CHAPTER XI
THE NATIONAL DEFENCES
About the year 1909 the administration of the French navy had fallen into a scandalous state of chaos. Battleships were so long in building that the type was beginning to be superseded before the vessels were commissioned. There was a story circulated not long ago to the effect that some one who enquired of the widow of a workman at Cherbourg what her son was going to do for a livelihood received the reply that he would work on the _Henri IV._ as his father had done. The story may not be quite true, but it indicates what people were thinking at the time. British ships are not infrequently completed within a year of their launch, but the _Dupetit Thouars_ which took the water in 1901 was only completed in 1905.
It was during the period of office of M. Pelletan that the various departments of the navy lost cohesion and their productive capacity was greatly diminished. This minister was responsible for a species of socialistic propaganda which brought about the most deplorable results in so far as the efficiency of the navy was concerned. _Le Journal_, in its summary of the conclusions of the commission of enquiry into the state of naval administration, admitted that money had been wasted in petty errors and foolish blunders, in orders and counter-orders, on untried guns, on worthless boilers, on white powder which turned green, on shells which destroyed the gunners, on 16-centimetre turrets in which 19-centimetre guns had been placed. "The money," said this newspaper, "has passed through ignorant hands, and slipped through fools' fingers."
Drastic changes were necessary to stop the alarming deterioration that was taking place, for the nation had not, for fully ten years, been getting anything near the full measure of sea-power to which it was entitled by the annual sums voted. Between 1900 and 1909 France expended 129 millions sterling on her navy, and in the same period Germany devoted 121 millions to that branch of national defence, and at the end of the decade it was found that the country spending the larger sum had dropped down to a fifth place in the scale of world sea-power, while with her smaller outlay Germany had risen to the second place. In other words, the French had paid for the second place and only realised the fifth!
In this crisis Admiral Boue de Lapeyrere was appointed Minister of Marine, and was provided with a civilian Under-Secretary of State to act as assistant and be responsible with him for civil administration. Since this appointment much leeway has been made up, although the nation has had to mourn the loss of the _Liberte_, which blew up in the crowded naval harbour of Toulon, and has been alarmed more than once on account of the unstable quality of the powder with which the ships have been supplied. At last this danger appears to have been rectified.
The French naval officer receives his training at the naval schools at Brest and Toulon and is generally very keen and capable. He does not enjoy hard conditions from the sporting instinct after the fashion so usual in the British navy, but his devotion to his work produces very efficient gunnery and admirable handling of submarine craft. For the lower deck the supply of the suitable class of bluejacket might be sadly deficient were it not for the seafaring populations of Brittany and Normandy. At Bologne there was living recently a wrinkled old grandmother who had forty grandchildren, of whom all the males were sailors or fishermen, while several of the girls had become fishwives or had married fishermen or sailors. France owes much to her little weather-beaten grandmothers of this type.
The manning of the fleet is partially carried out by voluntary enlistment, but the main supply is gained by means of the _inscription maritime_, a system established in the latter part of the seventeenth century by Colbert. This method requires all sailors between eighteen and fifty to be enrolled in "the Army of the Sea." They begin their term of seven years of obligatory service at about twenty, two years of the period being furlough. Any man earning his livelihood on inland waters, provided they are tidal or capable of carrying sea-going vessels, is included in the term "sailor." A further supply of men is obtained by transferring a certain number of the year's army recruits to the sea service.
Cherbourg, Brest, and Toulon are the chief naval ports, Lorient and Rochefort being of lesser importance. Shipbuilding, however, takes place at each of the five.
The frequent changes make it impossible to discuss the strength of the fleets in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, or those stationed in colonial waters, but collectively the fighting force of the navy has for the last few years numbered roughly 25 battleships, 15 large armoured cruisers, 16 protected cruisers, 80 or 90 destroyers, 180 torpedo-boats, and about 90 submarines and submersibles. Under the new administration larger ships are being built, and the destroyer is taking the place of the torpedo-boat.
