with a heartless personal ambition. His unpopularity in the country, and the jealousy of him in the Chamber, are likely, it is to be feared, to keep him permanently out of office. The strong man is there, but he is hindered from using his strength in the service of his country. Even Gambetta, who had such influence over the multitude, could not retain office as prime minister. republic lasts, simply a party of destruction ready to unite itself with all who have the same object. In this they resemble the Russian Nihilists, with the difference that their bombshells are only votes and astonishing manifestoes, but their purpose, the production of a political chaos, is the same. The English reader may imagine the inconvenience to the public service if there were a hundred and eighty members in the House of Commons mak The ephemeral character of French Cabinets is not due so much to the fickle-ing that the sole object of their political ness of the Republican party (though that counts for something) as to the presence of such a strong Monarchical minority in the Chamber. It is curious how easily this fact is set aside by English writers and even by the French themselves. French Monarchists will say to you when a Cabinet falls, "Ah! you see how impossible it is for ministers to gain experience under a republic. How much more wisely things are managed in Prussia! There, when the sovereign has got an able minister, he keeps him. In Prussia a minister may learn by a long experience, and he has time to carry out great projects." A French Monarchist who talks in this manner omits to add that it is his own party in the Chamber which is continually occupied in upsetting French Cabinets. First they create instability, and then they affect to lament it. And the most ominous fact of all is that they are really beginning to succeed in discrediting Parliamentary government by these tactics. I remember saying to an intelligent Monarchist about eight years ago that if his party would join the Moderate Republicans, so as to form together a great Conservative party, they might easily form strong ministries as durable as the English, and the answer I got was that the Monarchists would never adopt that line of policy. They prefer to ally themselves with the Radicals, the Boulangists, or any other discontented faction, and their object in doing so is to disgust the nation with Parliamentary government altogether. The Duke of La Rochefoucauld, during the debate on the return of the Duke of Aumale (March 10, 1889), stated the case of the Royalists quite clearly. Addressing the goverment, he said, "Royalists we are, and Royalists we shall remain ; " then he frankly added, "The Royalists will unite themselves with all those who work to upset you." The president of the Chamber said the avowal was too precious for him to punish it by applying the rules of the House. We have it, then, on the very best authority that the Royalist party in France is, so long as the 3398 existence. Such a phalanx would throw its weight into the scale against ministers on every possible opportunity. The French Right appears to be restrained by no considerations of patriotism, but it may believe itself to be acting indirectly for the good of the country by demonstrating to the electorate that there is no hope of stability under the present régime. The Monarchists are also very anxious to persuade the people that the republic is bad for trade, and to give practical evidence on the point they are careful to spend as little as possible in the employment of work-people. This policy is openly expressed and extensively acted upon. Tradespeople all say that the gentry are spending no more than they can help, and such a policy is extremely convenient as an excuse for parsimony, it being now comme il faut to be parsimonious when the reason for it is political. Neither farmers nor work-people are in a contented state. The landed gentry might have made the farmers happier by reducing their rents, but they have preferred raising them, which has the good effect of making the republic unpopular. The number of farmers who are in straitened circumstances reminds one rather of miserable Ireland than of what was formerly prosperous France. Many of them are utterly ruined, others just remain solvent by dint of the severest economy, and all are anxious about the future. The number of evictions is surprising. When an eviction took place lately the bailiff said he knew of eighteen in the same week. There has always been a tendency in the French mind to blame the government for bad times. It is often utterly unreasonable; the government is not master of the weather and the harvests; but however unreasonable such ideas may be, they are most useful to the Monarchical opposition. The farmers are beginning to think that some other kind of government might make them more prosperous, and that a change would at least be worth trying. Few people know the current of rural thought better than the keepers of those | tion that the republic could not last, and cafés in country towns which are fre- that it was the safest and best policy to quented by great numbers of the peasants assume the certainty of a monarchical on market-days. One such cafetier told restoration. Nothing would have been me recently that all the peasants who come easier than to conciliate the Moderate to his place are Boulangists. This is the Republicans. It could have been done more significant that they do not come by an easy submission to the State in refrom the same village, but from hamlets gard to monastic orders. They had only and farms many miles apart. Now, with to submit to the ordinary French law regard to the working-men in the towns, about associations - that is, to send in they are generally anxious about the pros- their statutes to get themselves "authorpects of employment, and they are begin-ized"-and there would have been peace ning to think that perhaps the rich