FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1151, 22 September 1883, Page 1

FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

" of'the French popular mind towards-England" (observes the j-(W"orid)ffsWiH never bo understood iunless ! certainJ!^c.t^in addition td those' already mentionj^ ; Sre„J.aken ipto consideration, TnoTpt^fiCT rthe'French'ai&liko us fo*r more pertinent reasons. Thirteen years ago 'pVfo%iß3 the ■' 'smart' capital of Europe. That eqiVivdcal distinction now belongs to London. The fashionable English who used to make a, point'of passing some weeks, probably more 'than' 'once a year in the. Paris'of the Empire, noW loudly complain that the capital hasi/lost its charms ; siiicG' the 1 Republic ' came'* into existence. M. Gambetta aimed at perpetuating for ; Paris something' of;the'prestige she enjoyed'in the'days of Napoledn 111., and, apart from ; bis ; efforts in-this direction, did more than any other public Frenchman of ln's time to establish and extend a good .understanding between the two countries. But M. Gambetta is no more, and though. M. Jules Ferry protests that the supremewish.of the,French Republic is to keep; on good terms with England, the French', and especially theuParisian popul ace, is filled .with i mpotent f ury that the social, and therefore commercial, outcome" of the past decade lias" been favorable to England and prejudicial' to. France. As .feathers thrown 'into the air, proclaim the direction of i tho wind, so-do the comments of the French Press upon many sociai miihrrs of minor importance serve as an uidix to French feeling inagraver context. The Figaro tho other d(vy;published an article sneering at the leaders of English society for tho ease with .which T.hey receive with open arms ladies and gentlemen who have been exiled from the severer • circles of tho polite world in Paris. While we in London. ( pride our- > selves on tho cosmopolitan attributes which we are rapidly developing, our French critics taunt us with our .combined pharasaism and social gullibility.'. ' m r Chero are no plays which produco such applause in French theatres as those which satirise pretended virtue and tho seloctness of • high life' in England. On our part, we arc moted by, none of ,thqse things, and wo join good-naturedly in the. ,laugh against oui selves because we have tjome to tho conclusion -that it is the chic thing to do. It'would be creditable to our_ intelligence if wo discerned that there'was more than a casual significance in thes« taunts and sneers" /, ,