a woman.

The average result of girl-making in France is to produce a somewhat ignorant, very prejudiced, charming young woman, susceptible of strong emotion and strong love, curious to see for herself what life is, anxious to please and to win admiration and affection, but controlled, in nine cases out of ten, by deeply-rooted religious faith and a profound conviction of duty. If we admit that the great function of women is to create joy around us, to gild our lives, and to teach their children to do the same, then we shall recognize that the French system attains its end. But if we insist that a mother has a nobler task than that-if we assert that her highest duty is to make her son a man then we shall be forced to own that French mothers do not achieve their task.

should be observed that French girls gen- | try gentlemen (of whom there are few erally remain children very late. They enough), brought up to ride and shoot, to seem to be exposed to hothouse training, live out of doors, and to behave like men. and to be forced on to premature young- The immense majority are indisputably ladyhood; but that view of them is an il- little curs, funky, tale-tellers and nasty. lusion. In no country do girls continue How can such boys ever grow into brave young so long; and that result becomes men? and yet they do, a good many of quite comprehensible when we reflect that them at least. Their defects cannot be atthough the child is frequently with grown- tributed to the direct influence of their up people, and so acquires an ease of man- parents; for whereas most of the girls, in ner above her age, she is always with a families of decent position, are brought up fondling mother, who treats her as a baby at home, the boys, almost without excepbecause in her eyes she always is so. The tion, are sent to school. It is at school, it mother's influence being stronger than is from each other seemingly, that they that of strangers, the child remains a pick up the sneaking little notions which child until necessity obliges her to become are so universal amongst thein. They make faces at each other, they kick a little, they slap; but as for real hitting - as for defending a point of honour-as for hard, rough games, where force and skill are needed. who ever heard of such things in France? At school they are taught book-work, at home they are taught affection. They may become learned, and they do become affectionate; but, positively, they do not become what we mean by manly. The whole life of France is different from that of England. Wealth is distributed there with relative equality; there are few large fortunes; the families who can enable their sons to hunt are rare. Boys are brought up almost exclusively for professions, trade, or Government clerkships, with the prospect of having to live their lives out with insufficient incomes, and without ever tasting pleasures which cost money. The training which Wholesale definitions are not applicable our boys need to fit them for the generally to character. Description of human nature energetic occupations or pastimes of their needs so many reservations, so many after-life is unnecessary and unknown. subtleties, so much and such varied shad- We can pay for travel and for horses, for ing, that it is impossible to bring it into cricket, golf, and football, all which means a sentence or a word. It would therefore money and leisure time. The French have be, in principle, absurd as well as unjust to neither; at least the exceptions are so few say that all French boys are sneaks; but that they represent nothing in the mass. so many of them are so, in the purest So, not wanting the preparation which meaning of that abominable designation, makes men hard, and straight, and ready, that the most ardent friends of France are they do not get it. Their education is inreluctantly compelled to acknowledge the tended to fit them for something else; and fact, and to own that the mass of the that something, whatever be its merits, apyoungsters across the Channel come out pears to us to reach a lower standard than frightfully badly when they are judged by our own. And, furthermore, the French our notions of what boys ought to be. It boy does not even attain the object of the is not easy to determine how far their education which he gets. He is particumeanness of nature is inherited, and how larly taught two things, by his mother at far it is a consequence of education; but least to love, and to believe in God. it is unmistakably evident that an im- He learns one of them, almost always, but mense part of it is produced by the de- he rarely learns the other. He remains, fective teaching under which they live. as a man, faithfully and profoundly atThe only boys in France who, as a rule, tached to his parents and relations; bue realize our notions of pluck, and manli- the religious faith, which was so carefully ness, and honour, are the children of coun- 'instilled into him, generally fades at his

Let us turn to the boys.

once more. And here is the great distinction between boys and girls which was alluded to at the commencement of this article. The girls from their earliest childhood give promise that they will turn out well, and will grow into what women should be everywhere, with an additional and special charm peculiar to themselves. The boys, on the contrary, are little-minded, pettifogging, and positively cowardly, as we understand cowardice in a boy. Until they can be changed, radically changed, there will be small hope of seeing France take her place once more amongst the nations. She will pay her debts, she may grow rich again; but so long as her boys

frankness, they will never grow into men capable of feeling and discharging the higher duties. Many of them may bud into surprisingly better form than their youth indicates as possible we see that already; but such cases are not the rule; and want of religious faith, of political conviction, of resolute will, of devotion to a cause, will continue to mournfully distinguish the population of France so long as its boys continue to be sneaks.

