The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-18
VILLAGE POLITICS IN FRANCE.

snxiously asking themselves Chow long is
the republic likely to live?' Aud this it
must be remembered, is no longer question
that depends simply on the mobility of the
gamin of Paris or the humor of the Faubourg
st. Antoine. If the later Nap )leonism has
done nothing else, it has freed France from
the despotism of its capital and greater
towns. PTefect and priest have for the last
twenty years been busy teaching the peasant
proprietors of the country that the safety of
the nation lies in their hands, and the peasant
has learned a lesson so fattering to
his pride with very natural avidity.
He is quite conscious that it was
he who, in the teeth of 'those gentlemen of
Paris, placed the Emperor on the throne,
aud that 1t was his emphatic Yes in ple-
biscite after plebiscite which retained him
there. With what sort of favor he is likely to
regard, when once war has ceased to absorb
his whole attention, a arevolntion which springs
out of q street row, and Government which
consists simply of the deputies of Paris, it is
not very difficult to guess. But it is far
harder to say in what way the peasant will
regard the question of the Republic ITSELF
The truth is, we know next to nothing of
the condition or the sympathies of rural
France. The peasant is nowhere an easy
person to become really acquainted
with and the French peasant is the least
easy OF all. lie is far pleasanter to talk to
than his English namesalIe but he is Just as
distrustful. He has a sort of animal secrecy
and wariness, and in the presence of men of
better station and education than himself,
although be is quite ready to display demo-
cratic consciousness of equality which would
be odd on this side of the Channel, he has all
the caution and reticence of instructive fear.
Books help us very little indeed; nine out of
ten French novels never stir beyond the Pa
Yisian boulevards, and the few that do with
one illustrious exception, either confne them
4 selves, like Balzac, to country towns or in
Y vent imaginary scenes of country innocence
and repose. Perhaps the one person who
knows the French peasant best is the English
man who wanders from village to village with
\ knapsack on his back.
What strikes such stranger most in the
village population is its terrible ignorance.
With Germany and Switzerland on one side
of it, with England on the other, the educa-
tiopal standard of France is almost as low as
! that of Spain OF Southern ITALY. Among the
facts that have most startled the Germans in
the present war is the inability of half the
\ prisoners they have taken to read or write.
Many even of the officers cannot sign their
own names. But any one who has penetrated
much into the rural life of France knows that
\ this is only fair indication of the educa-
tional state of the country. No doubt efforts
! have been made of late, especially under the
administration of M. Duruy, to cope with
this mass OF ignorance; and NJ. Jules Simon
| has done more than justice to the energy
| shown by the Imperial Government. Schools
1 have been built and the number of teachers
) greatly increased, but the quality of the in
struction given remains as wretched as ever.
1 The wretcbed pttance given to the school
Y master would counteract the good intentions
of thousand Ministers of Public instruction.
/ Simply to procure bread, the wretched do
! mimic has to exc out his living by acting as
clerk to the sous-prefet, if he is settled in
! country town: or if in a village, by serving
| as bell-ringer, acolyte, rch-sweeper to the
| priest. TIE value. of the instruction given
can easily be con jectured. That it has failed
\ to produce any real effect on the prejudices
or the superstitions of the peasant may be
judged from the complaints of the priests
themselves. In parish of the South it is
the usage TO present to the cure
certain wooden images, bearing the
names of saints, but whose form shows
them to be figures of the older
gods of heathenism, which become by his
benediction sovereign charms against certain
Y Hbodily ailments. One parish priest of late
years threw them boldly into the fire, but an
epidemic v Lich broke out among the cattle
brought him to his senses, and the custom was
restored. His successor was more resolute.
He burned the images, and nearly paid for
the act with his life. The parish rose against
him, and lie had to take refuge in a compro-
mise. He procured figures of the saints them
selves, tie more artistically earned, but the
peasants declared they were good for nothing,
and refused him all supplies for the reparation
n of his church. AS a rule, however, the cure
contents himself with silent protest against
the grosser Ignorance around him. He is
himself peasant, the son of peasants and
his slender stipend of some se40 or $50 year
makes lin dependent on the offerings of
his flock. He shares their prejudices, and
his exclusively ecclesiastical training has
raised him little above their own level of
culture. We remember chatting with Nor
man priest beneath the shadow of one of the
grandest minister's in France on the subject
of English religion. He was proud of his
knowledge of the subject, and it amounted
to this, that the 'eglise rationale" was ''Pro-
it was impossible to move HIM he had once
been to Paris, and at the Exposition he had
seen Methodist chapel, and his mind was
made up. That there are learned men among
the French clergy we do not deny; that there
are men of the highest holiness is plain from
SUCH an instance as that of the Cure
Nd AIRS; and tbs political power they exercise
over their focks is unquestionable. But, as
a rule, the tone of the peasant towards his
1cure is that of good-humored contempt
"What is that building?" we remember ask
ing country hostess in Picardy, as we
pointed 10 a huge edihce by the side of the
Church OF st. Riquier. ''It is nothing but
Eune pepiniere de pretres, she replied, with
a smile. A class SO regarded is necessarily
incapable Of exercising any great influence
for the Improvement of the country, but it
does not follow that it is destitute of power
when it plays on the prejudice and ignoran CO
around it, And just now the temptation to
..Io "a. ...1a W.