On account of its superiority as a fighting machine the army of France ranks above the navy, and it should have been placed before the navy in the short notes which constitute this chapter. The author has felt, however, that the subject is too complex to deal with in such a book as this. He confesses to blank ignorance as to the efficiency of the French artillery material, although from English sources he gathers that it is superior to that possessed by almost any other nation. It would be extremely interesting if one could state how far the army is prepared for "the real thing," how much it has learned in recent years, to what extent its very efficient army of the air is a source of strength, and whether the rifle at present in use is as perfect a weapon as those of other countries. These are subjects much discussed by the inexpert, and the author does not feel competent to deal with them.
In the present year (1913) the period of service for the conscripts who form the army was raised from two to three years, and by this means the numbers of the peace strength were enormously increased from the former establishment of a little over half a million men. The new law did not add, as might perhaps be imagined, another quarter of a million to the total. France has not a sufficiently large population to provide such a number of men of the required age and physical fitness. The numbers are, however, considered sufficient to meet the imaginary dangers which threaten her national existence, and the country has now to divert much of its energy to meeting the cost of this regrettable lengthening and thickening of her big stick. Incidentally the world's prosperity must suffer, and social reforms generations overdue must be postponed! With Ebenezer Elliott one asks again:
When wilt Thou save the people? O God of mercy, when?
INDEX
Ablutions, personal, 34
Academies, the, 75
Adour, the, 144, 168
Agnosticism, 80, 83
Agriculture, 116
Agrippa, 161
Aigues-Mortes, 127, 163
Aix-en-Provence, 164
Algerian wine, 125
Allier, the, 147
Alms-giving in churches, 44
Alps, 123, 124
Amboise, 150
Amiens, 203
Andely, Le Petit, 154
Angers, Chateau d', 150
Anglo-Norman horses, 123
Angouleme, 200
Apache, the, 96, 97
Arles, 130, 162, 164, 195, 196, 200
Armoricans, the, 7
Army, the, 209
_Arrondissement_, the, 60
Asses, 123
Assize, Courts of, 63
Aube, the, 152
Augustus Caesar, 161, 181
Auvergnes, the, 146
_Aversier_, the, 131
Avignon, 162, 164
Ay, 126
_Baccalaureat de l'enseignement_, 74
Bachelier, Nicholas, 167
Bacteriology, science of, 18
Bagehot, Walter, 53
Banns, announcement of, 42
Barker, Mr. E. H., 106, 116
Bastille, the, 111
Bath, the itinerant, 34
Battle of Flowers at Nice, 171
Bayonne, 168
Beauce, La, plain of, 115, 116, 119
Beaugency, 148
Beauvais, 203
Bedroom, the typical, 26, 28
Bergerac, 167
Bernese Alps, 143, 159
Betham-Edwards, Miss, 31
Beziers, 126
Biarritz, 184, 190, 191
Birth-rate, the, 36
Blessington, Lady, 172
Blois, 148
Blois, Chateau de, 149
_Bonne-a-tout-faire_, the, 13, 14, 101, 102 commissions of the, 30
Bordeaux, 167
Bore on the Seine, 155
Boue de Lapeyrere, Admiral, 207
Boulanger, 139
Boulevards, the, 88
Boulogne, 189, 208
Boulogne, Bois de, Paris, 110
Bourseul, Charles, 18
Boy Scouts in France, 72
Bread, French, 87
Brest, 207, 209
Brieg, 158
