The Condition of France as Shown by the Press.—
The secular newspapers are a fairly good index of the character and condition of a people religiously and morally. This is the condition of France, as read in her journals, according to the Revue Bleue of Dec. 4, 1897 (and is America far behind?):— “If you consider our French press, it seems to us that the second series of questions must be answered in the affirmative. If you ask where can be found an independent newspaper which does not live by scandals, or defamation, or bribes from rich bankers and brokers, a newspaper of which the speech and the silence are not in turn for sale, a newspaper which is equally free from pornography and greed for money, we are unhappily obliged to say that we do not know of even a single one such in France. The accounts of Panama and the affairs of Armenia destroyed our last illusions. It is incontestable that at present the French press is in the hands of sharpers. What would you think of an instructor who, in order to increase the number of his pupils, should add to his school a squad of rascals, or a company of loose characters? It is a little after this fashion that our French press plays its part of instructor of the democracy. The examples which could be cited in support of what we have said are so numerous that we should be laughed at for attempting to cite any. The whole mass forms a dung heap which it would not be wise to stir up.”