THE GROWTH OF FRANCE.*
A. HISTORY of the inhabitants of France, from the Stone Age and the cave-dwellers down to M. Faure, cannot be compressed into three hundred and forty pages without squeezing out a good deal of interesting and almost essential matter. Pro- fessor Adams, however, disarms criticism on this point by calling attention to it in his preface, stating that he has endeavoured to "follow, as closely as possible, the line marked out by the title of the book, and to include within it, to the
best of my judgment, the important facts which show the growth of the nation from age to age. I believe," he adds, "the question of insertion or exclusion has been carefully considered in every important case, but I cannot hope that my judgment will always meet with approval." Apart from this necessary drawback, the little history is a thoroughly satisfactory piece of work. We cannot pretend that the drawback is not serious, and that a student who otherwise knew nothing of France would not be likely to lay down the book with a very erroneous impression, owing to having seen nothing but a series of flashlight impressions of the nation as it appeared at its most important periods ; but on the other hand there is no doubt that highly compressed compilations of this sort have a peculiar value of their own, just as a map of Europe, inadequate for the minute purposes of a walking tour, is useful to one who prefers, or is forced, to travel by the Orient express. The insight and lucidity and the close grasp of essentials necessary for such a work are rare gifts, which Professor Adams evidently possesses. As we rush with him through the centuries he calls our attention, as adequately as may be, to the events which were really of most significance, and does not confuse us with a mass of unnecessary facts. His style is clear, and he shakes a melancholy conviction to which the study of contemporary Transatlantic literature was gradually forcing us, that American professore cannot be expected to write English. His pages are tainted by only one blatant Americanism, and it is apologised for, though not excused, by the use of quotation marks. One or two slips might be corrected in future editions. Charles I. was not on the throne of England in 1661 (p. 210), and the Professor should not speak (p. 239) of the organisation of a " State bank " in England, since the Bank of England is a joint- stock concern managed by its own officers, and is only con- nected with the State by keeping the Government's balance. The value of the work would also be materially enhanced by the addition of a good map, which would be of far more assistance in following the history than the large number of illustrations—of a "chair said to have been Dagobert's," &c. —which take up space that might have been better employed.
It is refreshing, and also surprising, to find that Professor Adams not only can write English, but can also treat of English history without showing strong bias against this country. His account of the tedious wars between France and England in the Middle Ages is written in the fairest possible spirit, and the British lion can take up this book without any fear for the consequences to his tail. To Englishmen the history of, France naturally falls into two periods, in the first of which the two nations were struggling for the possession of France itself ; this contest ended, after many brilliant English victories on pitched fields, in the discovery that in those days of slow communication it was impossible for us to bold territories so far from our base in the face of a brave and determined enemy. But it is interesting to observe how very early com- merce was an important factor in the quarrel, and that the trade in wool between England and Flanders was certainly one of the causes which contributed to the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War ; and subsidies and German mercenaries appear as part of English war policy at this same date. The latter part of the following extract might almost be used, mutatis niutandis, for a description of what happened foar centuries later, in Dettingen and Fontenoy days :-
"Edward took advantage of these relations with Flanders to make his first invasion of France through that country. In the summer of 1338, he landed there with his army and found welcome and many professions of friendship from the Flemish burghers, but little real aid. He hired many allies among the German • The Growth of the French Nation. By George Barton Adams, Professor of History in Yale University. London : Macmillan and Go. Princes of the Rhine Valley, and received the empty title of Imperial Vicar from the Emperor, Lewis IV., who was at that time carrying on a bitter conflict with the French Pope at Avignon. But lie got no help of practical value from any of these sources."
This passage is almost an epitome of the history of English intervention on the Continent. In the second period the struggle between France and ourselves for colonial and com- mercial supremacy ended differently, and Professor Adams shows, with a few interesting touches, how many chances France threw away because her Kings and statesmen pre- ferred Continental politics and the humiliation of the house of Hapsburg to the more valuable openings that fate gave her towards the development of a colonial empire. And yet France had her revenge :-
"It was during his [Necker's] Ministry that France went to war with England, in aid of the American colonists who had proclaimed their independence. Considering the situation of France it was an unwise war. But the national desire to embrace this opportunity to take vengeance on England for the
losses of the last war was too strong to be resisted The vengeance of France was complete, more complete in the future, indeed, than at the time, for the rent then made in the Anglo- Saxon world time seems to find it impossible to heal, even at the end of the nineteenth century, when the position of tho race throughout the world, in the era of great changes which seems approaching, would be secured from every danger by such a re- union, to the great advantage of both its halves."
One half, unfortunately, is blessed with a Senate,—bnt revenons a nos Francais. It is an unfortunate fact that the opinion which the average Englishman cherishes concerning his French neighbours is based on a hasty generalisation from the French master who taught him to conjugate avoir ;
and though they have lately changed these things for the better, the French master who taught the more mature
among us was not a credit to his race. It is, therefore, a highly important matter that some more trustworthy light should be shed on the facts of the case, and it may be hoped that this little book will be widely read in England, and may lead many of its readers to further
and deeper researches. For there can be no doubt that a closer acquaintance with the past history of
the magnificent and high-spirited race that is our nearest neighbour can only increase our admiration and respect for its virtues, and go far to explain many of the short- comings with which the average Briton so soon loses patience. We are accustomed to speak highly of the buoyant elasticity with which France recovered from the misfortunes
of her last great war, but history shows a much more marvellous recovery after still greater disasters, when foreign invasion was accompanied by mutinies of mercenary soldiers, civil insurrections, and finally the Black Death, so that, as Professor Adams says, " one may begin to understand how in many parts of France the country fell back into wilder- ness, how grass grew in the streets of Paris, and wolves howled in its suburbs." As to constitutional development, our historian does not fail to point out the fitful and futile attempts made by the Estates-General, the Assemblies of Notables, and the Parliament of Paris to get some voice in the Government, and especially some control of the taxes, which the shrewdly businesslike English commons had early seized as the true key to constitutional freedom. But the failure of all these attempts left France with no practical experience, and nothing better than Tom Paine's theories and SiCyes's constitution-building ingenuity to fall back on when she at last rose against " Dubarrydom," a hopeless financial system, and caste restrictions, which, for instance, made it impossible for a soldier to win his way to a commission unless he could " prove to the satisfaction of the King's genealogist four generations of noble descent." Our Professor considers that this want of past training fully accounts for the wild political gyrations that have kept France dizzy since the Revolution ; he traces a steady im- provement under the teaching of experience, and is able to arrive at the " happiest conclusions as to the progress which the French people have made in the art of self-control, the only security of any republic."
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