There is a curious interest in observing how events and
the criticisms on events repeat themselves at very considerable intervals of time. Alfred de Musset addressed a poem to M. Thiers on " The Law of the Press " in August, 1835, more than a generation since, and much of it might have been written to-day and ad- dressed to the same statesman in a spirit even more scornful. Take the following bitter comparison of France to the drunken Helot by whose example the Lacedmmonians used to warn their youth of the contemptibleness of intoxication :— 006, c'est la vBritt5, la France delraisonne ; Elle donne aux badauds, comma a Lacdddmone Le spectacle effrayant d'un esclavo enivre. C'est qua noes aeons bu d'un yin pur at sacrd, Et, joyous vigneron qu'un pampre vert couronne, Nous vendangeons encore d'un pas mal assure."
Only this time the motive of the intoxication cannot be ascribed to joy, but grief ; to-day reeling France treads the winepress and gathers in the harvest of that crushing calamity which sometimes inebriates as much as any joy.
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