whilst it plainly shows, on the other side, why many a man indefatigably searches through and other men deliberately shun the eloquent and impressive Annals of Time. We are writing from both past and present History, and our fervent hope is, that this our present work may prove a timely warning against any ignorant, misunderstood, or distorted reading of the History of France, especially for the last thirty-five years. We do not profess to judge; we are studying the History of France, which we are bidden to teach the young entrusted to our care. We will not substitute our own views: we simply take to and shape our task according to the safe control of French tradition and the realities of French life. We are not slavishly bound to any foregone conclusions, and our only guide in our study of History, of opinions, and of principles, is the past and existing state of things, which decidedly is the most eloquent protest against the immoral and unlawful perpetrations of many contemporary politicians in Europe just now. In the present age, other views may be common; but many there are still who would rather remain old-fashioned enough to keep faith to old creeds, and who dare reply to the modern sceptic, that, in spite of his science, there are "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his philosophy." There is a time when it is clearly demonstrable that men cease to be Representatives of the people. That time seems now arrived for France. The French Parliament now sitting at Paris do not represent the people, and it is not cancelling a piece of parchment that can win back a nation. Legislators—be they of the deepest tint of aristocracy or a horde of hoary jobbers and "gentlemen of the road"—must respect the fears and resentments of the bulk of that nation.
A fair field given them and yet unwon, a continuous waste of time and public money, and disquieting signs of the times, with a pregnant significance of their own, only show for the third time—no fair-minded observer is ignorant of this curious phenomenon—that French Republicans naturally and inevitably lead their
