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Show Praise of the French Peasant. The common notion of the French peasant as a narrow minded, penurious and not too moral person receives no ..support irom Mr Frederic Harrison, whose personal study of French rural life has nevertheless been very considerable. consider-able. The indomitable endurance of the French race has, he reminds us, enabled France to surmount crushing disasters, losses and disappointments under which another race would have sunk. She bears with ease a national debt, the annual an-nual charge of which is more than double dou-ble that of wealthy England, and a taxation taxa-tion nearly double that of England, with almost the same population a permanent taxation that exceeds 100 francs per head, and is greater than has ever before been borne by any other people. She lost over one war a sum not much short of the whole national debt of England, and she has written off without a murmur mur-mur a loss of 48,000,000, thrown into the Panama canal. If France is thus strong, the backbone of her strength is, in Mr. Harrison's opinion, found in the marvelous industry and thrift of her peasantry. London News. |