eon III. on the 2d of December, 1852. It is pernicious because it
keeps alive in France that love for military display, and that thirst
for conquest, which have been the curse of the country since the days
of Louis XIV.

Another one of these monarchical growths which still flourishes under
the republic is the excessive reverence and even awe which the public
shows to its high officials. When President Carnot appears anywhere,
his reception scarcely differs from that shown to Emperor William in
the course of his numerous journeys. The president is allowed six
hundred thousand francs for "entertaining and travelling," and his
balls and dinners at the Elysee, and especially his official tours
through the country smack of royalty to an extraordinary degree. A
year ago I had an opportunity at Montpelier to study one of these
official visits in all its details, and I was astonished at the royal
aspect of the whole affair. The conferring of decorations, the
dispensing of money to deserving charities, the cut and dried speeches
of the president and the mayors, the military honors,--all this is far
removed from that "Jeffersonian simplicity" which Americans at least
associate with a republic.

One of the most noticeable characteristics of these tours is the
excessive manner in which "the republic" is kept to the fore. In his
speeches while "swinging around the circle" President Carnot is
continually informing expectant mayors and delighted citizens that
"the government of the republic" is watching over their every
interest, and he then hastens to thank them for the enthusiastic
welcome which they have given to "the republic" in his humble person.
The phylloxera has destroyed the vineyards of this or that region, but
"the republican minister of agriculture" is successfully extirpating
the injurious insect. The new schoolhouses of another city owe their
magnificence "to the deep solicitude of the republic for the education
of the masses," while the recently constructed bridge over the river
is the work of "the engineers of the republic." In a word, the farmer
and his crops, the mechanic and his house-rent, the schoolmaster and
his salary, the wine growers and their plaster, the day laborers and
their hours of work, and of course the politicians and their
constituents, if the former be republicans, are, according to
presidential oratory, the special care of the republic.

Nor is it President Carnot alone who thus proclaims the e