Having touched upon this question elsewhere, I need not dwell upon it here, but will give results only, in a few words. There cannot be a doubt that the kind of lying which belongs to outward conformity is, on the whole, a more useful accomplishment in England than in France. Of the extent to which it is practised we know little. Sham Christians pass for real Christians, and bear no outward mark by which they may be detected. It is certain, however, that the English are becoming much more outspoken than they used to be, and that the quality of “fearless truth” is gaining in esteem amongst them, whilst hypocrisy is considered less meritorious. As for the vulgar French idea that all Englishmen are hypocrites, it may be dismissed with the answer that a majority has no motive for hypocrisy, which is the vice of vituperated minorities. And again, with reference to French truthfulness and courage in the expression of heterodox religious opinion, I admire it, and consider it far preferable to hypocrisy and moral cowardice, but at the same time I remember that a Frenchman has less to risk and less to lose by veracity than an Englishman. A Frenchman can with difficulty conceive the force of that quiet pressure which is brought to bear upon an Englishman from his infancy. It is like hydraulic pressure, gentle and slow, but practically irresistible. He is taught and governed in boyhood by clergymen, their feminine allies compel him to go to church and to observe the English Sunday if he intends to marry in England. There is the discipline, too, of the daily family prayers, the Scripture readings, and the discipline of “good form” in conversation. Even the strong-minded Englishman is a little afraid of a clergyman. I once knew an English officer in Paris, a man of tried courage, who was not proof against this timidity. He possessed in his library a number of heterodox books, but when a clerical brother from England came to stay with him he packed up all that literature and sent it elsewhere for the time, as a boy puts a forbidden volume out of his master’s sight.[45] [Sidenote: Political Lying.] [Sidenote: International Misrepresentation.] Political lying must be very common in both countries, if we accept the testimony of the politicians themselves, for they always tell us that the newspapers opposed to their own are remarkable chiefly for their mendacity. This field of political lying is far too extensive for me to enter upon it. I prefer to confine myself to a few examples of international misrepresentation, as they will throw light upon the general subject of this book. Like political parties, the nations themselves are enemies, and consider it a legitimate part of the chronic warfare that is maintained between them to say whatever may be to each other’s disadvantage, provided only that it has a chance of being believed. [Sidenote: Difference between English and French Lying.] [Sidenote: Superiority of English Craft.]