THE SPY SYSTEM IN FRANCE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your article on "The Spy System in France" you say:—" These restrictions upon the liberty of the subject would cause the wildest-uproar in England, which is not a democracy. In France, which boasts the triple watchword—' Liberty, Equality, Fraternity '—no infringement upon the simple rights of the citizen seems to be resented." An undesigned and most amusing comment upon this very true remark has been made by the French mint in stamping most recent issues of coin. With unconscious irony it has placed a very prominent stop after each word of the sacred "trilogy" intending doubtless to "give pause." and thereby emphasise them separately. If read aloud, however, as thus newly punctuated, it "gives pause" very appropriately and strongly, but in the Shakespearian sense, thus : " Liberte, point ; Egalite, point ; Fraternite, point." In plain English : "Liberty, none at all ; Equality, none at all ; Fraternity, none at all !" It is just now, I find, scarcely safe to point this out to the ordinary Frenchman.—I am, Sir, &c., Ilyeres. TWENTY YEARS' RESIDENT.
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