[49] He could not be called naturally gifted, even in the matter of
speaking; but he had been well taught from his youth up, both the manner
and the method of fixing the attention of his hearers.
[50] On the quay at the front of the Hotel d'Angleterre, the public
seats under the trees are crowded with people in the afternoon,
especially of the poor and working classes.
[51] There seem to be few living French artists of genius, who devote
themselves to landscape painting; when we have mentioned the names of
Troyon, Lambinet, Lamoriniere and Auguste Bonheur, we have almost
exhausted the list.
[52] It is unfortunately different in the case of the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood of Fecamp and Etretat, who are certainly not improved,
either in manners or morals, by the fashionable invasion of their
province.
[53] The London 'Illustrated Police News.'
[54] The people in this part of Normandy are becoming less political,
and more conservative, every day (a conservatism which, in their case,
may be taken as a sign of prosperity, and of a certain unwillingness to
be disturbed in their business); they are content with a paternal
government--at a distance; they wish for peace and order, and have no
objection to be taken care of. They are so willing to be led that, as a
Frenchman expressed it to us, 'they would almost prefer, if they could,
to have an omnipotent Postmaster-General to inspect all letters, and see
whether they were creditable to the sender and fitting to be received'!
[55] In the matter of bells, the same voices now ring half over
Europe--the music is the same at Bruges as at Birmingham; church bells
being made wholesale, to the same pattern and in the same mould, another
link in the chain of old associations, is broken.
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