or langue d'oil, which, by de- 
 grees, was evolved from rustic Latin ; one poem, 
 the story of Roland; one poesy vibrant with life, 
 chivalry. 
 
 Scarcely had feudal France sprung into existence 
 
 i 
 
66 FRANCE. 
 
 and become organized, when it was seized with an 
 overpowering necessity to move and expand. At 
 the beginning of the eleventh century, the Nor- 
 mans were waging war in Italy; they obtained 
 possession of Sicily. It was the same Normans 
 who achieved the conquest of England. Other 
 French knights founded dynasties in Castile and 
 in Portugal. At length the Crusade first pro- 
 claimed at Clermont (1095) making its way outside 
 the borders of France, worked all Christendom 
 into a mighty ferment. 
 
 The celebrities of that time were all men of 
 action and Frenchmen of the north. Prominent 
 among these are William the Conquerer, of 
 Falaise; Peter the Hermit of Amiens, one of the 
 apostles of the crusade ; Godfrey of Bouillon, from 
 Flemish Brabant, the founder of the Frankish 
 Kingdom of Jerusalem. 
 
 The monuments are churches in the Roman 
 style, squat in shape, characterized by ornaments, 
 either crude or eccentric, almost all raised by 
 monks. Such are Saint Trophime, at Aries ; 
 St. Peters, at Angouleme; St. Hilary, at Reims; 
 St. Etienne, a4: Caen.; St. Germain des Prês^ at 
 Paris, 
 
fRANCÈ. ' 67 
 
 Feudal France at Its Calmmatîon» — The twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries were the best and most 
 beautiful periods of the feudal age in France. 
 Side by side, with knights and barons, free cities, 
 or cities enjoying common rights took their places 
 in the feudal system. 
 
 Between the claims of the Anglo Norman house 
 of the Platagenets on the west, and the threats of 
 the Flemings and th^ Germans on the northeast, 
 the dawn of patriotism began. It was distinctly 
 to be seen at the time of the battle of Bouvines 
 (12 14,) in which Philip Augustus routed the Em- 
 peror of Otho. 
 
 The royal domain which had at first been 
 limited to the district surrounding Paris, began by 
 degrees to extend its arms along the great historic 
 highways. 
 
 The inhabitants of the south, who were rich and 
 refined, who spoke the langue d'oc, who seemed 
 at the point of adopting a new religion of eastern 
 origin, who cast their eyes upon the Mediter- 
 ranean, and felt themselves irristibly attracted 
 towards Spain and Italy, were cruelly crushed in 
 their attempt at emancipation by Simon de Mont- 
 fort, and fastened beneath the heavy yoke of the 
 
6S îfRANCÎË. 
 
 Frenchmen of the North. It is this which has 
 been called the crusade of the Albigeuse. Then 
 it was, that France produced her ideal king, St. 
 Louis, a man at once fearless and gentle, en- 
 lightened and religious, politic and enthusiastic, 
 the righteous man of the Scriptures, the last of 
 the crusaders, made captive by the Mussulmans 
 upon the banks of the Nile, fated to die a victim 
 of the plague near Tunis (1270). 
 
 In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there 
 was quite an outburst of new works and new in- 
 stitutions. Belonging to this period are the great 
 Cathedrals of Paris, Beauvais, Amiens, Chartres, 
 Bourges, and Reims; the Saint- Chapelle of Paris, 
 the gem of the Gothic art ; truly national in char- 
 acter, and untrammeled by ecclesiastical diction, 
 which, from the Isle de France, its cradle, spread 
 abroad, more and more throughout the whole 
 Christian world, and was adopted, even in the 
 countries of the Mussulmans. 
 
 Then came into existence the military religious 
 orders, the Hospitallers and the Templars; also, 
 the University of Paris, the dean and mother of 
 all other universities ; the Sorbonne, the sanctuary 
 of that theology rendered illustrious by St. Ber- 
 
FRANCE. 69 
 
 nard and Abelard; the regulators of the corpora- 
 tions and trades of Paris, the first effort made to 
 introduce equity into the domain of toil ; the Par- 
 liament of Paris, the first outline of an independ- 
 ent judicial power. 
 
 And while the Trouvères continue to sing their 
 glorious poems, at last, French prose is born with 
 Villehardouin, gains refinement and pliability with 
 Joinville, and the French language is spoken out- 
 side France on every side, and as far as the east, is 
 truly European. 
 
 Decline of Feudalism — Formation of Royalty, of 
 the Middle Classes, and of France as France. — Four 
 great events dominate the history of the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries. Feudalism is near- 
 ing its fall ; royalty increases in power ; the mid- 
 dle classes come into existence; patriotism re- 
 ceives its incarnation, and manifests its existence 
 by unmistakable signs. 
 
 The turbulent nobility, the portrait of which 
 has been bequeathed to us by the Chronicler 
 Froissart, until that time invincible, is defeated 
 by the Flemish citizens at Courtrai (1302), and by 
 the English archers at Crecy, Portiers and Azin- 
 court (1346- 14 15.) It issues more than decemi- 
 
70 FRANCE. 
 
 mated from the cruel Hundred Years' War, and 
 from the bloody contentions of the Armagnacs and 
 the Bourgignons Military architecture has mul- 
 tiplied in vain her chefs d'oeuvre, such as the 
 chateau de Pierrefonds at the cité of Carcassonne 
 Gunpowder threatens, and will shortly render use- 
 less these magnificent walls. 
 
 Royalty, under Philip the Fair, no longer knows 
 the scruples of St. Louis. During a whole cen- 
 tury (1309- 141 1) it holds at its mercy the Popes in 
 their massive castle of Avignon; it destroys the 
 order of the Templars; it renders more compli- 
 cated every day the wheels of its administration. 
 The more it governs, the more it is in need of 
 money. The more it extends, the greater its 
 need of soldiers. It succeeds under Charles VII. 
 in establishing a permanent impost and a per- 
 manent army. Everything serves it, even the 
 terrible war against the English, which, after hav- 
 ing brought it to within a handsbreadth of ruin, 
 weakens its adversaries and justifies its demands. 
 
 The middle classes give their support to royalty. 
 They are men of the bourgeoisie, those jurists 
 with whom Philip the handsome filled his admin- 
 istration and his parliament ; men of the middle 
 
FRANCE. 71 
 
 class whom he introduced, and to whom he gave 
 seats in the States General in 1302, side by side 
 with the deputies of the clergy and the nobility ; 
 men of the middle class who, after the first dis- 
 asters of the Hundred Years' War, have the 
 courage to declare their authority with Etienne 
 Marsel, the provost of the merchants of Paris. 
 Premature attempt. 
 
 Patriotism is at first local. It inspires the de- 
 votion of a Eustace de Saint- Pierre offering his 
 life to save those of his fellow-citizens of Calais. 
 Then it is the military, with the Breton Dugues- 
 clin who communicates to his army his own fierce 
 craving for revenge. 
 
 Finally, in the person of Joan d'Arc, it is really 
 popular and national. This heroic peasant maid 
 was not only the incarnation of French patriotism ; 
 she revealed it to the French themselves. The 
 raising of the siege of Orleans was the first national 
 victory. 
 
 The crowning of the king at Reims was the 
 coronation of a new France. The martyrdom of 
 Joan, burned alive at Rouen on the 3dth of May, 
 1 43 1, was more than an apotheosis. It taught 
 the nation the sacred power of sacrifice. 
 
72 FRANCE. 
 
 PART VI. 
 
 FRANCE IN MODERN TIMES. 
 
 France of the Monarchy and the Renaissance — XVI Century — 
 Greatness of the Monarchy — Rise of the Nation — Letters, 
 Sciences, and Arts in the XVIII. Century. 
 
 France of the Monarchy and the Renaissance; 
 XVL Century^ — The middle age terminates to- 
 wards the middle of the fifteenth century. Louis 
 XL is in France the first modern king. Patient, 
 ambitious and cunning, a devotee destitute of 
 heart and almost of faith, cruel by calculation, in 
 taste a plebian, an implacable enemy of the feudal 
 dynasties, he finally crushed them when he over- 
 whelmed the powerful house of Burgundy and its 
 duke, Charles the Bold 
 
 After him the nobility, impetuous and without 
 occupation, rushed with eagerness into the Italian 
 wars, and at last, acquired in them the habit of 
 obedience to its kings. The nobility derived 
 lustre from the exploits of Bayard, ' * The knight 
 
without fear and without reproach," and from 
 those of the youthful Gaston de Foix. 
 
 In spite of his frivolities and his faults, the 
 ostentatious Francis I, the victor of Marignan 
 (15 15), the captive of Pavia, the châtelain of Fon- 
 tainebleau had the honor of coping with the mighty 
 Charles V. w^hose dream was to found a Euro- 
 pean empire, and who could not tear from France 
 even Metz-la-Pucelle 
 
 Under the last rulers of the house of Valois, the 
 saddening wars of religion during a period of 
 almost forty years stayed the progress of the 
 nation, and rendered even the existence of the 
 monarchy a matter of doubt 
 
 The virile valor of a Michel De l'Hôpital, and 
 the patriotism of a Coligny afford some consolation 
 for these sanguinary horrors. 
 
 At length, Henry IV. the most politic of Gas- 
 cons, the most practical of captains, with the 
 assistance of the prudent Scully, succeeded in 
 re-establishing peace, order, confidence and in- 
 dustry, and in restoring the political influence of 
 France. 
 
 To him France is indebted for the establish 
 ment of the manufacture of silk, the introduction 
 
74 FRANCE. 
 
 of changes of horses upon the highways in travel- 
 ing, the making of the first canal, (that of Briare) 
 and the extension of the colony of Canada or New 
 France. 
 
 No period of European history was more dra- 
 matic and more prolific France had a large share 
 in the great movement of the Renaissance. After 
 1469, the art of printing, invented at Strasburg by 
 Gutenberg, was installed in Paris at the Sorbonne, 
 and Robert Estienne was one of the first royal 
 printers. There was also a royal library. 
 
 To the poet Villon, who closed the middle ages, 
 succeed the amiable Marot, Ronsard, who strove 
 to renew the language, and to strengthen and 
 ennoble poetry, and such bitter satirists as 
 Aubigné and Régnier and then the reformer Mal- 
 herbe. 
 
 To the mysteries, morality plays, farces and 
 satires of the preceding age, the imitation of 
 ancient tragedy and comedy was now beginning 
 to be preferred. Prose was enriched by the 
 works of Calvin, Rabelais and Montaigne. 
 
 The great potter, Bernard de Palissy, was one 
 of the precursors of modern science; Ambroise 
 Paré created surgery. The Collège de France, 
 
FRANCE. 75 
 
 founded by Francis I, opened its chairs to new 
 subjects of instruction. Olivier de Serres insti- 
 tuted the national study of agriculture, while 
 Champlain founded Quebec, in Canada. 
 
 On all sides were raised monuments in which 
 the exquisite richness of a style bom anew from 
 the ancient is joined in the transformed Gothic, or 
 replaces it. Such are the church of Brou, near 
 Bourg, the cathedral of Orleans, the Palace of 
 Justice of Rouen, Saint Eustacheand Saint- Etienne 
 du Mont, at Paris. 
 
 The castles become palaces like those of 
 Chenonceaux, Chambord, Amboise, Fontainebleau, 
 Saint- Germain. Pierre Lescot commenced the 
 Louvre; Philibert Delorme built the Tuileries. 
 The great sculptors, Jean Cousin, Jean Goujon 
 and Germain Pilon, equal the most illustrious 
 Italian masters. 
 
 Greatness of the Monarchy in the Seventeenth 
 Century. — We are now approaching the golden 
 age of the French monarchy. 
 
 Here, at the outset, we have Richelieu, the great 
 cardinal, with his penetrating gaze and fine mous- 
 tache ; he, who with a proud gesture bends beneath 
 the absolute authority of his king, Louis XIII. all 
 
76 FRANCE. 
 
 noble heads, breaks the resistance of protestants 
 and parliaments, wages war victoriously abroad 
 against the house of Austria, and who, at the 
 same time organizes the army, increases the colon- 
 ies, founds the French Academy, creates the Jar- 
 din des Plantes, builds the Palais -Royal, enriches 
 the library of the king, and enlarges the Sor- 
 bonne. 
 
 Mazarin, the dexterous and perserving Floren- 
 tine, completed the work of Richelieu. Thanks 
 to the victories of the great Condé, and to the 
 skillful tactics of Turenne, he was enabled to ter- 
 minate the Thirty Years' War; the peace of West- 
 phalia (1648) left Alsace to France. 
 
 Notwithstanding la Fronde, that rebellion 
 abounding in elements tragic and comic, in which 
 the actors are grave magistrates and Parisian street 
 Arabs, princes and abbots, soldiers of fortune and 
 great ladies, inspired by gallantry to seek for ad- 
 ventures, he put an end to the Spanish war by the 
 peace of the Pyrenees. 
 
 He created the Academy of painting, the Ma- 
 zarin library, and introduced the opera into 
 France. 
 
 This period of the first half of the century, so 
 
FRANCt:. 77 
 
 pregnant with life, gave birth to a whole genera- 
 tion of great men; by the side of Turenne and of 
 Condé, the brave Fabert; the admirable Saint 
 Vincent de Paul ; Corneille, the creator of grand 
 tragedy; Descartes, the father of modern 
 philosophy ; Pascal, no less great as a writer than 
 as a foremost man of science; Retz and his 
 Mémoires; la Rochefoucauld and his Maxims; 
 painters, admirable in inspiration and correctness 
 of taste; Poussin, Philippe de Champagne, and 
 Lesueur; the engineer Callot; the sculptor An- 
 guier. 
 
 Louis XIV. when he began to govern by him- 
 self, disposed of France as a sovereign master. 
 He had at first as ministers, the great Colbert, 
 who reformed the finances, established manu- 
 factures, encouraged commerce, and increased 
 the navy and the colonies; Louvois, who made 
 the French Army the most formidable instrument 
 of war in Europe, whilst the patriotic Vauban was 
 covering the frontiers with fortifications, and Ad- 
 miral Duquesne was in command of the navy. 
 
 Flanders was conquered and removed for all 
 time from the dominion of the Spaniards The 
 peace of Nimégue terminating the war with Hoi- 
 
7^ France. 
 
 land assured to France the possession of I^^l-anche- 
 Comte; the ''chambers of reunion" gave her 
 Strasburg (1681). It was the apogee of his reign. 
 
 In the second half of the seventeenth century, 
 France had again the most brilliant afterbirth of 
 illustrious men : Molière, the immortal creator of 
 comedy; Racine, the successor and the equal of 
 Corneille; La Fontaine, Boileau, Fénelon, Bos- 
 suet, La Bruyère, Madame de Sévigné, whose 
 works are familiar to everyone, and in addition, 
 many others, such as the comic author Regnard ; 
 the Christian orators, Flechier and Bourdaloue; 
 Perrault, the story-teller; the philosopher, Male- 
 branche; the moral teachers and writers, Nicole 
 and Amaule, who were persecuted on account of 
 their jansenist opinions; Saint- Evremond; Madame 
 de La Fayette, etc. The learned Mabillon and 
 the Benedictines commenced their abstruse 
 labors. 
 
 The painters were le Brun, who was chief 
 official painter; Mignard, his rival, and the land- 
 scape painter, Claude Lorrain; sculptors were 
 Puget; Girardon; the architects, Perrault, who 
 erected the colonnade of the Louvre; Mansart, 
 whose work was the palace of Versailles, the 
 
ï'RANCË, 79 
 
 noble gardens of which were designed by le 
 Nôtre. 
 
 To Colbert are due the foundation of the 
 Academies of Inscriptions of Sciences and of Ar- 
 chitecture, the establishment of the École de Rome, 
 and the introduction of the manufacture of Gobe- 
 lin tapestry; to Louvois, the Hôtel des Invalides. 
 Riquet dug the canal of Languedoc. Papin found 
 the principle of the steam-engine. 
 
 Decay of the Monarchy — Rise of the Nation* 
 
 — The pride and ambition of the great king knew 
 no limits. From his early faults dates the begin- 
 ning of the decay of the monarchy. 
 
 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove 
 from France one hundred thousand men, energetic 
 workmen, skillful manufacturers or rich mer- 
 chants. 
 
 Two long wars against allied Europe, the wars 
 of the English Succession and of the Spanish Sue 
 cession completed the ruin of the kingdom. Not- 
 withstanding the exploits of the corsairs, Jean- 
 Bart and Duguay Trouin and of Admiral Tourville, 
 the fleet was practically destroyed. Notwithstand- 
 ing the victories of the impetuous Luxembourg 
 and of the prudent Catinat, soon followed the 
 
So fKANCE. 
 
 mortifying disasters, Flanders was invaded and 
 the cruel winter of 1 709 added still more to the 
 unparalleled sufferings endured by the people. 
 The victory gained by Villars at Denain saved 
 Prance, and enabled her to sign the peace of 
 Utrecht. But it was necessary to cede to England, 
 (who had seized Gibraltar) Hudson Bay, Acadia, 
 Newfoundland and St. Christopher in America. 
 Painful sacrifice, the full import of which was at 
 that time not realized by France. 
 
 Under Louis XV., Cardinal Fleury prepared 
 the way for the reunion of Lorraine with France. 
 It was the first and last success of the foreign 
 policy of this reign. During the bloody and costly 
 war of the Austrian Succession, the Marshal de 
 Saxe gained over the English the brilliant, but 
 sterile victory of Fontenoy. By sea the French 
 fleets were annihilated, and the colonies left 
 defenceless. 
 
 The disheartening Seven Years' War completed 
 their ruin. The empire of India, founded by 
 Duplex and vainly defended by Lally-Tollendal, 
 passed over to England. Nothwithstanding Mont- 
 calm and Vaudreuil, Canada was likewise sur- 
 rendered to her. In addition, she gained posses- 
 
FRANCE. 8l 
 
 sion of Grenada, Saint- Vincent, Dominique, Ta- 
 bago among the Antilles, and of the factories of 
 Senegal. Finally Louisiana was ceded to Spain. 
 Such was the shameful treaty of Paris (1763.) 
 Choiseul finally restored Lorraine to France again, 
 and annexed Corsica, an insufficient compensation 
 for the loss of the colonies. 
 
 At home the ancient order of things had been 
 shaken by fickle fortune, by the sudden bank- 
 ruptcy of Law, by the increasing influence of the 
 financiers, by the persecutions directed against the 
 Jansénists, by the corruption of the morals of the 
 court, and the degradation of the king, by the de- 
 struction of the order of the Jesuits and the sup- 
 pression of the parliaments; by the luxury, the 
 trifling and the insolence of the great, and by the 
 misery of the people and the progress of new 
 ideas. These ideas seemed at the outset likely to 
 gain peaceful victory under the virtuous but feeble 
 Louis XVI., served as he was by those honest 
 ministers, Turgot and Malesherbes. Their fall 
 (1776) rendered a revolution inevitable. It is in 
 vain that the war of American Independence, 
 undertaken with enthusiasm, and to which La 
 Fayette gave a lustre, raised high the honor of the 
 
82 FRANCE. 
 
 banner of the lilies of France ; in vain that Necker 
 hoped to restore the finances and make good the 
 deficit; in vain that the king attempted partial re- 
 forms. The French nation was indignant on ac- 
 count of the abuses that prevailed, and became 
 weary of obeying a government unable to main- 
 tain control; it became necessary to convoke the 
 States- General. 
 
 Letters, Sciences, and Arts in the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury» — Whilst royalty was subjected to humilia- 
 tion in the eighteenth century, the nation had then 
 become exalted. France consoled herself for her 
 political reverses by the intellectual supremacy 
 which she exercised around her. Her language, 
 her books, her arts, her fashions were everywhere. 
 
 In poetry, properly so-called, she was able to 
 reckon only agreeable versifiers like the Abbé 
 Delille, Florian, Gresset, and a poet who was as 
 yet unknown to fame, André Chénier. In the 
 theatre she applauded the tragedies of Voltaire 
 and the comedies of Marivaux and of Beaumarchais. 
 The writers of romances were Le Sage (Gil Bias,) 
 the Abbé Prévost (Manon Lescaut,) Jean- Jacques 
 Rousseau (la Nouvelle Héloise,) and Bernadin de 
 Saint- Pierre (Paul and Virginia.) At the begin- 
 
FRANCE. , Ss 
 
 ning of the century, St. Simon had j list completed 
 the writing of his famous memoirs. The Bene- 
 dictines, Dom Bouquet, Dom Clément, etc., were 
 patiently pursuing the renovation of history. 
 Montesquieu was writing the Spirit of Laws^ and 
 Voltaire, the age of Louis XIV. 
 
 Among the economists, it is necessary to men- 
 tion Quesnay and Turgot ; among the philosophers, 
 Condillac, and again Voltaire and J. -J. Rousseau, 
 then Diderot, d'Alembert, who are also men of 
 science and who undertook that enormous and 
 entirely novel work, the Encyclopedia. 
 
 In science, France occupies the first rank with 
 the mathematicians or astronomers Clairaut, 
 Maupertuis and Cassini; with Montgolfier, the 
 inventor of aerostatics, and the Count de Jouffroy, 
 the constructor of the first steamboat; and with 
 Lavoisier, the founder of chemistry. 
 
 Natural history is established by Buffon, Lace- 
 pede and Jussieu. The veterinary art is formed 
 anew by Bourgelat. Vaucanson invents a new 
 loom, Parmentier popularizes the potato. At that 
 time the manufacture of porcelain was founded, 
 as also* the first agricultural society; then the 
 working of coal mines and the manufacture of 
 
È4 FkAMCË. 
 
 printed calicos have their beginning. France 
 was the greatest industrial power in Europe. 
 
 In the domain of art we recognize no genius of 
 the first order. French music has its birth 
 only with Rameau, Monsigny, Gossec, Grétry. 
 Painting, elegant and elevated as exemplified by 
 Watteau, falls sufficient low in Boucher; it be- 
 comes sentimental in Greuze; in David it rises to 
 the worship of the antique. Analogous is the evo- 
 lution in sculpture from painstaking Coustou to 
 Bouchardon, the seeker after the beautiful, then 
 to the conscientious Pigalle, the learned Houdon 
 and his beautiful Diana, finally to the classic 
 statues of the last years of the reign of Louis XVI. 
 
 Likewise in architecture, which at first changes 
 little. The military school and the Colonnades of 
 the present place de la Concorde, by Gabriel, the 
 galleries of the Palais- Royal, and the grand theatre 
 of Bordeaux by Louis, continue with less majesty 
 the traditions of the seventeenth century; the 
 antique appears with Sufflot, that bold constructor 
 of Saint- Genevieve, now the Panthéon. 
 
 Towards the end of the century, gardens in the 
 French style are likewise replaced by parks in the 
 English fashion, in imitation of nature. 
 
FRANCE. 85 
 
 This transformation in art corresponds to a 
 notable change in ideas and manners; to cynical 
 search for pleasure, to frivolous unbelief, succeed 
 sentiments of a more serious character, the ex- 
 pression of which is found in the return to the 
 antique and to nature. Hearts become sofiened, 
 sentiment and philanthropy become fashionable. 
 A passionate admiration for the eloquent and 
 paradoxical theses of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is 
 born anew. The beautiful word ''beneficence" 
 (bienfaisance) is invented. 
 
 The institution for the deaf and dumb is founded 
 by the Abbé de l'Epée; that for blind children by 
 the Abbé Hauy. 
 
 A sincere desire for reform, ideas of justice and 
 liberty, the disinterested worship of the respect 
 due to the human person, a beautiful confidence 
 in the sovereign efficiency and approaching 
 trium^ph of Reason which has been invoked for 
 fifty years by philosophers, caused the hearts of 
 the middle classes to beat, and spreading more and 
 more intimately among the thinking elect of the 
 nation, made their way even among the people at 
 large. The approach of universal happiness be- 
 came the dream of all. 
 
S6 FRANCE. 
 
 PART VII. 
 
 CONTEMPORARY FRANCE. 
 
 The Revolution— The First Republic— The Consulate and the 
 Empire — The Restoration — The Government of July — The 
 Second Republic— The Second Empire— The Third Re- 
 public — Elevation of France — Last Events. 
 
 The Revolution» — In the States- General which 
 assembled at Versailles the middle classes were in 
 the majority. They had a leader, the great orator, 
 Mirabeau. 
 
 By the memorable oath of the /eu de paume the 
 Assembly swore ' * not to separate before giving a 
 constitution to France. " It became a constitution- 
 making body. 
 
 Thus the right of the Sovereignity of the Nation 
 was affirmed in the teeth of absolute Monarchy. 
 
 The court then determined to dissolve the As- 
 sembly by force. But urged by Camille Des- 
 moulins, the Parisians rose in insurrection and 
 on the 14th of July captured the Bastile, that 
 
FRANCE. • 87 
 
 » 
 
 frowning symbol of despotism and of the abuses 
 of the ancient regime. 
 
 On both sides there was a departure from law- 
 ful methods and the people appeared upon the 
 scene. The news of this event was heralded with 
 joy even abroad, and as far away as in Russia. 
 The revolution was beginning. 
 
 On the fourth of August, the Assembly abolished 
 feudal rights, and henceforth pursued unceasingly 
 its work of reform, the preliminary to which was 
 the celebrated Declaration of the Rights of Man, 
 an affirmation of all the great principles upon 
 which modern societies are based. 
 
 However, after the escape of the king and his 
 forced return to Paris, the Assembly separated 
 without having practically accomplished its work. 
 It left the two powers engaged in a struggle with 
 each other ; Royalty and the Nation, the executive 
 power and the legislative. 
 
 Under the legislative Assembly which then as- 
 sembled, the feelings of the people, already in a 
 condition of irritation were still further exasperated 
 by the war with Austria, and by the coming in- 
 vasion of Lorraine by the Prussians. On the loth 
 of August, 1792, the people seized the Tuileries 
 
88 • FRANCE. 
 
 and Louis XVI. was imprisoned in the Temple. 
 By this act royalty was, in point of fact, abolished. 
 
 The enemy was ever advancing; terror was at 
 its height; the abominable massacres of September 
 dyed Paris with blood, but the victory of Valmy 
 saved France. 
 
 A youthful officer, Rouget de Lisle, at Stras- 
 burg, within a few paces of the enemy, had just 
 improvised the Marseillaise which has remained 
 the national anthem. * 
 
 The First Republic» — The duel between the ex- 
 ecutive and the legislative parties resulted in the 
 concentration of all power in the Convention 
 which proclaimed the Republic on the 22nd of 
 September, 1792. 
 
 Two factions were warring fiercely within the 
 Assembly ; the Montagnards and Girondins. The 
 Montagnards sent to death the unfortunate Louis 
 XVI. ; the Girondins, the queen Marie Antoinette, 
 and many other noble victims; they governed 
 by terror even to the death of Robespierre. 
 
 * Although composed and first played at Strasburg, this an- 
 them gained its name, the " Marseillaise," from the fact that it 
 first became known to the Parisians through being sung by the 
 regiments of Marseilles when entering Paris. — [Ed. Note.] 
 
t'RANCÈ. 89 
 
 But, in conjunction with the Committee of Pub- 
 lic Safety, they saved France; science was placed 
 at the service of the national defence. Whilst 
 Carnot was organizing victory, generals, impro- 
 vised under the fire of the enemy, (Hoche, Kléber, 
 Marceau and Jordan) were repelling the armies of 
 the coalition and assuring to France the boundaries 
 of the Alps and the Rhine. 
 
