from a free constitution. The very language which has descended from generation to generation, as the expression of certain habits and ideas, exercises, in its turn, a daily recurring influence which no laws or treatises can efface--and the sky, and the climate, and the natural disposition-I grant that the philosophers were wrong who preached that the governments of nations depended wholly upon these--but rely upon it also, that they must have their influence, that we cannot arbitrarily give ourselves the institutions and the habits that we please; rely upon it, that man does not wholly depend upon man; but that nature and God have an influence, difficult to trace, but impossible to deny, in the destinies of every people upon earth!

Years then may roll on, and the light and joyous character of the French, already changed, may undergo further changes. The sedater character which has seated itself upon the front of society may penetrate nearer to its heart; the greater seriousness which we observe spread over certain classes of the nation may have a broader basis and a deeper root; years may roll on--and that august edifice which you see on the borders of the Seine may still resound with the eloof the constitutional tribune; years may roll quence on-and the gates of the pantheon yet be open to the ashes of the senators who have merited well of their country;—all this may be; and yet, as long as the gay sun which is now shining gilds the yellow valleys of Provence, and ripens the purple vintage of Burgundy and Champagne-so long must much that we see now -much of that which belongs to the unthinking and joyous spirit which coloured the religion, the policy, the triumphs of the olden time-which entered into the church, the palace, and the camp-brightening, corrupting, enlivening-making things worse, and rendering them more tolerable-much of this must yet remain; nor until you can make their skies and their soil, their climate and their clouds alike, need you believe that the same laws will produce the same effects upon a race, vowed to labour, repudiating recreation, fanatical in business, politics, and religion-and

upon the careless, incredulous, gallant, active, intelligent, philosophic, and joyous people whom I am contemplating as I guide my pen along this paper. Procrustes had a bed of iron, on which we know he was so obliging as to fit all travellers whom he caught, by dislocating the limbs of those who were too short, and chopping off the members of those who had the misfortune to be too tall; in this manner he arranged every one according to his model. I am not of the philosophy of Procrustes; I am for giving intelligence to all-it is the soil of liberty-the soil from which the tree should spring-but I am not for torturing its growth or twisting its branches into any fantastic symmetry of my own. Let it grow from the habits, the manners, the customs amid which it rises-let it freely take its form! I do not expect that form to be without defects: I am satisfied if these defects are not great ones. I do not wish one nation to be austere, because I find austerity coupled with virtue in another; nor do I look with contempt upon the frivolities which I see accompanied by a certain enthusiasm and a certain grandeur. The wisest legislators, instead of endeavouring to eradicate what is bad from the character of a people, devote themselves to the improvement of what is good. "If there be a nation in the world," says the French philosopher," which possesses a social humour, an open heart, a disposition tuned to joy, a correct taste, a facility in expressing its ideas-if there be a nation lively, agreeable, jovial, sometimes imprudent, often indiscreet, and which withal has courage, generosity, frankness, honour-beware how you attempt to set a bridle upon its manners, lest you also subdue its virtues. If in general the character be good, what signify a few defects? It would not be difficult to restrain the women, to make laws to correct their morals, and to moderate their luxury, but who knows if we should not thereby dry up the source of the riches, and destroy the charm, of the nation. The legislator should follow the spirit of the people: we do nothing so well as that which we do hardily and

freely. If you give an air of pedantry to a nation naturally gay, the state will gain nothing.* 'Ni pour le dedans, ni pour le dehors-Laissez lui faire les choses frivoles serieusement, et gaîment les choses sérieuses!'" The maxims of Montesquieu, almost incompatible with change, are erroneous in one extreme; the philosophy of Bentham, with set and universal forms for every change, is equally erroneous in the other.

CRIME.

Let us look for the character we have remarked in the pleasures of the French in their crimes-Write to advance no dogma-M. Guerry's work-Table of crimes in each of the five districts into which he has divided France-The most singular calculation that ever yet appeared-What law, what chance, what instruction has to do with it-What influences are visible upon crime-The climate and the seasons-Influence of age, of sex-Motives for crimeNatural children-Suicides-Writings of persons having committed suicide-What M. Guerry's tables teach, always taughtReturn to investigation set out with-How far is the gallantry, the vanity, and frivolity of the French connected with their crimes?Having spoken of the character, proceed to speak of the history of the French.

I AM arrived at a place where I would wish to cast my eye back over the chapters I have just concluded. The French, it appears, are gay, gallant, witty, vain.