would at least on that matter. With regard to open their purses again if the government were more to their taste. In the vine countries, that small creature, the phylloxera, is a dangerous enemy of the republic. Vine lands in Burgundy are considered well sold at one-third of their former value, and I know an instance where one-twelfth has been willingly accepted by a vine-owner, who lost twenty thousand pounds through the depreciation. I know another, once a rich man of noble family, who keeps his worthless vineyards, and is now teaching in a school. In the vine countries all the other trades are dependent on the vine, and its failure means general adversity. Everything that restricts the spending of money is unfavorable to the republic. If the money that has been wasted at Panama had been spent in France - for example, in making Paris a seaport, which could easily have been done-it might have been a good thing for the republic. No one knows, no one will ever know, the amount of anxiety and ruin which are due to that unfortunate and ill-conducted enterprise, and it has made the Republican government unpopular amongst the victims, who looked to it, as Frenchmen will, for protec tion. The influence of the clergy is not so great as it was in the ages of faith, but it counts for something yet. All genteel people profess deference for the Church, and espouse her quarrels with the French and Italian governments. The ecclesiastics who direct the policy of the Church of Rome are so astute, so experienced, so intelligent, and so much above all personal considerations in comparison with what they regard as sacred interests, that a critic must be either very able or very presumptuous who ventures to consider them mistaken. Still, it is hard to believe that they are not mistaken in their hopes for the restoration of the temporal power, and, if they have been wrong in that, they may be wrong also in having always acted, in France, on the assump other questions, such as the laicisation The conduct of the army, since the fall of the empire, has been admirably correct. Without this strict adhesion to the principle that the army is a national and not a political body there would have been civil war. Even MacMahon shrank from that, and the army has never, under any circumstances, failed to yield obedience to the civil authority. At the present day we see not only a civilian as the head of the State, but even (what is excessively rare in France) a civilian at the War Office, yet this is found so little objectionable in practice that M. de Freycinet has kept his portfolio in the new Cabinet. Certainly there must be a great respect for law and order in a country where a few middle-class civilians, who have nothing of the prestige of royalty, and who are so often changed that they can exercise little personal influence, have complete control of one of the largest armies in Europe. As to the personal sentiments of the offi. personal government, which would be real monarchy under another name. The Chamber is jealous, and does not wish any one man to become too powerful in the State. There is, however, a strong tendency in democracies to desire a great man, to put faith in him, and to invest him with the powers necessary for the execution of his ideas. As the Chamber refuses to make a great man, the people, especially the Parisian people, have determined to make one for themselves. I say, cers there is no general rule. Those who come from St. Cyr are, I believe, generally Monarchists, because they belong, in great part, to the class of country gentle men, who are Monarchists almost universally. Amongst the rest there are warm or cool Republicans, but it matters very little what the private opinions of a French officer may be as long as he keeps true to French military principles. As to the body of the army, it is exactly like the nation which it represents accurately and inevitably, being itself completely national," make one," because the making is all so that it is a waste of time to speculate on the separate opinion of the army. their own. Boulanger is in himself nothing but a brave officer, who when minister of war paid rather more attention than usual to the wants of the common soldier. He has never commanded a victorious army, he has no gifts of intellect or oratory, and scarcely any other art or charm than that of accepting graciously the homage of his innumerable admirers. He certainly possesses one very rare talent in great perfection-the talent of not using up his reputation, by unnecessary utterance. A physician has lately explained to us something about what he calls the storage of life, the art of keeping the vital force. Boulanger understands the storage of reputation, and practises it in a country where it is most difficult, a country where reputations are most rapidly used up. He understands that an object of adoration ought not to bc too communicative. When he speaks it is simply to blame the exist The reader will remember that Gambetta's ministry fell on the question of the scrutin de liste, which he desired to reestablish. His object was supposed to be a kind of plebiscitum in his own favor, which would have been possible with that system of voting. The scrutin de liste was re-established after the death of Gambetta, from a belief that, in the absence of a popular hero, it was favorable to the election of Republicans and unfavorable to the influence of the squires. In the present year the Chamber has abolished the scru tin de liste for the same reason which caused it to be refused to Gambetta, the fear of a popular hero, who, this time, is General Boulanger. The action of the Chamber in both cases was dictated by a kind of prudence, which is, of course, called cowardly fear by its enemies. The Chamber is extremely wakeful to preventing rulers, implying that he could rule Every one who makes French politics a special study understands the scrutin de liste and the