 At the same time, the Convention did honor to 
 itself by the establishment of useful institutions ; 
 the Polytechnic School, the High Normal School, 
 the Icstitute, the Conservatory of Arts and Trades, 
 the unity of weights and measures, the Exposition 
 of Industry, the Museum of National Antiquities. 
 
 After the Convention, all the springs of power 
 became relaxed. The Directory (1795) com- 
 promised the Republic by its aggressive policy 
 abroad, its financial mismanagement and its coup 
 d'état. 
 
 A spirit of weariness came over the people, they 
 lost hope, they were looking for the coming of a 
 saviour, when Bonaparte appeared. The young 
 general revealed himself at Toulon, covered him- 
 self with glory in the celebrated campaign in Italy, 
 and imposed peace upon Austria. 
 
90 r^RANCÊ. 
 
 Dreaming of increasing his reiiown by new con- 
 quests, he made the expedition to Egypt. A con- 
 queror at the Pyramids, he entered Cairo, and 
 created the Egyptian Institute. However, when 
 his fleet had been destroyed at Cairo, he left his 
 army by stealth. 
 
 He was welcomed in France with acclamations; 
 but glory in itself no longer satisfied him ; on the 
 eighteenth Brumaire he overthrew the Republic 
 and seized the dictatorship. He took possession 
 of France when she was great and powerful He 
 was destined to abandon her after a period of only 
 fifteen years, humiliated, reduced and exhausted. 
 
 The Consulate and the Empire, — Bonaparte had 
 at first the title of First Consul (1800). 
 
 Austria continued the war, but he vanquished 
 her at Marengo, thanks to brave Desaix, and the 
 victories of Moreau in Germany brought about 
 peace. Even England withdrew for a moment 
 from the struggle. 
 
 Bonaparte, soon Emperor and Napoleon I, , modi- 
 fied republican institutions; he signed with Pope 
 Pius VII. the Concordat, promulgated the civil 
 code, instituted the administration of prefects, 
 created the University and the Légion of Honor. 
 
FRANCE. 91 
 
 He claimed to embody in himself the Nation and 
 crushed all resistance. His terrible military- 
 genius, his mad pride, his monstrous selfishness 
 were given full rein. 
 
 He vanquished Austria and Russia at Austerlitz. 
 He conquered Prussia at Jena; by the treaty of 
 Tilsit he meditated sharing the world with Czar 
 Alexander. 
 
 It was England, above all other countries that 
 he desired to strike. He attempted to ruin her by 
 the continental blockade. 
 
 He undertook the conquest of Spain, and finally 
 crushed Austria at Wagram. 
 
 France enslaved, was silent or bowed down 
 in homage; the army, intoxicated with glory 
 adored him as a god ; in Europe, he was the king 
 of kings. He wedded Marie Louise, and hoped to 
 found a dynasty. 
 
 The Russian campaign put an end to this dizzy 
 rush. The butchery of Leipzig threw him back up- 
 on the Rhine, and the heroic French campaign could 
 not save him from a catastrophe, nor France with 
 him. Abandoned by his marshals, he abdicated 
 at Fontainebleau, and was sent to the island 
 of Elba. 
 
92 FRANCE. 
 
 The Restoration» — Everything seemed ended. 
 But Louis XVIIL, the brother of Louis XVL, was 
 made king by the allied powers, and this first 
 restoration excited existing feeling of discontent 
 of which Napoleon took quick advantage. 
 
 He makes his escape, lands at Cannes, enters 
 Paris on the 20th of March, and begins again the 
 struggle against Europe. The epic struggle, the 
 bloody rout at Watterloo, such was the catastrophe 
 of this drama in which France was on the point of 
 perishing. 
 
 When Napoleon had been deported to Saint 
 Helena, Louis XVIII, re-established upon the 
 throne granted a charter and inaugurated the 
 parliamentary régime. He signed the disastrous 
 treaties of Paris imposed by the foreigner, sub- 
 mitted to the *' undiscoverable " chamber and the 
 furious resentments of the ancient emigres who 
 made the White Terror; then, when the Duke de 
 Richelieu had liberated the territory (until then 
 occupied by the allies), he had the wisdom to 
 adopt with the Duke Decazes a moderate policy. 
 
 The assassination of the Duke de Berry 
 compromised everything (1820). The accession 
 to power of Villele, the dispatch of a French 
 
FRANCE. 93 
 
 army into Spain to re-establish the absolute 
 authority of Ferdinand VII., mark the return of a 
 reactionary state of affairs. 
 
 Charles X., previously Count d'Artois, the 
 brother and successor of Louis XVIII. in 1824, at 
 first retained the Villele ministry, then strove to 
 return from liberalism with Martignac, to reaction 
 with Polignac, the least popular of the grand 
 seigneurs. 
 
 The Chamber replied to this provocation by an 
 address to the king, supported by the votes of 2 2 1 
 deputies, in which it was declared that the agree- 
 ment between royalty and the nation had been 
 broken. The Chamber was dissolved. But the 
 221, in addition to 50 new members of the opposing 
 party having been elected, Charles X. had recourse 
 to a coup d'état by the publication of the Ordi- 
 nances (of July 1830) which were a flagrant vio- 
 lation of the Charter. The revolution of July 
 burst forth. After a bloody combat lasting for 
 three days, the royal troops were defeated. 
 Charles X. abdicated and then took refuge in 
 England. 
 
 To the Restoration are due the School of 
 Forestry at Nancy, the Mining School at Saint- 
 
04 FkAÎ^CÈ. 
 
 Etienne, and the School of Charts. From this 
 period date the first savings bank, the first infant 
 school, river navigation by steam and illumina- 
 tion by gas. 
 
 Abroad, under the reign of Charles X. , two im- 
 portant events had been accomplished, the Greek 
 War of Independence, and the expedition against 
 Algiers. 
 
 The Grecian people had risen in insurrection 
 against the Turks. The feelings of France, Eng- 
 land and P.ussia were at last touched. In 1827 
 their allied fleets destroyed the Ottoman fleet at 
 Navarin, and a French army assisted in the 
 emancipation of Greece. 
 
 The Barbary pirates had, since the fifteenth 
 century, infested the Mediterranean. As the re- 
 sult of an insult suffered by his ambassador, 
 Charles X. directed an expedition against Algiers, 
 and on the 5th day of July, 1830, the town was 
 captured by the French troops. 
 
 The Government of Jwly. — The Duke of Orleans, 
 called to the throne by the leaders of the Parisian 
 middle classes, and recognized by the Chamber, 
 reigned under the name of Louis Philippe I. , King 
 of the French. 
 
FRANCE. 95 
 
 His government was disturbed by frequent 
 changes of ministers, saddened by the first ap- 
 pearance of cholera (1832), and stained with blood 
 as the result of numberless disturbances. Numer- 
 ous attempts at assassinations were directed 
 against the king and the royal family. 
 
 The principal ministers of this reign were Casi- 
 mir- Perier, Thiers and Guizot. 
 
 Abroad, the government of July strove to main- 
 tain peace at any price, and was the ally, often 
 subservient, of England. It intervened, however, 
 in Belgium in order to assure the independence of 
 the Belgian people, and it continued the conquest 
 of Algeria, in which the Marshal Bugeaud suc- 
 ceeded in triumphing over Abd-el-Kader. 
 
 At home, it depended for its support upon the 
 middle classes, and had in view particulary the de- 
 velopment of material wealth. Many useful laws 
 or institutions date from this period. Thiers forti- 
 fied Paris. Guizot undertook the organization of 
 primary education. Criminal legislation was 
 rendered milder. Canals, roads and monuments 
 were constructed or completed; railroads were 
 begun. 
 
 The Second Republic. — Suffrage was the privi- 
 
go FRANCE. 
 
 lege of the wealthy, and there were hardly 300,- 
 000 voters. The obstinacy of Guizot in opposing 
 all electoral reform was the principal cause of the 
 Revolution of the 24th of February, 1848. The 
 people of Paris rose in insurrection, expelled Louis 
 Philippe, proclaimed the Republic, and installed in 
 the Hôtel de Ville a provisional government at 
 the head of which was the great poet Lamartine. 
 The constituent Assembly, which then met, es- 
 tablished universal suffrage ; it had to repress the 
 bloody insurrection of June, and named General 
 Cavdignac, chief of the executive power. 
 
 But soon, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected 
 president of the Republic, and the constituent As- 
 sembly gave way to the legislative Assembly. 
 
 The Second Empire» — By the coujf d'état of the 
 2nd of December, 185 1, the President of the Repub- 
 lic took the possession of the dictatorship. On the 
 2nd of December, 1852, he had himself proclaimed 
 emperor, under the name of Napoleon III. He 
 reigned eighteen years, and at first was successful 
 in everything which he undertook. He was recog- 
 nized by Europe; he entered into an alliance with 
 England; he supported the Ottoman Empire 
 against the Russians, and obtained possession of 
 
FRANCE. 97 
 
 Sebastopol (1855) ; he had a son who was to be his 
 heir; he undertook the task of cleansing and 
 beautifying Paris; he escaped the conspiracies 
 directed against his Hfe. 
 
 He triumphed over Austria in Italy at Magenta 
 and at Solferino, and he freed the Milanese (1859) ; 
 he annexed Nice and Savoy, which, by a solemn 
 vote declared themselves French territories; he 
 brought aid to the Christians of Syria ; in concert 
 with England, he forced China to open her ports 
 to European commerce; he took possession of 
 Cochin- China. 
 
 However, the luxury, the loans, the huge works 
 that were undertaken, and especially the dis- 
 astrous expedition to Mexico, which terminated in 
 the execution of the ill-starred Maximilian in 1867, 
 disquieted public opinion and exhausted the 
 treasury. The opposition increased in strength 
 every day. Besides, the victory of Prussia over 
 Austria at Sandowa (1866) had profoundly modified 
 the situation in Europe. The Emperor yielded to 
 the counsels of his advisers. E mboldened by a pleb- 
 iscite which seemed to promise permanent security 
 to his throne, and caught in the trap prepared by 
 Prince Bismarck, he declared war against Prussia. 
 
98 FRANCE. 
 
 Nothing was in a state of readiness. The 
 French army, taken by surprise, after having .sus- 
 tained crushing defeats at Wissembourg, at 
 Spickeren and at Worth, was forced back upon 
 Metz after the three great battles of Borny, Rezon- 
 ville and Saint- Privât which were fought by 
 Marshal Bazaine. 
 
 Napoleon III., bringing with him the army of 
 Marshal MacMahon, endeavored to effect a junction 
 with Bazaine. Surrounded at Sedan by the Prus- 
 sians as the result of a bloody battle in which 1 7, 000 
 French soldiers were killed or wounded, he capit- 
 ulated with more than 100,000 men on the ist of 
 September, 1870. 
 
 The Third Republic. — Upon the news of Sedan, 
 the Republic was proclaimed on the 4th of 
 September, 1870. 
 
 Paris, which was soon invested by the German 
 armies, sustained a siege for four months, endured 
 with heroism, famine, cold, and all kinds of priva- 
 tions, and tried in vain to pierce the lines of the 
 enemy. In the country, Gambetta improvised 
 three armies; those of the North, of the Loire, 
 and of the East. These troops, destitute of train- 
 ing, ill-fed and badly equipped, led forward by 
 
FRANCE. 99 
 
 Faidherbe and by Chanzy, saved, at least, the 
 honor of the French nation. The armistice of 
 January 28, 1871, negotiated by Julius Favre, put 
 an end to the war. 
 
 An Assembly meeting at Bordeaux proclaimed 
 Thiers chief of the executive power, and signed 
 the peace of Frankfort which deprived France of 
 Metz, with a portion of Lorraine, of Alsace, with 
 the exception of Belfort, and fixed the war in- 
 demnity at $1,000,000,000 (March 20, 187 1). 
 
 A few days afterwards, on March 18, the terrible 
 insurrection of the Commune burst forth. Thiers, 
 supported by the Assembly which had removed 
 to Versailles, formed an army and vanquished the 
 Commune, the defeat of which was accompanied 
 and followed by bloody reprisals. 
 
 France rises again. After the Foreign War, the 
 Civil War was ended. The law of 1872, render- 
 ing military service compulsory, created a new 
 army, which soon became formidable. Thanks to 
 the brilliant success of a loan of $1,000,000,000, 
 Thiers was enabled to anticipate the date set for 
 the payment of the war indemnity and free the 
 land from the foreign army of occupation (March, 
 
 1873). 
 
 LoFC. 
 
lÔÔ FRANCE. 
 
 However, the final establishment of the republi- 
 can government had always been opposed by the 
 section of the Assembly forming the Right, which 
 on the 24th of May, 1873, overthrew Thiers, and 
 called to the presidency Marshal MacMahon with 
 the object of bringing about a restoration of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 The refusal of the Count de Chambord, the last 
 of the Bourbons, to come to an understanding 
 with the Orléans family, nipped this project in the 
 bud. After lengthened discussions, and by the 
 majority of one vote (January 30, 1875), a repub- 
 lican constitution was at last adopted by vote. It 
 was promulgated on February 25, 1875. 
 
 The new Chamber was by a large majority 
 republican, and inspired by Gambetta. Marshal 
 MacMahon entered into a struggle with it. On 
 the 1 6th of May, 1877, he called for the resigna- 
 tion of the republican cabinet, over which M. 
 Jules Simon presided, and summoned to the 
 management of affairs a royalist cabinet, at the 
 head of which was M. de Broglie. 
 
 The Chamber, having protested by $6^ votes 
 against this parliamentary coup d'etat, it was dis- 
 solved, and a restoration of the monarchy was 
 
FRANCE. lOI 
 
 prepared anew. But the ^6^ were almost all re- 
 elected, and the marshal called upon ' ' to submit 
 or resign " (de se soumettre, ou de se démettre), 
 at last sent in his resignation (January 30, 1879). 
 He was succeeded as President of the Republic by- 
 Jules Grevy. 
 
 Since that time, the Republic has never again 
 been called in question. The Count de Chambord 
 (Henry V.) died in 1883 The funeral ceremonies 
 of Gambetta (1882) and of Victor Hugo (1885) 
 furnished popular sentiment with opportunities 
 for manifestations. 
 
 Recent Events» — The principal occurrences which 
 have taken place within the years 18 79-1 901 are: 
 
 At home : The re-organization of higher educa- 
 tion; the reform of secondary education; the 
 establishment of means of education for young 
 girls; the school laws making primary education 
 compulsory and free, and rendering the public 
 schools non-sectarian. 
 
 Abroad: The occupation of Tunis (1881); the 
 exclusion of France from all interest in Egypt, as 
 a result of a vote of the Chamber (1882); the ex- 
 pedition to Hué by Vice- Admiral Courbet who 
 compelled the Annamites to recognize the suzer- 
 
102 FRANCE. 
 
 ainty of France (1883); the Chinese war and the 
 conquest of Tonkin, as well as the establishment 
 of French domination in the Congo (1885), and at 
 Madagascar, which was conquered by General 
 Duchesne (1895). 
 
 All this was in a large measure the work of 
 Jules Ferry, who died in 1893. 
 
 In 1886 Jules Grévy was re-elected President of 
 the Republic. In 1887 he was compelled to resign. 
 He died in 1891, and was succeeded by Sadi 
 Carnot, grandson of the celebrated member of the 
 Convention. 
 
 The new government triumphed over the poli- 
 tical intrigues of General Boulanger; it presided 
 over the fêtes in connection with the Universal 
 Exposition of 1889. In this same year the com- 
 pletion of the military law rendered service com- 
 pulsory upon all. 
 
 In the month of June, 1894, Carnot was assas- 
 sinated at Lyons by an Italian. This tragic event 
 caused a profound shock to the whole world; all 
 the nations joined in the mourning of the French 
 people. 
 
 Carnot has had for successors Casimir- Perier, 
 grandson of the minister of Louis Philippe, then, 
 
FRANCE. 103 
 
 Felix Faure, in early life a workman, afterwards 
 a shipowner and deputy from Havre, who died in 
 1897; finally, the present incumbent, Emile Lou- 
 bet, born in 1838. 
 
 To sum up, the three most important acts of 
 the new régime of France are the re-organization 
 of the army, and of the system of defence, the 
 impulse given to public education, and the exten- 
 sion of the colonies. 
 
 Other occurrences which have taken place since 
 1889, and of which the consequences are not yet 
 clearly manifest, are the striking manifestation of 
 opinion in favor of the Russian Alliance (the reply 
 to the Triplier of 1887); the policy of protection 
 inaugurated by the vote on the customs tarifiE 
 (1892); the changed attitude of the Papacy, advis- 
 ing the French clergy and the conservative party 
 to rally to the support of the Republic, the inter- 
 ference of the laws made by the State, every day 
 more and more marked in social questions, and 
 twice the accession to power of a radical ministry, 
 the first in 1895-96, the second in 1899-1901. The 
 latter succeeded in having the Laws of Associa- 
 tion's bill passed, the most radical features of 
 which are the confiscation of the property of th^ 
 
I04 FRANCE. 
 
 religious orders, at a price to be determined by the 
 Courts, and the barring from all government 
 service, military, naval and civil of all citizens not 
 educated in the public schools.* 
 
 * To one who has f Uowed the course of ecclesiastical events 
 in France, it is clear that the same evils which beset religious 
 orders on this side of the Atlantic are at work among religious 
 congregations .on the other side of the Ocean, Indeed, in France, 
 more completely perhaps than in America, religious orders have 
 forgotten that they were founded to supplement, not to supplant, 
 the diocesian clergy. In recent years they have encroached upon 
 the sphere of the secular priesthood to such an extent that, as 
 Abbé Lemire publicly stated, in many cases the parish church has 
 degenerated into a kind of parish bureau for registering baptisms 
 and marriages. The men who should be the allies of the parish 
 priest have become his rivals. The jurisdiction of the Bishop, in 
 many important respects, stop at the gate of the cloister. Detri- 
 mental as these tactics are to the best interests of religion, the in- 
 jury done the Church thereby is small in comparison with the 
 harm wrought by the campaign which most religious orders have 
 persistently carried on against the political institutions of France. 
 
 The confiscation of the journal "La Croix" revealed to the 
 world at large a dangerous conspiracy against the Republic. So 
 formidable indeed was the crusade preached by the Assumptionist 
 Fathers that it was a standing menace to the stabilities of the 
 State, and the action of the government in bringing up the law of 
 Associations must be regarded simply as an act of self-defence. 
 — [Ed. Note.] 
 
FRANCE. 105 
 
 PART VIII. 
 
 THE INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE AT THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 The Government — Taxes and Budget— Administrations and 
 Organizations — Foreign Affairs — Finances — Interior— Public 
 Works — Agriculture — Commerce and Industry — Land Army 
 — Navy and Colonies — ^Justice — Public Education — Worship 
 and the Fine Arts — Private Initiative. 
 
 Government. — France is a republic. All French- 
 men are equal in the eyes of the law; the people 
 are sovereign. The French people govern by- 
 mandatories, who represent it. These manda- 
 tories form elective bodies which transact the 
 affairs of the country. Every Frenchman who 
 has attained the age of twenty-one is an elector, 
 providing he has been a resident in a commune 
 for six months, and that he has not lost, by a 
 judicial condemnation, his rights of citizenship 
 
 The electors of a commune choose the munici- 
 pal council; this is the representation of the com- 
 munes The electors of the canton choose one or 
 
lOÔ FRANCE. 
 
 several district councillors (conseillers d'arrondisse- 
 ment) who represent the arrondissement. There 
 are 2,871 cantons and 362 arrondissements. 
 
 The electors of the canton choose also a council- 
 lor-general; the council general is the representa- 
 tion of the department. There are 86 depart- 
 ments. The municipal councils, the councils of 
 arrondissement, and those of the department must 
 not concern themselves with political affairs that 
 belong only to the domain of the Chamber of 
 Deputies and of the Senate, two bodies constitut- 
 ing the national representation. 
 
 Every arrondissement names a deputy. Those 
 arrondissements whose population exceed 100,000 
 inhabitants name one extra deputy for each 100,000 
 of population. The Chamber of Deputies (Palais 
 Bourbon, quai d'Orsay) is composed of about 600 
 members elected for four years, among whom are 
 the six deputies of Algeria, and those of the 
 colonies. 
 
 The Senate (Palais du Luxembourg) is composed 
 of 300 members elected by special delegates 
 named by the departments of the colonies. The 
 delegates of each commune, elected by the muni- 
 cipal council, joined to the councillors of arrondisse- 
 
FRANCE. 107 
 
 ment, to the councillors general and deputies, form 
 in each department the electoral college which 
 names the senators. The Senate is renewed by- 
 series of one hundred, every three years. 
 
 The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies ex- 
 ercise the legislative power. Every law must be 
 voted upon by the two Chambers. Every year 
 the law of finances regulates the budget and in- 
 cludes all the taxes to be paid. 
 
 The President of the Republic— The President 
 of the Republic (palaces of the Elysée and of 
 Fontainebleau) is elected for seven years by the 
 Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, convoked at 
 Versailles in national assembly. He commands 
 the armed forces of the country; he appoints 
 the ministers, and provides for the highest 
 civil and military offices. He has the power of 
 individual pardon, but cannot proclaim a general 
 amnesty. 
 
 If a disagreement intervenes between the Presi- 
 dent and the Chamber, or between the Chamber 
 and the Senate, the President may dissolve the 
 Chamber of Deputies, with the authorization of 
 the Senate which can not itself be dissolved. 
 
 There are ten ministers. The ministers are re- 
 
I08 FRANCE. 
 
 Sponsible to the Chambers for their acts adminis- 
 trative and political. 
 
 They must govern in agreement with the Con- 
 gress. According to established usage, a cabinet 
 placed in a minority in the Chamber of Deputies 
 hands in its resignation. Any ministry that vio- 
 lates the laws is impeached by the Chamber of 
 Deputies, and judged by the Senate. 
 
 The President of the Republic can perform no 
 act without the concurrence of his ministers * 
 
 The executive power is represented, in the cap- 
 ital of each department, by the prefect; in the 
 capital of every arrondissement, by the sub pre- 
 fect; in every commune, by the mayor who is at 
 the time the chief of his commune. In all com- 
 munes, with the exception of Paris and of Lyons, 
 which are regulated by special legislation, the 
 mayor is elected by the municipal council from 
 among its members. 
 
 Thus, in France, at every step, a deliberative 
 body exists, side by side, with a representative of 
 the executive power. 
 
 Every Frenchman nominates, directly or in- 
 
 * He is responsible only in case of high treason. — {Ed. Note.] 
 
FRANCE. Ï09 
 
 directly, the members of the Councils and of the 
 Chambers, and the agents of the executive power. 
 In a word, the nation governs itself, and every one 
 has his share of the national sovereignty. 
 
 The Government is assisted by a Council of 
 State (Palais Royal) whose duty it is to prepare 
 draughts of bills, of decrees and of rules of public 
 administration, as well as to decide law suits be- 
 tween branches of the government and private 
 individuals. 
 
 Imposts and Bud§fet. — The principal taxes are: 
 The indirect contributions derived from duties 
 upon liquors, tobacco, the conveyance of travelers 
 and goods, gunpowder and upon various other 
 products. The receipts from indirect taxes (more 
 than two hundred million dollars) are the principal 
 support of the budget. 
 
 To the indirect taxes belong: The registration 
 and stamp duties collected upon deeds (of sale, 
 rent, etc.); the taxes levied upon goods entering 
 or leaving the territory. 
 
 The direct taxes composing the land tax 
 levied upon lands and houses; the poll tax and the 
 tax upon personal property, the first, equivalent to 
 three days' labor, the second, proportional to the 
 
liô FRANCE. 
 
 letting value of the habitation ; the tax upon doors 
 and windows; that upon licenses due from every 
 person who pursues any branch of industry or 
 commerce. The other sources of revenue are the 
 receipts from the post office and telegraph depart- 
 ments, from domains, forests, etc. 
 
 Most towns collect for their own profit custom 
 house duties (octroi) upon goods entering the town. 
 These duties are not included in the taxes prop- 
 erly so-called. The custom house of Paris pro- 
 duces as much as (24 million dollars) those of all 
 the provincial towns and cities added together. 
 
 The budget of France approaches 800,000,000 
 dollars. The debt amounts to 6,200,000 dollars; 
 it requires every year more than 200,000,000 dol- 
 lars in funds and annuities to repay it. 
 
 Next to France, the largest national debt is that 
 of Great Britain, which approaches four thousand 
 millions of dollars, and that of Russia, which is 
 twenty- four thousand and six hundred millions. 
 
 Administrative Orgfanization» — As a world in 
 itself, and as a mighty machine, we may well de- 
 scribe the French administrative system. It was 
 evolved slowly and patiently under the kings, 
 after having aided them to gain the day over 
 
PRANCE. îii 
 
 feudalism; it was, in a large measure, respected 
 by the Revolution ; the Consulate and the Empire 
 still further developed and improved it ; the sub- 
 sequent régimes all made use of it, and in some 
 degree put new life into it. A multitude of offi- 
 cials and agents of every degree fill the Bureaus, 
 and the departments, the colonies and the adminis- 
 trative positions which are connected with them 
 are thronged. 
 
 However, the principle of centralization, so 
 characteristic of the French, pushed to the utmost 
 limits, seems to be giving way, since the first 
 establishment of the Republic. 
 
 Foreign Affairs. — The minister of Foreign Affairs 
 quai d'Orsay, has charge of the political and com- 
 mercial relations with the other powers. He is 
 chief of the embassies and legations, as well as of 
 the consulates. In addition, he has under his 
 jurisdiction the protectorates of Tunis and Mada- 
 gascar. 
 
 Finances* — The minister of Finances, Palace of 
 the Louvre, is entrusted with the collection of 
 taxes, and with all the disbursements of the ad- 
 ministration. He supervises the coining of money 
 and the striking of medals (Hôtel des Monnaies, 
 
112 FRANCE. 
 
 quai Conti). He exercises a certain control over 
 the treasury of the sinking fund and of deposits 
 and consignment wherein are deposited the 
 securities of officials, the funds of the savings 
 banks, etc. , as well as over the Bank of France, 
 rue de la Vielliere, and the Crédit fonder de 
 France^ 19 rue des Capucines. 
 
 The Court of Accounts. (Palais- Royal, Mont- 
 pensier wing) has the duty of verifying the ac- 
 counts of all the administrative offices. 
 
 To the ministry of Finances is attached the ad- 
 ministration of post-offices and telegraphs, 103 
 rue de Grenelle, as well as the high school of 
 telegraphy. 
 
 Department of the Interior. — The minister of the 
 Interior, place Beauvau, is responsible for the gen- 
 eral and departmental administration, for the man- 
 agement of the prisons, for the police and alms- 
 houses, for the control of the press, etc. He is as- 
 sisted by various councils, such as the council of pub- 
 lic assistance and the committee of hygiene. He 
 has under his orders the prefects, sub-prefects, etc. 
 
 The institutions for blind children and for deaf 
 mutes are supervised by the ministry of the In- 
 terior. 
 
FRANCE. 113 
 
 Department of Public Works, — The ministry of 
 Public Works, 224 Boulevard Saint- Germain, is 
 composed of the board of management for bridges 
 and highways, charged with keeping in good con- 
 dition the roads, courses of navigable rivers, ports 
 and with the supervision of railroads, as also of the 
 board of management for mines There is in Paris 
 a School of Bridges and Highways, rue des Saint- 
 Pères, and a School of Mines, Boulevard Saint- 
 Michel, with a fine museum. 
 
 Agriculture. — The ministry of Agriculture, 78 
 rue de Varennes, in Paris, is assisted by various 
 councils, and in the departments, by consulting 
 chambers of agriculture, by free associations of 
 farmers or committees of agricultural shows. 
 