"S'il y avait dans le monde une nation qui eût une humeur sociale, une ouverture de cœur, une joie dans la vie, un goût, une facilité à communiquer ses pensées; qui fût vive, agréable, enjouée, quelque fois imprudente, souvent indiscrète, et qui eût avec cela du courage, de la générosité, de la franchise, un certain point d'honneur, il ne faudrait point chercher à gêner ses manières, pour ne point gêner ses vertus; si en général le caractère est bon, qu'importe de quelques défauts qui s'y trouvent ? On y pourrait contenir les femmes, faire des lois pour corriger leurs mœurs et borner leur luxe; mais qui sait si on n'y perdrait pas un certain goût qui serait la source des richesses de la nation? C'est au législateur à suivre l'esprit de la nation lorsqu'il n'est pas contraire au principe du gouvernement; car nous ne fesons rien de mieux que ce que nous fesons librement, et en suivant notre génie naturel. Qu'on donne un esprit de pedanterie à une nation naturellement gaie, l'état n'y gagnera rien, ni pour le dedans ni pour le dehors."

We have seen them in their amusements-we have followed them to the ball-room, and the guinguette, and the theatre; the gloomy avenue now before us leads to the prison. We have discovered this people's character in their pleasures, let us look for it in their crimes!

Now, if there be any truth in what I have already said, it seems justifiable to believe, that there are certain qualities, propensities, and passions which, characterizing one people from another, will wind themselves into all our legislative enactments. Moreover, if the book I am writing has any merit, it is that of being written without the object of advancing any legislative dogma of my own. Every person living and reading at the present time must remember an infinitude of forced systems in economy, politics, and morals, each in their turn giving place to some new system, which, appearing last, has, like the rod of Moses, devoured the rods of the Egyptians.

I cannot think, with one of the most strange and positive of modern speculators,* that the sea is rapidly becoming lemonade, and that nature has in her wisdom reserved a tailed appendix to future generations: neither am I, for similar scruples, disposed to credit that the many tribes of the world are endowed with precisely the same dispositions, and to be fitted, as a matter of course, by precisely the same governments and institutions. The various nostrums which have in turn been promulgated as certain specifics for our various civil disorders, were about as likely to be uniformly efficacious as those balsams, cordials, and sudorifics which medicine daily offers to our corporeal infirmities, as equally adapted to the stone, the gravel, and the gout. Looking rather at the effects which have been produced by your state-pharmacopolists, than at the pompous puffs with which they have usually announced themselves, I do confess that I somewhat incline to

*M. Fourrier de Dijon, the founder of the Phalansterian sect, of which I shall have occasion to speak when I speak of the modern philosophy of France.

the belief that each race and each country has peculiarities almost impossible to eradicate, and which therefore it is wiser in the legislator, instead of fruitlessly attempting to destroy, sagaciously to endeavour to direct. But this theory requires a perpetual attention to what is passing around, and to what has passed before us a perpetual accumulation of knowledge, and perpetual variations in the application of knowledge; and I do not therefore marvel at finding it less popular than the doctrines of that easier school, which in twenty pages gives all that it is possible to know for the government and the happiness of all the nations of the earth.

I am led to these reflections by a new statistical work by M. Guerry,* a work remarkable on many accounts, more especially remarkable on this account-that it bowls down at once all the ninepins with which late statists had been amusing themselves, and sets up again many of the old notions, which from their very antiquity were out of vogue.

Some very wise persons have declared that crimes depended wholly upon laws; others that they depended wholly upon, what they called, instruction; while a few, with a still falser philosophy, have passed, in their contempt for all existing rules, from the niceties of calculation to the vagueness of accident, and insinuated, not daring to assert, that vice and virtue are the mere "rouge et noir" of life, the pure effects of chance and hazard. Against all these champions M. Guerry enters the field. Dividing France into five regions† or

* Statistique morale de la France.

DIVISION OF FRANCE INTO FIVE REGIONS. NORTH.-Aisne, Ardennes, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Marne, Meuse, Moselle, Nord, Oise, Orne, Pas-deCalais, Seine, Seine Inférieure, Seine et Marne, Seine et Oise, Somme SOUTH.-Ardèche, Arriège, Aude, Aveyron, Bouches du Rhône, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Gers, Hérault, Lot, Lozère, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées Orientales, Tarn, Tarn et Garonne, Vaucluse, Var

Population.

8,757,700

4,826,493