dynasty every time it does not fully
comprehend the ideas of its king. You will see that we shall then have
internal struggles which will arrest for long periods together the
progress of France."

"All these reefs have been wisely evaded by England," remarked Gerard.
"I have been there; I admire that beehive, which sends its swarms over
the universe and civilizes mankind,--a people among whom discussion is
a political comedy, which satisfies the masses and hides the action
of power, which then works freely in its upper sphere; a country where
elections are not in the hands of a stupid bourgeoisie, as they are in
France. If England were parcelled out into small holdings the nation
would no longer exist. The land-owning class, the lords, guide the
social mechanism. Their merchant-service, under the nose of Europe,
takes possession of whole regions of the globe to meet the needs of
their commerce and to get rid of their paupers and malcontents. Instead
of fighting capacities, as we do, thwarting them, nullifying them, the
English aristocratic class seeks out young talent, rewards it, and is
constantly assimilating it. Everything which concerns the action of
the government, in the choice of men and things, is prompt in England,
whereas with us all is slow; and yet the English are slow by nature,
while we are impatient. With them money is bold and actively employed;
with us it is timid and suspicious. What Monsieur Grossetete has said of
the industrial losses which the hoarding peasantry inflict on France has
its proof in a fact I will show to you in two words: English capital,
by its perpetual turning over, has created ten thousand millions of
manufacturing and interest-bearing property; whereas French capital,
which is far more abundant, has not created one tenth of that amount."

"And that is all the more extraordinary," said Roubaud, "because they
are lymphatic, and we, as a general thing, are sanguine and energetic."

"Ah! monsieur," said Clousier, "there you touch a great question,
which ought to be studied: How to find institutions properly adapted
to repress the temperament of a people! Assuredly Cromwell was a great
legislator. He alone made the England of to-day, by inventing the
'Navigation Act,' which has made the English enemies of all the world,
and infused into them a ferocious pride and self-conceit, which is their
mainstay. But, in spite of their Malta citadel, if France and Russia
will only comprehend the