sooner or later, to be able, from her natural resources, to outrun England in all agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial enterprises; but this, allowing a longer interval, is equally true of Canada and Australasia. In all three cases such development is merely a work of time. That America precedes the other two in the race is only because she had the earlier start; but the prospect in her case is scarcely as clear as in that of the other two. Her present prosperity is undoubtedly great; but we must not allow it to hoodwink us. She has pushed on her population into the wilderness, opened new channels and created fresh markets for her traffic, called forth heaps and heaps of new cities into existence. But there is a bee in her bonnet already; it is very doubtful if, constituted as the United States are, they can long be true to themselves. The history of the world, as we read it, seems to indicate most plainly that the distinctions "Federals" and "Confederates" will not die out, and that as much blood will be drawn out of both as was shed in the olden times between England and France, and between France and Germany. The continuous development of the greatness of the country will depend on the fulfilment or otherwise of this prophecy. We make a present of it to the Yankees, whether they receive it kindly from us or not.

H

CHAPTER V.

FRANCE, OR THE GRANDE NATION.

THE history of the Grande Nation is one of the most remarkable chapters in the annals of the world. With a civilisation in advance of all other countries, with an intelligence second to none, with aspirations for liberty which have nowhere been equalled, France, throughout the entire period of her existence, has hunted only after shadows-after grandeur, glory, and renown-without ever being able to secure more than a moderate share of political independence and social happiness. Naturally the country has a compact appearance, and the people inhabiting it have always been sympathetic, powerful, and homogeneous, apparently intended by Providence to wield a sovereign influence in the world. But the vanity, fickleness, and impatience of the nation have uniformly perverted the tendency of that intent, not only to the detriment of France herself, but also to the detriment of all her neighbours. The political life of France has consisted merely of a succession of spasmodic efforts to grasp at that which cannot be secured except by patient and persistent exertion; and her social condition has been that of a fire-raiser enjoying the mischief created by

himself. A country which gave birth to Montesquieu and Fenelon, to Pascal and Des Cartes, cannot be said to be unable to produce solidity of thought and maturity of judgment; but it is nevertheless true that the nation at large has invariably betrayed a total want of capacity to understand anything that is not absolutely superficial, and has never yet been able to manage with practical intelligence any really efficient government that aimed to secure both liberty and happiness. Theoretically, no one appreciates liberty better than the Frenchman; practically, no one in Europe has been a greater slave.

Of the very old history of France we know nothing. The same tradition that makes Britain a settlement of the Trojans, speaks of Greek settlements on the Mediterranean coast, near the mouth of the Rhone, of which the chief was Massilia, now called Marseilles. But our historic knowledge of the country does not go beyond the age when it was occupied by different Celtic tribes, among whom the Gauls were the most prominent, being particularly known for the many inroads they made into Italy, in the northern parts of which they eventually settled under the name of Cisalpine Gauls. This led to the resolution of the Romans to beat back the barbarians and subjugate their country, which was achieved by Julius Cæsar in the manner narrated in his Commentaries, and which forms the first great fact in the history of France.

The Romans ruled over Gaul for four hundred and fifty years, during which they effected considerable improvement by their tutelage, at the same time that they enervated the character of the people by their refinements. It followed, therefore, that

when the conquerors were obliged to retire from their dependencies to defend their own country, the Gauls were unable to offer any effectual opposition to the German nations that assailed them—namely, the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Franks, after the last of whom France was called.

The settlement of Franks or Freemen in France was effected in the fifth century, and forms the second important fact in French history. The first king of the tribe in France was Clovis, who was converted to Christianity by his wife Clotilda, a princess of Burgundy. Clovis ruled also over Franconia, the possession of the nation in Germany, so that the rulers of France from the commencement of her history did not reign over France alone, a circumstance which led to much confusion and fighting in subsequent years. The policy of Clovis permitted the Franks to intermix freely with the Gauls; he also allowed them to intermix freely with the Britons, when, flying from England before the Saxons, they settled on French land in the province called after them Brittany or Bretagne; and it was by these means that the Celtic element was made to predominate in the people of France.

From the accession of Clovis to the extinction of the Carlovingian race, the history of France consists only of a series of petty wars and uninteresting events. The feudal system was introduced into France with the Merovingian rule. The lands

wrested from the Gauls were equally divided between the conquerors, probably in the same manner as the spoil and personal effects. In the assertion of this right no special deference was paid to the chief by his followers. It is said of Clovis that a vase of extraordinary beauty having been carried

off from a church in Rheims, which the bishop of that city wanted to get back, the king entreated his army to present it to him over and above his own share of the booty; upon which a fierce soldier rushing up smashed the vase with his battle-axe, saying, "You shall receive nothing here but that to which the lot gives you a right." The lands taken were divided among all the chief's followers on the principle of military service; but beyond that service they contributed nothing. The property acquired was considered to belong so absolutely to its owner, that even the sovereign power was equally divided between the sons of Clovis after him.

The dynasty of Clovis was succeeded by that of Charles Martel, or the Hammer, whose father, as Mayor of the Palace, had wielded the regal power during the obscure reigns of several Merovingian princes, whose characters have been fully described by the expressive epithet lazy, while all their names have not been rescued from oblivion. Arrangements of this sort are familiar to us with reference to our connection with India, where the Peishwas of Central India in the time of the Mahrattas actually ruled over the kings by whom they were employed; and such, virtually, is the existing arrangement in force in Nepal, where Jung Bahadoor is all in all, though nominally the king's prime minister only.

The powers assumed by Martel were well deserved. In the growth of a little more than a century, the religion of Mahomet had pierced into Europe and subjugated Spain; and, becoming bolder by success, had now crossed the Pyrenees, and was marching rampant over France. To France and Martel belongs the honour of having rolled back the