Mr. Leslie puzzles us terribly. He recommends, in an essay on _The Celibacy of the Nation_, that the state of female celibacy should be greatly encouraged in all countries that desire to have happy marriages, but yet he is against the _two children system_ of the French. Decidedly, Mr. Leslie has not thought out the question. He adds, on p. 424: “Whatever may be thought of the change which is taking place in France in respect of the numbers of the population, there is one change of which no other country has equal reason to be proud. Its agricultural population before the Revolution was in the last extremity of poverty and misery—their normal condition was half-starvation; they could scarcely be said to be clothed; their appearance in many places was hardly human. No other country in Europe, taken as a whole, can now show, upon the whole, so comfortable, happy, prosperous, and respectable a peasantry.” In an article on “Holidays in Eastern France, Seine et Marne,” in _Fraser’s Magazine_, September, 1878, we find this passage:—“We are in the midst of one of the wealthiest and best cultivated regions of France, and when we penetrate below the surface we find that in manners and customs, as well as dress and outward appearance, the peasant, and agricultural population generally, differ no little from their remoter fellow-countrymen, the Bretons.... There is no superstition, hardly a trace of poverty, and little that is poetic. The people are rich, laborious, and progressive.... It is a significant fact that in this well-educated district, where newspapers are read by the poorest, and where well-being is the rule and poverty a rare exception, the church is empty on Sunday and the priest’s authority is _nil_. “It is delightful to witness the widespread well-being of this highly-favoured region. ‘There is no poverty here,’ say my host and hostess, ‘and that is why life is so pleasant.’ True enough! Wherever you go you find well-dressed contented-looking people—no rags, no squalor, no pinched want.... The habitual look of content written upon the faces you meet is very striking. It seems as if in this land of Goshen life were no burden, but matter of satisfaction only. Class distinctions can hardly be said to exist. There are employers and employed, masters and servants, of course; but the line of demarcation is lightly drawn, and we find an easy familiarity existing between them, wholly free from impoliteness, much less vulgarity.... One is struck, too, by the good looks, intelligence, and trim appearance of the children, who, it is clear, are well cared for. The houses have vines and sweet peas on the walls, flowers in the windows, and altogether a look of comfort and ease found nowhere in Western France.... Here order and cleanliness prevail, with a diffusion of well-being hardly to be matched out of America....