Brittany, 11, 12, 122, 123, 131, 189, 208 megalithic remains, 7
Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor, 170
Brunel, Isambard, 18
Buckwheat, 115
Butcher, the French, 32
Byron, Lord, 159
Byzantine architecture, 193, 199, 200, 201
Cabourg, 184
Caen, 88, 201
Caesar, Gaius Julius, 10
Cafes, the, 86, 87, 88, 113
Calvaries, roadside, 122
Cannes, 170, 174
_Canton_, the, 60
Carcassonne, 198
Carmargue, the, 163
Carnac, prehistoric remains at, 194
Carnavalet, Musee, Paris, 109
Carts, country, 118
Casino, the, 171, 176, 178
_Cassation, Cour de_, 63
Catherine de Medici, 150
Cattle, 123
Caudebec, 155, 156
Cevennes, the, 115, 123, 145, 146 peasants of, 128-130
Charente, the, 144
Chartres, 202
Chateau Gaillard, 153
_Chateau_ life, 133-137
Chatillon, 152
Chaumont, Chateau de, 150
Chenonceaux, Chateau de, 150
Cherbourg, 205, 209
Chestnuts, 115
Children, training of, 38, 39
Churches, 78 attendance at, 78 decorations in, 79, 80 irreverent behaviour in, 78
Church-going, women and, 79
Cimbri, 157
Civil Code, the, 14, 42, 47, 66
Cleanliness, 33
Clermont-Ferrand, 200
Cluny, Hotel, Paris, 110
Coal consumption, 29
_Concierge_, the, 38, 97, 98, 99
_Conciergerie_, the, Paris, 110
Conscription, 210
Constantine, Emperor, 196
Constitution, the French, 50, 51, 52, 53
Conversation in the _chateau_, 139
Cooking, French, 2, 3
Corniche Roads, the, 179, 180, 181
Correze, 115
Costebelle, 173
Crau, La, 163, 164
Critical faculty of the French, 20
Cure, the, 83, 84, 85
Deauville, 183
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the, 50, 51, 52
Demolins, M., 71
Deputies, Chamber of, 55 salaries of, 59
Diane de Poitiers, 150
Dieppe, 187
Dinard, 189
Discipline, lack of, 47
Dive, the, 184
Divorce laws, 44, 45
Doctors, fees of, 131, 132
d'Or, Iles, 173
Dordogne, the, 167
_Dot_, the, 47
Dreyfus, Captain A., 63
Duelling, 139-142
Dumas, the elder, 139
Durance, the, 164
Ebro, the, 151
Economies of the French, 21
Education, expenditure on, 67, 68
Education and social status, 75
Educational system, 72
Edward the Confessor, 156
Edward VII., King, 190
English Channel, the, 6
Epernay, 126
Esplanade, on the Riviera, the, 176, 177
Essonne, the, 152
Esterel Mountains, 173, 174
Etaples, 189
Etoile district of Paris, 89
Etretat, 153, 184, 185
Eu, 187
Euric, king of the Visigoths, 166
Evreux, 204
Faculties, the State, 75
Family Council, the, 34, 35
Farms, 119, 120
Fecamp, 186
_Five o'clock, le_, 135
Flail, use of, 118
Flamboyant style, 204
Fontainebleau, forest of, 124
Food, high cost of, 105
Forests of France, 124
Forez, plain of, 146
France as a colonising nation, 48
Franchise, the, 56
Franks, the, 10
Frejus, 173
French enterprise, 65
French people, origin of, 11, 12, 32
Frenchwomen, dress of, 2
Funerals, 79
Furnishing of the _chateau_, 135, 136
Furniture, household, 28
Galatia, 10
Gallia Comata, 161
Games at _Lycees_, 72
Garavan, 170, 182
Gard, the, 162, 195
_Garde republicaine_, the, 64, 93
Garonne, the, 144, 164-167
Gascons, the, 11
Gaul, early tribes of, 7, 8
Gauls, the, 9
_Gendarmerie_, the, 64
Geneva, Lake of, 159, 164
George, Mr. W. L., 81
Gironde, the, 167
Gisors, 204
Golf-courses, 171, 188
Grievances, endurance of, 49, 50 redress of, 19
Gris Nez, Cape, 6, 153
Guise, Duc de, 150
Habeas Corpus, the right of, 52
Hannibal, 157
Hardelot, 189
Harfleur, 156
