Anglomania in France
PROFESSOR GREEN'S study of eighteenth century France is full of interesting sidelights' on the -period.. He describes how the persecution of the French Protestants at the end of the seventeenth century drove some eighty tliouiand of them to cross the Channel. In England they seemed to draw
a new air. They were enchanted with the liberty of thought they found, with the independent character of Englishmen, with their rationalism and their disrespect for Kings and Courts. The intellectuals amongst them began translating the works of dramatists and free-thinkers. A stream of English books poured from the French presses. In 1719 a French newspaper wrote :-
" It is sufficient for a book to bear the title Translated from the English ' in-order to excite the immediate curiosity of the public. Indeed the majority of Englishmen th.k and express themselves so happily that one finds is all their works a peculiar characteristic which makes them sought after. Is this a privilege attached to the nation or the result of the liberty which it enjoys ? I believe there is no room for doubt. Freedom of speech and of the press lends to the mind a certain loftiness which lies within the reach of every nation."
This admiration for everything English had the profoundest influence on the course of French history. It helped to under- mine the strength of the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church. It gave the first impetus to those philosophes who prepared the way for the Revolution. Naturally they went
beyond their models. It is not easy for one nation to com- prehend the character of another ; and the mythical English- man of eighteenth century France was a grotesque figure. He " rapidly assumed the form," says Professor Green, " of
a cross between a Sir Charles Grandison and a Hamlet, impossibly alt ruistical, ludicrously sentimental, and, above all, gloomily eager to shuffle off this mortal coil at the slightest provocation." Melancholy, in particular, was taken for an English trait, a melancholy which the conservatives ridiculed as " the vapours." Fashionable Frenchmen per- ambulated in shady groves or meditated among the ruins with artificially broken hearts, giving off prodigious sighs and believing sincerely that they were behaving like the English. The English reserve and aloofness also came in for admiration. " How can the English like foreigners ? " wrote Montesquieu, " when they do not like themselves ? "
There was another side to this Anglomania. Young men about town in Paris adopted English dress and sports. Boxing lessons became popular ; there was a rage for fighting with porters in the markets, or drinking in the company of cabmen.
Above all, the French took to horse-racing and gambling.
English jockeys were imported and, ill 1775 a Newmarket Francais was opened. Lauraguals wrote- to an English lady:- " We are all metamorphosed into English.- Our stables are full of English hunters and grooms, and our whips, saddles and boots manufactured by your countrymen who have reduced ours to beggary. We have introduced in our kitchens roast beef and pudding instead of our soups, ragotits, and fricassdes. We hunt, swear, and drink toasts And determine all dispute's by wagers, like your nobility and gentry. In fine, we want nothing but the immense fortunes of your rich lords and gambling nabobs to equal them in profusion and debauchery." •
The first essay is on John Lair, that gifted Scachman who reduced France to beggary by his financial schemes. There is a valuable chapter on Freron, the enemy of Voltaire.
Voltaire possessed a supreme faculty for appearing innocent
and disinterested when engaged in the most odious practices. The " hypocritical Englishman " pales considerably before him. He could set himself to ruin a fellow-man who disagreed with him, and profess, as he did it, the most exalted seal, ments. Freron, in consequence, has suffered in reputation but Professor Green reinstates him as the best and most incorruptible of French critics in the eighteenth century, an honest man, and a brave fighter, equally generous as a Weed and as an enemy.
It has been Professor Green's aim to present a " fairly com. prehensive picture " of the literary, social, and economic movements in eighteenth century France. His book 6 addressed to the general reader ; but the material is derived from original, sources and much of it has been previously unused. The chapters make lively and interesting reading. Professor Green is never afraid of revising historical estimates and expressing his own opinions.
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