24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



ruined and killed the trees, so that it was havoc pure 

 and simple. 



All this, of course, are a foreigner's impressions, 

 and perhaps they may be considered unreasonable. 

 You are young and wealthy ; you can afford to spend. 

 You can afford to spend to-day, and to-day is certainly 

 as bright as it can be. But, as you know, squandering 

 habits, when once taken, are most difficult to check, at 

 a moment's notice, just at the time wanted ; and, as 

 your eminent President remarked, the nation should 

 think of to-morrow. 



In France, we think much about to-morrows, because 

 we have known so many yesterdays. Our case is very 

 different. We have not your boundless resources ; we 

 must husband what we possess. Our land is limited, 

 our mines of small importance ; our fields have been 

 furrowed by the plough for eighteen centuries more 

 than yours; the accumulated public debts, left by past 

 regimes or caused by present necessities, weigh on our 

 shoulders; and yet with this weight, at this day, we 

 stand, and, if I may believe what I hear reported, our 

 friendship is still worth having, as well worth as it 

 was ever in times past. 



There is only one explanation : What we do, we try 

 to do it with method; what we do, we do with care. 

 We have no other secret. 



There is nothing lost in France, nothing thrown 

 away not a rag, not a bit of bread, not a stick of 

 wood. Many think we are a laughing, singing nation. 

 If we were such, and nothing more, we should have 

 long since disappeared. We are a living example that 

 people may love to have their laugh and their song, 

 and yet keep their forests in good order. Method and 

 gloom do not go necessarily together. 



That great philosopher, Bacon, who was no particu- 