 To the same ministry belongs the agricultural 
 shows, the exhibitions of fat animals, horse racing, 
 the school for the improvement of the breed of 
 horses at le Pin (Orne) ; the sheep-fold of Ram- 
 bouillet, celebrated for the introduction of merinos 
 into France in the eighteenth century; the farm 
 school; the chairs of agriculture; the agricultural 
 schools cf Grignon (Seine-et-Oise), Nantes and 
 Montpelier; the veterinary schools of Alfort, near 
 Paris, Lyons and Toulouse; the school of for- 
 
114 FRANCE. 
 
 restry of Nancy; the agronomic institute, i6 rue 
 Claude- Bernard, the purpose of which is to train 
 farmers and educate professors of agriculture; 
 the National Agricultural Society of France. 
 
 Commerce and Industry. — The minister of Com- 
 merce and Industry, loi rue de Grenelle, is as- 
 sisted at Paris by several councils and committees ; 
 in the departments by the chambers for consulta- 
 tion in arts and manufactures; by the chambers 
 of commerce, which are not purely for purposes 
 of consultation, but which have revenues, estates, 
 libraries, and give grants to certain schools, 
 etc. There are also French chambers of com- 
 merce abroad. 
 
 To the same ministry are attached: The con- 
 servatory of arts and trades, at which public lecture 
 courses are delivered, and in which are installed 
 very valuable collections; the central school of 
 arts and manufactures; the schools of arts and 
 trades at Aix- en- Provence, Angers and Chalons, 
 posts, telegraphs and telephones, and the national 
 savings bank. 
 
 Land Army. — The minister of War, rue Saint- 
 Dominique, controls the land army. 
 
 Military service is compulsory upon all French- 
 
FRANCE. ÏI5 
 
 men. It lasts for twenty- five years, viz: three 
 years in the active army, ten in the reserve of the 
 active army, six in the territorial army, six in the 
 reserve of the territorial army. 
 
 France is divided into eighteen districts, each 
 occupied by an army corps The nineteenth corps 
 is stationed in Algeria. Paris has a military gov- 
 ernment of its own. Each district includes eight 
 sub- divisions. 
 
 The different branches of which the active army 
 is composed are : 
 
 The Infantry: 145 regiments of subdivisions; 18 
 district regiments for fortified places; the foot 
 chasseurs, 13 battalions; the mountain or Alpine 
 chasseurs, 17 battalions; the Zouaves, 4 regiments; 
 the Algerian tirailleurs (Turcos), 4 regiments; the 
 African light infantry, 5 battalions; the foreign 
 legion, 2 regiments, and 4 companies under dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 The Cavalry: Cuirassiers, 13 regiments; dra- 
 goons, 31; chasseurs 21; hussars, 14; African chas- 
 seurs, 6; spahis, 3; Tunisian spahis, i; remounted 
 horsemen, 8 companies. 
 
 The Artillery: 19 regiments of division, with 12 
 mounted batteries; 19 corps regiments, with 9 
 
itô tRAÎJCË. 
 
 mounted batteries and 3 horse batteries; 24 
 mounted batteries and 4 on foot (more than 3,000 
 cannon); 16 fortress battalions, with 6 batteries; 
 
 2 regiments of bridge artillerymen; 3 companies 
 of artificers; 
 
 Engineers: 4 regimeiits of sappers and miners; 
 I of railroad sappers; i corps of telegraphists; 20 
 companies of drivers , 72 of the "train des equip- 
 ages. " 
 
 The personnel not formed into regimeiits Cotn- 
 prises: The clerks and workmen of the commis- 
 sariat, the attendants on the sick, the veterinary 
 surgeons, the bicyclists, the staff secretaries, 27 
 legions of gendarmes, the guard republican and the 
 firemen of Paris. 
 
 The territorial army consists of 145 infantry 
 regiments, 151 squadrons of cavalry, and 18 regi- 
 ments of artillery. It includes in addition the 
 corps of custom house officers and of foresters. 
 
 The effective strength, in times of peace, 
 amounts to 28,000 officers and employés, 544,000 
 non-commissioned officers and soldiers, 140,000 
 horses and mules, and about 3,000 field pieces. 
 The total effective strength would in war exceed 
 
 3 millions of men. 
 
FRANCE. 117 
 
 The schools subject to the ministry of War are: 
 The military prytanee of La Flèche (Sarthe), the 
 special military school of Saint- Cyr, near Ver 
 sailles, the Polytechnic, near the Panthéon, the 
 school of application of artillery and engineering 
 at Fontainebleau, the school of administration at 
 Vincennes, the school of application of military 
 medicine and pharmacy at Val-de- Grâce, the higher 
 school of war, rue de Grenville, the school for 
 non-commissioned officers at Saint- Maixent (Deux 
 Sèvres), etc. 
 
 Every year France devotes more than one sixth 
 of her receipts, or about 130 million dollars, to the 
 support of her land army. 
 
 The Navy» — The minister of the Navy, 2 rue 
 Royal, has to do with the ships of war, the naval 
 ports and the marine soldiers. 
 
 The fleet is composed of 20 ironclads, 50 cruis- 
 ers, 100 dispatch and gunboats, 10 ironclads for 
 the protection of the coasts, the same number of 
 torpedo boats for the high seas, more than 120 
 ordinary torpedo boats and 20 transports; in all, 
 about 350 vessels. 
 
 The ships are apportioned into squadrons, divis- 
 ions and stations: The Mediterraiîçan evolutionary 
 
Il8 FRANCE. 
 
 squadron; the ironclad division of the Channel; 
 naval division of the Levant, of the Indian Sea, 
 of the Pacific, of China and Japan, of the North 
 Atlantic, of the South Atlantic; the stations of 
 Iceland, of Newfoundland (for the protection of 
 cod-fishery), of Cochin-China, of New Caledonia, 
 etc. 
 
 The ships of war are built, armed, and have their 
 reserves in the five naval ports of Toulon, Roche- 
 fort, Lorient, Brest and Cherbourg. 
 
 The crews of the fleet are recruited by maritime 
 ''inscription." 
 
 Those ' ' inscribed, V that is to say, compelled to 
 serve upon the ships of the state from the age of 
 20 to 25, and who may be called upon even to the 
 age of 50, in time of war, are all the fishermen of 
 the coasts and the sailors of the merchant marine. 
 
 Naval officers are trained at the naval school 
 upon the ** Borda" in the harbor of Brest. Among 
 the other special schools of the navy are the school 
 for naval apprentices at Brest, the school for naval 
 medicine at Bordeaux, the school for naval en- 
 gineering at Paris, the naval higher school at 
 Toulon, etc. 
 
 The personnel of the pftvy thus amounts tO VSXOX§ 
 
FRANCE. 119 
 
 than 40,000 men. The troops of the navy like- 
 wise attain this figure. They include 13 regi- 
 ments of marine infantry and different detach- 
 ments of the same arm; 6 regiments of sharp- 
 shooters, Tonkinese, Annamite, Senegalese and 
 Soudanese ; 2 battalions of tirailleurs of Haoussa 
 and of Diego- Suarez; 35 battalions of naval artil- 
 lery ; one battalion of men undergoing punishment ; 
 finally, 1,300 men of the maritime and colonial 
 police force. 
 
 Colonies. — The minister for the Colonies (Pavil- 
 ion de Flore, in the Louvre), corresponds with the 
 governors of the colonies. In every important 
 colony the task of administration devolves upon a 
 director of the interior, assisted by a general 
 council The general government of Indo- China 
 is autonomous. 
 
 The metropolitan budget for the service of the 
 colonies amounts to 1 1 million dollars, Algeria not 
 included. The local budgets of receipts exceed 
 46 millions, 22 of which are for Cochin- China 
 The colonial school. Avenue de l'Observatoire, 
 prepares officials for the colonies. 
 
 Justice. — The minister of Justice, Place Ven- 
 dôme, bears also the title pf keeper of the seals. 
 
I20 FRANCE. 
 
 Two principal jurisdictions, civil and criminal, 
 exist. There is in every canton a justice of the 
 peace, in every arrondissement a civil tribunal, 
 and in sixteen important towns a court of appeal. 
 Those accused of crime are tried in each depart- 
 ment by a Court of General Sessions, the jury of 
 which is composed of private individuals chosen 
 by lot. Above all tribunals, the Court of Cassa- 
 tion (Palais de Justice), is in Paris, and watches 
 over the strict observance of the laws. 
 
 Public Education* — The minister of Public Edu- 
 cation, no rue de Grenelle, is the head of the 
 University of France He is assisted by a superior 
 council and by inspectors- general. France is 
 divided into sixteen academies administered by 
 rectors. 
 
 A distinction is made between private education, 
 which is merely supervised by the state, and public 
 education. 
 
 Elementary education is compulsoiy. It is fur- 
 nished in the primary communal schools, which 
 are free and non- sectarian, and in private schools. 
 There are some superior primary schools. 
 
 Secondary education for boys, which includes 
 iostruction in the classic as well as in the modern 
 
FRANCE. Î2l 
 
 languages (without the ancient), and the second- 
 ary education for girls is given in the colleges 
 and lyceums of the state as well as in private in- 
 stitutions and seminaries, which are mainly eccle- 
 siastical. 
 
 Higher education is given in the public col- 
 leges of letters (15), of sciences (15), of law (13), of 
 medicine (6), higher school of pharmacy (3), and in 
 a few free schools and in special schools. In Paris 
 the faculties of letters and sciences, like the acade^ 
 mic administration, are quartered in the Sor- 
 bonne. 
 
 The teachers, men and women, aïe tîained ill 
 the primary schools of the departments; the pro- 
 fessors of normal schools in the schools of Saint- 
 Cloud and of Fontenay-aux- Roses. The professors 
 of secondary instruction are trained by the facul- 
 ties of letters and sciences in the higher normal 
 school and in the school of Sèvres. 
 
 The other special schools are the practical school 
 for higher studies at the Sorbonne, the school of 
 Charters, the school of oriental languages, the 
 free school of political sciences in Paris, the school 
 of anthropology, the French school of Athens and 
 Rome. 
 
Î22 FRANCE. 
 
 The great scientific establishments are the Col- 
 lege of France, rue des Écoles, and the Museum 
 of Natural History, in the Jardin des Plantes, in 
 which public lectures are given ; the Bureau of 
 Longitude, the Observatory of Paris, and several 
 other astronomic and meteorological observatories 
 
 Among learned bodies, the first place belongs 
 to the institute which comprises five academies, 
 the French Academy: the academies of inscrip- 
 tions and belles lettres, of sciences, the fine arts, 
 the moral and political sciences. 
 
 The budget for public instruction exceeds i6o 
 millions. 
 
 Religion^ — The administration of religious mat- 
 ters, rue Bellechasse, is usually connected with 
 that of public education. Entire religious liberty 
 exists. There are three forms of worship recog- 
 nized by the state: the Catholic, the Protestant 
 (600,000 persons), andthe Hebrew (50,000). There 
 is also the Mohammedan, to which the state makes 
 grants (in Algeria, 3,600,000 people). The Cath- 
 olic Church is that of the majority of Frenchmen. 
 There are 1 7 archbishops, 84 bishops, and in every 
 commune one or several parishes administered by 
 parish priests and vicars. 
 
FRANCE. 123 
 
 The great seminaries train priests for service in 
 France; the seminary for foreign missions, and 
 that of the Holy Spirit, at Paris, and that for 
 African missions, at Lyons, train missionaries for 
 the colonies. A multitude of religious orders, 
 Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy, etc., all busy 
 themselves with education. 
 
 The Fine Arts. — The administration of the Fine 
 Arts (Palais- Royal, aile de Valois) is connected 
 with public instruction. 
 
 The school of Fine Arts, rue Bonaparte, at Paris, 
 trains painters, sculptors, architects and engravers. 
 It is attended by many foreign artists. The school 
 of the Louvre teaches archaeology and the history 
 of the arts. 
 
 The conservatory of music and declamation, 
 Faubourg Poissonnière, train musicians and dra- 
 matic artists. The academy at Rome receives the 
 pupils of these two schools who have won the 
 *'prix de Rome." In the departments are other 
 schools of the fine arts (4), of music (17), of draw- 
 ing, etc. There are schools of the decorative arts 
 (4), a school of drawing for young girls at Paris, 
 etc. 
 
 The manufactures of Sèvres porcelain, of 
 
124 FRANCE. 
 
 Gobelins and Beauvais tapestries are managed by 
 the state. 
 
 The principal national museums are the museum 
 of the Louvre, which is rich beyond com- 
 parison in every kind of art objects, the historic 
 museum of Versailles, the museum of living artists 
 of the Luxembourg, the museum of Cluny at 
 Paris (for the middle ages), the museum of Saint- 
 Germain-en- Laye (national antiquities down to 
 the time of Charlemagne), the Guimet musuems 
 (Extreme East), the museums of mouldings and 
 ethnography of the Trocadero. There are also a 
 great number of municipal museums: the Carna- 
 valet museum (history of Paris) and the Galliera 
 museum, the museums of Lyons, Montpellier, 
 Lille, Nantes and many others The state makes 
 grants to these. 
 
 The state subsidizes the theatres of the Opéra, 
 of the Comédie-Française, of the Opéra-Comique 
 and of the Odéon at Paris. The principal theatres 
 of the provinces are those of Bordeaux, Lyons, 
 Montpellier, Marseilles and Lille, 
 
 The buildings called historic are under the safe- 
 keeping of the state. There are more than 2,ooci 
 of them» of all periods and styles. 
 
FRANCE. Î25 
 
 Private Initiative. — The functions of the state 
 in France are considerable and, in social matters, 
 they tend every day towards enlargement. But the 
 state cannot do everything, and in a free country 
 it is natural that the government should be sus- 
 tained and supported by private initiative. 
 
 Even now, municipal and general councils are 
 administering with great liberality the interests of 
 the communes and departments. Besides, es- 
 pecially during the last twenty years, a multitude 
 of voluntary associations, which are continually in- 
 creasing in numbers and importance, aid or sup- 
 plement the efforts of the state. 
 
 Such are: The societies for marksmanship, for 
 gymnastics and for every sort of physical exercise, 
 which yield sturdy and capable soldiers; the 
 carrier-pigeon societies; the women's societies 
 which nurse the wounded in times of war ; and 
 also the society which cares for the sailors. 
 
 The societies which devote themselves to the 
 interests of convicts on their liberation, with the 
 object of reforming criminals 
 
 The innumerable societies for popular education; 
 such as the Franklin Society; the society of ele- 
 mentary education; the educational league; the 
 
1^6 FRANCE. 
 
 philotechnic association; the Union Française fof 
 young people, etc., which organize lectures, en- 
 courage pupils and distribute books for reading. 
 
 The geographical societies which initiated the 
 movement fot the expansion of France abroad, and 
 which continue the furtherance of this w^ork. A 
 single one, that of Paris, founded in 1821, was in 
 existence in 1872; since that time a score have 
 been founded, without reckoning their branches. 
 
 The Alliance Française, 45 rue de Grenville, by- 
 propagating the French language in the colonies 
 and abroad, contributes to the extension of the 
 intellectual, political and commercial influence of 
 France;* the society of French Africa has already 
 dispatched numerous exploring expeditions into 
 the dark continent; the agricultural societies; the 
 society of acclimatization, the object of which is to 
 
 * L'Alliance Française. — The splendid work done by the 
 Alliance Française, not only in this, but in other countries, is 
 well known to every person at all familiar with this subject. 
 Special attention is called to the skillful executive ability and 
 deep and earnest effort of its president, M. Pierre Foncin, of 
 Paris, the author of this book, whose natural modesty, so often 
 found in truly great men, has not permitted him to go more fully 
 into the details of the subject, and to give himself the credit his 
 persistent and intelligent efforts and patient labors so certainly 
 merit. 
 
PRANCE, 127 
 
 enrich the country with useful plants and animals; 
 innumerable benevolent societies, and among 
 others, the night- shelter, "la bouchée" (the 
 mouthful) of bread, the societies for nursing in- 
 fants, which form an entire free department of 
 public assistance. 
 
 The societies of work people, grouping toilers 
 according to their trades; the syndic chambers, 
 placed at the head of these groups, the fresh en- 
 thusiasm of which is preparing the way for the 
 solution of a few of the social questions of the day ; 
 the societies for political economy, study these 
 questions from another point of view; the co- 
 operative societies dealing with production, con- 
 sumption or credit which belong practically to 
 economic work. 
 
 The literary and artistic societies organize 
 
 The name of Prof. Adolphe Cohn, of Columbia University, 
 must, of necessity and most justly, be linked with the pioneer 
 and later work of the Alliance Française in the country. At the 
 last election. Prof. Cohn, after years of honorable service, was 
 succeeded by Mr. James H. Hyde as President of the New York 
 Branch of this Society. Mr. Hyde's liberality for the cause is 
 too well known to require amplification here. 
 
 Branches of the Alliance are now established in nearly every 
 large city in the United States, and recently a federation of all 
 these branches has been completed. — [Ed. Note.] 
 
Î2 
 
 8 fRANCË. 
 
 dramatic or musical representations and exhibi- 
 tions of painting and sculpture. 
 
 And finally, innumerable learned societies. 
 
 It is undeniable that fresh sources of initiative 
 and of energy that were ignorant of their own 
 powers,^ are forcing their way into the light 
 through the chinks of the old administrative edi- 
 fice, and that they are re- kindling there a life 
 which they adorn with new blossoms. 
 
FRANCE. 129 
 
 PART IX. 
 FRANCE FROM AN ECONOMIC STANDPOINT. 
 
 Agriculture — Farm Productions — Domestic Animals — Fisheries, 
 etc. Industry : Mineral Productions — Industries Concerned 
 in the Production of Food — Textile and Clothing Industries — 
 Mechanical and other Industries — Ways of Communication — 
 Commerce. 
 
 Agriculture» — France is pre-eminently a land of 
 farmers — a rural democracy. In suppressing 
 feudal rights, in authorizing the communes to 
 share the communal estates among their inhabi- 
 tants, and in ordering the estates termed national 
 to be sold, the Revolution not only emancipated 
 the peasant, but gave him his position. 
 
 About two-thirds of the French live in the 
 country or in rural communes (twenty-four and 
 one-half millions). More than one-half of the 
 population (eighteen and one-half millions) is com- 
 posed of farmers, their families and servants. 
 Out of 4,835,000 rural land-owners, nine-tenths are 
 
130 FRANCE. 
 
 small proprietors. It is true that these small pro- 
 prietors occupy barely the fourth part of the terri- 
 tory, whilst the larger land- owners, who are in the 
 proportion of only one to 100, possess more than a 
 third. 
 
 The area of all France is 131 millions of acres. 
 The inhabited places, roads, heaths, rocks and un- 
 cultivated ground amount to 20 millions There 
 remain m million acres constituting the soil de- 
 voted to tillage. 
 
 The arable land is divided into ploughed fields, 
 62 million acres; vineyards, 5 millions; woods, 
 forests, 22 millions; natural meadows and pasture- 
 lands, 22 millions. 
 
 Agricultural Productions.— Out of 62 million 
 acres of ploughed lands, the cultivation of cereals 
 alone occupies 40 million acres, that is to say, one- 
 fourth of the whole territory. They produce 
 annually one billion of dollars. 
 
 Since the beginning of the century, the primi- 
 tive system of allowing lands to lie fallow has 
 continually diminished and made way for the ro- 
 tation of crops and for the more and more rational 
 employment of fertilizers. The plough has been 
 brought to greater perfection. All sorts of agri- 
 
FRANCE. 131 
 
 cultural machines have been invented. The pro- 
 duction of wheat has more than doubled ; amount- 
 ing to 113,480,000 bushels in 1815, it increased to 
 more than 284,000,000 some twenty-five years ago. 
 
 The potato, hardly cultivated a hundred years 
 ago, yields to day a crop of 354,625 bushels. 
 Market gardening is carried on in the neighbor- 
 hood of the great cities, upon the coast of the 
 channel and of the ocean. The cultivation of 
 crops required in manufacturing industries brings 
 in 300 million dollars. That of beet-root industry 
 began to spread over France only toward 1840. 
 The northern districts alone produce two thirds of 
 the total crop, which amounts to 16,537,500 tons. 
 
 Flax and hemp have been cultivated to a less 
 extent within the last fifty years, as a result of the 
 competition of cotton; to colza and other oil-pro- 
 ducing plants, the preference is more and more 
 given to olive oil (Provence, ) to the oils obtained 
 from exotic seeds (orachides, etc.,) and to petro- 
 leum and its derivatives. The dyes extracted 
 from coal-tar have ruined madder, introduced in 
 the eighteenth century by the Persian Althen. 
 On the cont:-ary, the cultivation of tobacco, which 
 is under state regulation, and abounds prac- 
 
î^2 FRANCE. 
 
 tically in the valley of the Garonne, has doubled 
 within the last forty- five years. The monopoly 
 of the manufacttire and sale of tobaccos yields 
 the state a revenue of more than 60 million of dol- 
 lars. The characteristic wealth of France, after 
 êereals, consists in the vine. But a serious source 
 of loss began some twenty- five years ago in the 
 invasion of the phylloxera. It was found neces- 
 sary to root up the greater portion of the vines, a 
 proceeding which represented at the time a loss of 
 about 600 million dollars. The native vines were 
 replaced by American plants upon which the old 
 French plants were usually grafted. The wine 
 harvest amounted, on an average, to 740 million 
 gallons at the opening of the nineteenth century; 
 to 1,190,000,000 in 1850; it fell to 264,170,000 at 
 the time of the disease produced by the oïdium ; 
 it rose to 1,321,000,000 in 1858, reaching 2,192,- 
 600,000 in 1875, ^ ^^^^ again to 661,000,000 in 
 1879 — after 14 years of the phylloxera. To-day it 
 averages 792,500,000 gallons. The vines of Bor- 
 deaux, Burgundy and Champagne are known 
 throughout the entire world. Wines, ciders and 
 beets produce annually 300 million dollars. 
 
 Forests cover a little more than one- sixth of 
 
FRANCE. 133 
 
 France, and bring in 400 million dollars. Fruit 
 trees abound. 
 
 Meadows and pasture-lands occupy 29,300,000 
 acres, producing 400 million dollars. Natural 
 meadows, which are very numerous in the west, 
 have been improved; new meadows have been 
 brought into existence by means of irrigation 
 (the canals of Provence, Roussillon, etc.) Arti- 
 ficial meadows have been enormously develop- 
 ed. Commons, heaths and uncultivated lands 
 have diminished by more than 2,471,000 acres in 
 the second half of this century. 
 
 Domestic Animals — ^Fisheries, Etc. — Domestic 
 animals represent a revenue of 1,200 million dol- 
 lars. The number of horses has increased by one- 
 third during the last one hundred years. It 
 amounts to-day to 3 millions. The horses of the 
 Percheron breed are the most robust. The breeds 
 have been improved by the introduction of English 
 and Arab staLions. The army requires 130,000 
 horses. Asses are very useful in farming on a 
 small scale. A great number of mules of Poitou 
 are exported to Spain Oxen, bulls, cows, etc., 
 appear to have doubled in number since the 
 eighteenth century. They amount to thirteen and 
 
134 FRANCE. 
 
 one-half millions to-day. The introduction of the 
 Durham breed of cattle has facilitated the raising 
 of fat animals. 
 
 Sheep (22 millions,) after having increased, 
 have been diminishing since the second half of the 
 nineteenth century; they are giving way, owing 
 to the increase of land under cultivation and the 
 importation of foreign sheep. The breeds have 
 been improved as regards the production of wool 
 by the introduction of merinos, as regards food by 
 crossing with the dishley of England. There are 
 one and one-half millions of goats. The breeding 
 of hogs (6 millions, ) and that of poultry of various 
 descriptions, has made great progress. The pro- 
 duction of honey has decreased because there are 
 fewer heaths, less flowers for the bees, and be- 
 cause more sugar is consumed. Game is becom- 
 ing scarcer by reason of the increasing number of 
 sportsmen, and particularly because of the depre- 
 dations of the poacher. 
 
 Fresh- water fish tend to diminish; but piscicul- 
 ture, the first establishment for which was founded 
 at Huningue (Alsace) in 1852, is replenishing 
 the rivers. Coast fishing gives employment to 
 10,000 vessels and 46,000 men; deep sea fishing, 
 
FRANCE. 135 
 
 1,000 ships and 13,000 men. The oyster industry 
 has assumed enormous proportions in Brittany, 
 upon the coast of Charente, and especially at Ar- 
 cachon. 
 
 Industry — Mineral Productions. — A great agri- 
 cultural country, France is also one of the fore- 
 most manufacturing powers. Nearly 10 million 
 Frenchmen, including their families, are employed 
 in manufactures. It is estimated that France con- 
 sumes fourteen times more coal and ten times 
 more iron than she did fifty years ago, and also 
 that she manufactures three times as many differ- 
 ent fabrics and six times as much cotton cloth. 
 
 Of the 20 million tons of coal produced by 
 France, (England 160, Germany 73, all Europe 
 280, the United States more than 100) the basin 
 of the north and of the Pas- de- Calais alone furnishes 
 one-half; that of the Loire comes next. France 
 is obliged to buy 10 million tons of coal from her 
 neighbors. Being quite rich in iron, she manu- 
 factures two million tons of castings, 90,000 tons 
 of iron and 500,000 tons of steel, particularly in 
 the department of Meurthe- et- Moselle. 
 
 Owing to the variety of strata, she is rich in 
 quarries of every variety, granites, basalts, por- 
 
136 FRANCE. 
 
 phyry, lime, sandstone, silex, marbles, alabaster, 
 slates, kaolin of Saint- Trieix (Haute -Vienna), 
 lime, phosphates of Pas -de- Calais, etc., and 
 mineral salt. She is no less liberally provided 
 with mineral waters. Numerous salt marshes on 
 the Mediterranean are turned to account. 
 
 Alimentary Industries — French cookery is known 
 the world over. The bread of Paris is equally 
 celebrated. France is the richest country in the 
 world in gastronomic dainties planned to tickle the 
 palate and gratify the appetite ; the truffled pies of 
 Perigord, the sausages of Aries, the hams of Bay- 
 onne, the preserves of Nantes and Bordeaux, the 
 cheeses of Brie, Camembert, the Jura, Roquefort, 
 etc.; the confectioneries of Bar- le- Due; the pre- 
 served fruits of Clermont Ferrand; the apple sugar 
 of Rouen; the sugar- plums of Verdun; the almond 
 and almond cakes of Montelimar; the chocolate of 
 Paris; pastries of every variety, such as the spiced 
 breads of Reims, the macaroons of Nancy, the 
 gingerbread nuts of Dijon, the madeleines of 
 Commercy, the biscuits and calissons of Aix-en- 
 Provence, the ring-shaped pastries of Albi, etc. ; 
 the liqueurs innumerable of which the most widely 
 known is chartreuse; varioxis condiments, th§ 
 
FRANCE. 137 
 
 principal of which is mustard (of Dijon and Bor- 
 deaux. ) Following the ancient traditions, there 
 is hardly a city that does not display its ingenuity 
 in devisii g some of the priceless delicacies that 
 are a delight to the palate of the epicure. Luxu- 
 ries, as well as necessaries are in abundance. 
 Mills, flour mills, sugar-refineries, vinegar fac- 
 tories, etc., abound everywhere. 
 
 The Textile and CIothm§; Industries. — The spin- 
 ning and weaving of wool, and the manufacture 
 of cloths, velvets, flannels, merinos, cashmeres, 
 carpets, etc., are carried on mainly at Roubaix 
 and Fourmies (Nord,) Sedan (Ardennes) and 
 Reims, Elbeuf (Seine Inférieure), and Louviers 
 (Eure,) Vienne (Isère,) Mazamet (Tarn.) 
 
