DEDICATION

TO

B. G. KING, ESQ.

MY DEAR KING,

WE have so few opportunities afforded us of testifying esteem, that I feel inexpressible gratification in thus being able to present you with this very unworthy token of the sentiments with which a long acquaintance has inspired me. Nor is this all: the present dedication is not only an ordinary tribute paid to friendship-it is a tribute paid to a friend whom I esteem as much for his public principle as his private worth. And, indeed, it is no small consolation, in thus entering upon a new career, to feel that whatever may be my fate as an author-there must still remain to me the pleasure and the honour with which I shall ever look back to the temporary connexion of my name with yours.-This is not said, my dear King, in the formal and customary spirit of dedicatory addresses, but with the deepest and sincerest sentiments of regard and affection.

Yours most truly,

HENRY LYTTON BULWER.

Hill Street, September 3, 1834.

INTRODUCTION.

It is now very nearly four years ago, at that memorable time when the great Bourbon dynasty went once more into exile—that I first contemplated a work on France. Not altogether a work such as many which have appeared, skimming lightly over the surface of things, and pretending merely to be the result of a six weeks' residence at Paris-but a work which, in describing the present, would connect it with the past-which, in speaking of what is daily and accidental, would separate it from what ages have sanctioned, and distant ages are likely to see;- a work, which in showing the effect which time, and laws, and accident produce upon the character of a people, would also show the manner in which the character of a people traverses times, enters into laws, dominates over accident. I thought such a work might be useful in England: because it might at once teach us where we could or could not imitate our neighbours; and at the same time convince us that a wise imitation does not consist in copying the laws or the customs of another nation, but in adapting those laws and customs that we wish to imitate to our own dispositions.

I thought such a work might be useful; I thought too such a work might be interesting; and that in order to make it useful and interesting, it would be necessary to make it amusing. The English writer of the present century is placed in many respects in the same situation as the French writer of the last. I do not say that he has the same instruction to give, but he has in the same manner to render instruction popular and this I trust will be my excuse for having sometimes adopted a lighter tone, and introduced lighter matter into the following volumes than the gravity and importance of their subject might seem to require.

Thus, it is some time since I first conceived the project of this work-but I had not long proceeded to collect materials for my undertaking before I abandoned the pursuit. Carried

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along in the active rush of passing events-called upon to consider, and to take a humble part in, advancing a great revolution, far greater than many of its originators supposed-a revolution therefore before which it was wise to pause ere you began it as it is wise to complete it now that it is commenced -a member of two reforming parliaments, and one reformed parliament-obliged to give eight or nine hours at the very least to daily attendance in the House of Commons-where the public affairs of the week, like the fabled islands of the Mediterranean, for ever flit before you, and for ever vanish at your approach-I soon resigned an idea which I had only imperfectly formed, or rather reserved it for some moment of golden leisure-such as we never cease to hope will one day arrive to us. In a visit, however, that I paid to Paris last year, I recurred to a design so long meditated, and pursued with some diligence my former researches. As far as the materials with which those researches furnished me are concerned, I feel almost convinced that I obtained what in the hands of most writers must have imparted entertainment and informationbut no one can be more sensible than I am, that I have not profited as I ought to have done by this advantage. The greater part of these pages was written during the heat and fever of a London existence; many of them, begun before the ordinary pursuits of the day were commenced, have been finished on returning home, after a late parliamentary division; and thus, independently of those faults into which my inability would have involuntarily led me, there are others for which I am deeply sensible that I have to request the consideration of the reader, and the indulgence of the critic.

It is also true that I have been not able to comprize within the compass of two volumes all that I have written. I have here shown something of the character, something of the habits, something of the history of the state of parties, of the predominant influences, and the literature of France-but many great questions which relate to the government and industry of the

There was also, let me add, another difficulty thrown in my way by the late publication ("England and the English ") of a near and dear relation, in whose literary success no one more deeply sympathizes than myself. For as the nature of our several works in some degree assimilated, so where I differed from him I might appear-to censure, and where I agreed with him-to imitate. This feeling damped at first my inclination to an enterprise, which afterwards his own kind wishes and my secret predilections induced me to hazard; with the hope, indeed, that I might steer through the obstacles I have referred to, as well as those even still greater, which I had also to encounter.