fallen into the way of taking a short cut across that patch of land
of Jean Francois Pastoureau's; before they have done they will cut it up
in a way that will do a lot of harm to that poor fellow."

"I am sure that the money could not be put to a better use," said the
justice of peace. "In my opinion the abuse of the right of way is one of
the worst nuisances in a country district. One-tenth of the cases that
come before the court are caused by unfair easement. The rights of
property are infringed in this way almost with impunity in many and many
a commune. A respect for the law and a respect for property are ideas
too often disregarded in France, and it is most important that they
should be inculcated. Many people think that there is something
dishonorable in assisting the law to take its course. 'Go and be
hanged somewhere else,' is a saying which seems to be dictated by an
unpraiseworthy generosity of feeling; but at the bottom it is nothing
but a hypocritical formula--a sort of veil which we throw over our own
selfishness. Let us own to it, we lack patriotism! The true patriot is
the citizen who is so deeply impressed with a sense of the importance
of the laws that he will see them carried out even at his own cost and
inconvenience. If you let the criminal go in peace, are you not making
yourself answerable for the crimes he will commit?"

"It is all of a piece," said Benassis. "If the mayors kept their roads
in better order, there would not be so many footpaths. And if the
members of Municipal Councils knew a little better, they would uphold
the small landowner and the mayor when the two combine to oppose the
establishment of unfair easements. The fact that chateau, cottage,
field, and tree are all equally sacred would then be brought home in
every way to the ignorant; they would be made to understand that Right
is just the same in all cases, whether the value of the property in
question be large or small. But such salutary changes cannot be brought
about all at once. They depend almost entirely on the moral condition of
the population, which we can never completely reform without the potent
aid of the cures. This remark does not apply to you in any way, M.
Janvier."

"Nor do I take it to myself," laughed the cure. "Is not my heart set on
bringing the teaching of the Catholic religion to co-operate with your
plans of administration? For instance, I have often tried, in my pulpit
discourses on theft, to imbue th