DEGENERACY OF THE FRENCH RACE.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 90, 15 September 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

DEGENERACY OF THE FRENCH RACE.

The Paris correspondent, of the Times writes:. — v. :■-.... -z z " One hundred thousand men," says a: Paris paper, speaking df:this%ear* , s cori^ seription, "have" just -passed under theJ regulation measure, and , have heard the President of the Bbaid of Revision cry out; as each moved on,' Good for service.' One hundred- thousand fami ies have received, tbe te; rible tidings. For the first few days all is sorrow ; — soon courage returns to their valiant hearts. Is not France a nest of soldiers?" No doubt the army of France is worthy of admiration* but while we are struck at the exactness with wliich she turns out yearly her 1 Of), 000 youths, apparently excellent in health and exuberant in spirit some of them already grasping in fancy the Marshal's staff which they are to find in their cartridge-boxes, we do not notice the crowds which the same^ Board of Revision have been forced to reject as unfit material for powder to consume before they can g p t at the number required. It is affirmed- by those who ought to know the fact that the sickly, the deformed, or those who are below even the small stature of an aproved conscript are far more numerous than those who are deslared fit fbr. Service. The result of the conscription which is just concluded shows that, in this respect, matters are still worse. The War Departments had been forced to lower by a few centimetres the standard required for the old regiments ; and it is feared that, if the numerical amount ofthe conscription be maintained at its present rate, a further reduction will become indispensable. This ogre, called the Conscription, swallows up year after year the flower of the youthful rural population. Those who are left behind are comparatively short in stature, feeble in frame, and infirm. lt is stated on authority which has not, I believe, been contested , * tliat out of 100 youths registered as the contingent to be furnished by certain cantons, 7-3 were rejected by the Revision Board as unable, from physical defects, to bear arms. Napoleon I. used to boast that he had 100,000 men to spend every year, and his incessant wars and incessant calls upon the population to support them have produced what we now witness. To this, as well as to the laws on the division of property, is attributed the fact that the population for (hii last ten years has sto .id still, where it has not actually diminished, while that of European countries has increased. Unwilling to admit that tlie law on the subdivision of property, which establishes equality among the French cin'zens, has anything to do with the impoverishment of the people, a writer in the Siccle seems to attrihute it to tlie excessive labor in manufacturing districts, and the want of gymnastic exercise in public schools. While the mind ofthe pupil, he observes, is crammed with Greek aud Latin io enable bim to attain the modest distinction of Bachclier cles Lcttrcs, the body, which also needs cultivation and force, is completely neglected. True, the gymnasium is found in the Lyceum, but it is like the dead languages which the pupils are forced to acquire ; tliey have no more relish for it than for Sophocles. He contends that all bodily exercises, gymnastics, fencing, swimming, riding, &c, should become not merely a neglected accessory but tlie indispensable complement to education ''When, we compare," he adds, " our modern gymnastics with those of the ancient Greeks we must admit that in. this respect, as in so many others, the ancients were our masters. Colonel A mores, M. Trait, and iVI. Houx have in our day tried to resuscitate this admirable creation of antiquity. Their establishments deserve aU approbation, but it is tlie public that should be con verted to gymnastic exercises."