Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



203 



THE RE-AWAKENING OF FRANCE. 



A NEW RENAISSANCE. 



The new Renaissance in France is the subject of a 

 uggestive paper in the Edinburgh for July. The 

 vriter grants that disorder reigns, alcohohsm has 

 ncreased, there are eleven times more dramshops in 

 Paris than in London, the number of babies and the 

 lumber of church-goers are diminishing in about the 

 ame proportion, unbelief loosens the bond between 

 he citizen and the Church. The number of practising 

 Jatholics in France is declared by a bishop not to 

 ■.\ceed four or five millions, leaving thirty millions 

 >utside the fold. Nevertheless : — 



France has exhibited strength in unexpected ways. Her 

 oung men have adopted sport. They have shown remarkaljlc 

 iplitude in golf, tennis .ind football, and notably in boxing. 

 iVho supposed that a Krcnch Rugby team would beat Scotland 

 me day, or that a French boxer would become a champion of 

 he woild? More recently a French girl has carried off the 

 -adies' Championship in tennis, and the national successes in 

 ;olf are frequent. E<rcn when beaten in their games, the 

 ■"rench exhibit an endurance and pluck which, in our pride, we 

 lad hitherto supposed to be exclusively .Vnglo-Saxcn virtues. 



A NEW NATION.\L SPIRIT. 



The rise of the national spirit over the Agadir 

 ncident has astonished Europe. France went reso- 

 utely to work to put her military and moral house 

 n order. Anti-militarism has passed like a bad 

 iream. A great movement has arisen to dower the 

 lalion with an aerial arm. North, south, cast and 

 vest, emanations of the national spirit have arisen. 

 \ .Ministry of .Ml the Talents has assembled under 

 \l. Poincare. Great energy is being shown in the 

 iuppression of crime. 



Writers of talent and distinction ask us to consider 

 he possibility of religious reconstruction. " Amidst 

 he crash of idols arises the figure of the Christ. It 

 00ms through the mist of doubt and scepticism ; it 

 olours the utterances of such philosophers as Bergson, 

 loutroux and Cuyau. Nor, says M. Sabatier, is the 

 ceptical spirit inimical to the religious." 



" France is a religious country," combining rapid 

 )rogress of indifference with an unexpected awakening 

 >f religious aspiration. .Men are working out their 

 alvation in the spirit recommended by St. James, 

 ["he Church has never been more active. 



FRANCE " AT THE DAWN." 



From the Dreyfus affair dated the decadence of 

 'ranee. She lost lonceit of herself, and such a 

 fceakcning of national pride is spei:ially dangerous 

 o France, where amour propre is a strong and living 

 mpulse. 'ihe new Renaissance is a revolt against 

 he lowered prestige of France. M. Cheradame has 

 aith in France and Young France. He savs : — 

 ' France is again at the turning of her history. .Slowly 

 nrl painfully she is ascending the slope. If she coni- 

 trehends the imperishable truth of the old adage. 

 Union is strength ' ; if she knows how to become 



consistent and methodical, and how to remedy her 

 political ills, she is at the dawn of a new Renaissance."' 



SOLDIERS OF TO-MORROW. 



Mr. Arthur Eckersi.ev, writing in the Arena for 

 August, gives a short account of the recent festival of 

 patriotic youth at Paris. 



The occasion was the twenty-fifth national reunion 

 of the '■ Societies of Military Preparation of France," 

 and the jete was held on a Sunday in June in the 

 'I uileries Gardens. In the morning the writer witnessed 

 all sorts of games and athletic feats going forward, but 

 the review, the jete jjroper, was in the afternoon. An 

 impressive roll of drums from the band is heard, and 

 the crowd uncovers to salute the arrival of the Military 

 Governor of Paris. Then, on a signal being given, the 

 " .Marseillaise "' is played ; and, headed by the massed 

 flags of the various corps, the procession of eight 

 thousand boy soldiers begins to march into the arena. 

 Undeniably, says the writer, there was a thrill in it. 

 Even to a stranger this spectacle of the army of 

 to-morrow slowly unrolling itself could not fail of 

 effect. The spectators cheered themselves voiceless 

 with enthusiasm. For more than an hour the com- 

 panies went by, horse and foot — lads in every varietv 

 of class and costume, smart cadets, athletes, all the 

 bovhood of a nation in arms. 



PEASANT AND SCHOOL IN 

 FRANCE. 



In France the effect of the declining birth-rate is 

 making itself felt in the rural districts, especially in 

 Gascony. Dr. Emmanuel Labat has taken up the 

 subject in the Revue des Deux Mondcs, and in the first 

 July number he has an article entitled " The Peasant 

 Vocation and the School." 



He says that neglect to till the land and decline of 

 the population are two social evils which go hand in 

 hand in Gascony. While the population is being 

 reduced in numbers agricultural labourers are bound 

 to become scarce. It may be that a few of the rural 

 population desert the land, because they can find 

 better remuneration elsewhere, and there may also be 

 a few who would be undesirables anvwhcre. But there 

 is a peasant class adapted to work the land with ardour 

 and intelligence, and for these something ought to be 

 done. In the village school the peasant children, from 

 their earliest years, should receive some agricultural 

 instruction, practical rather than theoretical, and it 

 should be imparted by teachers who have some affection 

 for country life and some interest in agricultural 

 pursuits. Nothing could be more easy of accomplish- 

 ment, for the vocation of a peasant is more hercditar\- 

 than any other. History should also be taught to 

 awaken in the scholars interest in their native land and 

 a feeling of solidarity. 



