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.
What the French Lower Classes read.
Trashy Novels.
Horrible Situations.
Cent Bons Livres.
La Bibliothèque Populaire.
La Bibliothèque Utile.
Lending Libraries.
In Schools and Barracks.