Since their disaster the only pride of the French has been in their self-restraint, and in the quiet perseverance with which they have reconstituted their army. Such pride as there may be in these efforts is of a subdued nature, and altogether different from the boasting of other days. It may be admitted that the national character has been immensely improved by the extinction of the old sentiment, and even the French intellect has gained by it in the clearer perception of truth, as a private misfortune often opens the eyes of a family. The change in the national character of the French has been clearly manifested by their patience and prudence on several very trying occasions. They used to be rash and light-headed, they have become cool, wary, and circumspect; at one time they were reputed to be fond of war, and were easily led into it by any temporary ruler, but to-day they look on war so dispassionately, they treat it so purely as a matter of reason, that they will resort to it only with all chances in their favour. Men of sixty say that the young men of the present day have far less of national sentiment than they had in their own youth, which may be explained by the want of aliment for national pride. A new generation has grown up, and it has grown up in humiliation. A Frenchman of twenty-five has seen Alsatia and Lorraine in the hands of the Germans ever since he knew anything of geography. [Sidenote: Victory of Democracy.] [Sidenote: Double Defeat of the French Aristocracy.] Another heavy blow to national pride in the higher classes has come from the internal, and probably final, victory of the democracy. All who belong in any way to the French aristocracy, or who aspire to belong to it, and have sympathy with it, feel as much humiliated by the establishment of republicanism as by the German conquest. The aristocracy has been doubly overthrown, by foreign armies and by the multitude of voters. A French noble cannot go to any court in Europe without meeting the accredited representative of a _régime_ that he abhors, and he cannot enter the French parliament without seeing republicans in office. It is true that the men in office are frequently changed, but the principle that put them there does not change; they are replaced by others not less democratic. [Sidenote: England Free from these Wounds.] [Sidenote: Imagined Changes in England.]