scrutin d'arrondissement, but others may find a short explanation acceptable. The fundamental idea of the scrutin de liste is to make each department (equivalent to an English county) vote for its representatives together. Suppose they are twelve in number, each elector has twelve votes. He gives them to any twelve candidates he pleases, but in practice opposite lists are presented to him, and these lists have been made up by the politicians of the department beforehand. The supposed utility of the system was to deliver the voter from local influences, and to deliver the depu ties, after their election, from local pressure and requests for favors. The objection to it is that the local elector cannot know all the men on the list, and votes blindly for most of them, so that men get into Parliament who have not the personal confidence of the electors. Another objection is that the scrutin de liste affords opportunities for a sort of plebiscitum; and a third very serious objection is that, if a deputy resigns or dies, all the electors of a whole department have to found in practice that the scrutin de liste delivers the deputies from importunity. A man who formerly pestered the one deputy for his arrondissement will now pester all the deputies of his department. The scrutin d'arrondissement is simply district voting, and requires no explanation. An arrondissement, if too popuious, is divided; but in any case only one candidate can be elected for each constituency. He is usually a man well known in the neighborhood, who meets his electors in every village. The scrutin d'arron vote on the election of a successor. It has not been dissement is incomparably simpler, and less artificial, than the scrutin de liste. better, but not proposing any new method. The popular enthusiasm for him is pure faith of the very blindest description. Clémenceau has intelligently described Boulangism as rather a religious than a political phenomenon. He sees in it a repetition of the Messianic enthusiasts of the East. Boulanger is, in fact, a sort of Mahdi, exciting a degree of fanaticism in the multitude which might easily become his election in Paris a man in the street persecuting and bloodthirsty. Soon after cried, "Vive la république!" which was interpreted by some Boulangists as an insult to their Mahdi, and the Republican had to fly for his life; the fanatics wanted to drown him in the Seine. Like most successful religions, Boulangism began with the common people, rising higher in the Social scale as it gathered force, till now it is established amongst the aristocracy. The very greatest ladies of the Faubourg St. Germain think they cannot honor the new Mahdi enough, and invent new devices for his worship. They are presented to him in great receptions, his adopted flower has become a part of feminine toi- | acceptance this year than at any time lette, and feminine zeal is making prose- since the presidency of MacMahon. Still, lytes to the novel faith. Physicians who even if a constitutional monarchy could have studied mental epidemics are beginning to believe that this is a case of "contagious suggestion," and one fact tends to confirm this opinion. Like other waves of religious enthusiasm, Boulangism seizes upon the least - cultivated | brains. First, it spread in the lowest populace, afterwards it seized upon the fashionable world, but it passed over the brain-workers. Amongst the students in Paris, and the professional classes all over the country, Boulangism has made few converts. At first it was regarded by those classes with hilarious contempt, but when it gathered force they looked upon it with amazement and dismay. Just at present (I am writing in March) the prevalent feeling amongst intelligent French people might be expressed in words like these: "After all that we have done for liberty, and now that we have completely won it, the use of it that the people want to make is to put themselves under a little Casar!" And if they are pained by the conduct of the people, they are surprised by the want of dignity shown in the highest quarters. The head of the house of Orleans, now representing the house of France, has condescended to ally himself with this latest adventurer. Even Republicans who have no desire to see a French prince on the throne, like to be able to respect him. They all respected the highminded Count of Chambord, and if the Count of Paris is not king he is still in social rank the head of the nation, as the president is in political rank. A résumé of what has been said in this paper may be made in a few words before looking to the future. The great cause of dissatisfaction in France is the want of change. Men may be changed, new men may be put in office, but the ministry, by whatever name it may be called, is always Conservative-Republican in reality. The Monarchists are never even invited to attempt the formation of a Cabinet; the Radicals have had one turn in power, but none of their projects were realized, and as soon as the Floquet Cabinet proposed the revision it was upset. The utter hopeJessness of the Monarchical party, and all these weary years of waiting, have so embittered its feelings that it is ready for any rashness. The Radicals are almost equally discontented on account of the failure of their revision project. Such is the desire for change that a constitutional monarchy might have a better chance of be established, the permanence of it would be impossible with universal suffrage. There would be a Republican opposition, sure to increase as soon as the king did anything unpopular, and then he would have to depart, like Louis Philippe. The case would be quite different with a dictatorship. Once established, it might last fifteen years, because it could and would take measures to protect itself. But the difficulty is to establish the dictatorship, and for this I am inclined to believe that Boulanger has missed his opportunity. He might perhaps have done