 In the southern basin of the Rhône where the 
 mulberry tree flourishes, the silk worm is reared, 
 and silk prepared. It is then woven at Lyons 
 (silks) and at Saint- Etienne (ribbons) which also 
 receive raw silk from Italy, China and Japan. 
 France is the first city in the world for silk fabrics. 
 
 Cotton imported most largely from the United 
 States through Havre is spun and woven at 
 Rouen, Lille, Roubaix, Saint- Quentin, Amiens, 
 Troyes, Flers (Orne,) in the Vosges and at Tar- 
 
138 FRANCE. 
 
 are and Roanne (Rhône). When she lost Alsace, 
 France was deprived of the greatest center of her 
 cotton industry, Mulhouse. 
 
 Flax is- spun and woven at Lille and in the 
 region of the north; hemp at le Mans and in the 
 west. Laces are manufactured at le Puy, and in 
 all that district; at Calais, in Normandy; em- 
 broideries in the east; hosieries at Troy and at 
 Paris. 
 
 In addition, in every city, and particularly in 
 Paris, the clothing industry gives employment to 
 a whole army of toilers of the most diverse charac- 
 ter; tailors, dressmakers, modistes, seamstresses, 
 washerwomen, dyers, hatters, shoemakers, jewel- 
 ers, upholsterers and hairdressers. In these dif- 
 ferent trades, as well as in the spinning mills and 
 factories, are displayed that dexterity of hand, 
 that accuracy of eye, and that taste which ensure 
 the success of French fashions. 
 
 The value of the productions of France in the 
 textile and clothing industries is estimated at 560 
 millions of dollars. The exportation amounts to 
 168 millions, the importations at 120 millions, a 
 difference of 48 millions. There are left 500 mil- 
 lion dollars for the use of the nation itself. 
 
FRANCE. 139 
 
 Mechanical and Various Other Industrics.- 
 
 Machinery and locomotives are manufactured at 
 Fives near Lille, at Rive-de-Gier (Loire,) at Alais 
 (Gard,) and at Paris; weapons at Chatellerault, 
 and at Saint- Etienne, cutlery in the curious city 
 of Thiers (Puy-de-Dôme.) The most celebrated 
 metallurgical workshop is that of le Creusot 
 (Saone-et-Loire), that cyclops of iron and fire, 
 with its infernal breath, its hundred giant chim- 
 neys where are cast forty-foot cannon, armor- 
 plates for ships nineteen and one-half inches 
 thick, and where they can crack a nut with a 
 steam hammer weighing 120 tons. 
 
 Porcelain is manufactured at Limoges, Vierzon 
 (Cher,) Nevers, Vallauris (Alpes- Maritimes) and 
 at the national factory of Sèvres ; faïence at Paris, 
 Montereau (Seine- et- Marne,) Creil (Oise.) Glass 
 is made in the coal-producing countries, cut-glass 
 at Baccarat (Meurthe-et- Moselle,) Pantin (Seine,) 
 Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux. The principal center 
 for the manufacture of looking-glasses is at Saint- 
 Gobain (Aisne.) 
 
 The city of Besançon, the department of the 
 Jura and Paris, manufactures watches ; Paris, fur- 
 niture, vehicles, bronzes, etc. ; Paris and Marseilles, 
 
140 FRANCE. 
 
 wax tapers; Marseilles, soaps; Paris, Grasse and 
 Nice, perfumery; Paris and Grenoble, gloves; 
 Angouleme, I'lsere and Essonnes (Seine-et-Oise,) 
 paper. 
 
 Paris is the center for the manufacture of every- 
 thing that is artistic, and whatever pertains to the 
 sciences or to letters and their applications, books, 
 engravings, photography, musical instruments and 
 instruments of precision, and also of those thou- 
 sand bits of bric-a brae to be found, imitated and 
 copied everywhere, that are known by the name of 
 Parisian trinkets. 
 
 Highways of Communication. — France has a net- 
 work of magnificent roads which have been con- 
 tinually improved and added to during the nine- 
 teenth century, 24,860 miles of national roads, 
 with nearly as many of departmental roads; 75,- 
 000 miles of highroads; 50,000 miles of roads 
 of common interest. There are almost 250,000 
 miles of ordinary roads in neighborhoods, only the 
 half of which are really capable of being used. To 
 sum up, and in round numbers, 300,000 miles of 
 good roads, that is to say, one hundred times the 
 distance from New York to San Francisco. 
 
 There were only 622 miles of canals in 1789; to- 
 
fRANCË. Î4Ï 
 
 day, there are more than 3,000 miles, with 5,000 
 miles of navigable rivers, and 1,870 miles of rivers 
 upon which timber can be floated. 
 
 However, the network of ways for interior navi- 
 gation is still far from being complete. 
 
 The first of the French railroads date from 1823. 
 The ordinance regulating them was framed in 
 1 84 1. It was between the years 1852-55 that the 
 companies operating between Paris and Lyons 
 and the Mediterranean, that of the North, of 
 Orleans, of the South, of the East and of the West 
 were formed; to these was added in 1877 the rail- 
 roads belonging to the state. There are to- day in 
 France, 24,240 miles of railroads; Germany has 
 26,105; England 20,000; Europe 136,730; the 
 United States 175,265. The French railroads are 
 of remarkable solidity and have also been construc- 
 ted with particular taste and care, thus rendering 
 accidents of less frequent occurrence than else- 
 where. 
 
 There are nearly 65,000 miles of telegraphic 
 lines. In France, as in all other countries, a great 
 change has taken place in the merchant navy. 
 The number of sailing vessels has diminished 
 (450,000 tons); the tonnage of ships has increased; 
 
142 FRAKCË. 
 
 that of steamships, which up to 1863 did not attain 
 100,000 tons, has now reached 500,000. The total 
 number of the French mercantile marine is about 
 15,000 ships aggregating 950,000 tons. It ranks 
 eighth in sailing vessels and stands second only 
 to England in steam vessels. 
 
 The coasting trade and that with Algeria are 
 under the national flag. As regards the matter 
 of deep - sea navigation, foreign navies have 
 always held the advantage over France. 
 The principal ports are Marseilles, with a trade 
 amounting to six and a half million tons, Havre 
 three and a half, Bordeaux two, Dunkerque one 
 and a half, Rouen, Saint- Nazaire, Calais, Dieppe, 
 Cette and Boulogne, which vary between one mil- 
 lion and 600,000 tons. 
 
 Commetce. — It is impossible to estimate with 
 any exactness the value of the internal commerce 
 of France; it exceeds to-day 1800 million dollars. 
 The countries with which France has the largest 
 trade are England, Belgium, Germany, and the 
 United States. Two countries only are superior to 
 France in commercial importance: England (3400 
 million dollars) and Germany (1880 millions). After 
 France comes the United States, (1600 millions), 
 
 I 
 
FRANCE. 143 
 
 Holland (100 millions), Russia (80 millions), Aus- 
 tria-Hungary (80 millions), Belgium (60 millions), 
 Italy (46 millions), Spain (32 millions), Switzer- 
 land (30 millions). 
 
 Exposition universelle de Ï900. — La situation ex- 
 acte de la France dans le concert pacifique des 
 grands peuples producteurs n'a point paru mau- 
 vaise. Cette fête solennelle du travail, préparée 
 dès 1892 sous la présidence de Carnot, organisée 
 par MM. Millerand, ministre du Commerce, 
 Picard, commissaire général, Delaunay- Belleville, 
 directeur général, Bouvard, architecte, etc., a eu 
 un retentissement énorme. Elle marquera dans les 
 annales de l'Humanité laborieuse. 
 
144 FRANCE. 
 
 PART X. 
 
 ÏHÈ FRANCE BEYOND THE SEAS. 
 
 Anotlier France — France in America — France in Oceanîcâ — 
 France in Asia — France in the Indian Ocean and in the 
 Red Sea — France in Africa — ^Algeria and Tunis — The Soil 
 and Its Productions — ^The Inhabitants and the Towns — The 
 Political and Administrative Organization — France in the 
 Levant. 
 
 Another France* — There is another France be- 
 sides the France marked upon our maps. It in- 
 cludes all the countries owned, colonized and 
 protected by the French nation. This is France 
 beyond the seas. 
 
 It is fifteen times as large as European France. 
 It is inhabited by 33 millions of people, for the 
 'most part natives, (without reckoning 678,000 
 Frenchmen settled abroad, 116,000 of whom are 
 found in the United States ) 
 
 France beyond the seas comprises a few islets 
 
FRANCE. 145 
 
 and one territory in America; various archipela- 
 goes in Oceanica; an Indo-Chinese empire and a 
 few Indian trading stations in Asia; it is particu- 
 larly extensive in Africa. 
 
 France in America, — Frenchmen have been 
 great explorers of America. Among the foremost 
 are Jacques Cartier, who discovered and gave its 
 name to the St. Lawrence (1535); Champlain, 
 who founded Quebec (1608) ; the Fathers Jolliet and 
 Marquette, who discovered the Mississippi; Cave- 
 lier de la Selle, who was the first to become ac- 
 quainted with Illinois, and the first who occupied 
 and named Louisiana. 
 
 At the beginning of the century, France was in 
 possession of Newfoundland and Canada, of 
 Louisiana, Haïti, and the greater number of the 
 Antilles, and of Guiana. She has preserved only 
 a few fragments of this vast dominion. But the 
 60, 000 Frenchmen of Canada, abandoned to them- 
 selves, have become a great people of two million 
 souls grouped along the banks of the St. Law- 
 rence, or scattered through the States of New 
 England. The French race and language still 
 hold an important place in New Orleans and along 
 the lower Mississippi, There is also at San Fran- 
 
146 FRANCE. 
 
 Cisco, in California, a flourishing group of French 
 colonists. 
 
 The treaty of Utrecht left to France the little 
 islets of Saint- Pierre and Miquelon, with the right 
 of fishing for the cod upon the banks of New- 
 foundland, and of preparing and drying the fish 
 upon the eastern coast of the island. Although 
 tiny, this colony is visited every year by a fleet of 
 fishing boats manned by more than 12,000 French 
 seamen. By reason of its commerce, amounting 
 to more than six million dollars, it is the third 
 important of the French colonies. 
 
 In General America France possesses two of the 
 Antilles, Gaudeloupe and Martinique, with their 
 dependencies. The language of her race still con- 
 tinues in several other of the Antilles. French is 
 the oflicial language of the Negro republic of 
 Haïti. Several important groups of French colo- 
 nists, for the most part natives of the Basses- 
 Alpes, live in Mexico. 
 
 Gaudeloupe, four times as large as the depart- 
 ment of the Seine, is dominated by the smoking 
 crater of Soufrière (4870 feet). The city of Basse- 
 Terre is the seat of government, of the bishopric 
 and of the Court of Appeal. The fine harbor of 
 
FRANCE. 147 
 
 Pointe-à- Pitre has various commercial establish- 
 ments and a lyceum. The population of the 
 island and its dependencies is 200,000. 
 
 M art in que, with a population of 168,000 is twice 
 as large as the department of the Seine, and has 
 two important centres, viz: Fort- de- France, a 
 magnificent fortified port, the seat of government 
 of the Court of Appeal, of the Academy, and a 
 school of law; and Saint- Pierre, a trading port, 
 in which are the bishopric, the Chamber of Com- 
 merce and the Lyceum. 
 
 These picturesque islands, which are adorned by 
 the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, yield 
 sugar-cane, coiïee and cocoa. 
 
 They are unhappily subject to terrible earth- 
 quakes and cyclones. 
 
 French Guiana, which is as large as the fourth 
 part of France, is a vast forest rising in gentle 
 stages from the sea to the mountains; it is not 
 more unhealtful than any other country within the 
 tropics, but it has only 2 8, 000 inhabitants, and is un- 
 developed from the lack of labor; it is a penal 
 establishment, of which Cayenne is the centre. 
 Gold mines are worked in the interior. 
 
 Every year, France sends a certain number of 
 
148 FRANCE. 
 
 colonists to South America, and particularly to 
 Uruguay, the Argentine Republic and Chili. 
 Many are Basques, 
 
 France in Oceamca* — France possesses, towards 
 the centre of the Southern Pacific, the islet of 
 Tahiti, which is a charming place to sojourn, owing 
 to its uniform climate and marvellous scenery. Its 
 capital, Papeete, has 3,500 inhabitants. 
 
 Among the French archipelagos of Oceanica, 
 Gambler produces pearls, mother, of pearl and 
 copra; Rapa has an excellent harbor on the direct 
 route from Panama to Australia; the Marquesas, 
 the Tuamotou and the Wallis islands are rich in 
 coffee, sugar-cane and cocoa-nut trees. 
 
 The prmcipal Oceanic possession of France is 
 New Caledonia, situated in the east of Australia. 
 This island, which is three times as large as Cor- 
 sica, and is inhabited by 42,000 natives, called 
 Canaques, has a healthful though hot climate. It 
 is truly a land of colonization (5 000 colonists). 
 But it is above all, up to the present, a penal col- 
 ony (10,000 convicts). Its capital, Nouméa, has 
 only 5,200 inhabitants. Its products are cattle, 
 maize, timber of various kinds, coffee and nickel. 
 
 The New Hebrides, the area of which is equal 
 
FRANCE. 149 
 
 to that of the Caledonian Archipelago, with a pop- 
 ulation of 60,000, were placed in 1887 under the 
 joint protection of France and England. 
 
 France possesses in all in Oceanica about 116 
 islands, and with an area of 22,000 square kilome- 
 tres, inhabited by 80, 000 people (not including the 
 New Hebrides and the penal settlement of New 
 Caledonia). 
 
 France in Asia. — France was mistress of India 
 in the eighteenth century; she lost it in 1763, and 
 the English, taught by the policy of Dupleix, have 
 founded there a marvellous empire. There are 
 left to France, in English India, a few houses, or 
 stores established in different cities, and five small 
 territories, the area of which is hardly greater 
 than that of the department of the Seine. Pondi- 
 chery is the seat of government and of a Court of 
 Appeal. The population in all amounts to 282,000 
 inhabitants, a thousand of whom are Europeans. 
 The country produces cereals, rice and fabrics of 
 blue cotton cloth. 
 
 Even though France lost India, she acquired in 
 Indo-China, between the years 1858-1885 an empire 
 almost equal to that which Dupleix had bestowed 
 upon her, French Indg- China includes Çoçhiur 
 
150 FRANCE. 
 
 China, with the protectorate of Cambodia, and 
 the protectorate of Annam and Tonquin. Its 
 area, 178,000 square miles, is almost as large as 
 that of France, with a population of 18 millions. 
 
 The commerce of Cochin- China amounts to 23 
 million dollars, and its budget to 5 millions. Able 
 governors, like Admiral de la Grandiere and M. 
 Le Myre de Vilers have constructed within the 
 country roads, bridges and schools, and have es- 
 tablished telegraph stations. The capital, Saigon, 
 is a beautiful city of 70,000 inhabitants; it is a 
 great commercial port with an arsenal, and is a 
 place of call for the packet-boats of the extreme 
 East, Cochin- China is inhabited by 1,700,000 
 people, almost all of whom are of the Annamite 
 race. Its products are rice, dried and salted fish, 
 and hogs. 
 
 The establishment of the French protectorate 
 over Cambodia, is due to Doudart de Lagrée, the 
 intrepid explorer of the Mékong. Cambodia, in- 
 habited by 950,000 people widely differing from 
 the Annamites in race, language and institutions, 
 is governed by a king. Its capital is Pnom- Penh. 
 Its products are cattle, pi^^s, dried, salted and 
 smoked fish, limestone and cotton. The Cambo- 
 
FRANCE. 151 
 
 dians are descended from the Kmer people, who 
 were formerly dominant in Indo- China. It was 
 the Kmers who erected the magnificent temple 
 and palaces of Angcor. 
 
 After the expedition of 1859 against the An 
 namites, who at the opening of the seventeenth 
 century had begun to have intercourse with 
 France, a French merchant, M. Dupuis, called the 
 attention of his country, in 1873, to Tonkin. The 
 death of the naval lieutenant, Francis Garnier, 
 who had taken possession of the delta with a 
 handful of men, the intervention of China, the 
 capture of Hanoï by Commander Rivière, and the 
 death of this brave officer, compelled France to 
 have recourse to war. The capital, Hué, was oc- 
 cupied and a French protectorate imposed upon 
 Annam (1883). After several bloody and costly 
 campaigns, in which Admiral Courbet covered 
 himself with glory, peace was signed with China. 
 All Indo- China was placed under the authority of 
 a governor-general, whose residence is at Hanoï. 
 
 Annam and Tonkin are inhabited by 15 million 
 people, almost all of Annamite race. Tonkin, the 
 climate of which is less hot and much more health- 
 ful than that of the other portions of Indo -China, 
 
152 FRANCE. 
 
 is the natural road leading to Tunnan, and the 
 southern provinces of China, The delta of the 
 Red River is admirably cultivated by the natives. 
 The products are rice, cattle, buffaloes, horses, 
 hogs and fish. Several native industries, the 
 manufacture of mats, and the goldsmith's art are 
 pursued with considerable activity. Since the 
 conclusion of peace, an energetic warfare against 
 piracy has been waged by the French and native 
 troops. Colonists and merchants have settled in 
 the delta ; there they are establishing workshops 
 and plantations. Steamboats ply regularly along 
 the very extensive network of navigable ways. 
 The working of the coal mines has begun. High- 
 ways and railroads have been constructed. The 
 European quarters of Hanoï and Haïphong are 
 continually increasing in extent. As Tonkin has 
 been conquered for only fifteen years, pacification 
 is hardly yet an accomplished fact, but consider- 
 able progress in that direction has already been 
 made. 
 
 As the result of a vigorous demonstration, di- 
 rected in 1894 against the Siamese, the western 
 frontier of French Indo- China has been fixed 
 along the course of the Mékong, and its sphere of 
 
FRANCE. 153 
 
 influence extended into a portion of Siam, by the 
 Anglo-French treaty of 1896. 
 France in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. — 
 
 In the eighteenth century, France was in posses- 
 sion of the Mascariegne islands. During the 
 Napoleonic wars, the English deprived her of the 
 Isle of France, which they called Maurities, 
 leaving to France the island of Bourbon, known 
 to-day as Réunion. The two sister islands, 
 though separated politically, have remained un- 
 ited in language and heart. 
 
 Réunion, distant from Marseilles 21 days' sail, 
 and in area five times as large as the department 
 of the Seine, is dominated by the Peak of Snows 
 (Piton des Neiges), more than 9,850 feet high, a 
 volcano still in eruption. The island is fertile 
 and well wooded, has admirable scenery and pro- 
 duces sugar and coffee. Saint- Denis, the resi- 
 dence of the governor, is the seat of a Court of 
 Appeals, an academy, a lyceum and a normal 
 school. Saint- Pierre has a commercial port. A 
 railroad 75 miles in length partially circles the 
 island. A harbor has recently been dug at Cape 
 des Galets. The créole population is intelligent, 
 active and patriotic (169,000 inhabitants). 
 
154 FRANCE. 
 
 The rights of France over Madagascar date 
 back to the ministry of Richelieu. Under Col- 
 bert, it was called Eastern France. As the result 
 of the expedition of 1895, the Hovas were placed 
 under the rule of France; there is a resident-gen- 
 eral at Tananarive, the capital of the country, 
 and residents and courts of law in the principal 
 centres The island of Madagascar is larger than 
 France. It has three and one-half million in- 
 habitants, the fourth of whom are Hovas. It 
 produces rice, maize, and all tropical plants ; the 
 cattle are innumerable. There are mines of iron, 
 copper and coal. 
 
 France possesses the islands of Sainte- Marie 
 and of Nossi-Bé, lying around Madagascar, the 
 trade of which exceeds seven million francs, and 
 Mayotte, a volcanic island with excellent anchor- 
 age. She has placed under her protectorate the 
 archipelago of the Comoros. 
 
 Behind the Gulf of Aden, she possesses Obock 
 and Djibouti 
 
 France in Africa. — The Gaboon, occupied since 
 1839, is hardly more than a naval station, as its 
 natural sources of wealth have been turned to but 
 little account. The chief place is Libreville. 
 
FRANCE. 155 
 
 The Congo, covered by immense forests, and in- 
 habited by black tribes, the education of whom 
 does not appear impossible, will offer to commerce 
 valuable resources. It has been explored since 
 1875, and brought under French dominion by M. 
 de Brazza, and his lieutenants, whose course of 
 action has been uniformly humane and pacific. 
 The principal post is Brazzaville, upon the Congo ; 
 the principal port, Loango. 
 
 Recent exploring expeditions have connected 
 French Congo with Lake Tchad, and, through 
 Lake Tchad, with the French Soudan. Grampel 
 (1890-91), setting out from Brazzaville, had 
 ascended to Oubangui, and from Bangui, the last 
 French outpost, had launched forth heroically into 
 the land of the unknown. He was assassinated 
 after crossing the Charri. His death was avenged 
 by Dybowski and Maistre, who, taking up the ad- 
 vance forward reached Lake Tchad (1893). In 
 another quarter, the naval lieutenant, Mizon as- 
 cended the Niger, and then its tributary, the 
 Benoué. He visited Yola, and turning to the 
 south crossed an unexplored country, and re- 
 joined Brazza upon the high waters of the Sangha, 
 a tributary of the Congo, (1892). 
 
156 FRANCE. 
 
 Upon the Gulf of Benin, France is in occupation 
 of various trading posts, and exercises a protecto- 
 rate over the kingdom of Porto-Novo. Between 
 the years 1892-94 General Dodds put to flight the 
 ferocious Behanzin, whom he afterward captured, 
 whilst he conquered the kingdom of Dahomey. 
 
 Captain Binger (1887-88), setting out from 
 Bamakon, upon the Niger, after advancing to the 
 loop of the river as far as Mossi, reached Salaga 
 on the south, then Kong, and reached to Grand 
 Bassam, thus uniting, by a peaceful exploring ex- 
 pedition, the Ivory Coast with Soudan and Senegal. 
 All this coast is very rich, particularly in palm oil. 
 
 The recent explorations of Captain Toutee, of 
 Colonel Marchand and of others, have still further 
 strengthened our influence in the Soudan. 
 
 Senegal, the most ancient of French colonies, 
 was of trifling importance prior to the administra- 
 tion of a governor of unparalleled worth. General 
 Faidherbe. It is particularly a commercial colony ; 
 it may also become a colony of plantations; in 
 short, it is the gate of entrance to the Soudan. 
 The course of the Niger was determined and Tim- 
 buctoo occupied in 1894. All the countries upon 
 the higher Senegal and the higher Niger have been 
 
FRANCE. Î57 
 
 reduced to submission by a succession of fearless 
 leaders inspired by the plans of Faidherbe, Colonels 
 Galliene, Borgnis-Desbordesand Archinard. The 
 last mentioned took possession of Segou and of 
 Kaarta, and established the post of Kankan beyond 
 the higher Niger. 
 
 Senegal is administered by a governor residing 
 at Saint-Louis, who is assisted by a general coun- 
 cil, the Soudan by a governor whose residence is 
 at Kayes, and the rivers of the South, or French 
 Guinea, by a lieutenant-governor, who resides at 
 Kanakry. These vast possessions, inhabited by 
 at least three millions of blacks, extend from the 
 Ocean to Timbuctoo for 995 miles, (the distance 
 from Gibraltar to Malta.) A telegraphic line con- 
 nects Bamaken with Saint-Louis to Dakar, and 
 another between Kayes (upon the Senegal) and 
 the Niger. 
 
 The tropical and luxuriant vegetation occurring 
 along the rivers of the south, gives way in the 
 interior to savannahs covered with a vegetation of 
 a rather scanty nature, but crossed by water 
 courses, or marigots and fertile valleys. The 
 country produces gum, arachides and rubber. 
 The principal port is Dakar. 
 
158 FRANCE. 
 
 Although the Senegal and French Soudan do 
 not reach quite to the Niger, the zone of French 
 influence connected with them extends much be- 
 yond that river. Bold exploring expeditions have 
 outstripped the English and the Germans in the 
 direction of Lake Tchad. Commander Monteil, 
 setting out from Bamaken, crossed the river at 
 Say, and by way of the Bornou, reached Lake 
 Tchad, whence, making his way over the desert 
 of Sahara, he came to the coast of Tripoli; in 
 another direction the Congo is connected by the 
 Mbomou with the basin of the upper Nile. 
 
 Algferia and Tttnis — The Soil and Its Productions» 
 — The Mediterranean is no longer an inland sea, 
 and the meeting point of the nations of the an- 
 cient world; since the piercing of the Isthmus of 
 Suez, it is the highway from the Atlantic to the 
 Indian Ocean. In the western basin of the Medi- 
 terranean, four powers lay claim to predomi- 
 nance : England, established at the two entrances 
 of the sea, at Gibralter and Malta; Spain; Italy 
 and France. The last occupies on the north of 
 the basin a comparatively restricted extent of 
 coast, but in Africa Minor she has founded an 
 empire. 
 
FRANCE. 159 
 
 Africa Minor, or Barbary, is a little continent 
 enclosed in a larger one; a sort of great island 
 lying between a sea of waters and a sea of sands. 
 On the west, stolid Morocco follows her own 
 peculiar destiny; in the centre, Algeria is a 
 French colony ; on the east, Tunis is placed under 
 French protection. The first is as large as France ; 
 the other is equal in extent to the fourth part of 
 her area. 
 
 It is known that Algeria and Tunis compose 
 from north to south three distinct zones, parallel 
 to the coast ; one portion, the Tell, very fertile, 
 formed by the massif of the Tellian Atlas, inter- 
 sected by beautiful valleys and cultivated plains; 
 the Hauts- Plateaux (high plateaus), covered with 
 steppes and salt lakes or chotts, elevated three 
 thousand, three hundred feet above the level of 
 the sea, between the two Atlases; upon the slopes 
 and at the foot of the Saharian Atlas, the region 
 of the Desert in which stony plateau alternate 
 with heaps of yellow sand, arid valleys and green 
 oases. The climate is violent. However, the 
 mountain regions, such as the Kabylie, are in- 
 debted to the nearness of the sea for a milder 
 climate, resembling that of the south of France, 
 
l6o FRANCE. 
 
 and the sea-coast, Algeria especially, from Oc- 
 tober to May enjoys a delightful climate, more 
 uniform than that of the European winter resorts. 
 The dryness, extreme in summer, becomes almost 
 unbearable during the continuance of the simoon 
 or sirocco ; that scorching wind of which the desert 
 is the furnace. 
 
 Most of the water- courses are merely torrents 
 bordered by red blossomed laurels, but almost 
 always dry in summer, except at their mouths. 
 The Chélif and the Medjerda are the only ones 
 which have water during the whole year. Many 
 streams are lost in the chotts. 
 
 The growth of forests, which, owing to the de- 
 vastion by the nomads, their flocks and herds are 
 in general stunted, has been better preserved upon 
 the mountains of the East, where many oaks, 
 some cypress trees and a few cedars are to be 
 found; Kroumirie has magnificent woods, and for 
 miles and miles the air is redolent with the odor 
 of the myrtle. In the West are numerous pasture 
 lands with daffodils, dwarf palm trees, thorny 
 jujube trees, fig trees of Barbary, and also the 
 gloomy solitudes where alfa is gathered. 
 
