rs, and
notaries of the _ancien regime_ in 1757--had nothing to learn from
Jean-Jacques Rousseau or the Abbe Sieyes as to the essential rights and
duties of men in a civilised community. Thus it runs:--

'To bring about a general union of the coal-pits in the territory of
Fresnes, Anzin, Old Conde, Raismes, and St.-Vaast, put an end to all the
differences and proceedings brought before the Council and as yet
unsettled, make it possible to live in good union and a good
understanding, and secure the interests of the State and of the public
by forming solid establishments, there are adopted by this present act,
which shall be duly ratified before a notary, the following articles.'

These articles are nineteen in number, and, as in the case of
St.-Gobain, one article binds the associates always to furnish, in
proportion to their shares, whatever funds may be required for the
enterprise.

The hereditary principle is distinctly recognised in these articles not
only as to the ownership of the shares, but as to the management, and
the Prince de Croy-Solre and the Marquis de Cernay, with their
successors, are accorded certain rights as arbitrators, and in the
election of directors, a circumstance worth noting because I find that,
notwithstanding the supposed abolition by the revolutionists of 1789 of
the hereditary principle, and of titles of nobility and of privileges,
these articles of association, just as they stood when they were signed
and subscribed on November 27, 1757, were quietly recognised and
registered, and a good fee taken for the recognition and the
registration by the proper republican functionary at Paris, on the '11
Pluviose, An XIII' of the Republic one and indivisible.

The main street of Anzin, through which M. Guary drove me to the offices
of the company, is a broad and well-paved highway, with many
shade-trees, and the houses, for the main part, well built, though not
particularly picturesque. M. Guary tells me there are a good many small
_rentiers_ living here, which seems to show that the place must be
orderly and quiet. Many of the houses are brightly painted, in blue,
green, pink, and other colours not to be expected, and of cabarets the
name is legion. M. Baudrillart pronounces intemperance to be a
characteristic foible of the Flemish French, or French Flemings; but in
these cabarets--which were, so far as I saw, rather exceptionally neat
and even handsome--the customers seemed to be taking light