first contact with the world, and with it goes a goodly part of the other principles which were simultaneously set before him. In discussing the causes of the defeat of France, Europe has not attached sufficient importance to the effect produced by the education of the boys, to the utter want of stubborn pluck which characterizes it, and to the facility with which the higher moral teachings disappear when manhood comes. Here we seem to see that women do not suffice to make men. There have been, in history, some few examples of the contrary the Gracchi, Constantine, St. Louis, were essentially their mother's work; but, in modern France, something more is wanted than a modern mother's are not taught pluck, and honesty, and love can give. The French woman of our day can make good girls into charming women, and good women too; but it looks as if she could not get beyond that relatively inferior result, and as if she were as unable as the schoolmasters to whom she confides her boy to lift that boy into a thorough man. In the higher classes, where tradition still exists, and where money is comparatively less important than in the middle and 'lower stages of society, we see models of gallant gentlemen; Many of them, however, are agreeable but they are not numerous. In the late enough to chatter with. They generally war the great names of France were every-have good manners (they beat us there); where on the lists of killed and wounded; they are almost always tender-hearted and but despite the example set by Luynes and loving-they are even tolerably obedient; Chevreuse, Mortemart and Tremouille, and and, judging solely from the outside, it a thousand other volunteers like them, might be imagined that they promise well. France did not follow. Can we suppose They are devoted sons and faithful brothfrom this that good blood replaces teachers; they work hard at books; while they ing? It looks almost like it, and yet it seems absurd to seriously put forward such an argument in these utilitarian days. The French, however, say themselves that bon sang ne peut mentir;" and it may be that, in this particular point, they clearly recognize the truth as regards themselves. Anyhow, whatever be the influence of hereditary action in forming men, it can scarcely be denied that, be it money or be it race, it is in the upper ranks alone that, as a rule, character assumes a vigorous shape in France.

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are little, they say their prayers; but there is no stuff in them. Discipline makes them brave if they should become soldiers; honour and tradition do the same for the better born amongst them; but it is wonderful that such boys should have any latent courage at all, for their whole early teaching seems to us to be invented on purpose to drive it out. They are forbidden to fight, and scarcely ever get beyond scratching

Now, is all this a consequence of innate defects of character, or is it simply brought The boys are girlish—at least no other about by the vile system pursued in adjective so correctly expresses their pe- French schools? Many a French mother culiar disposition. The word is not quite will tell her boy always to return a blow, true, however, for the boys have defects but somehow he does not. Whose fault which the girls have not. The latter are is that? If the mother feels instinctively frank and straightforward; the former are that self-defence should be inculcated as not only feminine, they are something one of the elements of education - if, as is more and something worse. It is disa- sometimes the case, the father supports the greeable to revert to the same word; but same view-it is strange that, consideras the thing expressed is rare in England, ing the enormous influence of French parone word has been found sufficient to ex- ents over their children, they should fail press it, so we must perforce say "sneak "to produce the result which they desire.

but beaten in battle, she would be all interested quite as much as the head, right again within two years, for her ma- French mothers might perhaps jump at terial elasticity is prodigious, and her re- the new sensation which they would expecuperative power almost unlimited. But rience by setting the example, as far as in her malady is graver than defeat -it is in them lay, of a change in the existing forms the very heart-blood of her people. They of example and teaching. Frenchwomen have gone in for money-making, and for of our generation are not, however, Roman easy pleasurable existence with small ex- matrons. They attach a vastly higher pense. They have been pursuing little price to the conservation of home joys, as things and little ends, and they have grown they view them, than to the salvation of incapable of big ones. They have suddenly the State. The latter, according to their been overwhelmed by a staggering disas-appreciation, concerns the Government. ter, and they can neither face it coolly Centralization has suffocated patriotism, nor deal with it practically. Two gener- in the real meaning of the word. Mothers atious of vitiated education have led them strive to make good sons, not to make unknowingly to this. The late Emperor good citizens or solid men. The affections confirmed the debasing system, but he did are placed upon an altar in France: all not originate it. It came in with Lou's that can contribute to their development Philippe, if not with Charles X. If France and their display is sought for not only is content to produce agreeable men and eagerly, but naturally; all that can charming women, to show Europe how to strengthen and adorn their manifestation talk and dress, and to set up science and is carefully watched and practised — so art as the objects of her public life, then much so, indeed, that notwithstanding the she can go on as she is, without a change: indisputable sincerity of family attachbut if she wants to seize her place once ments in France, there almost seems to be more as a great political power; if she a certain amount of acting in the way in wishes to regain the respect and esteem which they are exhibited. Emotions may of the world, instead of asking only for its be said to have become the object of existsympathy; if she desires to reign, and not ence; and emotions imply so much exterto amuse and please, then she must be-nal exposition, especially where they are gin by remodelling the whole education unchecked, that whether their direction be of her boys. There is no reason why her tragic or comic, they often assume a somehome life should be affected by such a what theatrical character, which may inchange it would not necessarily become duce the erroneous impression that they graver or less lightsome; there would not are put on more than they are really felt. be less laughter or less love; the boys If this powerful leverage could be applied need not lose their present merits be- for a healthy purpose; if, by a reaction cause they would acquire new ones. consequent upon bitter experience, it could be set to work to elevate principles to the rank of sensations; if thereby pure duty could be raised to a par with love, and manly self-devotion to an equality with tenderness, then we might hope to see France rally. There seems to be no other way out of the mess into which she has fallen: the first step towards a solution must be made by the mothers.