Hausmann, the architect, 113
Havre, Le, 156
Hedges, lack of, 121
Holdings, average size of, 116
Holmes, Mr. T. Rice, 33
Home life, 25
Home-sur-Mer, Le, 184
Honfleur, 156
Hope, Sir John, 168
Horses, breeding of, 122, 123
Hotels, 3
Hotels, French and English, contrasted, 32, 33
Household furnishing, 26 repairs, 26
Housemaid's work done by men, 25
Housing, 37 in Paris, 104
Huguenots, 150
Hunting parties, 136
Husbandry, primitive, 117
Hyeres, 172
Ideas, the great, of the French, 17, 18
_Inscription maritime_, 208
_Institut de France_, 75
Irreligion, 82, 83
_Jeune fille_, the, 39, 40, 46, 69
Jewish communities, 81
_Juge d'instruction_, 63
_Juge de paix_, 35, 61, 62, 63
Jumieges, Abbey of, 156
Jura, the, 123, 143
Lamartine, 139
Landais, the, 11
Landes, Les, 123, 124
Langeais, Chateau de, 150
Language, the French, 8, 11
Langres, Plateau de, 152
Lannemezan, plateau of, 165
Lauzan, Hotel de, Paris, 110
Le Parc, 160
Le Puy-en-Velay, 76, 146, 200
_Liberte_, destruction of the, 207
Libourne, 167
Lillebonne, 156, 198
Locke, Mr. J. W., 113
Loing, the, 152
Loire, the, 144-150, 156
Lorient, 209
Louis XIV., 110
Louvre, Palais du, Paris, 110
Lugdunum, 161
Lutetia Parisiorum, 110
_Lycees_, the, 39, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74
_Lycees_ for girls, 69
Lyons, 61, 160, 161, 162, 198
Madeleine, the, 44
Maeterlinck, 156
_Mairie_, the, 43
_Maison paternelle_, la, 35, 38
Maladetta Chain, 165
_Mariage d'inclination_, the, 40
Marie Antoinette, 110
Maritime Alps, 164
Marketing, 30, 103
Marne, the, 152
Marriage, enquiries before, 24 parental control of, 40, 41, 42
Martin, Cap, 181
Martiniere, La, 148
Mary Stuart, 150
Maure Mountains, 173
Meals, 31
Meat, the cutting of, 32
Medical services in the country, 31
Megalithic remains of Brittany, 7
Mentone, 181, 182
Merovingian architecture, 198, 199, 200
_Metayage_ system, the, 117
_Metayers_, 117
Meudon Woods, 141
Midi, the, 118
_Midinette_, the, 13, 33, 94, 95, 96
Ministry, the, 56
Misconceptions concerning France, 13
Mistral, the, 163
Monaco, 177 Prince of, 178
Monopolies, State, 60
Montaigne, 140
Monte Bego, 118
Monte Carlo, 177, 178, 179
Montmartre, 107
Mont St. Michel, 202
Morals of the French, 16, 17
Moselle, the, 151
Mules, 122
Nantes, 148
Napoleon, 67, 140 modern France the work of, 65
Napoleon III., 55
Napoule, La, 171, 174
Narbonne, 10, 126, 198
National debt, 60
Navy, the, 205-209
Neste, the, 165
Nevers, 147
Nice, 171, 176, 177
Nimes, 162, 194
Normandy, 115, 116, 118, 119, 122, 123, 126, 208 architecture of, 201 people of, 12
Notre Dame, Paris, 203
Noyon, 202
Nuns as medical practitioners, 132
Odours of France, 5
Oiseaux, Montagnes des, 173
Olive, the, 162
Omnibuses of Paris, 91, 101
Orange, 162, 196
Orleans, Foret d', 124
Orne, the, 184
Orthez, 168
Oxen, draught, 118, 124
Parc Monceaux, Paris, 108
Paris, cab-drivers of, 1, 2 compared with London, 110, 111, 112 Etoile district, 107 fortifications of, 112 high prices in, 29 high rents of, 29 home life in, 25 Plage, 189 prisons, 65 Roman, 110 St. Antoine District, 109 Sainte Chapelle, 109 St. Etienne-du-Mont, 109 St. Germain, 109 St. Jacques, 109 smoke of, 107 streets of, 86, 87, 107, 108, 109
Pau, 191, 192
Pau, Gave de, 168, 192
Peasant, costume of, 126 life, 114-131 ownership of land, 114, 115 women, 130
Pelletan, M., 206
