France and the Republic | Page 2

attend the funeral of their priest--The Marist Brethren at
Albert--Albert and the Maréchal d'Ancre--A chapter of history in a
name--Little children stinting their own food, to send another child to
school--President Carnot and the nose of M. Ferry--French irreligion in
the United States--The case of Girard College--Can Christianity be
abolished in France?--The declared object of the Republic--Morals of
Artois--Dense population--Fanatics of the family--Increase of juvenile
crime--American experience of the schools without religion--A New
England report on 'atrocious and flagrant crimes in
Massachusetts'--Relative increase of native white population and native
crime in America--An American Attorney-General calls the public
school system 'a poisonous fountain of misery and moral death'--A
local heroine of St.-Omer--The statue of Jacqueline Robins--The Duke
of Marlborough and the Jesuits College--A curious sidelight on English
politics in 1710--How St.-Omer escaped a siege 23-43
CHAPTER III
IN THE PAS-DE-CALAIS--(continued)
Aire-sur-la-Lys--Local objections to a national railway--A visit to a
councillor-general--Pentecost in Artois--The Artesians in 1789--Wealth
and power of the clergy--Recognition of the Third Estate long before
the Revolution--The English and the French clergy in the last
century--Lord Macaulay and Arthur Young--Sympathy of the curés
with the people--Turgot, Condorcet and the rural clergy---The
Revolution and public education--M. Guizot the founder of the French
primary schools--The liberal school ordinance of 1698--The Bishop of
Arras, in 1740, on the duty of educating the people--The experience of
Louisiana as to public schools and criminality--The two Robespierres
saved and educated by priests--What came of it--A rural church and
congregation in Artois--The notary in rural France--A village
procession--'Beating the bounds' in France--An altar of verdure and
roses--The villagers singing as they march--Ancient customs in
Northern France 44-52
CHAPTER IV

IN THE PAS-DE-CALAIS--(continued)
Aire-sur-la-Lys--Local and general elections in France--A public
meeting in rural Artois--A councillor-general and his
constituents--Artois in the 18th and 19th centuries--Well-tilled fields,
fine roads, hedges, and orchards--Effect of long or short leases--A
meeting in a grange--French, English, and American
audiences--Favouritism under the conscription--Extravagant outlay on
scholastic palaces--Almost a scene--A political disturbance
promoted--Canvassing in England and France--Tenure of office in the
French Republic--'To the victors belong the spoils,' the maxim not of
Jackson but of Danton--'Epuration,' what it means--If Republicans are
not put into office 'they will have civil war'--'No justice of the peace
nor public school teacher to be spared'--'Terror and anarchy carried into
all branches of the public service'--M. de Freycinet declares that
'servants of the State have no liberty in politics'--The Tweed régime of
New York officially organised in France---Men of position reluctant to
take office--The expense of French elections--1,300,000l. sterling the
estimated cost of an opposition campaign--A little dinner in a French
country house--The French cuisine national and imported--An old
Flemish city--Devastations of the Revolution--The beautiful Church of
St.-Pierre--A picturesque Corps de Garde--The tournament of Bayard at
Aire--Sixteenth-century merry-makings at Aire--Gifts to Mary of
England on her marriage to Philip of Spain--The ancient city of
Thérouanne--Public schools in the 17th century--Small landholders in
France before 1789. 53-72
CHAPTER V
IN THE SOMME
Amiens--Picardy Old and New--Arthur Young and Charles James Fox
in Amiens--'The look of a capital'--The floating gardens of Amiens--A
stronghold of Boulangism--Protest of Amiens against the Terror of
1792--The French nation and the Commune of Paris--Vergniaud
denounces the Parisians as the 'slaves of the vilest scoundrels
alive'--Gambetta and his balloon--Amiens and the Revolution of

September 1870--The rise of M. Goblet--The 'great blank credit opened
to the Republic in 1870'--What has become of it--The Prussians in
Amiens--Warlike spirit of the Picards--A political portrait of M. Goblet
by a fellow citizen--A Roman son and his father's funeral--A typical
Republican senator and mayor--How M. Petit demolished the crosses in
the cemetery--M. Spuller as Prefect of the Somme--The Christian
Brothers and their schools--M. Jules Ferry withholds the salaries earned
by teachers--The Emperor Julian of Amiens--How the Sisters were
turned out of their schools--The mayor, the locksmith, and the
curate--Mdlle. de Colombel--A senatorial epistle--Ulysses deserted by
Calypso--Why Boulangism flourishes at Amiens--The First Republic
invoked to justify the destruction of crosses on graves--The Cathedral
of Amiens and Mr. Ruskin. 73-94
CHAPTER VI
IN THE SOMME--(continued)
Amiens--Party names taken from persons--The effect of Republican
misrule at Amiens--Why the Monarchists acted with the
Boulangists--The Picards incline towards the Empire--How the
Republic of 1848 captured France--Armand Marrast and the French
mail coaches--Mr. Sumner's story--The political value of paint--Paris
and the provinces--M. Mermeix offers with a few million francs and a
few thousand rowdies to change the French Government--General
Boulanger's campaign in Picardy--Capturing the mammas by kissing
the babies--The Monarchical peasantry--The National Accounts of
France not balanced for years--Conservatives excluded from the
Budget Committee--The Boulanger programme--Expenses of the
political machine in France, England, and America--The Boulangist
campaign conducted by voluntary subscriptions--General Boulanger
and the army--The common sewer of the discontent of France--The
local finances of a French city--Municipal expenses of
Amiens--Pressure of the octroi--A local deficit of millions since the
Republicans got