The _Saturday Review_, never very charitable in its judgments about France, and not often very well informed, has spoken as follows about public education in that country: “France has taken a great step forward in these days. It has gone all the way to an expenditure of ninety millions of francs a year, and although Mr. Matthew Arnold does not say so, has materially added to its now permanent deficit by lavish outlay on schools, in which it trains thousands of children to read.” (Well, surely there can be no harm in teaching children to read, but international malevolence is ingenious enough to find evil even here. I resume my suspended quotation:) “Thousands of children to read who _will never use their knowledge again, or will use it only to read obscenity, to the great and manifest advantage of their minds and morals_.” This is the kind of information about France which appears to satisfy the readers of the _Saturday Review_. It is on a level with the surprising statements about the English that we find in the most ignorant French newspapers. [Sidenote: What the French Lower Classes read.] [Sidenote: Trashy Novels.] [Sidenote: Horrible Situations.] [Sidenote: _Cent Bons Livres._] [Sidenote: _La Bibliothèque Populaire._] [Sidenote: _La Bibliothèque Utile._] [Sidenote: Lending Libraries.] [Sidenote: In Schools and Barracks.] [Sidenote: Recent Progress.] [Sidenote: Self-made Frenchmen.] The principal reading of the lower classes is the newspapers published at one sou. Some of these are very ably conducted (for example, the _Lyon Républicain_), some others at the same price are much inferior, but the better class of these journals have a great circulation and are doing more good than harm. The inferior ones publish the sort of trash, in the way of novels, that suits an uncultivated taste. The principal difference between these novels and those read by educated people does not seem to be so much in morality as in the more abundant variety of horrible situations supplied by the writer for the populace. In France, as in England and elsewhere, the desire for excitement which characterises the beginner in reading seems to turn naturally to harrowing scenes. But the poor Frenchman is not confined to his newspaper. He has now plenty of opportunities for purchasing cheap scientific and literary works, and also for borrowing them. The collection of _Cent Bons Livres_, published by Félix Vernay, contains books of both classes issued in a legible type at two sous, and not one of them is immoral. The _Bibliothèque Populaire_, also at two sous, consists of selections from French and foreign literature. The texts are very accurately printed, the translations are good, and the publishers are strict in the exclusion of immoral works; yet the sale of the collection is extensive, and it is found in the dwellings of the humbler classes. The same may be said of the _Bibliothèque Utile_, published by Alcan.