reader; while as an episode in that vast epic of Charlemagne and his twelve peers, at which the medieval poets laboured, and of which Ariosto himself only produced a brilliant fragment, it is of disproportioned length.

It was by a reverse process to that which he here employed that Tasso a few years later made himself famous; by constructing a solid framework for his loveepisodes out of the real story of the First Crusade, and by subordinating the private joys and sorrows of individuals, in the necessary degree, to that public enterprise which stirred the heart of Christendom so powerfully. But the Rinaldo' is interesting as marking one of the steps by which its author arrived at the 'Jerusalem Delivered.' It contains the first sketches of several finished pictures in that great poem. It shows the extent to which classic influences

had already begun to affect his composition. Its mythologic allusions, ill as they fit its story; its regular development for its intended conclusion is early announced, and to that conclusion most of its incidents contribute; and its episodes derived from the ancient poets,-all alike foreshadow that blending of things new and old, of the classic with the romantic school, which were to strike every reader in Tasso's great epic.

And besides acting as the harbinger of the poem by which it was to be itself eclipsed, the 'Rinaldo' seems to predict its own writer's destiny. Like his own hero, he was to be guided by Love into the forest where the dews are tears and the boughs are stirred by human sighs. But, alas! he was doomed to wait longer there than he, before the bright gleam appeared in the distance to announce that the deliverer was at hand.

"THEY manage these things better in France," has long been a saying, if not actually a belief, with many persons in England. Now, whether we accept this aphorism to its full extent or not, it is undoubtedly true in a limited sense. A comparison of any undertaking or institution in the two countries is almost sure to be fruitful to both. But even if it were not, it is certain it cannot fail to be in

teresting. Such must inevitably be the character of any attempt to trace the efforts of our neighbours among difficulties with which we have struggled ourselves. It is in this belief, and knowing that the reformatory and industrial school question is now occupying a good deal of attention in Great Britain and Ireland, that I offer to the readers of 'Maga' the following account of what I saw and heard of that subject during a recent visit to France.

One day last summer, armed with a large official letter, I made my way to the Ministry of the Interior in Paris. Of course the cabman did not know the road, and of course the passer-by of whom I inquired in my best French turned out to be a Cockney. Once arrived, however, I found no difficulty in sending up my credentials to M. le Ministre's "particular secretary," and was forthwith shown into a waiting-room that formed a pleasant contrast to the English counterpart, with its tasteful decorations of cocoa-nut matting, pewter ink-stands, and dirty blotting-paper. Here, to begin with, were busts of Diane and Apollon, chairs and a sofa (as comfortable as such things ever are in France), and an imposing picture of a naval action

"The

hung upon the wall. A dark, impatient man was pacing up and down, evidently very nervous about the object of his visit. Blue-uniformed attendants flitted occasionally to and fro. At last I was shown up to the particular secretary-quite the usual type in the usual room, but the appointments less solid and more domestic-looking than in Whitehall. Minister had not come yet. My answer should be sent to the hotel." However, just as I was bowing out, a bell rang loudly, and the secretary bolted, asking me to wait a minute. On his return, he took me to the Minister's room. This was a very smart apartment-ormolu clocks, gilt candelabra, heavy curtains, Utrecht - velvet chairs, and what looked like a good copy of a large Venetian picture at the far end of the room. I thought to myself that the office-keepers at the Home Office would stare if they saw this huge undraped lady among the Secretary of State's solemn bookcases. Presently, with quick steps, like a man of business on the stage, enter a little man, who looked as if he had sat up very late the night before. Giving me a hasty bow, he mastered the contents of the official letter, and in a few jerky sentences recapitulated my wants. I said, "Oui." He then ran off in a similar style what he would do for me. I said, "Merci." Thereupon M. le Ministre dashes off a letter, and some sand on to it. I say "Merci again, and also "Bon jour." At

the last moment the statesman relaxes a little, and says "he hopes I can find my way out." I assure him I can, and exit with a large

brown despatch addressed to the Director of Prisons.