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If so radical a modification in the whole tendencies and habits of the nation can be brought about at all, it is far more likely to be effected by the women than by the men. Frenchwomen, as has been already observed, are generally capable of noble action; they are singularly unselfish; and, despite their sensibility, they would not rest content with their present highlystrained adoration of the gentler elements of character, if ever they could be led to see that something higher could be added to it in their sons. It is to them, to their aid, that the true friends of France should appeal. They cannot themselves upset the unworthy schools where their boys are now taught how not to become real men; but they can so agitate the question that their husbands will be forced to take it up and deal with it. The influence of women need not be purely social and moral: in moments of national crisis it ought to be exercised for other ends; and in the particular case before us, where the heart is

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If we turn from these considerations to the purely home aspect of the question, we must acknowledge that it presents a very different picture. On that side of the subject nearly everything is pleasant and attractive. The French get out of their home ties pretty nearly all that home can give; and if they do not attain perfection the fault does not lie with them, or with their system, but in the impossibility of making anything complete by human means. The importance assigned to children, their early and constant intermingling with their parents' daily existence, the rapid growth in them of the

qualities which repay and consequently and their villages? Will any one mainstimulate affection, all this is practical tain that they came and drew up in lines as well as charming. Boys and girls alike facing our guns for their private satisfacare taught that home is a nest in which tion, with an officer behind them, pistol in they are cherished, and which all its in-hand, to shoot them in the back if they mates are bound to adorn to the best of gave way? Do you suppose they found their ability; and if we could forget that any amusement in this? Come now, was all this enfeebles men, and renders them not his excellency Monsieur Ollivier the unfit for the outside struggle, we might, only man who went into war, as he himnot unjustly, say that the French plan is self said, "with a light heart?" He was the right one. But we cannot forget; the safe to come back, he was he had not facts and the results glare at us too dis- much to fear; he is quite well; he made a tinctly. We can acknowledge, if our in- fortune in a very short time! But the lads dividual prejudices enable us to do so, of our neighborhood, Mathias, Heitz, Jean that the system looks excellent for girls; Baptiste Werner, my son Jacob, and hunbut we must maintain our conviction that dreds of others, were in no such hurry it is deplorable for boys, and that to it they would much rather have stayed in must be assigned a large part of the re- their villages. sponsibility of the past disasters and present disorder of France.

From The Cornhill Magazine.

STORY OF THE PLEBISCITE

Later on it was another matter, when you were fighting for your country; then, of course, many went off as a matter of duty, without being summoned, whilst Monsieur Ollivier and his friends were hiding. God knows where! But at that particular moment, when all our misfortunes might have been averted, it is a falsehood to say that we went enthusiastically to

TOLD BY ONE OF THE SEVEN MILLION FIVE HUN- have ourselves cut to pieces for a pack of

DRED THOUSAND WHO VOTED "YES."

During these five days I had a hard time. Orders were coming every hour to hurry on the reserves and the Gardes Mobiles, and to cancel renewable furloughs; the gendarmerie had no rest. The Government gazette told us of the enthusiasm of the nation for the war-it was pitiable; cannot you imagine young men sitting quietly at home, thinking: "In five or six months I shall be exempt from service, I may marry, settle, earn money; and who, without either rhyme or reason, all at once become enthusiastic to go and knock over men they know nothing of, and to risk their own bones against them. Is there a shadow of good sense in such notions?

And the Germans! Will any one persuade us that they came for their own pleasure, all these thousands of workmen, tradesmen, manufacturers, good citizens, who were living in peace in their towns

intriguers and stage-players, whom we were just beginning to find out.

When we saw our son Jacob, in his blouse, his bundle under his arm, come into the mill, saying, "Now, father, I am going; you must not forget to pull up the dam in half-an-hour-for the water will be up: " when he said this to me, I tell you my heart trembled; the cries of his mother in the room behind made my hair stand on end; I could have wished to say a few words, to cheer up the lad, but my tongue refused to move; and if I had held his excellency, M. Ollivier or his respected master by the throat in the corner, they would have made a queer figure - I should have strangled them in a moment! At last Jacob went.

All the young men of Sarrebourg, of Château Salins, and our neighbourhood, fifteen or sixteen hundred in number, were at Phalsbourg to relieve the 84th, who at any moment might expect to be called away, and who were complaining of their colonel for not claiming the foremost rank for his regiment. The officers were afraid of arriving too late; they wanted promotion, crosses, medals; fighting was their trade.

What I have said upon enthusiasm is true-it is equally true of the Germans and the French; they had no desire to exterminate one another. Bismarck and our honest man alone are responsible; at their