, to 460,864 tons. Under the monarchy of July, the production
gradually, though not regularly, increased again, until in 1847 it had
reached 774,896 tons, only to be struck down by the senseless Revolution
of 1848 to 614,900 tons in 1849. It went up with the establishment of
the second Empire in 1852 to 803,812 tons in 1853, and by 1870 had
reached 1,633,818 tons.

Under the governments of M. Thiers and of the Marshal-Duke of Magenta,
during which, according to M. Doumer, the Republic existed 'only in
name,' the output went up till, in 1877, it passed the two million
limit, only to recede again with the advent to power of M. Gambetta and
his friends, with their 'true Republic,' under which it fell in 1884 to
1,720,306 tons. The elections of 1885, marking the rise of a great
conservative and monarchical reaction, were followed, in 1886, by an
increase in the output of the Anzin mines to 2,337,439 tons; and in
1888, when from one end of France to the other, the Republic was
officially and almost hysterically declared by the authorities to be in
deadly peril, and men were speculating as to whether President Carnot,
or General Boulanger, would open the Exposition in 1889, the Anzin
output reached 2,595,581 tons.

Of course, account must be taken of other than political considerations
in estimating the significance of this record, nor do I wish unduly to
dwell upon what may be called its barometrical value in the study of
contemporaneous French history.

But when we consider the relations of coal to all the great industries
of our time, it is certainly noteworthy that for more than a century
every development in Paris of a tendency favourable to republicanism in
France, should appear to have been followed by an unfavourable effect,
and every development unfavourable to republicanism in France by a
favourable effect upon the production, at Anzin, of a mineral which has
come to be the 'staff of life' of all modern industry and commerce.

For during the whole of this period Anzin has been what it still is, the
coal-capital, as St.-Gobain is the glass-capital, and Creuzot the
iron-capital of France. Its mines produce about one-tenth of the total
output of French coal. A falling off, therefore, in the output of the
Anzin mines may be fairly enough taken as an indication of disease in
the body politic of France. The most considerable falling off in this
output of late years was in 1884, when the production fell to 1,720,306,
f