 The most characteristic Algerian cereal is barley, 
 
FRANCE. l6l 
 
 which takes the place of oats in the feeding of 
 horses; wheat is also much cultivated, and it is a 
 well-known fact that in ancient times, Tunis was 
 one of the granaries of Rome. The olive grows 
 without cultivation, and attains a good growth. 
 Vine plantations are continually increasing in ex- 
 tent. In Kabylie, the leaves of the ash tree 
 serves as fodder. Rose bushes, geraniums, figs, 
 pomegranates, carobs, Japanese medlar trees, 
 oranges, palms, and even bananas abound in the 
 gardens of the sea-coast. The date, which is the 
 great article of commerce, ripens only in the oases 
 of the desert. 
 
 Great herds of sheep and goats, of cattle and 
 camels wander in the grazing lands. In the 
 South, we find the méharis; sure-footed mules; 
 little asses of remarkable patience and sturdiness; 
 and horses well worthy of their reputation are to 
 be found everywhere. So far as wild animals are 
 concerned, there is left a very small number of 
 monkeys notably near Chiffa, and a few lions in 
 the direction of Tebessa; but hyenas and wild 
 boars are not rare, and jackals are very common. 
 
 Iron of excellent quality is worked in several 
 mines, the most important being at Ben-Saf, near 
 
102 FRANCE. 
 
 Oran, and at Aïn-Mokra, near Bone; the mining 
 of copper, lead, zinc and salt is carried on as well 
 as the working of marbles of every kind; of these, 
 one of the finest is the white marble of Chemtou, 
 in Tunis; but there is no coal. Mineral springs 
 are very numerous. The most celebrated are 
 those of Hammam Rira in the southwest of Alge- 
 ria, of Hammam Meskoutine, to the east of Con- 
 stantine, and of Hammam Lif, near Tunis. Fishing 
 is followed actively upon all the coasts. 
 
 The Inhabitants and the Towns. — In Algeria, 
 out of 4,175,000 inhabitants, there are 3,600,000 
 natives. The Berbers dwell in the mountains, or 
 in the oases, and particularly in Kabylie, where 
 they form a compact agricultural population. The 
 Arabs live by preference on the plains, and are 
 nomads and shepherds. The Moors are settled in 
 the towns, and carry on trade and commerce. 
 There are also a few Turks and a few negroes. 
 The Europeans already number more than 500,- 
 000, Frenchmen being in the majority; but there 
 are more Spaniards than Frenchmen in the prov- 
 ince of Oran, and many Italians in that of Con- 
 stantine. The Hebrews, of whom there are more 
 than 4o,ooOj are naturalized Frenchmen. Be- 
 
i'RAisrcÊ. 163 
 
 tween the years 185 2-1872, the population in- 
 creased by 85 per cent. , a rate of increase greater 
 than that of the United States in the same period, 
 and which is, surpassed only by that of Australia. 
 
 The number of inhabitants in Tunis is estimated 
 at 1 , 5 00, 000. The natives are less warlike, gentler 
 and more industrious than the Algerians Among 
 Europeans, the Italians, Sicilians and Maltese are 
 most numerous. But the immigration of the 
 French colonists is beginning to attain larger pro- 
 portions. Israelites are very numerous ; there 
 are 30,000 of them in Tunis. The French popu- 
 lation amounts already to 10,000. 
 
 The natives are Mohammedans. Most of them 
 entertain an intense hatred for Europeans, and 
 despise the Jews. However, the religious live in 
 in peace, side by side. But race hatreds are deep 
 in Algeria, and it will be difficult to reconcile them. 
 Out of 400, 000 native Algerians old enough to re- 
 ceive instruction, not quite 10,000, even at the 
 present day, attend French schools. Good fel- 
 lowship between Mohammedans and Europeans 
 is much more easily attained in Tunis. 
 
 The mere appearance of the towns, united by 
 numerous railways, is an eloquent reminder to the 
 
1 64 FRANCE. 
 
 eyes of the traveler of the successful efforts of 
 European colonization. A great line running 
 parallel to the sea passes from the frontier of 
 Morocco to Tunis, and transversal lines bring the 
 interior into communication with the ports upoii 
 the coast. Nemours is an advance sentinel upon 
 the west; Oran, dusty and noisy, has all the 
 bustling activity and rapid growth of an American 
 city; Bel Abbés is already a rich agricultural 
 colony; Tlemcen, with its gardens embowered 
 with roses, shelters upon a cool plateau, under 
 the shade of olive trees, the picturesque ruins of 
 olden days when it was the capital. High on the 
 summit of their mountains, Miliana, with its mur- 
 muring waters, and Médéa, with its European 
 fruit trees; on the fertile plain of Métidja, Blida, 
 fragrant with orange trees, and BoufEarik, be- 
 neath the dome of the plane trees, are towns en- 
 tirely French. Algiers, the capital of Franco- 
 African civilization, proud of its gardens, of its 
 palaces and of its picturesque citadel has, with its 
 girdle of suburbs and villas, almost 100,000 in- 
 habitants. Setif, on the borders of a sea of 
 waving corn, is one of the agricultural centres of 
 the elevated plateaus; Constantine, a hive of in- 
 
FRANCE. 165 
 
 dustry, in the narrow space upon the imposing 
 rock where it stands, remains, as in Roman times, 
 the wheat granary of the East. Bougie, sus- 
 pended over the edge of the waves, Phillippeville, 
 in a mass of verdure, Bone, with its enterprise re- 
 calling Marseilles, are the maritime outlets of 
 Kabylie and of ancient Numidia, whilst in the 
 south, Biskra, the port of the desert, with its mag- 
 nificent oasis, now only sixty hours distant from 
 Paris, has become a winter resort much frequented 
 by invalids and tourists. 
 
 Near Cape Blanco, Bizerte, with its fine natural 
 harbor, the channel of which has been deepened, 
 has all the possibilities of a second Toulon. At 
 the foot of ancient Carthage, of whose former 
 grandeur there remain only crumbling ruins 
 grouped around the chapel of Saint-Louis, and 
 the cathedral built by Cardinal Lavigerie, is situ- 
 ated the great city of Tunis with its 135,000 in- 
 habitants. Tunis, built upon the edge of a 
 lagoon, with its mosques, its bazaars, its Euro- 
 pean quarter that is continually extending, its 
 harbor and its outer port, la Goulette. Upon the 
 eastern coast, bordered by olive trees, Sousee 
 brings us to the sacred city of Kairouan; Gabés 
 
l66 FRANCE. 
 
 is the principal place of call for the Tunisian 
 Sahara. 
 The Political and Administrative Or gfanization. 
 
 — Algeria is a French territory. It is adminis- 
 tered by a civilian governor-general who is as- 
 sisted by a permanent government council and by 
 a superior council, which every year prepares the 
 budget. Each department (Algiers, Oran, Con- 
 stantine) includes a civil territory, which has al- 
 most entire jurisdiction over it, and in the south, 
 a military territory. Each civil territory is ad- 
 ministered in accordance with the French custom 
 by a prefect, assisted by a general council and by 
 sub-prefects; every military territory is adminis- 
 tered by a general. The communes are of dif- 
 ferent kinds, varying according to the number 
 and proportion of colonists and natives inhabiting 
 them. The various public services are organized 
 on the same footing as in France. Algiers is the 
 seat of a Court of Appeal, of an archbishopric, 
 and the centre of an academy, etc. The command 
 of the troops is vested in the chief of the nine- 
 teenth army corps. 
 
 In Tunis, the organization of the French pro- 
 tectorate was the work of M. Paul Cambon, an 
 
FRANCE. 167 
 
 adminstrator of the highest order. The Bey has 
 preserved his authority, but the French resident- 
 general has charge of foreign relations, and exer- 
 cises a control over the administration of the 
 country. Complete security exists. Special 
 Courts have been abolished, and a French tribunal 
 tries the cases in which Europeans are concerned. 
 A mixed army has been organized. The finances 
 are prosperous, French schools have been estab- 
 lished on all sides by the director of public educa- 
 tion, M. Machuel. The natives, whose religious 
 and social organization is respected, devote them- 
 selves peaceably to their labors, and tolerate Euro- 
 pean civilization with quite good grace. 
 
 France in the Levant. — The piercing of the Isth- 
 mus of Suez, the work of a Frenchman, M. de 
 Lesseps, has made the Eastern Mediterranean the 
 vestibule of the extreme East. The English are 
 there in occupation of Egypt; they hold the Cy- 
 prus, and by means of Aden and Perim, they open 
 and close the Red Sea at their will However, 
 like two jetties extending toward Egypt and the 
 Suez Canal, Greece and Italy are also Mediterra- 
 nean powers of the first rank; they are admirably 
 situated for the passage of travelers and valuable 
 
1 68 FRANCE. 
 
 merchandise; the one has Brindisi, the other the 
 Piraeus. On her side, Austria has opened for 
 herself the door to Salonica; Russia, whose path- 
 way has hitherto been barred by the Turks, 
 threatens on one side Constantinople, and on the 
 other, the Gulf of Alexandrette. Although France 
 has no possession in the eastern basin of the inner 
 sea, she nevertheless exercises an influence therein. 
 She has retained throughout all the Levant and 
 especially in Lebanon, a real prestige, as well as 
 warm sympathies. If France has allowed herself, 
 from a material point of view, to be cheated out of 
 Egypt by the English, who promised to evacuate 
 it, she is none the less well represented there by 
 an important colony, and is always populq,r. She 
 personifies a policy of action which can offend no 
 one, that of the right of way to India. She has 
 already secured the neutrality of the Suez Canal. 
 Egypt should also be neutral, and be placed under 
 the protection of all the civilized powers. 
 
PRANCE. . iég 
 
 PART Xî. 
 
 THE SCIENCES IN FRANCE DURING THE NINE- 
 TEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 France from an Intellectual Point of View — The Sciences in 
 France during the Nineteenth Century — The Mathematical 
 Sciences — Physical and Chemical Sciences — Historical 
 Sciences — Philosophical, Political and Social Doctrines. 
 
 Intellectual Ffance.^In the preceding chapters, 
 we have first considered the soil of France in its 
 natural divisions, and summed up the historical 
 evolution of the French nation. Then, we have 
 described the institutions of France as she is to- 
 day, and shown her economic power and her 
 colonial expansion. To complete the outline of 
 the portrait which we have undertaken, the intel- 
 lectual activity of France in its essential features, 
 remains to be noted. 
 
 This can be done in no better way than by pre- 
 senting to the reader a succinct description of the 
 literature, the sciences, and the arts in France 
 during the nineteenth century. 
 
t7Ô FRANCE. 
 
 The Mathematical Sciences» — During the Revo- 
 lution and the Empire, the strong generation of 
 learned and scientific men which the eighteenth 
 century had produced, continued in France. 
 They placed their genius at the service of their 
 country; they were instrumental in the organiza- 
 tion of the Polytechnic School, the Normal School, 
 the Institute, the Bureau of Longitudes, and of 
 all the new institutions of note. The reign of 
 science proclaimed itself as a characteristic of 
 the nineteenth century. Lagrange (1736-18 13), 
 of whom Italy and Prussia had attempted to de- 
 prive France, that precocious investigator, author 
 of Analytic Mechanics^ gave new life to mathe- 
 matics, and took a hand in the establishment of 
 the metric system. Monge (i 746-1818), one of 
 the creators of descriptive geometry, brought to 
 perfection the art of making great guns and, at 
 the time of the Egyptian expedition, was the presi- 
 dent of the Institute of Cairo. Carnot (1753- 
 1823), was not content with organizing the armies 
 of the Convention and writing a Treatise on the 
 Defence of Fortified Places, but was also an emi- 
 nent geometrician. 
 
 The astronomer, Lalande (1732-1806), who con- 
 
FRANCE. 171 
 
 tinned the work of Newton, after having summed 
 up with the clearness of a master, in the Exposi- 
 tion of the System of the Worlds the condition of 
 astronomical knowledge in his time, wrote an ad- 
 mirable Treatise on Celestial Mechanism which is 
 one of the greatest works of the century. The 
 most illustrious among the pupils of these masters 
 are Cauchy, Duhamel, Michel Chasles, Hermite, 
 Puiseux and Leverrier, who, in 1846, by a series 
 of calculations, proved that there must exist in the 
 heavens, at a point which he specified, a planet 
 not yet known; search was made, and the planet 
 Neptune was, in truth, discovered. Foucault 
 perfected the telescope; in 185 1, he proved to the 
 world the earth's rotation by his experiments 
 on the oscillations of the pendulum. During an 
 eclipse of the sun observed in Hindoostan in 1868, 
 Jansen made certain decisive studies on the com- 
 position of the star. A mathematical society was 
 founded in 1872. Observatories were multiplied. 
 That of Paris dates back to 1672. The state estab- 
 lished new ones at Besançon, Lyons, Bordeaux, 
 Toulouse, Marseilles and Algiers. There is one 
 at Nice, founded by a private individual. 
 
 The Physical and Chemical Sciences. — Among 
 
172 FRANCE. 
 
 the natural philosophers and chemists of the first 
 half of the century, Gay-Lussac (i 778-1850), dis- 
 tinguished himself by the discovery of the law of 
 volumes, which regulates gases in their combina- 
 tions and by the invention of the syphon- barome- 
 ter. Distinguished, and no less courageous than 
 wise, he made an ascent alone in a balloon to the 
 height of 23,000 feet Fresnel devised those 
 powerful lenses for the illumination of lighthouses 
 which were first tried in 1827. The department 
 of physics that made the most progress in the 
 nineteenth century was electricity. If the 
 wonderful inventions of the telephone, phono- 
 graph, etc. , are of American origin, it was Ampère 
 and Arago who, about 1820, discovered the laws 
 of electric and magnetic currents, and thus estab- 
 lished the principle of electric telegraphy; it was 
 in Paris, 185 1, that the celebrated Ruhmkorff coils, 
 the first great application of inductive electricity 
 were made. In 1881, Marcel Deprez tested ex- 
 perimentally the transmission of motive power to 
 a distance by means of an electric wire. 
 
 One branch of physics, meteorology, became a 
 science in itself. It numbers several Frenchmen 
 among its founders, notably, Saussare, a native of 
 
FRANCE. 173 
 
 Geneva, but connected with France by his labors. 
 A meteorological society was founded in 1853 
 and a central bureau of meteorology was estab- 
 lished in Paris. Meteorological observatories 
 have been established not only in the foregoing 
 cities in which astronomic investigations are 
 made, but also in the park of Montsouris in Paris, 
 at Meudon, at Nantes, at Perpignan, on the sum- 
 mit of the Puy-de-Dôme, on that of the Pic du 
 Midi de Bigorre, and even on Mont Blanc. 
 
 Among chemists, Fourcroy (i 755-1809), who 
 was also the principal founder of the University is 
 the author of Chemical PhilosopJiy which was for 
 a long time the authority upon this subject; Berth- 
 ollet (i 748-1822), one of the organizers of the Egyp- 
 tian Institute, devoted himself especially to the 
 study of salts; he discovered the laws which 
 bear his name, and brought to perfection bleach- 
 ing by the application of chlorine, also dyeing and 
 the manufacture of powders. Vauquelin (1763- 
 1829), a pupil of Fourcroy, discovered chrome. 
 Chaptal (1756-1832), applied chemistry to manu- 
 factures and agriculture; he founded in France 
 the first factory for chemical products; he sup- 
 plied the armies of the Republic with gunpowder, 
 
174 FRANCE. 
 
 and revived the art of making wine; lie was a 
 practical economist and a great administrator. 
 Following the same path, Baron Thénard (1777- 
 1857), among other useful inventions, extracted 
 from cobalt a beautiful blue color for painting. 
 Henri Sainte- Claire De ville and Debray, intro- 
 duced into industry, in 1854, the use of a new 
 metal, aluminum, the ore of which is very abund- 
 ant in France. Dumas (1800), in his lessons upon 
 Chemical Philosophy^ endeavored to sum up the 
 principles of the science and taught unity of 
 matter, while to Wurtz we are indebted for a 
 great number of original works, and for an im- 
 portant Dictionary of Chemistry (1867-1878). 
 
 It is especially in organic chemistry, which has 
 become a science in itself, that French scientific 
 men have distinguished themselves. Chevreul, 
 one of the founders of organic chemistry, ex- 
 tracted stéarine from tallow, and replaced the 
 smoky candle of our fathers by the wax taper 
 (181 1); he introduced new coloring processes in 
 the m^anufacture of Gobelins. Born in 1786, he 
 died in 1890, at the age of more than 100 years, 
 after a life devoted to science. He mod- 
 estly describes himself as the oldest of students. 
 
FRANCE. 175 
 
 Pasteur (1822-95), and Berthelot (born in 1827), 
 both celebrated on other ways, made a pro- 
 found and successful study, the former of fer- 
 ments, the theory of which he discovered, and the 
 latter of ethers. The result of which was valu- 
 able applications to the manufacture of sugar, 
 beer, vinegar and alcohol. 
 
 Industrial Inventions^^The inventions, which in 
 our time have effected a complete change in the 
 material conditions of life are well known. 
 France has contributed in a large measure to this 
 peaceful revolution. The Didots distinguished 
 themselves in the art of printing; it is to Firmin 
 Didot that the world is indebted for stereotyping, 
 or the use of the plates which fix, once for all, 
 whole pages of type. The manufacture of paper 
 by means of machinery, was due to the inventive 
 power of Louis Robert, an employé of the paper 
 works of Essonne. The name of the Bréguets 
 occupies an honorable place in the history of the 
 progress in watch and clock making and in electrici- 
 ty-telegraphy. Schivilgue constructed (1838-1842), 
 the celebrated clock of the cathedral of Strasbourg. 
 Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), the director of 
 the manufactory of Sèvres, revived the painting 
 
Îj6 fRANCÈ. 
 
 upon glass, and founded the museum of cerani- 
 ics. Richard Lenoir (i 765-1840), introduced into 
 France, and brought to greater perfection looms 
 for spinning and weaving cotton and wool. 
 Jacquard (175 2-1834), invented the silk weaving 
 loom. Philippe de Girard (i 775-1845), the loom 
 for spinning flax. Mathieu de Dombasle perfected 
 the plough. In 1828, Séguin invented the tubular 
 boiler which rendered practicable the use of the 
 steam engine. Savage, who became insane when 
 he saw his discovery put into working applica- 
 tion by another, had proposed to employ the screw 
 in the propulsion of ships. Carcel applied to 
 lamps the springs previously used only in clocks. 
 The daguerreotype, the precursor of the photo- 
 graph is the invention of Niepce and of Daguerre, 
 and photography in colors has recently been dis- 
 covered by a French scientist, M. Lipmann. 
 
 The Natural Sciences. — One can say with good 
 reason, that of all the sciences, the study of nature 
 is that which has made, in France, as in every 
 other country within the last hundred years, the 
 most rapid advance. We are indebted to Haiiy 
 for the first important treatise on mineralogy 
 (1801); to Alexandre Brongniart, for a geological 
 
FRANCE, 177 
 
 description of the environs of Paris based 
 upon the new idea of classifying strata according 
 to the fossils which they contain (1808) ; to Elie de 
 Beaumont (i 798-1874), for a monumental work, 
 the geological map of France and the determina- 
 tion of the great lines of upheatal of the earth's 
 crusts; to Daubree, for ingenious investigations 
 in experimental geology. 
 
 Lamarck, one of those who organized the Jardin 
 des Plantes, is, less famous to-day for his botanical 
 labors than by his theory in regard to descent or 
 evolution which was later adopted, completed and 
 popularized by Darwin. In 1837, Adolphe Brong- 
 niart inaugurated the study of fossil flora. In 
 1854, the botanical society and the society for ac- 
 climatization were founded. It was during the 
 second half of the nineteenth century that the in- 
 vestigations of French scientists, such as Gratiolet 
 and Paul Bert, in the domain of botany, were the 
 most active and the most prolific. 
 
 The most celebrated zoologists, at the beginning 
 of the century were Lacepede (i 756-1825), the 
 successor of Buffon, who marks the transition be- 
 tween the two periods; Etienne Geofroy Sainte- 
 Hilaire (1772-1884), and Couvier (1769-1832), who 
 
178 FRANCE. 
 
 is not only a great writer, the author of the Dis- 
 cours sur les Revolutions du Globe^ but who origi- 
 nated the classification of animals, based upon 
 comparative anatomy, a new science, palaeontology, 
 thus reconstituting the world anterior to man. 
 The Vaudois Agassis studied the fishes, and d'Or- 
 bigny, the fossil species. Maritime zoology was 
 specially cultivated by Alphonse Milne- Edwards, 
 who in 1884 directed the soundings of two vessels, 
 the Talisman and the Travailleur. The natural 
 history of man had occupied, in an incidental way 
 as connected with their main studies, the majority 
 of French zoologists since Buffon ; it formed the 
 special object of the studies pursued by Broca, 
 who derived valuable indications from the meas- 
 urement of skulls, and of Quatref ages, who taught 
 with enthusiasm the doctrine of the unity of 
 species. The societies of ethnography and of an- 
 thropology have contributed to the knowledge of 
 human races and communities. 
 
 The Biological Sciences»— The biological sci- 
 ences, which study life and its mysterious sources, 
 hardly had their birth till the nineteenth century. 
 
 After having been for a long time in a state of 
 ill-defined dependence upon the healing art, they 
 
FRANCE. 179 
 
 èttiancipated themselves from this condition of vas- 
 salage, became firmly established, and with physics 
 and chemistry, as a foundation, they in their turn 
 were simplified, and built up anew medicine and 
 surgery. Physiology was amplified in the person of 
 Flourens (1794-186 7), who investigated the rela- 
 tions between natural and moral philosophy, and 
 devoted himself specially to embryology, and by 
 Claude Bernard (i 813- 1878), a writer of remark- 
 able power, as well as a scientist of the highest 
 order, who discovered diabetes, proved the auto- 
 nomy of the great sympathetic nerve, and made 
 a thorough investigation of the delicate mechanism 
 of the vaso-motor nerves by means of his experi- 
 ments with curare. Pasteur, led by his chemical 
 investigations to the study of minute particles, re- 
 vealed the existence of a whole world of micro- 
 scopic animals, ferments of the living tissues, pro- 
 ducers of infectious diseases, and the cause of 
 epidemics. Going a step further, he succeeded in 
 cultivating these bacilli, these bacteria, and in at- 
 tenuating them; he had at last, the boldness to 
 use them for purposes of inoculation, like the vac- 
 cine of small-pox. It was in this manner that he 
 discovered the vaccine of chicken cholera, then 
 
îSd FRANCE. 
 
 that of anthrax, and finally, on the 26th day of Oc- 
 tober, a date ever to be remembered, he was able 
 to announce to the Academy of Sciences his 
 method of curing hydrophobia. Since that time, 
 his hospital, his Institute, founded in Paris by 
 national subscription, attained world-wide fame. * 
 This series of noble discoveries is one of the great- 
 est events of the close of the 19th century. His 
 pupils, Dr. Roux and Dr. Gersin, discovered the 
 one, the curative serum for diphtheria and the 
 other the pest serum. 
 
 Amongst contemporaneous French physicians, 
 the most celebrated are Broussais (177 2- 183 8), 
 who, though only a private soldier under the Revo- 
 lution, attained the rank of chief physician to the 
 military hospital of Val-de-Grace; the benevolent 
 Laënnec (1781-1826); Pinel (1745-1826), who in- 
 troduced a humane and rational method of dealing 
 with the insane, and Charcot (1825-1893), the sa- 
 gacious explorer^ in the still obscure domain of 
 hysteria and hypnotism, as also Bouchard, Bron- 
 ardel, Dujardin-Beaumetz, Lannelongue, Pinard, 
 Verneuil, etc. 
 
 * As will be remembered a similar institute was established in 
 New York by Dr. Gibier, a pupil of Pasteur. — [Ed. Note.] 
 
FRANCE. l8l 
 
 Amongst surgeons may be mentioned Larrey 
 (1766-1842), who operated with unwearying indus- 
 try upon so many unfortunates of the wars of the 
 Empire and who, in the treatment of wounds, de- 
 vised the method of irrigation. The brilliant and 
 popular Depuytren (1777-1835), who founded the 
 anatomical museum, Labbé, Péan, Terrier, etc., 
 and Velpeau (i 795-1867), among many others. 
 The present school, after having adopted the use 
 of anaesthetics, brought to perfection antiseptics, 
 and has helped to make surgery not merely an 
 art in which the self possession and skill of the 
 operator retain all their value, but also a positive 
 science, displaying both reason and certainty even 
 in its boldness. 
 
 The Historical Scicnccs^^The eighteenth cen- 
 tury was acquainted with man. One of the 
 glories of the nineteenth century is that, to some 
 degree it discovered men, that it perceived the 
 dissimilarities between them in different ages as 
 well as in different countries, that it revivified 
 history, and also geography. By the light of a 
 perception almost new, the instruments of which 
 are analysis, criticism and imagination, contem- 
 porary historians, by going back to the very 
 
l82 FRANCE. 
 
 sources have carried off their treasures and have 
 made of history, not only an exact science, but a 
 living art. 
 
 The Revolution had interrupted the patient 
 investigations of the Benedictines. Under the 
 Empire, it is true, there had been much writing 
 of memoirs, but secret memoirs, which are o ily 
 now emerging from obscurity. History was dealt 
 with in a style of literature, characterized by ab- 
 straction and lack of enthusiasm; it was simply 
 the art of dressing up the old chronicles. The re- 
 newal of historic studies in France was co-incident 
 with the romantic movement. It was supported 
 by the creation, in 182 1, of the school of charters. 
 
 Augustin Thierry (1795--1856). the originator of 
 a new historical method, the author of the His- 
 tory of the Conquest of Engla7id by the Normans^ 
 and of Merovingian Tales ^ was a story-teller and 
 a word-painter. Guizot (i 787-1874), interpreting 
 the texts as a philosopher and statesman, strove 
 above all to explain events, and to trace their 
 lessons. Such is the object of his History of the 
 English Revolution, and of his History of Civili- 
 zation. Michelet (i 798-1874), was not merely a 
 man of learning, but a poet and a prophet. In 
 
FRANCE. 183 
 
 his Introduction to Universal History^ in his His- 
 tory of the Roman Republic^ and in his Synopsis of 
 Modern History^ he opened up unexpected vistas. 
 His French History^ in its first ten volumes at 
 least, is a veritable resurrection of the French 
 nation. Mignet (i 796-1884), an elegant and cor- 
 rect logician, well known by his numerous his- 
 torical works, memoirs and eulogies, began his 
 career with what was rather a logical analysis, 
 than a History of the French Revolution. This 
 history which, even to day, has not been fully 
 written, Thiers (i 797-1877), endeavored to relate; 
 but it is rather in the History of the Consulate and 
 the Empire^ that he developed his qualities of 
 order, clearness and ability, if not of perfect ac- 
 curacy, for he depended almost entirely upon oral 
 information. 
 
 To these illustrious names are added others; 
 Victor Duruy, author of The History of the 
 Romans, Henri Martin, of The History of Fra?icc, 
 Tocqueville, of Democracy in America, Renan, of 
 The History of the Semitic Languages, Quinet, of 
 The Revolution, Fustel de Coulanges of The City of 
 Older Times, Taine, of The Origins of Contem- 
 porary France^ to mention only the principal his- 
 
184 FRANCE. 
 
 torians with their most important characteristic 
 works; but this enumeration, far from complete, 
 gives but a faint idea of the immensity of the task 
 accomplished by history in France during the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 The division of labor, applied to historic investi- 
 gations, has produced exceedingly rich results. 
 The name of ChampoUion, who, in 182 1, began to 
 decipher the hieroglyphics, and to bring to light 
 an unknown Egypt, is quite familiar. Classic an- 
 tiquity, the East, the far East, etc., have likewise 
 had their Champollions. To mention only some 
 instances: Renier exploited Roman inscriptions, 
 and VioUet-de Due gave form to the history of 
 the arts in the middle ages. Geography likewise, 
 has changed its whole appearance. Taken as a 
 whole, no description of the earth and of men is 
 comparable to the work of Elisée Reclus. 
 