On reaching the haunts of that official, it appeared that he was ill, and his Deputy was out. So a polite clerk showed me to the room of the latter, and left me alone with a wreathed bust representing the French Republic, and the 'Journal Officiel.' Fortunately the 'Journal' contained good reading, for the Deputy was long in coming. First, a 66 scene " in the Chamber, on the question of secular education, a "Reactionary" objecting to the children in some Department being taught a song, the refrain of which was

"Let's make pâtés Of the Curés."

To support his case, the "Reactionary" called the Government "atheists and barbarians," the Ministers replying with hoots. Secondly, an official letter from the Minister of Agriculture to the Director of Woods and Forests, setting forth in magnificent language how forests could not possibly do well themselves, or be of any service to humanity, except under a republic.

At last the Deputy returned, and was politeness itself. He informed me that there were three kinds of "Etablissements pénitentiaires." "Maisons d'education," under women, for young children. "Colonies pénitentiaires," which take juvenile offenders (persons under sixteen) who have been acquitted as having acted "sans discernement," or whose judicial sentence if carried out would have been less than two years' imprisonment. "Quartiers correctionels," for sentences that would have been over two years, and for incorrigibles from the "Colonies."

Some of the establishments are under Government management, others are private. As there were

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only two Government schools for young children, and these a long way from Paris, I was obliged to give up any idea of visiting a specimen of that class. It was, however, arranged that I should see a Government "Colonie " at Douaires, and a Quartier" at Rouen, which would give me a sight of the two principal species, corresponding to our reformatory and industrial schools. The Deputy was also anxious that I should have a talk with the secretary of the Société de Patronage des Jeunes Détenus at Paris. To this I assented, and we parted, after he had promised to send the letters of introduction to my hotel.

The following day I called upon the last-named official at the Society's establishment in the Rue Mezieres. All the children were out, so there was nothing to see; but we had a talk about the work of the institution to the following effect: The society was formed for the purpose of taking into its own hands children committed in the Department of the Seine, either to a "Colonie" or a "Quartier." This it effects by inquiry into all the cases that come to La Roquette, where the committals of the Seine are sent before being shipped off to the various institutions in the provinces. If, after careful investigation, the Society decide to undertake a particular case, they are allowed, by special arrangement with the State, to remove it to their own premises. The child is then brought up by the Society, some member of which becomes his

"patron." The "patron " finds

him a place as soon as he is ready for it, and acts in all respects in loco parentis, visiting him in the guise of a relative, and watching his career till he is established in life. No difficulty is experienced in placing out the children in Paris;

on the contrary, there is rather a demand for them. The master alone is told the antecedents of his apprentice, all knowledge of the boy's past being kept as far as possible from every one else.

During the period of commitment, which usually lasts till twenty years of age, the effect of the sentence is merely suspended, so that if the child is hopelessly refractory, or falls again into the hands of vicious relatives, he can be sent to the "Etablissement" to which he was originally committed. A large number of the boys go into the army. Every Sunday the children still in charge of the Society come back to headquarters, where they find a change of underclothing, put on their Sunday suit, attend mass, and get their dinner. As a rule, very young children are not admitted; but when this is done, they are sent to a school kept by the sisters of St Katherine. The Society also gives shelter and finds work for boys returning to Paris after their discharge from Establishments in the country. The work done in this way is said to produce most satisfactory results, the boys giving very little trouble, and mostly turning out well. Indeed it is obvious that the plan has, in theory at least, solved several difficult problems. It educates a young offender by kindness, without losing the possibility of a severer discipline, helps him materially and morally in his first struggles with life, and gives him something in the nature of a home that he may regard with affection and hesitate to discredit. Besides dealing with children who have been sentenced as above mentioned, the Society does good work in preventing committals, in cases where parents are respectable, by becoming, together with the parents, a security for the good be

haviour of the child, in which case the tribunals are willing to abstain from convicting.