Pennine Alps, 143, 159
Percheron horses, 123
Perdu, Mont, 165
Perigueux, 197, 198
Philippe Auguste, 150
Phoenician traders, 164
Phylloxera, the, 125
Pigs, 123
Pinay, 145
_Pistonnage_, 58
Plato, 183
Poitiers, 200
Poitou, plain of, 144
Police, 64
Policemen of Paris, 90, 91
Politeness of the French, 99
Pont du Gard, 157, 195
Pont du Roi, 165
Pratz, Mdlle. de, 95, 105
_Premiere Instance_, Court of, 61
President, the, 57, 58
Prison system, 64
Protective tariffs, 104
Protestants in France, 81
Provence, scenery of, 163
Public Instruction, Minister of, 68
Pyrenees, the, 123, 124, 165, 191, 192
Pyrimont, 160
Rapidity of speech, 15
Reason, Festival of, 197
Religion of the French, 76, 77
Rents in Paris, 103, 104
Revolution, the, 50, 62, 197
Rheims, 203
Rhone, the, 127, 143, 157, 160, 161-165
Rhone Glacier, 144, 158
Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 153
Riviera, the, 169-183
Road, rule of the, 90
Roanne, 145, 147
Robespierre, 110
Rochefort, 139, 209
Roman architecture in France, 193-199
Roman Catholicism, 81
Rouen, 154, 155, 203
Sabatier, Paul, 84
St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 150
St. Benezet, 157
Ste. Beuve, 139
St. Denis, Paris, 78, 200, 202
St. Etienne, 145, 146
St. Gaudens, 166
St. Georges de Boscherville, 201
St. Germain, Faubourg, Paris, 106, 111
St. Gilles, 163
St. Jean de Luz, 190, 191
St. Martory, 166
St. Maurice, 158
St. Michel, Mont, 202
St. Raphael, 173
St. Remy, 197
St. Valery-en-Caux, 186
St. Wandrille, 156
Sand, George, 128-130
Sanitation, imperfection of, 88, 89
Saone, the, 160, 161
Scholarships, State, 69
School-boy, the, 73
Schoolmistress, the lay, 69, 70
Schools, 85
Segusiani, the, 161
Seine, the, 11, 150-157
Senate, the, 55
Servants, female, 26
Sevigne, Marquise de, 110
Sheep, 123
Sherard, Mr. Robert, 141
Shooting parties, 136
Shop assistants, 100
Sologne, the, 148
Soult, Marshal, 168
Strabo, 164
Strong, Rowland, 92
Submarine, France and the, 18
Superstitions among the peasantry, 131
Tancarville Castle, 156
Tancarville, Raoul de, 201
Taine, H. A., 65
Tarascon, 162
Tarbais horses, 123
Tarbes, 123
Taxation, 59 indirect, 60
Taxis, horse-drawn, in Paris, 92
Telephone, inventor of, 18
Tenda, Col di, 172
Teutones, 157
Thiers, 139
Thrift, the need for, 24
Thriftiness of the French, 14, 21
Toques, the, 183
Toulon, 207, 209
Toulouse, 166 plain of, 124
Touquet, Le, 188
Tours, 144
Town planning in France, 112
Traffic of Paris, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94
Trees, roadside, 121
Treport, 187
_Tribunal correctionnel de l'arrondissement_, 61
Trou du Taureau, 165
Trouville, 183
Tuileries, the, Paris, 110
Turbie, La, 181
Universities, the, 74
Valence, 162
Valescure, 173
Vallais, the, 159
Veuillot, 139
Veules, 186
Vienne, 162, 197, 200
Vikings, the, 154
Villages, 120
Villefranche, 177
Vine, the, 163
Vines, American, 125
Virgin, representations of the, 76
Visigothic architecture, 199
Vosges, the, 123, 143
Vulgarity in illustrated papers, 15, 16
Waddington, Mary K., 136
Washing days, 138
Wedding ceremonies, 43, 44
Wellington, Duke of, 168, 191
William the Conqueror, 156, 184, 201
Wine-grower, the, 125
Woman in business, the, 46
Women, position of, among the peasants, 128
Yonne, the, 152
Young, Arthur, 166
Zola, Emile, 128
THE END
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