Such was the state of society in France after the restoration, and the second revolution. There existed no authoritative power able to control the discordant elements that agitated society. Disappointed ambition on one side, and insulting prosperity on the other, came into daily collision. There was no common enemy to fight beyond the frontier, and intestine personal warfare had succeeded foreign military operations. There existed a constant state of agitation and uncertainty which all parties were anxious to subdue; and the editors of the public papers were war-hounds, let loose to stir up universal commotion. Batons of marshals and dukedoms were no longer to be obtained by the sword wielded against national enemies, and civil pre-eminence was sought by drawing it on any competitor who stood in the way of advancement. The country was in a febrile state, and loss of blood seemed as necessary to the body politic, as it might have been considered advisable in the case of a morbid individual. There existed no safety-valve from the high pressure of the times; and, fortunately for the country, the occasional explosions that took place were of little importance, and only served to improve the machinery, so ably conducted by its present engineer, the King of the French. Any endeavour on his part, or that of the Bourbons, after their restoration, to prevent parties from coming into hostile collision, would have been worse than idle. It was a storm, to which a calm might naturally be expected to succeed; and, at the present period, duels in France are scarcely ever heard of; in fact, they are not in fashion. The French are naturally disposed to fight; and we have had sad proofs of this sanguinary propensity during the late war, when their prisoners on board the hulks, and in the several dépôts, converted every tool or instrument into a sword; and nails, knives, razors, sharpened iron hoops, were fixed at the end of sticks for the purpose of fighting; fighting and gambling being their only amusements. Many were the melancholy scenes that took place in 1814, when the allies were in Paris; duels between the officers of the foreign powers and those of the disbanded French army were incessant, and they generally proved fatal to the strangers. The French were spending their whole days and nights in fencing; and there is every reason to believe, that, not satisfied with their own skill in fence, their _prevosts_, or fencing-masters, assumed the uniform of officers to meet any imprudent youth who was foolhardy enough to accept their challenges. Thus did many an Austrian and Prussian officer fall in the Bois de Boulogne.