A day or two after my visit to the Rue Mezieres, I put into my pocket a large whitey-brown envelope, containing a letter in which the chief of the 4th Bureau prayed M. the Director of the Colonie Agricole of Douaires to "receive M. A, and to give him all the facilities that are necessary in view of the researches and studies to which he has the project of directing himself." Armed with this document, I descended from the train at a station called Gaillon. The town of that name stood some way off, picturesquely crowning the glacis of the valley. Seeing what looked like an old chateau converted into a public Establishment, I made sure it was my "Colonie ;" and was a good deal horrified on learning it was a prison, and a little spire in the very far distance was Douaires. However, I trudged manfully along the straight dusty road, through plains of tilth stuck here and there with apple-trees, till I reached Gaillon. There seeing some tolerably road-worthy looking vehicles. standing outside a stable, I ordered one to be got ready at once and to follow, as I had to catch the afternoon train back to Paris. A smartlooking peasant said "he would garnish his horse immediately, but that it required time for all things.” The time for his catching me up was of course just as I had surmounted the glacis aforesaid, and got on to the high plateau where Douaires stands. I mounted, and found a capital horse for France, at whom my driver emitted extraordinary sounds, partly made up, I imagine, of the animal's name, and partly of cries of encouragement. The man also found. time for conversation,

I won

which chiefly turned on the cheapness of living at Gaillon, as compared with Paris. dered a good deal at this fancy for social science, till I found that my economist's general laws only applied to the "Soleil d'Or," an inn that turned out to be kept by his sister-in-law.

At length we stopped at the "Colonie." A row of pretty houses of brownish-white and whiteybrown brick stood in little gardens on each side of the approach, at the end of which was the chapel. On one side of this were the shops and stables, and on the other a large drill - ground. My jehu knocked at the door of the Director's bureau, and after presenting my letter, I sat down and had a talk with that officer. He had then in his charge, in a school of 500, nine boys under ten years old, one of whom only was less than eight. The usual term of detention was up to twenty, though occasionally only to eighteen. There was in the establishment a case committed for six months, another for twelve years and seven months, the average being something under seven years. Many of the boys came from distant parts, being confined, in the first instance, in "Maisons d'arrêt," where, however, they are carefully kept apart from adults. Very few of the parents were of a respectable class, but the Director did not seem to think that desertion, or connivance at offences on the part of the parents, with the view of getting the children into the "Colonie," was common. No payments are extracted from the parents, as with us the State providing the whole expense.

Corporal punishment is not allowed in France. In consequence of this, the "cellule" (solitary confinement) has a much larger use than

as

with us. At Douaires boys are only confined in the "cellule" for the night, the punishment varying from one to thirty nights, according to the nature of the offence. In the day they are set to the most disagreeable kinds of work, such as carrying burdens and cleaning the floors, and are kept alone as much as possible. They attend the mass in a small loft, looking into the chapel by a porthole. For rewards, there is a system of marks, one good mark entitling its owner to a sou. Half of this he may spend, the other half is put by to form a fund when he goes. There are also three good conduct tableaux. Boys whose names are in these tables gain small privileges, such badges and more meat at meals. From the first of them, the tableau d'honneur, the selections are made for licensing out (liberté provisoire). This is authorised by the Government, on the application of the Director, who, however, never applies to place a boy out before he has been at Douaires a year and a half, and usually not before half his term of detention is passed. They had 160 children out on licence, their average detention in the school having been nearly four years. The interference of the parents with boys placed out gave but little trouble, which may be accounted for by the plan of committing to schools at a distance from the residence of the children, and the late age to which the State control extends. Indeed the Director said there was a Bill in contemplation to make that age twenty-one in all cases, of which he was inclined to approve. Agriculture is the chief industrial train

ing, the boys from the towns only being taught trades. No boy is put to industrial work till between fourteen and fifteen years old.