 Philosophic, Political and Social Doctrines. — In 
 philosophy, the eclecticism of Victor Cousin (1792- 
 1867), enjoyed at first supreme predominance. It 
 is related, in a way with the progress of historic 
 studies, for it contributed to stimulate in France 
 the study of all schools of philosophy, ancient as 
 well as foreign. Still, with a view of reconciling 
 
FRANCE. 1S5 
 
 all, it seems to have left too much to chance the 
 task of bringing together scattered elements which 
 can really become blended only in the unity of an 
 original mind. The principal representatives of 
 this doctrine are Jouffroy, Saissat, Jules Simon, 
 Renouvier, Javet, Leveque, etc. 
 
 However, the philosophy properly termed French 
 or Cartesian, had found in Maine de Biran a pro- 
 found interpreter; Greek philosophy was illum- 
 ined with new light by Ravaisson, and German or 
 Kantian philosophy as explained by Renouvier, 
 gained some favor under the name of Neo- Cri- 
 ticism. 
 
 A school by itself, that, while not denying the 
 unknowable, limits itself to the study of the 
 known, its positivism founded by Auguste Comte 
 (1798-185 7), but improved and developed by a 
 savant of genius and a sage, Littré (1801-1881), 
 who toiled all his life; his Postive Philosophy 
 appeared in 1845. He erected in his Dictionary a 
 monument to the French language. Contemporary 
 with him some of the most prominent names are 
 those of MM. Alfred Fouillée, J. M. Guyau, Ribot, 
 Jarde, etc. 
 
 In the domain of social science, which is still in 
 
t86 FRANCE. 
 
 its birth, the struggle between the economists and 
 the socialists, is always spirited 
 
 Political economy has changed but little since 
 the days of J. B. Say and Bastiat, but to their 
 names may be added those of Léon Say, MM. 
 Levasseur, F. Passy, P. Leroy, Beaulieu, etc. 
 
 The socialistic schools derive their origin from 
 two different sources. The communists or collec- 
 tionists dream of the absorption of the individual 
 into the state; they have as ancestors the con- 
 spirator Babeuf, who was executed in 1795, Four- 
 rier (17 7 2-18 2 7), the gentle dreamer, who devised 
 the pleasantère, Saint- Simon (1760-1825), the 
 founder of a new and ephemeral Christian reli- 
 gion, Cabet, the author of The Voyage to Icaria 
 (1841), the mystic P. Leroux, with his book of 
 Humanity (1840), and L. Blanc, the organizer of 
 the national workshops of 1848. The individual- 
 ists may lay claim to Proudhon (^1809-1865), the 
 paradoxical enemy of property and the state, more 
 rational in his capacity of apostle of the trades 
 union of workingmen. Those French collectivistes 
 the best known are MM. Allemane, Malon, Jaurès, 
 etc. 
 
 Outside of the premature solutions imagined by 
 
FRANCE. 187 
 
 some secretaries or illy informed logicians, social 
 science is elaborating itself slowly and patiently, 
 but has not yet attained its final fullness of form. 
 Nevertheless a most remarkable institution was 
 founded by M. de Chambrun (1895) known as the 
 Social Museum (5 rue Lascases).* 
 
 * The recent visit to America of that accomplished and elo- 
 quent speaker and earnest and intelligent advocate, M. Leopold 
 Mabilleau, who delivered some sixty addresses on the Musée 
 Social, will long be remembered and has done much to stimulate 
 interest on this most important phase of a most important ques- 
 tion. — IEd. Note.] 
 
l88 FRANCE. 
 
 PART XII. 
 
 FRENCH LITERATURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 End of Classic Literature — Beginnings of the Romantic School — 
 The Great Romantic Writers— Lamartine and Victor Hugo 
 — The Romantic School — The Naturalist School — the Novel 
 — The Theatre — The Pamphlet and Eloquence — Literary 
 Criticism. 
 
 The End of Classic Literature. — The classic 
 
 literature of the nineteenth century continued in 
 France during the first years of the ninteenth 
 century. Revived, it shone brightly under the 
 Revolution, languished under the Empire, and 
 became extinct towards 1870, during the Restora- 
 tion. When the recollection of Athens and 
 Themistocles of Sparta and Leonidas, of Rome 
 and Cato, inspired the new Republic, when Na- 
 poleon evoked the memories of Caesarian Rome, 
 it was natural that the imitation of the Greeks 
 and Romans should govern literary style more 
 tyrannically than ever. 
 
FRANCE. 189 
 
 'the principal representative of classic tradition 
 was Abbé Delille (i 738-1813), that elegant trans- 
 lator of the Géorgie s of Virgil^ who composed six 
 didactic poems, at that time much admired. The 
 theatre was remarkably prolific, and if it had not 
 been choked in its free development by the censor- 
 ship of the Jacobins, and afterwards twice in suc- 
 cession by the oppressive régime of the Empire, 
 and the first years of the Restoration, it might, 
 perhaps, have shaken o£E the shackles of ancient 
 tragedy and produced some original work either 
 after the style of Aristophanes, or in the fashion 
 of the new drama attempted by Diderot. 
 
 The only real poet of this period was André 
 Chénier, who perished upon the scaffold in 1794, 
 and whose works were not to see the light till 
 twenty years later. Greek, through his mother, 
 thoroughly imbued with the charm of the master- 
 pieces of ancient Greece, endowed with an ex- 
 quisite sense of harmony, very modern at the 
 same time, and thoroughly French in heart and in- 
 tellect, he rose to rare perfection in his lambies of 
 Vengeance, and in his Young Captive. That is 
 also real poetry which owed its birth to the shock 
 of events, such as the Marseillaise of Rouget de 
 
ÎÇÔ FRANCE. 
 
 Lisle, and the Song of Departure by M. J. Ché- 
 nier, odes of battle recalling the inspiration of a 
 Tyrtée. 
 
 During the brief years when freedom of 
 speech prevailed, 'political eloquence, hitherto un- 
 known in France gushed forth from the old soil of 
 Gaul. Girondins, like Barnave and Vergniaud, 
 who fearlessly placed their heads beneath the knife 
 of the guillotine in 1793, Danton, who was soon to 
 follow them, the Abbé Maury, and many other 
 members of the Constituent and Legislative As- 
 semblies and of the Convention, revealed them- 
 selves as orators of the highest order, and if their 
 language is not free from either incorrectness or 
 bombast, they express with rare energy, and fre- 
 quently with admirable eloquence the passions and 
 the new-born courage that were stirring in the 
 heart, not only of France, but of all Europe. The 
 greatest of these orators was Mirabeau (1749-91), 
 who has been likened to Demosthenes, and whose 
 irresistable gestures and thundering voice pro- 
 claimed, under memorable circumstances the 
 wishes of the nation. 
 
 During the reign of Napoleon, he himself, was 
 a remarkable writer, the only person who dared 
 
MANCE. 191 
 
 express himself openly without fear of disgrace or 
 exile. Military speeches and bulletins of his vic- 
 tories were the pompous commentaries of this 
 new Julius Caesar. Around 'him was tolerated 
 only an official or non-official literature, at the 
 head of which was the upright Fontanes. A few 
 choice spirits resigned themselves to silence, or 
 wrote privately among themselves, like Joubert, 
 the author of delicate thoughts, which attain at 
 times real depth of meaning. But the great 
 Writers, unable to endure the yoke of the master, 
 revolted, and several of the most original works 
 of this epoch appeared abroad. 
 
 The Origfin of the Romantic SchooL — Romanti- 
 cism, that brilliant and prolific renaissance of 
 French genius, which was in full blossom from 
 1820 to 1850, speaking approximately, had its 
 earliest beginnings far back in the eighteenth 
 century. Is not Jean Jacques Rousseau already 
 a romantic writer when he discovers the free 
 prevalence of sympathy, when he describes with 
 sickly complacency, and with an accent so per- 
 sonal, the joys, the sorrows, the enthusiasms, and 
 the miseries of his own heart ? A romantic 
 writer also was Bernadin de Saint- Pierre, who re- 
 
îÇi FRANCE. 
 
 vealed to his contemporaries the coloring; and tîîe 
 intoxicating power of exotic landscapes. The 
 name itself of romantic literature was pronounced 
 for the first time by Madame de Stael (1766-1 8 17), 
 Necker^s proud daughter, the implacable enemy 
 of Napoleon, who in her book on Germany dwelt 
 on the master-pieces of Schiller and Goethe, the 
 idealism of Kant and Fichte, and the gloomy 
 charm of the poetry of the north. At the same 
 time, the public was attracted by the melancholy 
 lays of Ossian, and the ancient Celtic bards, with- 
 out questioning further their authenticity. Fi- 
 nally, Chateaubriand (i 768-1848), in prose that is 
 magnificent, even when it shines with a meretri- 
 cious brilliancy, endeavored to inaugurate a poetry 
 characteristically Christian and French. His 
 Genius of Christianity seemed at first to serve the 
 religious policy of the First Consul, but between 
 those two proud natures, the writer and the 
 soldier, agreement was impossible. Chateau- 
 briand became estranged and resumed his travels; 
 in 1809, he celebrated in his historic novel. The 
 Martyrs^ the triumph of Christian faith over 
 paganism; he published in 181 1 his Itinerary frojn 
 Paris to Jerusalem. Whatever he wrote subse- 
 
FRANCE. 193 
 
 quently, his two masterpieces are two short novels, 
 Atala, which was inspired by the contemplation 
 of the wild solitudes of America, and Rene\ a 
 bitter and truly lyrical confession of a fatal love. 
 
 In connection with the rise of romanticism, we 
 may likewise mention Joseph de Maistre (1754- 
 182 1), who, in his book entitled The Pope and in 
 his Evenings in St. Petersburg appears in 18 19 
 and 182 1, attacked with a passionate vehemence 
 the ideas of the Revolution, and scourged with 
 eloquent paradoxes the new social order. 
 
 The Great Romantic Writers.— Lamartine and 
 Victor Hugo. 
 
 These two illustrious names sum up the whole 
 French romantic movement. Then it was that 
 France came really to know lyric poetry, with its 
 bold flights of sonorous rhythm and its language 
 at once proud and familiar, with its unrestrained 
 confidences wherein the poet pours forth his en- 
 tire soul, and expresses in personal effusions the im 
 pressions which he receives from men and things. 
 When, in 1820, Lamartine gave the world his 
 meditations, the sensation was immediate, and it 
 might have been said that these noble verses had 
 been awaited, and that a brighter day was dawn- 
 
194 FRANCE. 
 
 ing; they were greeted like the coming of a 
 morning star. The New Meditations (1823), and 
 The Poetical Harmonies (1829), were no less 
 loudly acclaimed. From that time the poet was 
 a great man. He made a journey in georgeous 
 state to the East. Although till then an ex- 
 treme royalist in his sentiments, he adopted 
 democratic ideas with ardor. The appearance 
 of his poem Jocelyn, and of his History of 
 the Girondines gave a bright lustre to his 
 fame. The rest is a familiar story. After hav- 
 ing been the hero of 1848, and for a moment the 
 master of the destinies of France, he did not fail 
 to forsee the coming of the evil days, and, as by 
 divination, predicted the Second Empire. In 
 1869 he died in disenchantment, in isolation, and 
 almost in oblivion. 
 
 Far different was the destiny of Victor Hugo, 
 the king of French letters in the 19th century. 
 Odes and Ballads (1822), published when he was 
 twenty years of age, rendered him famous at once. 
 For more than 60 years he continued to write and 
 to fill the world with his name ; he survived, ever 
 prolific and popular even the school of which he 
 had been the head, that school of romanticism, the 
 
FRANCE. 195 
 
 manifesto of which he had drawn up in the pre- 
 face to Cromwell (1827). Retaining his glory to 
 the very last, he passed away loved and admired 
 by the entire world. On the day of his funeral, 
 his body, after having lain in state for days under 
 the Arch of Triumph, was followed to the Pan- 
 theon by a whole people awed with respect and 
 veneration (1885). The amount of his work is 
 colossal and, except comedy, it may be said that 
 he tried his powers in every variety of literature ; 
 in lyric poetry he occupies the highest rank. The 
 masterpieces of his youth are the Orientals; Au- 
 tumn Leaves; Songs of Twilight; Inner Voices; 
 Sunshine and Shadow (1829-1840); and The Leg 
 end of the Centuries (185 6-1 859). 
 
 Among his earliest works belong those spirit- 
 stirring dramas, overflowing with lyric enthusiasm 
 that cause, not without conflict, the worm-eaten 
 edifice of ancient tragedy to crumble in ruins. 
 Hernani; Marion Delorme; le Roi s'amuse; Lucre- 
 tia Borgia; Marie Tudor; Ruy Bias; The Bur graves 
 (1830-1843); and also the admirable historic novel, 
 Notre Dame de Paris (183 1), that called up be- 
 fore our eyes Paris and the Gothic art of the 
 middle ages. In his next style are novels of quite 
 
îg6 PRANCE. 
 
 a different character that were inspired by his new- 
 felt sympathy with the wretchedness of the masses, 
 /es Misérables and The Toilers of the Sea, (1862- 
 1866). 
 
 Hugo was no stranger to public life. Although 
 a royalist in his youth, he had afterwards sung the 
 glories of Napoleon, and finally had become con- 
 verted to liberal ideas; he accepted a peerage 
 under Louis Philippe, and entered the Constituent 
 Assembly in 1848. His political aspirations sud- 
 denly came to naught on the night of December 
 2nd, 185 1. Taking refuge in Jersey, he avenged 
 himself by the Châtiments, a terrible satire upon 
 the coup d'état and Louis Napoleon. He remained 
 in this voluntary exile for 20 years, quitting it 
 only to take his part in the A née Terrible, ' ' soon 
 to enter, while still alive, into immortality. " 
 
 The Romantic School. — Among the forerunners 
 of the romantic school may be placed two classic 
 writers, Casimir Delavigne (1793-1843), whose 
 Messeniennes on the morrow of Waterloo, consoled 
 and rekindled the national pride; and Béranger 
 (1780-185 7), the most popular of our song- writers, 
 who had the power, in several of his little poems, 
 to touch the chords necessary to sing of glory, 
 
FRANCE, 197 
 
 the land of his birth, or of liberty. Following 
 them, we have, grouped around Lamartine and 
 Hugo, quite a brilliant phalanx of authors. 
 
 Alfred de Musset (1810-1857), a new Byron al- 
 though showing strong traces of the romantic in- 
 fluence in the bold fancies to be found in his 
 Spanish and Italian Tales^ in the morbid despair 
 of his Confession of a Child of the Century (1836), 
 and in the very personal inspiration of his master- 
 pieces, such as the May Night or the October 
 Nighty was often in point of form very classic, and 
 in several poems, he at once attained perfection. 
 Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863), an unwearied toiler, 
 profound, though sometimes obscure, never knew 
 what great celebrity was; he even remained mis- 
 interpreted and misunderstood for a long time. 
 He pursued a lonely path; in his Poems Ancient 
 and Modern (1826), he sought to express the sym- 
 bol of moral or philosophical ideas; he was sad- 
 dened and melted to tears at the spectacle of 
 human suffering, and by an effort worthy of a 
 stoic, he hardened his soul in an attempt to attain 
 the ideal of the better state. In this, he is the 
 most modern of the poets of the time. He also 
 wrote a drama, a noble historical novel, Cinq- 
 
198 FRANCE. 
 
 Mars, and a book characterized by a pride tinged 
 with bitterness, Milita'ry Servitude and Grandeur 
 (1835). Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869), after having 
 long tried his strength in subjective poetry, turned 
 gradually towards the objective study of the 
 human heart, and became one of the founders of 
 modern literary criticism. Auguste Barbier (1805- 
 1882), has left behind him Iambics, marked by 
 vigor and bitterness, satirizing the servility of the 
 middle classes of 1830. Brizeux (1806-1858), in 
 his delicate idyls, sang of Brittany and the Bre- 
 tons. Théophile Gautier (1808-1872), that incom- 
 parable rhymer, author of Enamels and Cameos, 
 added the finishing touch to romantic reform by 
 laying stress on variety and euphony of language, 
 but he began the reaction against this same ro- 
 mantic movement by abolishing the worship of 
 the ego, to which, for 30 years devoted homage 
 has been paid; he sought, he found, and he re- 
 newed impersonal poetry, thus preparing the way 
 for the advent of naturalism. 
 
 The Naturalist School.— Under this great title 
 may be included the majority of the poets of the 
 new school that had its beginning about 1850, and 
 which, in this generation is attaining its com- 
 
FRANCE. 199 
 
 pletion. Its principal characteristics are out- 
 wardly, the utmost delicacy in regard to form, 
 fidelity in the description of all objects, absence of 
 the personal element, microscopic analysis of the 
 human heart, and, at bottom, a pessimistic in- 
 spiration, which, at one time, voices itself in 
 feigned lack of feeling; at another, in an angry 
 despair, and more in pity and tenderness for the 
 humble and unhappy. 
 
 Purity of style and the worship of art for 
 art's sake are particularly discernable in the Par- 
 nassians who, about 1865, formed a group around 
 the publisher Lemerre. The most skillful of this 
 group of poets, and in some measure their master, 
 was Théodore de Banville (1823-189 1), author of 
 the Cariartides^ and of the Stalactites^ of the 
 Odes Funambulesques ^ and of so many other 
 sparkling fancies. Among the realists, the most 
 marked by gloom, the most terribly grotesque, 
 was Baudelaire (1821-1867), whose Flowers of 
 Evil exhale the poisonous fumes of the horrible. 
 Among the naturalists properly so-called, may be 
 ranked Louis Bouilhet (182 2-1869), who, in his 
 Fossils has endeavored to narrate the magnificent 
 origin of our globe. The greatest of ^11 is 
 
200 FRANCE. 
 
 Leconte (1818-95), author of Poèmes Antiques 
 (1S53)) of the Poèmes Barbares (1862), and of 
 Poèmes Tragiques^ in ail of which breadth and 
 harmony of form and intensity of coloring, to 
 which are united knowledge of rare precision 
 with a view to rendering the depth of the creed. 
 Subtle analysis of the feelings and philosophic in- 
 spiration distinguish M. Sully Prudhomme, whilst 
 M. François Coppée excels in painting with a 
 touch that is invariably correct the most modern 
 pictures of the affluent classes of society. Those 
 who name themselves the Decadents, and follow- 
 ing them, the Symbolists, seek new paths. 
 Among the innovators, several names, and nota- 
 bly that of Verlaine (i 844-1 895), are worthy of 
 being kept in memory. 
 
 The NoveL — Never was an age more prolific in 
 romance, or in a greater variety of novels. We 
 must be content to mention here, side by side 
 with Bernardine de Saint- Pierre and Chateau- 
 briand, with Victor Hugo and Alfred de Vigny, 
 or coming closer after them only the most illus- 
 trious of French novelists of that period. Balzac 
 (i 799-1850), an indefatigable toiler, but with the 
 defects of intemperance and lack of uniformity, a 
 
îî'RANCE. 2ÔÏ 
 
 realist too much given to the exaggeration of 
 moral evil, has produced in twenty years an enor- 
 mous amount of work, and created characters 
 that can never be forgotten, such as Eugene 
 Grandet. Alexandre Dumas (1803-18 70), the 
 ever bright and fascinating narrator of wondrous 
 adventure, gifted as he was with a prodigious 
 imagination, took all sorts of liberty with history, 
 and probably gave to the world innumerable vol- 
 umes ; he was the originator of the romance appear- 
 ing daily at the bottom of the page of the French 
 newspapers. Who is there who has not followed 
 with a thrilling interest all the wanderings of the 
 Musketeers ? Who is not acquainted with Monte 
 Cristo ? George Sand ( 1 804- 1876), that incompar- 
 able artist, that versatile and prolific genius, pro- 
 duced masterpieces in three or four different styles. 
 In a lyric key, overflowing with youth and passion, 
 she gave us Indiana and Valentine (1832); among 
 many miscellaneous works, more or less happy, in- 
 spired by the discussion of social or religious prob- 
 lems, is to be mentioned Consuelo (1842); to the 
 number of those fresh idyls which were perfumed, 
 so to say, with a sentiment so true to nature, belong 
 François le Champs; la Mare au Diable; la Petite 
 
202 FRANCE. 
 
 Fadette and les Maîtres Sonneurs (1844-185 3), 
 In the closing autumn days of her life, Madame 
 Sand, having acquired wisdom and attained the 
 dignity of a grandmother, produced many other 
 novels of less originality, illumined by a purer 
 though more monotonous light, which sum up in 
 the Marquis de Villemer (1861), for instance, the 
 most varying characteristics of all her other 
 works. 
 
 Whilst the novel of adventure was wandering 
 away into the wilds, following more and more in 
 the train of Alexandre Dumas, and becoming lost 
 at the bottom of the pages of minor newspapers, 
 Alexandre Dumas the younger (1824-1P95), who 
 made his first appearance in 1848, with the tragic 
 elegy of la Dame aux Camélias^ Mérimée (1830- 
 1870), the faultless author of Colomba dinô. Flaubert 
 (1821-1880), who wrote with sure refinement of 
 observation, learning and style, Madame Bavary 
 and S a lamb 0^ were emphasizing the impersonal 
 characteristic of the realist's novel, inaugurated 
 by Balzac and, in several of^her works, by George 
 Sand herself. It is known that the brothers Gon- 
 court, in their keen dissections probed deeper, and 
 that M. Zola, that masterly painter, outdistanced 
 
FRANCE. 203 
 
 them all. Naturalism, pushed to the extreme, is 
 finding its way, by a fatal process of evolution, to 
 pathology, and unhappily also to obscure descrip- 
 tions of lewdness and vice. 
 
 Paths quite different are followed by other nov- 
 elists whose talent is no less marked ; the works 
 of these writers are read by the educated public 
 of both continents. Such are Alphonse Daudet, 
 the author of Numa Roumestan, Pierre Loti, the 
 writer of Pécheurs d' Islande^ Bourget and the ill- 
 starred Guy de Maupassent, who was struck down 
 before his time while still in the full bloom of his 
 power. Almost all are recognizable, like the poets of 
 later years, by a certain family resemblance, 
 which is pessimism. 
 
 The Theatre* — Classic tragedy has had as an in- 
 terpreter under the empire Talma (1763-1826); at 
 a later period it had Mile. Rachel; both were 
 artists of genius. But excepting the Lucrèce of 
 Ponsard, performed with success in 1843, the stage 
 confined itself to reproducing the imperishable 
 masterpieces of the seventeenth century; attempt 
 was no longer made to imitate them. 
 
 The romantic dramas of Hugo, and a few other 
 pieces of analagous inspiration, such as Chatterton^ 
 
204 FRANCE. 
 
 by Alfred de Vigny, Henry III. and his Court 
 (1829), Antony (1831), Charles VIL chez, ses grands 
 vassaus (1833), productions of Dumas the elder, 
 occupied the stage until 1843 ; they are still per- 
 formed, but the conventional lyricism, this unreal 
 historical color seem out of fashion. It is about 
 the same with Scribe (1791-1861), the most fecund 
 and industrious of laborers, whose amusing come- 
 dies and unpretentious vaudevilles constituted the 
 delight of the middle classes towards the middle 
 of the century. Bertrand et Raton (1833), Une 
 Chaîne (1841), le Verre d'eau (1842), and the Ba- 
 taille de dames (185 1), have remained models of 
 their class. 
 
 The contemporary theatre since about 1850 
 has become realistic like the novel; it paints the 
 vices and follies of the day, and studies the burn- 
 ing social questions without refusing to make in- 
 cursions into the domain of history. It has in- 
 vented a style of comedy that touches upon 
 tragedy in the analysis of sentiments, upon 
 the drama in color and movement, and which 
 sparkles with a peculiar brilliancy in its minute- 
 ness of details. Ponsard had already attempted in 
 Charlotte Corday (1850), VHonneur et V Argent 
 
FRANCE. 205 
 
 (1853), and in le Lion amoureux (1866), a timid 
 compromise between these two forms, the classic 
 and the romantic. The real creator of the new 
 style was Emile Augier (1820-1892) ; in his eleva- 
 tion of thought, in the strength of his conceptions, 
 and in the brilliant solidity of his style he is a 
 master. Kislast works axe l'Aventurière (1848); 
 Gendre de M, Poirier (1856); les Effrontés (1861); 
 le Fils de Giboyer (1802); Jean de Thommeray 
 (1873) ; and les Fourchambault ^1878). Alexandre 
 Dumas, fils^ inspired by cold passion, of greater bit- 
 terness of tone, adventurous by choice, and 
 abounding in paradoxes, had no less success with 
 the Demi-Monde (1855); le Fils naturel (1858); les 
 Inde es de Mme. Aubray (1867); and V Étrangère 
 (1876). 
 
 M, Victorien Sardou, prolific, dextrous, in- 
 genious, varied, is the author of Nos Intimes 
 (1861), of la Famille Benoiton (1865), of Patrie 
 (1869), and of Divorçons (1886). A happy style, 
 that which was created by Eugen Labiche (1815- 
 1887), rejuvenating ancient vaudeville. The 
 author of the Voyage de M. Perrichon, and of 
 the Chapeau de paille d'Italie is the gayest, 
 the most truly Gallic, and perhaps the sanest of 
 
206 FRANCE. 
 
 the successors of Molière; under his bufïonéries 
 and peals of laughter, is concealed a profound 
 knowledge of the human heart; but he is very 
 cautious not to deduce therefrom any pessimistic 
 conclusions or melancholy morals. 
 
 Among the older dramatic writers of the second 
 half of the century, we may mention in addition : 
 Madame de Girardin (1804-185 5), whose single suc- 
 cess was La Joie fait peur; Jules Sandeau (18 11- 
 1883), the author of Mile, de la Siegliere; Octave 
 Feuillet (181 2-1892), the author of Dalila and of the 
 Roman d'un jeune ho7nine pauvre; Théodore Bar- 
 rière (18 2 3-18 7 7), the writer of les Faux Bonshom- 
 mes; Legouvé (born in 1807), to whom we owe Ad- 
 rienne Lecouvreur and Par droit de conquête; M. 
 de Bornier (born in 1825), whose drama la Fille de 
 Roland^ as interpreted by Sarah Bernhardt, in 
 1871, produced a great sensation; Pailleron (1834- 
 1896), who has gained a place by himself with 
 VAge ingrat^ l' Etincelle, le Monde oit Von s'ennuie^ 
 etc. ; Messrs. Meilhac (born in 1832), and Ludovic 
 Halévy (born in 1834), who have expended so 
 much wit in operettas of the nature of travesties 
 such as Orphée aux enfers, la Belle Helhte and la 
 Grande-Duchess de Gérolstein, in slight acts, like 
 
FRANCE. ^07 
 
 la Petite Marquise^ in drolleries like la Bottle^ and 
 in real comedies like Frou-Frou. 
 
 And for all, Edmund Rostand (born in 1868), 
 whose two master-pieces Cyrano de Bergerac and 
 V Aiglon^ scintillate with a brilliancy that denoted 
 a poetic power, a delicacy of perception and tend- 
 erness of feeling presaging a brilliant and literary 
 future for the young Academician. 
 
