nchanged from that time to this. Everything was made to
depend upon the central government. The Ministers of Religion, of
Justice, of Police, of Education, etc., have the regulation of all
interior affairs, and appoint all who work under them, so that nobody
learns how to act alone; and as the Government has been in fact ever
since dependent on the will of the people of Paris, the whole country is
helplessly in their hands. The army, as in almost all foreign nations,
is raised by conscription--that is, by drawing lots among the young men
liable to serve, and who can only escape by paying a substitute to serve
in their stead; and this is generally the first object of the savings of
a family. All feudal claims had been done away with, and with them the
right of primogeniture; and, indeed, it is not possible for a testator
to avoid leaving his property to be shared among his family, though he
can make some small differences in the amount each receives, and thus
estates are continually freshly divided, and some portions become very
small indeed. French peasants are, however, most eager to own land, and
are usually very frugal, sober, and saving; and the country has gone on
increasing in prosperity and comfort. It is true that, probably from the
long habit of concealing any wealth they might possess, the French
farmers and peasantry care little for display, or what we should call
comfort, and live rough hard-working lives even while well off and with
large hoards of wealth; but their condition has been wonderfully changed
for the better ever since the Revolution. All this has continued under
the numerous changes that have taken place in the forms of government.

CHAPTER VIII.

FRANCE SINCE THE REVOLUTION.

1. The Restoration.--The Allies left the people of France free to
choose their Government, and they accepted the old royal family, who
were on their borders awaiting a recall. The son of Louis XVI. had
perished in the hands of his jailers, and thus the king's next brother,
_Louis XVIII._, succeeded to the throne, bringing back a large emigrant
following. Things were not settled down, when Napoleon, in the spring of
1815, escaped from Elba. The army welcomed him with delight, and Louis
was forced to flee to Ghent. However, the Allies immediately rose in
arms, and the troops of England and Prussia crushed Napoleon entirely at
Waterloo, on the 18th of June, 1815. He was sent to the lonely rock of
St. Helena, in the