mining, industrial, gas, and steamboat companies, &c., have sprung up with a rapidity quite astonishing, and have in most cases yielded large profits. Although monopolies have been long abolished in theory, the influence and favours which the Government can confer in authorising the statutes of the companies, are such as to diminish competition, and sometimes to make it altogether impossible. But, whatever the favours bestowed be, they are only to be obtained at the price of corresponding individual exertion, which thus forms the great cause of the success of the system. It is making others do, rather than doing itself.

The direct action of the Government is reserved for those cases where some new idea is to be applied, which might otherwise have remained fruitless. Whoever knows the strong prejudices and the want of initiative in the French people, might almost forgive such action, however unreasonable it may appear to more enterprising nations. The Government has in almost all such cases shown itself far ahead of the people, and has had to educate the latter. Thus agricultural shows, industrial exhibitions, horse races, were almost unknown before the establishment of the Imperial régime, and would probably be so now had the Government not stepped in. What the views of the people in general are even now on this subject, may be gathered from the circumstance that the exhibitors for the present International Exhibition, when disappointed in their demands for space, laid the blame on the method adopted in England of getting up exhibitions by private enterprise, which could not do things so liberally as govern

ments can.

Another point in question was internal navigation.

The success of the liberal commercial policy, and of the development of industry, depended greatly on facility of communication, in which the rivers and canals naturally played a considerable part. The former being in the hands of Government, not only were large sums yearly spent (15,400,000 francs on an average) to regulate them, but their tariffs have been greatly reduced. With the canals, half of which are in the hands of companies, difficulties were encountered in the way of reducing the tariffs, and the Government decided to buy them back; four of the largest are already bought back, and negotiations are going on for the rest. As soon as these are settled, a large uniform reduction will offer new facilities of internal communication to commerce.

But no stimulus or assistance, applied either directly or indirectly, promises more for the development of individual enterprise than the new commercial legislation which has been lately introduced. Competition supplies a stimulus far more powerful and regular than any grants of money and government privileges can do. It is one of the strangest contradictions that, in a country which prides itself so much on its application of the principle of equality, class interests should have been so long favoured, to the detriment of common interests. While England, under the "thraldom of its proud aristocracy," has years ago dealt out equal measure to the aristocratic landlord and the plebeian manufacturer, in France both agricultural and manufacturing interests maintained their unfair advantages over the general consumer, in spite of revolutions, republics, and social and economical theories, until the Imperial Government stepped in with its levelling propensities, and opened the road to a more reasonable

system. In spite of Imperial omnipotence, this throwing down the gauntlet was a bold step, and it required great faith in the efficacy of free-trade principles in a government which bases itself above all on the prosperity of material interests which have grown up under its tutelage. But the faith remained unshaken by any outcries and sinister auguries of those interested. The only effect of these latter seems to have been to lay down a regular system for the gradual introduction of the change, as we can now discern when the change has taken place.

The leading idea evidently was to bring about the change in such a way as to introduce foreign competition under the most favourable circumstances. Viewed in this light, the forcible impulse given to native industry from the onset, the Industrial Exhibition in 1855-which must have convinced the most stubborn of the superiority of French industry on many points, -and finally the free introduction of raw material a considerable time before that of foreign manufactures, were so many steps to give to French industry every possible advantage-a free flow of capital, confidence in its own strength, and cheap materials to work upon. Scarcely six months have passed, and the calculation has already been so far justified that the opposition of the most stubborn has been almost silenced.

As for the falling-off in the revenue by the reduction of the tariff, any fears entertained on this point have been set at rest. Even in the first three months, from October to December, the falling-off was little more than nominal; and in the last three months the revenue had already shown a surplus, not only over 1860, but even over 1859—that is, the time before the reduction.

The predictions about the ensuing ruin of French industry have been even more signally falsified. The increased exportation of French produce into England and Belgium has not only counterbalanced the importation of manufactures from these countries, but the beginning of the new commercial movement has contributed greatly to remedy the effects of the American war. It was as if constancy should have its reward. Scarcely was the sliding scale on grain abandoned, when a bad harvest showed all the advantages of free importation; and scarcely were the prohibitive duties on manufactures removed, when the American crisis showed the beneficial commercial policy which alone could neutralise the effects of such occurrences.

From this rapid sketch, the method may be learnt which has been devised by Imperialism to elicit the dormant energies of the nation. It would require

volumes to follow it into detail; but there can be no two opinions about the great success of the method. It is a fact which obtrudes itself at every step in France, and which is manifested by the prominent position which France has of late taken among the commercial and industrial nations of the world. But more startling than this success itself may be some day the effect of this undermining of prejudices and stimulating of individual exertion on the character of a people, which has been almost proverbial for its want of individual enterprise and initiative, and on the social condition of a country noted for the violence of its party and class rivalries. Indeed, the transformation is already so apparent, that it cannot fail to strike the most superficial observer.

CHAPTER VIII.

MONEYMANIA.

FOLLOWING the stream of Paris life, the first clear impression which we become conscious of is, that it runs very quick. There is a feverish activity perceptible in everything that surrounds us, strangely contrasting with that regular gentler current which once gave Paris the reputation for being the place above all others for Alâneurs, badauds, and pleasure-seekers. Alas for those halcyon days of enjoyment, when thoughtless Parisians only busied themselves with tying flower-wreaths round the sharp scythe of old Father Chronos; when pleasure seemed the only aim worth struggling for; when a merry dinner meant a well-spent day and night; when an aimless stroll on the Boulevards or in the Champs Elysées was an ever fresh source of amusement; when the atmosphere itself seemed impregnated with Attic salt which gave new relish to the most trivial trifles; when an émeute was enjoyed like a cancan on a grand scale, and a revolution got up like a bal masqué out of season.

Those days are gone by, probably to return no more. What has succeeded, is difficult to define. No word has as yet been coined to name this new epoch, but the slang word "fast" characterises it perhaps better than