e friend of Boulanger--A revolutionary
shoemaker on government by committees--Evils of the
Exposition--Foreigners steal the ideas of France--The railways, the
new feudal system--They are the real 'enemy' of the people--Extravagance
of the ministers--Freemasonry at Laon--How it
controls the press--The rise of Deputy Doumer--How he lost
his seat in 1889--The author of 'Chez Paddy' at Chateau
Thierry--Over-zeal of the cures--The question of working men's unions--M.
Doumer's report on the Law of Associations--He proves that
the Republic has done absolutely nothing with this law--'Five
years' spent in drawing up a report--'The Republic never existed
until 1879'--And nothing done for working men until 1888--M.
de Freycinet and M. Carnot only 'studied measures which might
be taken;' but were not!--The first practical step taken by M.
Doumer by making an enormous report in 1888, recommending
things to be done hereafter--The true Republic eluding for ten
years questions which the Emperor grappled with in 1867--The
voters of Laon in September defeat M. Doumer--A curious little
chapter of French politics--M. Doumer's coquetry with General
Boulanger--After his defeat M. Doumer becomes secretary of
the President of the Chamber and lets the working men's question
alone--Politics as a profession in France and the United
States--Intense centralisation of power in France makes it easier
and more profitable than in America 226-258

CHAPTER XI

IN THE NORD

Valenciennes--The shabbiest historic town in North-eastern
France--Perfect cultivation of French Flanders--Cock-fighting and
flowers--Prosperity of the cabarets--One to every forty-four inhabitants
around Valenciennes--Growth of the mining and manufacturing
towns--Interesting buildings in Valenciennes--Carelessness of the
citizens about their city--A graceful edifice of the 15th century
falling into ruins--Valenciennes in the days of the Hanse of
London--Mediaeval burghers and their sovereigns--A citizen of
Valenciennes, in 1357, the richest man in Europe--Festivals in
the olden times--Religious wars--Vauban at Valenciennes--How
the clothworkers fled from the Spanish persecution--Dumouriez
at Valenciennes--The Hotel de Ville--Interesting local artists
from Simon Marmion down to Watteau and Pater--The triptych
of Rubens--Some historic portraits--The Musee Carpeaux--The
coal