194 Gardenhig Visit to Paris, 



being abolished, less value is set on that kind of distinction, and 

 by consequence more on the solid advantages of wealth. Next, 

 the officers or servants of government, from the king down- 

 vi'ards, are not paid with unreasonably large salaries, and there 

 are very few undeserved pensions. Finally, the king, both as 

 a king and as an individual, is remarkably economical. If 

 there is any London nurseryman or market-gardener who wishes 

 to raise all manner of hothouse productions, and construct hot- 

 houses and pits, at the least possible expense, let him go to Ver- 

 sailles, and examine the forcing-houses in the potagerie, or to 

 Fontainebleau, and see M. Souchet's greenhouse. This excel- 

 lent king wisely spends what he has to spare in improving the 

 national buildings, and in filling them with works of art ; and 

 the thousands which other sovereigns would consume in plea- 

 sures which the day after leave scarcely a trace behind, he con- 

 solidates in monuments which will remain an ornament and 

 benefit to the nation for future ages. The eiFect of money spent 

 in this manner is incomparably superior to that spent in luxu- 

 rious display ; because it immediately goes into the pockets of a 

 more intellectual and sober class of men, such as artists, masons, 

 carpenters, &c. This personal character of the king appears to 

 us to have had a most beneficial effect upon the people ; from the 

 poorest servants, who place their money in the savings banks 

 to an extent which, as noted by the French papers, seems enor- 

 mous, to the capitalist, who engages in railroads, steamboats, or 

 other branches of speculation or industry. 



The Educatio7i of the People, which was checked or diseased 

 during the reign of priestcraft, is now comparatively free and 

 spreading, and is, with time and freedom of commerccj all that 

 is wanting to render France perhaps the first nation in Europe ; 

 because, whatever the British nation may be at present, from its 

 superabundance of capital, whenever the governments of other 

 nations are equally secure as our own, capital will emigrate. To 

 one point in general education, France has not yet arrived ; which 

 is, to render it compulsory on parents to send their children to 

 school till they have acquired a sufficient knowledge of reading, 

 Avriting, and arithmetic. This, however, will be attained in 

 time, when it is better known how well the compulsory law works 

 in Germany. One excellent law exists, which it would be well 

 to introduce without delay into this country, which is, that no 

 young man can commence schoolmaster, no young woman go- 

 verness, and no lady set up a boarding-school, without a diploma, 

 or certificate of qualification, obtained after proper examination, 

 from a commission constituted on purpose by government. 



The Expression of Opinio?i is much more free in France than 

 in England. It is not that there is much diff^erence of opinion 

 between parallel classes of men in the two countries, but that in 