 France has never at any period, been so prolific 
 in dramatic novelties. The stage in many foreign 
 countries is supported by her pieces. Naturalism 
 made its appearance in the theatre at a later date 
 than in the novel. 
 
 The Pamphlet and Eloquence^— After the fall of 
 the first Empire (which had tolerated no species 
 of criticism), Paul- Louis- Courier (17 7 2-18 25), the 
 educated soldier whose irony stung like the finest 
 steel, undertook a war of pamphlets which has re- 
 mained famous, against the reactionary movement. 
 Cormenin (Timon), likewise satirized the men of the 
 Government of July, and at a later period Roche- 
 fort, in his clandestine publication, the Lanterne^ 
 made fierce attacks upon the Empire. 
 
 However, in 18 15, freedom of speech was restored. 
 Immediately, eloquent political speakers appeared. 
 
20S fRANCÊ. 
 
 The most famous are, under the Restoration, the 
 doctrinaire Royer-Collard (i 763-1845), known 
 also by his teachings in philosophy; Benjamin 
 Constant (i 767-1830), who besides wrote the cele- 
 brated novel, Adolphe; and General Foy (1775- 
 1825); under the Government of July, Casimir- 
 Perier (17 7 7- 1832); the historians Guizot and 
 Thiers and le Comte de Montalembert (1810- 
 1877); in 1848, Lamartine. 
 
 After a long interval of silence, when free speech 
 was again restored, in 1870, France heard Thiers 
 anew, and trembled under the voice of the great 
 patriot Gambetta. 
 
 At the bar, as well as in the chambers, Berryer 
 (1790-1868), Bufaure (1798-1868), and Jules Favre 
 (1809-1880), distinguished themselves 
 
 Finally, the eloquence of the pulpit in this cen- 
 tury, discarding dogmatic teachings, treated more 
 gladly questions of morals, and particularly those 
 of social morality. In this new style of preaching, 
 the following were particularly conspicuous : La- 
 mennais ( 1 782-1854), that surprising and impetu- 
 ous apostle, who made his first attempt in 1818 
 with his Essay Upon Indifference in Matters of 
 Religion^ and published in 1834 his Words of a 
 
FRANCE. 209 
 
 Believer^ a kind of mystic pamphlet and social 
 gospel which produced a great impression, and 
 the Dominican Lacordaire (1802-1861), who strove 
 to reconcile Catholicism and the Revolution. 
 
 Literary Criticism. — The application of the his- 
 torical method to literary criticism gave new life 
 to this domain of effort which had seemed to be 
 doomed for all time by La Harpe and by an 
 sterile verbiage. Villemain (1790-1867), who 
 was at the same time a scholar and a writer, a his- 
 torian and an orator, and even a statesman, in- 
 augurated the new criticism with brilliant success 
 in his lectures in the Sorbonne. Sainte-Beuve 
 (1804-1869), incompetent perhaps as a poet, but as 
 a psychologist, subtle and profound, penetrated 
 more deeply into this almost unexplored domain. 
 In his Causeries du Lundi he endeavored to ex- 
 plain literary works by the character and inner 
 life of the writers. Saint- Marc- Girar din (1801- 
 1873), Jules Janin (1804-1874), and Misard (1806- 
 1888), contemporaries of Sainte-Beuve, are the 
 principal representatives of a literary criticism 
 verging upon no extreme which may be termed 
 classic. Taine (18 2 8-1893), a bold logician and an 
 inflexible determiniet, going further than Saint- 
 
2IO FRANCE. 
 
 Beuve, undertook to deduce the whole writer 
 from his master faculty and the environments of 
 his life. If there is something paradoxical in his 
 doctrine, his La Fo^itaine^ and his History of Eng- 
 lish Literature are none the less admirable for 
 profoundness, color and animation. 
 
 Of late years, the critics have become legion 
 and never cease to explore new fields. 
 
FRANCE. 2tï 
 
 PART XIIÎ. 
 
 FRENCH ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Architects and Monuments - — Sculpture — Classic Painting — 
 Romantic Painting — The Neo-Classics — Landscape Painters 
 — The Realists — Music at the Beginning of the Century — 
 Music in the Middle of the Century — Music at the End of 
 the Century. 
 
 Architects and Monuments,— At the close of the 
 eighteenth century French architecture was clas- 
 sic, and it remained so during almost the first half 
 of the nineteenth century. During the Revolu- 
 tion was no time for building. Napoleon, had his 
 power lasted, would have been anew Rameses; 
 he loved the colossal, and in raising monuments 
 to the glory of the Grand Army his principal 
 thought was to glorify himself. He intrusted to 
 Chalgrin the execution of the Arc de Triomphe 
 de l'Étoile, which is a masterpiece of its style, 
 and which was not completed till 1836. He caused 
 to be erected the Vendôme column, the Arc de 
 
àtà FkANCË. 
 
 Triomphe du Carrousel. He gave instructions to 
 Vignon to construct a Temple of Glory, which was 
 afterwards transformed into a church, and became 
 the Madeleine (1842). From this period date 
 likewise the palaces of the quai d'Orsay (Foreign 
 Affairs and Court of Accounts, the latter burned 
 by the Commune in 187 1), the palace of the legis- 
 lative body, afterwards the Palais Bourbon and 
 Chamber of Deputies, and the Bourse, completed 
 in 1826. The Restoration added to these edifices 
 a few commonplace churches, such as the expia- 
 tory Chapel and Notre Dame of Loretta. The 
 Government of July, continuing the same tradi- 
 tions, constructed the Molière and Saint- Sulpice 
 fountains, the tomb of Napoleon in the Invalides, 
 and erected upon the place de la Bastille the 
 Column of July. 
 
 However, the renewal of historic studies, the 
 renaissance of Christian ideas and the appearance 
 of the romantic school had produced their result 
 in the domain of art. Beginning about 1835. 
 architects resumed their admiration and respect 
 for the old Roman and Gothic edifices. Lassus 
 restored the Sainte- Chapelle, Notre Dame and 
 the Cathedral of Chartres; Lenoir, the museum 
 
FRANCE. 213 
 
 of Cluny and the palace of Thermes; Boeswill- 
 * wald, the cathedral of Leon. Violet-le-Duc (1814- 
 1879), the enthusiastic theorist of this great move- 
 ment, was the means of restoring the cathedral of 
 Amiens, the castle of Pierrefonds and the city of 
 Carcassonne. This resurrection of ihe past is con- 
 tinuing under our eyes with a knowledge grow- 
 ing more and more exact and scrupulous, and 
 which embraces the whole field of history. 
 
 The horizon has thus become enlarged. And 
 not merely are all the periods of the European 
 art better known, but thanks to the numerous 
 journeys and expeditions that have been under- 
 taken from archaelogical motives, the art of 
 Egypt, of Assyria, of Persia, of ancient India 
 and other more characteristic styles such as those 
 of China, Japan and Mexico have been exhumed 
 and studied with scholarly care. Moreover, the 
 progress of the sciences and of their mechanical 
 operations, the increase in production, and the 
 employment more and more frequent of cast 
 metal and of iron, are profoundly modifying the 
 method and procedures of architects. As a result 
 of all these influences, a composite but original 
 style of art is coming into existence, the attempts 
 
214 FRANCE. 
 
 in which, widely differing in character, have al- 
 ready produced very remarkable structures in 
 France. Such are the Nouveau Louvre of Vis- 
 conte, which was completed by Lefuel, the Grand 
 Opera House of Garnier, and the Hotel de Ville of 
 Ballu. Among churches, we may mention Sainte- 
 Clothilde, which is Gothic; Saint- Augustin, com- 
 posite; the cathedral of Marseilles, Byzantine; 
 and finally the church of the Sacred Heart, erected 
 by d'Abadie upon the hill of Montmartre. Among 
 iron constructions the most prominent are the 
 central market by Baltard, the Eiffel Tower and 
 the gallery of machinery which was built by 
 Dutert. 
 
 Sculpture^— At the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century, French workers in statuary, like their 
 colleagues in architecture, were all obedient to the 
 inspiration of the antique. Such were Chaudet, 
 who represented Napoleon as a Roman Emperor 
 on the summit of the Vendôme column; Bosio, 
 who adorned the same monument with bas-reliefs; 
 Lenot, with his four-horse chariot of the Arc du 
 Carrousel, and all the artists who labored in the 
 decoration of the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile. 
 
 Shortly, in a new generation, the influence of tjie 
 
FRANCE. 215 
 
 romantic movement began to be felt, feeble and 
 hardly perceptable in some, more or less active in 
 the case of others. Pradier, the accomplished 
 sculptor of Psyce (1824), remained faithful to the 
 traditions of Greek beauty, while adding to 
 them a grace which is exceedingly modern. David 
 d'Angers (i 789-1856), dresses his illustrious men 
 in the costumes appropriate to their time, but if 
 he discarded the corthurnus, the cuirass and the 
 toga, he preserved the grand style of the period of 
 the Revolution. Rude (1775-1855), a bolder and 
 more impetuous innovater, added one master- 
 piece, the group of the Marseillaise to the Arc de 
 Triomphe de l'Étoile (1838). The specialty of Barye 
 was the representation of animals. In the study 
 of these illustrious artists were born the glorious 
 schools of French contemporary sculpture, infini- 
 tely varied in tendencies and originality, but united 
 into one grand school by the two-fold worship of 
 the real and the ideal. In the foremost rank of 
 the masters of our time appear Aimé Millet (1816- 
 1891), the sculptor of Vercingetorix of Alesia, and 
 of the magnificent group of Apollo in the Opera 
 House; Guillaume, with his bursts of academic 
 correctness; Fre'miet and his groups of animals 
 
2l6 FRANCE. 
 
 seem full of life and fire; Carpeaux (1827-1875), 
 the spirited sculptor of the Flora of Louvre of the 
 foundation of the Quatre parties du Monde, upon 
 the avenue of the Observatory, and of the cele- 
 brated group of the Danse in the Opera House, 
 Falguiere, a mighty realist, with his Diana ; Chapu, 
 admirable for the classic sentiment and simplicity 
 displayed in his Jeanne d'Arc, and in his Jeunesse 
 of the monument of Regnault in the School of 
 Fine Arts; Bartholdi, whose magnificent imagina- 
 tion conceived the Lion of Belfort and the Statue 
 of Liberty Enlightening the World, of New York ; 
 Delaplanche, full of Attic grace, the sculptor of 
 Eve after sinning, and of Maternal Education on 
 Sainte- Clothilde Square; Ernest Barrais with his 
 Bernard de Palissy; Mercie and his Gloria Victis; 
 Dalou and his bas-relief of the States- General of 
 1789; Idrac and his Mercury; Boucher with his 
 Terra; Rodin, and so many others whose works 
 may be admired in the Museum of the Luxem- 
 bourg, in the Hotel de Ville, upon the public 
 squares, in many cities and in private collections. 
 Classic Painting. — French painting had returned 
 at the end of the eighteenth century to the imita- 
 tion of the masterpieces of ancient art. The 
 
FRANCE. 2iir 
 
 great chief of this restoration was David (1748- 
 1825), in whom may be discerned three styles; he 
 reproduced with sculptural pomp, ancient scenes, 
 such as the Rape of the Sabines, with more life, but 
 no less majesty, he depicted modern scenes, such 
 as the Taking of the Oath in the Tennis -ground, 
 while with rare faithfulness and penetration he 
 preserved for us the features of his contempor- 
 aries, such as Madame Recamier and Pope Pius 
 VII. Close to David, and yet aloof, Prudhon 
 (17 5 8-182 3), takes his place, an original and tender 
 colorist, whose master-piece is Psyche carried off 
 by the Zephyrs. The principal pupils of David 
 were Girodet (17 6 7-18 2 4), the painstaking author 
 of the Funeral of Attila and of the Scene of the 
 Deluge; Gérard (1770-1837), a skillful portrait 
 painter, to whom we are also indebted for l'Amour 
 et Psyché, and Gros (17 71-1834), who painted with 
 epic grandeur the battles of the Empire and par- 
 ticularly that of Eylau. 
 
 Romantic SchooL — The precursor of the Ro- 
 mantic School is Géricault (17 91-18 2 4), whose 
 Shipwreck of Medusa, in 1819, proved a bold 
 innovation. Delacroix made his powers known in 
 1822 by the celebrated picture of Dante and Virgil. 
 
2ï8 FRANCE. 
 
 His other most beautiful canvasses are the Mas- 
 sacres of Scio; the Women of Algiers; Medea and 
 his masterpiece, the Entrance of the Crusaders 
 into Constantinople. Delacroix is the head of a 
 school that corresponds closely enough to the liter- 
 ary school of the same name, which seeks to real- 
 ize the motion, the color and the agitated expres- 
 sion of the feelings and passions, the school in- 
 spired by the worship of poetry in history, by the 
 admiration of the middle ages, and for oriental- 
 ism. Thus it is that Leopold Robert (i 794-1835), 
 gave such brilliancy to his Neapolitan Improvisa- 
 tor, Ary Sheffer; such expression to his Mignon, 
 and to his Françoise de Rimini. 
 
 Again we have a romantic painter, but of the 
 moderate style, in Paul de la Roche (1797-1856), 
 the contemporary of Aug, Thierry and of Cousin, 
 that faithful historian and eclectic painter, who 
 produced a multitude of historic pictures, such as 
 the Children of Edward; the Murder of the Duke 
 of Guise, and the noble composition of the Hémi- 
 cycle of the School of Fine Arts. With the same 
 school again, are closely connected Horace Vernet 
 (17 89-1863), who has illustratrd with so many 
 pages of proud and haughty bearing the conquest 
 
FRANCE. 219 
 
 of Algeria, and of whose works the Prise de la 
 Smala d'Abd-el-Kader is particularly admired; 
 and, among contemporaries, Fromentin, a charm- 
 ing colorist and dreamer who has given us 
 Algeria fresher than nature ; Charles Miiller with 
 his melancholy Appeal of Victims under the 
 Terror; and Couture with his melodramatic Ro- 
 mans of the Decline and Fall. 
 
 The Neo-Classics. — At the very time when the 
 Romantic School was achieving its most brilliant 
 success, classic tradition had been continued and 
 renewed in the person of Ingres (i 780-1867), who 
 is distinguished by purity of drawing, correctness 
 of arrangement and nobility of inspiration, and 
 whose most finished works are the Vow of Louis 
 XIII. ; the Apotheosis of Homer; and the Spring. 
 To the same family, if not exactly to the same 
 school, belong Léon Cogniet (i 794-1881), the 
 contemporary of Ingres, to whom we owe Tintoret 
 Painting his Dead Daughter ; Flandrin (1809-1864), 
 whose frescoes adorn the church of Saint Vincent- 
 de-Paule; and in the following generations Caba- 
 nel with his Birth of Venus; Gérôme, that ingeni- 
 ous and sculptural painter, who made a specialty 
 of ancient domestic scenes; Bouguerau, the most 
 
220 FRANCE. 
 
 academic of the present day painters with the Tri- 
 umph of Venus; and Baudry, whose dexterous and 
 prolific brush has decorated the Grand Opera 
 House. 
 
 The Landscape Paintefs.— However, about 1850, 
 a new and truly original school came into being. 
 Landscapes had been considered up to that time 
 as hardly more than an accessory, serving either 
 as a frame to a portrait, or to a group of historic 
 personages. To place oneself resolutely face to 
 face with rural nature, to paint it as it is, either 
 quite bare, or peopled with animals and peasants, 
 and to interpret it with sincerity, such was the 
 bold undertaking which was attempted, we know 
 with what success, by a little group of artists, at 
 first misunderstood, for a long time opposed, but 
 at last victorious, whose ranks continually in- 
 creased by new recruits, form to-day quite an 
 army. Among the leaders of this prolific move- 
 ment, the foremost places belong to Corot (1796- 
 1875), whose shadowy grace idealizes the mysteri- 
 ous hiding-places of the woods, the waters and 
 the glades, where the nimble choirs of nimphs per- 
 form their dances; to Théodore Rousseau (181 2- 
 1867), the poet of the sturdy oaks, and of the trans- 
 
FRANCE. 22 i 
 
 parent underwoods where the deer have their rest- 
 ing places; and to François Millet (1815-1875), 
 author of the celebrated Angelus du Soir, 
 rough and vigorous genius who saw animals 
 and men as they are, and who painted them ex- 
 actly as he saw them. Around this trinity of 
 masters, others are arranged, among whom we 
 may mention Troyon with his Ploughing Oxen, 
 and his Return to the Farm, scenes taken from Li- 
 mousin ; Daubigny, who painted the banks of the 
 Seine and the Oise, and the mountainous scenery 
 of le Morvan; Harpignies, whose brush was de- 
 voted to le Bourbonnais and l'Auvergne; Rosa 
 Bonheur, with her cows and laboring oxen of the 
 Nivernais; Jules Breton, who seems to have be- 
 stowed a soul upon the tranquil plains of Artois, 
 adorning with a penetrating poetical charm the 
 rustic scenes of his country; and Bastien- Lepage 
 (1848-1885), who, discarding the light of the 
 studio, somewhat artifical under all circumstances, 
 was the first to undertake the depicting of real 
 light— the light of out of doors. 
 
 The Realists. — Even in those early days, art 
 had its realists in the landscape painters of 1850, 
 and particularly in Millet. At the same period, 
 
222 FRANCE. 
 
 Courbet (i 819-187 7), also a landscape painter, and 
 one of the most thoroughgoing, introduced realism 
 in no gentle fashion into the general representa- 
 tion of modern life. Pushing his form to extrava- 
 gant lengths, too often by systematic choice, did 
 he make the ugly and the grotesque the object of 
 his quest. Realism, gradually gaining good 
 sense, has none the less more and more thoroughly 
 invaded all styles of art. It has broken down the 
 framework of the old schools; it has contributed 
 to restore to the artist complete independence by 
 making over to his brush all nature and the in- 
 finite variety of men and things. 
 
 Hence so many original painters, each follow- 
 ing his own independent path. Of these are 
 Puvis de Chavannes, with his vast decorative 
 compositions, his learned and practical allegories, 
 drawn from types borrowed directly from real 
 life; Chaplin, who has given to girlhood the 
 charm of its pearly whiteness; Henner, whose 
 women, with ivory flesh, are mantled by soft 
 shadows; Bonnat, that luminous portrait painter 
 with his firm and powerful tones ; Carolus Duran, 
 the impetuous colorist characterized by his broad 
 and frank touch; Guillaumet, the sincerest and 
 
FRANCE. 223 
 
 the most faithful of those who have interpreted 
 nature in Algeria; Benjamin Constant, the vigor- 
 ous painter of Eastern scenes; Jean- Paul Laurens, 
 who has won a place by himself as the most accurate 
 and only real historical painter of these later times. 
 Finally, the painters of battle scenes, and, at their 
 head, an incomparable master, Meissonier (1815- 
 189 1), who, with his Chess Players, his Drinkers, his 
 Smokers, began by character painting in a fashion 
 that was almost Dutch, in order to rise by the min- 
 iature to the grandest military epic, as when he 
 painted Jena, Napoleon in 18 14, etc. 
 
 Let us mention in addition, the noble canvasses 
 of Yvon, the painter of the Capture of the Malakoff 
 Tower, and of the Charge of Reischoffen; Protais 
 and his two popular compositions, The Morning 
 Before the Attack, The Evening After the Battle ; 
 de Neuville with his picture of the Dream. 
 
 Art undergoes incessant change, and the most 
 fantastic innovations may have their utility. A 
 painter of real talent, Manet, toward i860, suc- 
 ceeded in astonishing the public with the strange- 
 ness of his realism. Whether he willed it or not, 
 he is the father of the Impressionists, who aim at 
 suppressing drawing and exert all their ingenuity 
 
224 FRANCE. 
 
 in exaggerating the play and reflections of light 
 Then came the Symbolists, with their disdain of 
 the real, striving to interpret the supernatural and 
 the unknowable. Impressionists and Symbolists 
 have contributed, each in their way, to the 
 progress of French painting. 
 
 Music at the Begfinningf of the Centufy* — At the 
 opening of the nineteenth century, French music 
 only continued the traditions of the preceding 
 century. If the musicians paid their tribute in 
 some measure to the Revolution by composing in 
 its honor martial hymns and patriotic songs, of 
 which some are very beautiful and incidental 
 pieces, none of which, however, has survived, 
 they remained faithful to the methods of the art 
 that preceded them. A superficial art it was that 
 appears to us to-day, somewhat accentuated and 
 somewhat childish, but which lacks neither cheer- 
 ful dignity nor sentimental grace. Gré try (1741- 
 1803), simple and gay, witty and amusing, ever 
 engaged in the task of adapting airs to words, had 
 finally created the characteristically French comic 
 opera. Nicolo (1777-1818), amused the Empire with 
 ûiQ Rendez-vous bourgeoise^ Joconde, etc ;Cherubini 
 (1760-1842), a Gallicized Florentine, to whom we 
 
FRANCE. 225 
 
 owe the Funeral Hymn for the Death of General 
 Hoche^ introduced a richer instrumentation into 
 French opera, and at a later period distinguished 
 himself by the grace of his religious compositions. 
 Another Italian, Spontini (1774-1851), the' protege 
 of Josephine, scored two great successes with the 
 Vestale and Fernand Cortez. But even now a 
 new tendency is showing itself. ■ Mehul (1763- 
 1817), through his power of expression and of 
 color joined to classic simplicity of style, is a pre- 
 cursor of the masters of our time. He is the 
 author of the admirable Song of Departure^ of the 
 Hymn of the Girondins^ of the operas, Stratonice 
 and the Jeune Henri, but above all of Joseph, 
 taken from the Bible. 
 
 Music in the Middle of the Century. — From 
 about 1820 to 1S30, it was apparent that French 
 music was being effected by various influences 
 which tended to enrich and transform it. The 
 public taste was becoming enlightened and re- 
 fined. In 1824 a succession of foreign operas were 
 played at the Odeon. The society for concerts of 
 the conservatoire was founded in 1828. Instru- 
 ments such as the piano, the harp and the organ 
 were brought into perfection by a musical instm- 
 
220 FRANCE. 
 
 ment maker of genius, Sebastian Erard, and by 
 his pupils. The divine Mozart and the sublime 
 Beethoven, whose masterpieces are beginning to 
 be known, the animation and brilliancy of the 
 Italian masters who visit Paris, and almost all of 
 whom end by taking up their residence there, are 
 opening new vistas to French music. 
 
 The musician who continued the traditions of 
 comic opera was Boïeldieu, the charming com- 
 poser of melodies, whose masterpiece, the Dame 
 Blanche^ was played in 1825. Even then the 
 witty and ingenious Auber (1782-1871), had be- 
 gun those 58 years of constant production which 
 gave to the world so many popular works, the 
 opera of la Muette de Portici, and the comic 
 operas named Fra Diavolo; V Ambassadrice; le 
 Domino Noir; les Diamants de la Couronne; 
 Haydée, etc. Hérold (i 791-1833), who was pre- 
 maturely carried off by death, was the pupil of 
 Méhul from whom he doubtless learned the secret 
 of expressive and richly colored symphonies; he 
 rose in Marie in Zampa^ and above all in le Pré 
 aux clercs to a more serious class of comic opera, 
 one more caustic and with more of life. Adam 
 (1803-185 6), the pupil of Boïeldieu, and inheriting 
 
FRANCE. 227 
 
 his easy grace, is the author of the Postilion de 
 Longjumeau^ of Si fetias roi; he has produced 
 nothing better than the Chalet. 
 
 During the same period, an Italian, who may 
 be rated as a Parisian, from 1823 was charming 
 his adopted countrymen by his NeapoHtan gaiety, 
 his harmonious animation, and the variety and 
 versatality of his methods. Among his composi- 
 tions arranged or written purposely for the French 
 stage, the most celebrated are le Barbier de 
 Seville; le Comte Ory; le Siege de Corinthe; 
 Moïse and Guillaume Tell^ his masterpiece. Two 
 years later, a Jew from Berlin, endowed with a 
 rare faculty of assimilation, already known in 
 Germany and Italy, a rich cosmopolitan who had 
 come to live in Paris, Meyerbeer (1794-1864), 
 made his appearance in French opera by a mas- 
 ter stroke, Robert le Diable, and during twenty 
 years, keeping the first rank, he displayed in the 
 Huguenots^ le Prophète, V Étoile du Nord, le 
 Pardon de Ploermel and V Africaine, ail the re- 
 sources of a many-sided, tenacious and profound 
 genius. The other celebrated composers of this 
 period are two Italians: Donizetti (1798-1848), the 
 lucky improvisator to whom we are indebted for 
 
228 i^RAi^cfe. 
 
 Lucie de Lammermoor^ la Fille du Régiment and 
 la Favorite; Bellini (1806-1835), author of Norma 
 and the Puritans; a Frenchman of the same re- 
 ligion as Meyerbeer and worthy to take a place 
 by his side, Halevy (1799-186 2), who rose to ac- 
 cents of real pathos in la Juive^ and who produced 
 also la Reine de Chypre^ Charles VI . , and a lyric 
 idyl, le Val d'Andorre Berlioz (1803-1869), at 
 last completed in France the revolution of musi- 
 cal romanticism by the triumph of personal in- 
 spiration and color. A genius unequal and long 
 disputed, but of rare power, capable of rising to 
 the calm expression of the purest sentiments, as 
 well as of breaking out into violent transports of 
 tragic seriousness, he wrote admirable symphonies 
 such as Romeo et Juliette^ la Damnation de Faust 
 and the opera of the Trojans. 
 
 Music at the End of the Century. — About the 
 year i860, French music underwent new changes. 
 It was spread abroad, it became democratic; the 
 popular concerts founded by Pasdeloup in 1863, 
 were soon imitated everywhere, and with corn- 
 plete success in Paris by Messrs. Colonne and 
 Lamoureux. It was also decentralized; several 
 operas were performed for the first time in Brus- 
 
FRANCE. 229 
 
 sels, Lyons, Rouen, and in other provencial towns. 
 It emancipated itself from the rigorous delimita- 
 tion of styles. Its domain was considerably in- 
 creased; it became bolder. Meyerbeer was al- 
 ready an eclectic. What shall we say of the bor- 
 rowings of the musicians of to-day from the most 
 various exotic styles, of the influences of every 
 kind which they have undergone, beginning with 
 that of Verdi and particularly of Wagner, of the 
 new and original paths upon which they have 
 entered. 
 