it when minister of war, but nobody ever yet made a coup d'état without being already in a very commanding position. Boulanger is simply a deputy. To become dictator he must first be either minister of war or president of the republic. He cannot now take anybody by surprise. All know his aims, and all Republicans are agreed to keep him out of office. They are fully alive to the importance of the next elections, they have already made an excellent move in re-establishing the scrutin d'arrondissement, they have a popular and respected president of the republic, and they have ten times the talent in their ranks that Boulanger can find either in himself or amongst his followers. The probable conclusion is that this will only prove to be one more of the many trials which an old monarchical State, with a Church and an aristocracy still influential, must expect to pass through before Parliamentary government is firmly and finally established. There remains, of course, the question whether there is anything final in this world. The future is obscure for all of us, and we do not know yet whether Parliaments are more than a temporary convenience. For the present we can imagine nothing better, but perhaps Boulangism may be one amongst several indications that Parliamentarism, with talking ministers, is rather too cumbrous and too frictional for the coming age. For my part, as a well-wisher to France, I should like to see much more change and variety, of a healthy kind, within the limits of the present Constitution. For this rea son I was not sorry to see a Radical ministry under so competent a chief as M. Floquet, and in my humble opinion it would be a good thing, if it were possible, to include in a Conservative Cabinet some of the ablest heads of the Right. The misfortune now is that to get change of any decided kind it is necessary to alter | secretly in this discovery, which would the form of government. This is de- have found malignant recompense in the plorable, because it makes the gulf of sep-frightful pallor and fixed eyes of the man aration appear wider than it really is. The who, with an incredulity that every minute consequence is a persistent danger of became more forced, paid the penalty for civil war which varies with the electricity the suffering he had inflicted. of the political atmosphere. Nothing but the high military principle of the army has hitherto saved France from that most tremendous of all evils, and that high principle still remains the most hopeful element in the situation. [Since this article has been put into type, General Boulanger has made an important bid for clerical support in a speech at Tours. He promises liberty of conscience and a cessation of religious persecution. Considering that liberty of conscience exists already in France and that nobody is persecuted for his religious opinions, these promises may appear superfluous or unmeaning, but the phrases are, as they are intended to be, extremely significant. They are an engagement to further Catholic supremacy, and they constitute an offer of alliance to the clergy and their supporters like isted between the Church of Rome and the monarchy the offensive and defensive alliance that formerly ex of divine right.-P. G. H.] 'Every week of my life," cried Lizzie bitterly, "I've wished that it was not true. That you don't believe me cannot undo what when I was very young I was so weak as to be persuaded into.' 66 66 Persuaded into! By whom, pray?", By my father and yours. I was urged by both, and my feeble will gave way. It was an error that I have been severely punished for." "False! Why on earth do you mean to pretend the old man wanted to marry you? He could have paid for your services without that." She did not answer him. But she knew the motive. Soon enough after the marriage, if not before, it must have been plain to her the vindictive, unnatural motive which had foreseen and exulted 66 Why wasn't this told? Why has it been hidden up, to injure, in the worst way, the whole lot connected with it?" George struck in with a cold utterance, stern with the sternness of sorely wounded pride. "I begged, I entreated until I was tired that it might be. It was no use. I was always put off, and I see now that it was never meant to be known until after his death. I was bound myself by a solemn promise not to tell." "Not to publish her lie until the only person who could contradict it was past denying anything!" cried Septimus savagely. "My father's wife! ha, ha!” "But I can prove it, I can prove it!" the woman was maddened by the mocking jeer. "Do you think I want, or expect, anybody here to believe my bare word?" "It would be matchless impudence, but you might. Your proofs, then. Show them. Where are they?" He had sharply and suddenly pulled himself together, and was regaining his wonted manner. Lizzie seemed about to say something eagerly; but as the words rose to her lips, her eye fell on Septimus's face, and a sudden hesitation took her. "You shall see them, and be told something else you ought to know when my father comes to-morrow morning long to wait. But I will not stay here until then. I can get shelter in the village, and "No," said George. "I believe this, because I can understand it. You can't be turned out of a house which for all we know is your own. In any case, you must stop here until after the funeral." You've made up your mind to believe it, have you?" replied the other. "Well, give me leave to remain sceptical still. However, Mrs. Hazlit, rest for the present the quasi wife or widow until Garthorpe comes. Perhaps he has the proofs? The marriage certificate bundled up with my father's will? I'll swear neither of them are in the house." He spoke quickly but carelessly. How he had composed himself so soon from the raging bully of a few minutes back I could not have guessed. The younger brother, with deep vertical lines between his eyes, and his hand playing with his thick mous |