In the present year (1913) the period of service for the conscripts who form the army was raised from two to three years, and by this means the numbers of the peace strength were enormously increased from the former establishment of a little over half a million men. The new law did not add, as might perhaps be imagined, another quarter of a million to the total. France has not a sufficiently large population to provide such a number of men of the required age and physical fitness. The numbers are, however, considered sufficient to meet the imaginary dangers which threaten her national existence, and the country has now to divert much of its energy to meeting the cost of this regrettable lengthening and thickening of her big stick. Incidentally the world's prosperity must suffer, and social reforms generations overdue must be postponed! With Ebenezer Elliott one asks again: When wilt Thou save the people? O God of mercy, when? [Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF FRANCE] INDEX Ablutions, personal, 34 Academies, the, 75 Adour, the, 144, 168 Agnosticism, 80, 83 Agriculture, 116 Agrippa, 161 Aigues-Mortes, 127, 163 Aix-en-Provence, 164 Algerian wine, 125 Allier, the, 147 Alms-giving in churches, 44 Alps, 123, 124 Amboise, 150 Amiens, 203 Andely, Le Petit, 154 Angers, Chateau d', 150 Anglo-Norman horses, 123 Angouleme, 200 Apache, the, 96, 97 Arles, 130, 162, 164, 195, 196, 200 Armoricans, the, 7 Army, the, 209 _Arrondissement_, the, 60 Asses, 123 Assize, Courts of, 63 Aube, the, 152 Augustus Caesar, 161, 181 Auvergnes, the, 146 _Aversier_, the, 131 Avignon, 162, 164 Ay, 126 _Baccalaureat de l'enseignement_, 74 Bachelier, Nicholas, 167 Bacteriology, science of, 18 Bagehot, Walter, 53 Banns, announcement of, 42 Barker, Mr. E. H., 106, 116 Bastille, the, 111 Bath, the itinerant, 34 Battle of Flowers at Nice, 171 Bayonne, 168 Beauce, La, plain of, 115, 116, 119 Beaugency, 148 Beauvais, 203 Bedroom, the typical, 26, 28 Bergerac, 167 Bernese Alps, 143, 159 Betham-Edwards, Miss, 31 Beziers, 126 Biarritz, 184, 190, 191 Birth-rate, the, 36 Blessington, Lady, 172 Blois, 148 Blois, Chateau de, 149 _Bonne-a-tout-faire_, the, 13, 14, 101, 102 commissions of the, 30 Bordeaux, 167 Bore on the Seine, 155 Boue de Lapeyrere, Admiral, 207 Boulanger, 139 Boulevards, the, 88 Boulogne, 189, 208 Boulogne, Bois de, Paris, 110 Bourseul, Charles, 18 Boy Scouts in France, 72 Bread, French, 87 Brest, 207, 209 Brieg, 158 Brittany, 11, 12, 122, 123, 131, 189, 208 megalithic remains, 7 Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor, 170