 Felician David (1810-1876), derived his inspira- 
 tion from the East in his beautiful symphony of 
 the Desert^ in his operas of Herculaneuin and of 
 Lalla-Rouk. Ambroise Thomas renewed, by 
 poetic grace and sincerity of emotion the ancient 
 comic opera. To him we owe the Caïd, le Songe 
 d'une nuit d'été, Mignon, Hamlet and Françoise 
 de Rimini. Bazin has enlivened us by his fantas- 
 ies of Maitre Pat he lin, the Voyage en Chine and 
 l'Ours et le Pacha. Gounod (1818-1893), the 
 fastidious mystic, the restless and prolific poet, 
 the interpreter of heroic love, has written Sapho^ 
 Faust, Phile'mon et Baucis, la Reine, Saba, Romeo 
 et Juliette^ Polyeucte^ Mireille^ and the patriotic 
 
230 FRANCE. 
 
 cantata of Gallia. Victor Massé, the amiable 
 Romanist, composed la Chanteuse voilée^ les Noces 
 de Jeanette Galate'e, la Reine Topaze, Paul et Ver- 
 ginie and Pétrarque. Reyer, a new Berlioz, like 
 him, inspired and violent, the energetic disciple of 
 Germany, produced Sacountala Sigurd, which is 
 his masterpiece, and Salammbô Lala is the sober 
 and sincere, though slightly laborious author of 
 Roi d Ys, Saint-Saens., exceedingly French in 
 elegance, firmness and proportion, universal in 
 learning and technique, numbers among his best 
 productions Ascanio, Henry VI IL, Sampson and 
 Delila and Phryne'. Delibes, after having made 
 himself known through the ballets of la Source, 
 Coppelia and Sylvia, dispensed elegant repartee in 
 le Roi l'a dit, and Lakmé. Bizet (1838-1875), the 
 Regnault of music, struck down like him, prema- 
 turely, has left a masterpice of science and of color, 
 Carmen, which being first misunderstood, did not 
 obtain justice and glory until after his death. Mas- 
 senet, ingenious, subtle and learned, has attempted 
 with success, different styles, ancient choral songs, 
 as in the Erinnyes, the mystic poem of Eve lyric 
 drama in Manon Lescaut, le Roi de Lahore, le Cid 
 and Esclar monde, The aged Italian master, the 
 
FRANCE. 231 
 
 illustrious Verdi, came to Paris in 1894 to give his 
 opera of Falstaff. To this list, already long other 
 names should be added. Finally, in the operetta, 
 two names outstrip the throng, that of Offenbach, 
 the author of Orphée aux Enfers^ of la Belle Hélène^ 
 of la Vie parisienne and of la Grande Duchesse^ and 
 the name of Lecoq, with la Fille de Madame 
 •A ngot. 
 
232 FRANCE. 
 
 PART XIV. 
 
 TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTER OF FRANCE. 
 
 Proportions and Situations of France — Her Physical Constitution 
 — Her Temperament — Her Intellectual Faculties — Her Char- 
 acter — Her Influence. 
 
 Proportions and Situations of France» — France 
 has the shape of a hexagon, slightly oblong in the 
 direction of the meridian She is, in her main 
 outlines, symmetrical, well-proportioned and regu- 
 lar. Of her six sides, three are maritime, and 
 three continental; five seem to be the indestructi- 
 ble work of nature; only one, mutilated thirty 
 years ago, is the fragile and alterable work of 
 man. 
 
 The actual area of France is 206,723 square 
 miles. She is only the tenth part of Russia, and 
 the nineteenth of Europe. She approximately is 
 equal in extent to Germany, to Austria- Hungary 
 and to Spain. She is larger than any of the 
 other European States. She is four times as 
 
FRAlSrcÈ. 233 
 
 large as the State of New York, and corresponds 
 to the seventeenth part of the United States of 
 America. She is then of almost average stature, 
 being rather small; but her influence extends 
 over vast territories outside of Europe, and she 
 occupies a place in the civilised world. 
 
 She is situated at the vital point of Western 
 Europe, and is the natural bond of union between 
 the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin nations; at the 
 same time, she looks out upon the New World 
 across the Atlantic Ocean and toward the Old 
 World by the way of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Her Physical Constitution» — France is crossed in 
 the neighborhood of Bordeaux by the 45 th paral- 
 lel; she is thus equally distant from the Pole and 
 the Equator; taken as a whole, she is a land essen- 
 tially temperate in climate, with infinite variations 
 in detail, from the harshness of the Ardennes to 
 the slight humidity of Brittanny ; from the strenu- 
 ousness of Auvergne to the dazzling languor of 
 the tiny Provinçal Africa. 
 
 She is united and harmonious, less from race 
 than from confirmation. Three depressions, back 
 to back, are within her bounds, like three cradles 
 of the people; the largest (since it extends from 
 
â34 FfeANCÊ. 
 
 Tours and Bourges to Lille), the most regular and 
 the best constructed is that of the North; it called 
 to its center a capital, Paris. The other two 
 basins, communicating with that of Paris and 
 with each other by thresholds easy to cross, have 
 allowed the France of the North to shut in firmly 
 the central plateau and, as it were, also to reach 
 and penetrate the two barriers of the Alps and the 
 Pyrenees. 
 
 It is thus that nature has guided the work of 
 men, and contributed to the establishment in 
 France of a powerful centralization which has 
 little by little, fashioned the French nation. There 
 is no nation more strongly united. Are there any 
 less homogeneous? Over the old Celtic stock still 
 surviving in Brittanny, there had overflowed on 
 the south, long before historic times, the Ligu- 
 rians from one side, and from the other the 
 Ibernians, whose descendants are the Basques 
 Upon the coast of the Mediterranean, Phœnicians 
 and Greeks the founders of Marseilles settled. 
 Then came the Romans whose imprint was so 
 deep that in certain respects France is a Latin 
 nation. After the Romans came the Germans, 
 wandering hordes, then conquering armies and 
 
FRANCE. 235 
 
 dynasties firmly planted. About the same time 
 the Saracens entered by the south, and the Scan- 
 dinavians by every coast at once. Finally, English, 
 Germans, Spaniards and Italians for a long time 
 occupied French territories. It is from all these 
 diverse races, mixed and melted in the national 
 crucible, that the French people came. Her for- 
 mation into a nation of which she began to be 
 conscious from the days of the Capets, onwards, 
 was the work at once of the Monarchy and of the 
 Revolution. She is the triumph of mentality, 
 kneading, crystalizing and organizing crude ma- 
 terial. To such an extent is this true, that the 
 French people, more perhaps than any other, is a 
 living being, with muscles, nerves, brain and 
 soul. 
 
 Her Temperament. — The contradictions in her 
 temperament, her character, and in all her his- 
 tory surprise the observer at every moment. 
 
 France, collected like a wrestler, every ready 
 either to attack or parry the thrust of his oppo- 
 nent, is endowed with a suppleness and power of 
 resistance truly extraordinary. Three times, at 
 least, after the disasters of the Hundred Years' 
 War, after the horrors of the wars of religion, and 
 
236 FRANCE. 
 
 after the blood shedding of those of the First Em- 
 pire, she might well have been thought, if not 
 dead, at least, prostrate and utterly exhausted. 
 But, not so. Her wounds still bleeding, she, by 
 a prodigious effort, was seen to hurl the English 
 under Charles VII. beyond the frontiers; under 
 Henry IV. and Richelieu, she aspired to the first 
 rank in Europe ; under the Restoration to preside 
 over the marvellous blossoming of the romantic 
 Renaissance. 
 
 The solidity of France rests, above all, in her 
 mighty agricultural reserve. The French peas- 
 ant is hardy, tenacious and indefatigable in labor ; 
 he loves his land as a wife; he loves money no 
 less. Cent by cent, and dollar by dollar, he ac- 
 cumulates a treasure. The passion for saving is, 
 moreover, one of the characteristic traits of the 
 nation. At a crisis, the farms more certainly 
 than the towns furnish France with men, if men 
 are needed — with money, if that is required. 
 
 As to men, France does not produce enough of 
 them to show an increase of population compar- 
 able to the rapid growth of several other peoples. 
 
 It does not seem, however, that the lowness of 
 the birtk rate can be owing to any feebleness of 
 
France. 237 
 
 fecundity inherent in the French race, since, under 
 the circumstances and in other surroundings, par 
 ticularly in Canada, this same race shows itself 
 more prolific than any other. But the French 
 peasant is so attached to his property that his 
 heart bleeds at the thought that it may one day 
 be cut up, and, therefore, in order to escape the 
 rigor of the laws of succession, he voluntarily con- 
 fines himself to having only one or two children. 
 Many townspeople, without the same excuse as 
 the peasant, reason in like manner. Routine, 
 egotism and the stay-at-home spirit are accom- 
 plices in these deplorable calculations. Perhaps 
 it will be so as long as the French civil code does 
 not allow the right of making bequests of property, 
 so long as public education does not aspire to 
 higher ideals, and as long as immigration and col- 
 onization will not have entered into the habits of 
 the people, a fact which precludes the opening of 
 vacant places and the upbuilding of new homes, 
 all of which favor an increase of births. 
 
 By a strange contradiction, this same people, 
 who take deep root in the land which witnesses its 
 birth, display even to the verge of the ridiculous 
 its love for its native heath, this parsimonious 
 
238 FRANCE. 
 
 people, to whom the duties of bringing up chil- 
 dren are burdensome, and that shows its small- 
 ness in the hoarding of money, has produced from 
 time immemorial spendthrift sons, men of the 
 sword and buckler, the type of which has been 
 illustrated by Dumas in the Three Musketeers^ lead- 
 ers of partisans like Montluc, adventurers like Ra- 
 ousset-Boulbon, corsairs like Jean Bart, explorers 
 devoured by the desire to penetrate into unknown 
 lands, like René Caillé, madcap captains like Jean le 
 Bon, Francis I. and Murat, and by thousands of val- 
 orous men of war, ever ready to risk their lives in 
 badgering death. French impetuosity has remained 
 proverbial. Bravery is a virtue that is elementary 
 and common in the case of Frenchmen. 
 
 Since the days of the Gauls, contempt for danger 
 flows with the blood in their veins. No law has 
 succeeded in abolishing dueling, and few people 
 in France, particularly women, feel disposed to 
 condemn a man, whatever his crime may have 
 been, provided he was not a coward. Taken as a 
 whole, the French nation is none the less of a 
 peaceful and gentle disposition, but let Bonaparte 
 mount his horse, and she will follow him to the 
 ends of the earth. 
 
FRANCE. 239 
 
 Bravery does not mean endurance. French 
 bravery is largely made tip of impetuousity. A 
 tension of the nerves unduly prolonged soon pro- 
 duces in the case of Frenchmen, more than in any 
 other nation, some dreadful crisis. These un- 
 healthy crises, happily rare in her history, are 
 called the Jacquerie, Saint Bartholomew's Day, 
 the Red Terror, the White Terror, the Commune. 
 And yet, how many individual examples of self- 
 possession, of constancy and of tenacity in effort 
 among Frenchmen, from Michel de l'Hôpital to 
 Saint Vincent de Paul, from the Estiennes to the 
 Benedictines, from Richelieu and Colbert to Du- 
 pleix and Carnot, from Bernard Palissy to Pas- 
 teur. 
 
 By nature the Frenchman is gay and easily 
 buoyed up by hope, but he is no less quickly cast 
 down. Since the time of Caesar the eagerness with 
 which a Frenchman is taken with novelties has 
 been many times noted. This extreme change- 
 ableness of mood renders him difficult to govern. 
 One believes him submissive and satisfied with 
 his yoke; suddenly, he finds fault, and becomes 
 angry. He never yields completely to control, 
 and bends himself only for a time to rule or law. 
 
â40 FRANCE. 
 
 He wilfully exaggerates his love of independenee, 
 even to the point of insubordination. 
 
 Her Intellectual Faculties. — Nevertheless, France 
 is the land of good sense and reasonableness. 
 She has been described in politics as left center. 
 She has often been reproached with inability to 
 understand all the bold strokes of unfettered art. 
 Many of her kings and statesmen have been, 
 above all, men of good sense and prudence. To 
 this great family belong Louis VI. , the fat, and 
 his minister Suger; Charles V., the wise, and 
 his industrious captain Duguesclin; Henry ÎV. . 
 and his faithful counsellor Sully; nearer to our 
 own times, Thiers, and many others. In the Re- 
 public of letters, there has been no lack of prudent 
 legislators, like Malherbe or Boileau. But good 
 sense, which in the domain of art borders on good 
 taste, leads in everything to reason, to the highest 
 of intellectual faculties which blend with it, and 
 France is essentially a land of reason. She is the 
 native country of Saint Louis, the most sensible of 
 all the saints, of Descartes, Montesquieu, Turgot 
 and Littré, who were sages. 
 
 She has the cult of order, method, proved cor- 
 rectness and of logic. There were imperturbable 
 
FRANCE. 241 
 
 logicians who founded scholasticism, bold logicians 
 were the architects of the Gothic cathedrals ; logi- 
 cians likewise, each in his own fashion, were 
 Calvin and Pascal, Tnrenne and Vauban ; all those 
 writers and all those artists to whom the seven- 
 teenth century owes its beautiful system in art 
 and literature ; all those philosophers and all those 
 men of science and learning, who prepared in the 
 eighteenth century the constitution of modern 
 France; but there were also logicians, terrible 
 logicians, namely: Saint Just and the Terrorists 
 of 1793; for logic is a blind weapon, the most cor- 
 rect of conclusions casts no light upon the prem- 
 ises from which it is derived, and the mechan- 
 ism of a syllogism may strike like an axe. It is 
 thus that the abuse of reasoning has sometim^es 
 misled the reason of the most reasonable people; 
 that it has taken abstractions for realities, and 
 mere speculations for indisputable principles. 
 
 It is probable that classic education, too for- 
 mally conducted, especially in the last century, 
 has had much to do with the development of this 
 eccentricity. 
 
 The Frenchman appears talkative to the men of 
 the North, and taciturn to those of the South. 
 
242 FRANCE. 
 
 He assuredly has the keenest liking for public 
 speaking and for eloquence. The seventeenth 
 century had its great Christian collections of ser- 
 mons and the admirable speeches of the heroes of 
 Corneille and Racine. The eighteenth had its 
 salons, in which conversation was an art truly 
 French. The Revolution had its rostrums, nor 
 had the tradition of noble eloquence been lost in 
 either the law court, the academies, or on the 
 tribune at political gatherings. 
 
 Another undeniable attribute of the French 
 nation is P esprit, wit, that subtle thing which is 
 better understood than defined, which often mis- 
 leads foreigners or sometimes irritates them like 
 an invisible sting, a mosquito that eludes seizure. 
 It consists of malice hidden beneath an appear- 
 ance of demure good-nature, or of light-hearted 
 gaiety like the national lark, or of things under- 
 stood but not expressed, that are of questionable 
 taste, or of trenchant and bitter attacks. One 
 .might call it an inexhaustible vein traversing the 
 '.whole literary strata of France from one side to the 
 other; a grain, at one time fine, at another coarse, 
 always brilliant commencing with the old stories in 
 werse, the farces -and ancient comedies passing 
 
FRANCE. 243 
 
 through Montaigne, the satirists Ménippée, Rabe- 
 lais, Régnier, La Fontaine, Madame de Sevigné, 
 Voltaire and Beaumarchais down to Courier 
 and Musset, to the debaters and dramatic 
 authors of our own day. To speak truly, the 
 French demand wit at all times and in all places; 
 it is the indispensable salt for their intellectual 
 feasts. A bo7i mot disarms their anger. To-day, 
 when the people are supreme, a witticism may 
 overthrow a ministry, or put an end to a political 
 regime, just as in former times, it was by means 
 of songs that vengeance was exacted for abuse of 
 power, for faults or failures. La Fronde died be- 
 fore Mazarin; but there are still frondeurs (ex- 
 
 m 
 
 acting critics) ; they exist and have existed from 
 earliest times 
 
 Nowhere does one perceive more quickly than 
 in France, nor does one emphasize more forcibly 
 slight shades of ridicule Disparagment has always 
 been fashionable there. Since everybody has, so to 
 speak, a finger in the pie, the name ''^blague'* has 
 been given to this peculiarly French jesting. It is 
 only a difference in manner of expression between 
 the drawing-room and the street ; between the anti- 
 chamber of the great and the obscure press. 
 
244 FRANCE. 
 
 Her Moral Faculties*— But how wrong it would 
 be to take too literally these very diverse mani- 
 festations of French wit ! It has been seen that 
 this people, apparently so frivolous, is in reality, 
 exceedingly industrious. It would not be credited 
 to what degree this nation, so given to scoffing 
 and derision, attaching no importance to its own 
 mockeries, is capable of seriousness, of conviction, 
 of emotion and of ingenuousness. For centuries, 
 it remained prostrate before its kings; but rever- 
 ence for monarchs has gradually vanished, and it 
 has been replaced, in the majority of Frenchmen, 
 by other political dogmas no less absolute. Can 
 there be any doubt as to the profound faith which 
 inspired such men as Coligny, Antoine Arnaud or 
 Bosset? Of that faith that impelled Charette, 
 that armed Charlotte Corday, that supported the 
 Girondins, Danton, Robespierre, and so many 
 others, even to the last step of the scaffold, that 
 animated Lacordaire or Gambetta? Has not senti- 
 mentalism, which is a sort of serious parody of 
 sentiment, repeatedly been supreme in this king- 
 dom of laughter-provoking speeches? The shep- 
 herds of Florian have here been fashionable, and 
 also Jean Jacques, and the worship of the Su- 
 
FRANCE. 245 
 
 preme Being, and the household paintings of 
 Greuze, and the troTibador romances and the fra- 
 ternal love-feasts of the Saint Simonians. And, at 
 the present day, do not even coarse melodramas 
 move to tears the habituées of the common thea- 
 tres ? 
 
 Lyric, and even epic poetry, which are the very 
 opposites of irony, have never been absolutely 
 lacking to France. And so the first monuments 
 of her literature are the cliansons de geste and 
 the famous ehanson de Roland. The Roman 
 Catholic Church, and the Protestant Church of 
 France have their lyric poetry. Bossuet, per- 
 meated through and through by the influence 
 of the Holy Scriptures, is the greatest of prose 
 lyric writers. The Revolution had its martial 
 songs. The romantic movement in its entire, 
 course, is merely the breaking forth of a latent 
 lyric genius, the existence of which had been 
 unsuspected in France. In a word, to cite a few of 
 the great French artists of our time, who are ani- 
 mated by such profound sympathy with life and 
 nature, from Rude to Meissonier, from Millet to 
 Gounod, have they not rendered in immortal im- 
 ages, elegies and idyls, odes and epics ? 
 
246 FRANCE. 
 
 Her Charactcn — If we were to judge by the 
 pictures given us in contemporary plays and 
 novels, we would gain a very false idea of the 
 virtues and the vices of French society. The 
 majority of writers, persuaded, with some reason, 
 that the public is ever on the alert for novel- 
 ties continually renewed, would exert all their 
 ingenuity to describe extraordinary situations, 
 states of soul outside nature, and pathological 
 cases. These are the exceptions, real perhaps, and 
 observed with the utmost accuracy, but they are the 
 exceptions, quantities not essential to a full know- 
 ledge of a people. Another cause of error is 
 the mania which all Frenchmen have for 
 slandering themselves. Not only are they 
 unreserved, incapable of dissimulation, tradi- 
 tional enemies of all hypocrisy (see Tartuffe), but 
 they are also subject to fits of childish boastfulness ; 
 they are so afraid of ridicule that they experience 
 a species of shame in revealing their good actions, 
 whilst they boast in a self-satisfied tone of crimes 
 and misdemeanors more or less imaginary; they 
 are, in short, very much given to denouncing, with 
 exaggeration, the weakness of their friends and 
 acquaintances, a hazardous sport which renders 
 
FRANCE. 247 
 
 them liable to endanger, on the strength of a wit- 
 ticism, the reputation of very good people. In 
 truth, the French are better than they seem and 
 particularly are they better than they describe 
 themselves. The home life of the peasants, of the 
 middle- class, and of workmen in general, is very 
 harmonious. It is only in the higher circles, in 
 the elegant world of idlers and drones, and in 
 the lowest, in the sewers of the great cities 
 that scandals are common, and that vice walks 
 abroad with unabashed brow. 
 
 In the French family, perfect equality usually 
 prevails between husband and wife. The real 
 master is the child. Nowhere is he more cher- 
 ished, better cared for, or more fondled in his 
 tender years than in France Victor Hugo, in his 
 beautiful verses upon the child, expresses a true na- 
 tional sentiment. Nowhere else do the poorer peo- 
 ple impose upon themselves greater sacrifices to 
 obtain educational advantages for their sons and 
 daughters. The authority of the father is most 
 frequently limited to a sort of comradeship, simi- 
 lar to that of an elder brother, and it sometimes 
 happens that the children take advantage of this 
 state of affairs. Family ties have always re- 
 
248 FRANCE, 
 
 mained very strong. It is only with extreme 
 reluctance that the members of a family sep- 
 arate from each other, so that this bond of affec- 
 tion contributes to hinder distant voyages and 
 settlement in foreign lands. To uproot a 
 young Frenchman from his family and town, 
 to persuade him to travel abroad in order to 
 make his fortune on his own individual re- 
 sponsibility, is, even to-day, a difficult and painful 
 operation. The maternal wing is the downiest, 
 the most agreeable and pleasantest of shelters, 
 yet it would be only just that she should allow 
 her brood to fly at the proper time from the nest. 
 The French are patriotic. Their history, from 
 the time of Jeanne d'Arc, down to the present day, 
 has furnished so many heroic examples of devo- 
 tion to their native land that it seems unnecessary 
 to dwell upon this characteristic. Chauvinistic or 
 jingoistic, they have been in the past to a greater 
 degree than they are now, but they are not more 
 chauvinistic than many other nations. The de- 
 velopment of geographical and historical studies, 
 as well as painful events which have served them 
 as lessons, have taught them to form a more just 
 judgment than formerly in regard to the rest of 
 
France, 249 
 
 the world. While the unity of the French people 
 has abolished purely local political selfishness, it 
 has not destroyed the deep attachment that exists 
 in small communities. Every man is proud of 
 his city, and the country boy who is transplanted 
 to any distance, from his valley or mountain or 
 forest, generally suffers the pangs of home- sick- 
 ness. 
 
 Her Influence» — A sentiment which haâ never 
 been successfully acclimatised in France is hatred 
 of the foreigner. While the Frenchman is capable 
 of the most violent outbursts of anger, he cannot 
 hate, in a cold-blooded fashion, patiently and sys- 
 tematically. He is not distrustful, either. Let a 
 stranger present himself, and the Frenchman 
 meets him with outstretched hand ; he questions 
 him curiously, and surrenders himself. The ex- 
 treme reserve which is considered a mark of good 
 breeding in the high society of to-day, was un- 
 known in France in previous centuries, and ordi- 
 nary people not only ignore it, but are astonished 
 by it. Sociability is one of the distinctive charac- 
 teristics of the race. It is, as it were, the only 
 mark of a vague sentiment in the case of the mul- 
 titude, one which is quite clearly defined in the 
 
250 ËRANCÊ. 
 
 élite of French society, and to which it is difficult 
 to give any other name than love of humanity. 
 
 France entered upon the Crusades in the name of 
 Christianity. She carried out the Revolution in 
 the name of all peoples, and her great charter is 
 the declaration of the rights of man. She has 
 displayed enthusiasm in every variety of cause not 
 her own, for the independence of the United 
 States, for the freedom of Poland, for the emanci- 
 pation of Greece, of Egypt, of the Latin Repub- 
 lics of America, and for Italian unity. She has, 
 on many occasions betrayed her own interests 
 in suffering those of others. She is governed by 
 general ideas; she allows herself to be led on 
 first impulses by her imagination and her heart. 
 A Don Quixotism, if one wishes so to term it, 
 which has caused her many mortifications, but 
 which has also procured for her glory, and some 
 unselfish joy. She is gifted with sympathy. 
 
 She alone has shown the ability to tame the 
 fierceness of savages, instead of destroying them. 
 She alone exercises upon civilized peoples a 
 moral influence which has nothing in common 
 with the power of her cannon and her ironclads. 
 She embodies, for many among them at least, 
 
FRANCE. 251 
 
 an ideal of justice, liberty and fraternity. A 
 
 short time ago, she was termed the soldier of 
 
 God; at the very least, her real place seems to 
 be the vanguard of humanity. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Northern France, or the Parisian Basin 7 
 
 From Havre to Paris — The Parisian Basin — The Plains of 
 the North— The Four Zones of the North-east— The 
 Plains of the Centre. 
 
 II. Western or Oceanic France 18 
 
 Similarities and Dissimilarities — From Cherbourg to the 
 Forests of le Perche — From the Forests of le Perche to 
 Cape Raz — Between the Loire and Gironde — The Basin 
 of Bordeaux — The Pyrenees. 
 
 III. The Interior of France or the Central 
 
 Plateau 32 
 
 The Central Headland as the Crow Flies — General Features 
 — From le Limousin to le Velay — From le Vivarais to le 
 Quer^y. 
 
 IV. South- Eastern France, or the Medi- 
 
 terranean Slope 43 
 
 Extent of South Eastern France— Jura and Franche Comté 
 The Saône and Burgundy — Lyons and the Rhône — The 
 French Alps — Savoy and Dauphiny — The Western Shore 
 of the Mediterranean — Lower Languedoc and Roussilon 
 — Eastern Shore of the Mediterranean — Provence — Cor- 
 sica. 
 
 (252) 
 
CONTENTS. 253 
 
 PAGE 
 
 V. France in History 62 
 
 Origin and the Middle Ages— Prehistoric Times— Gaul — 
 Feudal France and its Heroic Age — Feudal France at its 
 Culminating Point — i)ecline of Feudalism — Formation of 
 Royalty, of the Middle Classes, and of French Patriotism 
 — French Fatherland. 
 
 VI. France in Modern Times 73 
 
 Monarchical France and the Renaissance — XVI. Century — 
 Greatness of the Monarchy in the Seventeenth Century 
 — Decay of the Monarchy— Rise of the Nation — Litera- 
 ture, Science and Art in the Seventeenth Century* 
 
 VII. Contemporary France 86 
 
 The Revolution— The First Republic— The Consulate and 
 the Empire — The Restoration — The Government of July 
 — ^The Second Republic— The Second Empire— The Third 
 Republic — Elevation of France — Last Events. 
 
 VIII. The Institutions of France in the 
 
 Present Day 105 
 
 Government — Taxes and Budget — Administrative Organi/a- 
 tion— Foreign Affairs — Finances— Interior — Public Works 
 — Agriculture, Commerce and Industry — Land Army — 
 The Navy and the Colonies— Justice — Pu-^lic Education — 
 Forms of Worship, and the Fine Arts — Private Initiative. 
 
 IX. Economic France 129 
 
 Agriculture — Farm Productions — Domestic Animals — 
 Fisheries, Etc. — Industries — Mineral Productions — Ali- 
 mentary Industries — Textile and Clothing Industries — 
 Mechanical and Various Other Industries — Means of 
 Communication — Commerce. 
 
5^4 CONtENTS. 
 
 PAGé 
 
 X. Foreign France 144 
 
 Another France— France in America — France in Oceanica — 
 France in Asia — France in the Indian Ocean and in the 
 Red Sea — France in Africa — Algeria and Tunis — The Soil 
 and Productions — The Inhabitants and the Towns — The 
 Political and Administrative Organization — France in the 
 Levant. 
 
 XI. The Sciences in France in the Nine- 
 teenth Cent-nry 169 
 
 Intellectual France — The Sciences in France in the Nine- 
 teenth Century — Mathematical Sciences — Physical and 
 Chemical Sciences — Industrial Inventions — Natural Scien- 
 ces — Biological Sciences— Historical Sciences — Philosophi- 
 cal Sciences — Philosophical, Political and Social Doctrines. 
 
 XII. French Literature in the Nineteenth 
 
 Century 188 
 
 End of Classic Literature — Beginnings of the Romantic 
 School — The Greit Romantic Writers — Lamartine and 
 Victor Hugo — The Romantic School — The Naturalist 
 School— The Novel— The Theatre— The Pamphlet and 
 Eloquence — Literary Criticism. 
 
 XIII. French Art in the Nineteenth Century 211 
 
 Architects and Monuments — Sculpture — Classic Painting — 
 Romanti:: Painting — The Neo-CIassics — Landscape Paint- 
 ers—The Realists — Music at the Opening of the Century 
 — Music at the Close of the Century. 
 
 XIV. Temperament and Character of France 232 
 
 Proportions and Situations of France — Her Physical Con- 
 stitution—Her Teoiperament — Her Intellectual Faculties 
 — Her Moral Faculties — Her Character — Her Infîuence. 
 
MAY 3 - 1902