TITLEFrance 1907 (A book of Political Philosophy and description of the country).This is a scanned copy of the original book containing both searchable text and the original graphics. It is provided as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, you can search for names, places and items which may not be in the index. It can be purchased:
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AUTHORJohn Edward Courtenay Bodley (1853-1925)(From Wikipedia) was an English civil servant, known for his writings on France. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford from 1873 to 1876[1]. An active Freemason, he approached Oscar Wilde, then also an undergraduate, and introduced him to a Masonic Lodge in Oxford[2][3]. Richard Ellmann[4] attributes to Bodley a long, spiteful New York Times article that appeared on Wilde, on 21 January 1882. |
PUBLISHEDMACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, I907, First Edition, two volumes, 8th February 1898, Reprinted April 1898, New Editions, revised, 1899, 1902, 1907 |
DESCRIPTIONfrom the TIMES.—" A work to be consulted by all who would understand the forces and movements in French life . . . a work which is the worthy outcome of well-spent years and which will take rank with Mr. Bryce's America, and Sir D. M. Wallace's Russia, among the few books which enable nations to understand nations." (From the preface 1898) I take this opportunity of rendering my thanks to the many French people of all classes and of ail shades of opinion who for more than seven years have in manifold ways helped me in my work. Some of them are mentioned incidentally in the Introductory Chapter, but it would be impossible to name all those to whom I am indebted for ideas, for facilities in pursuing my studies, and for innumerable kind offices. The capital subject of these volumes is Political France after a Century of Revolution. The plan of the 'work needs little explanation. The Introductory Chapter is not an essential part of it, but it may be of utility, as it contains a description of the influences encountered by a student of public questions in France. The relations of the great Revolution with modern France are then examined, and this gives an opportunity of considering certain phases of French life which would otherwise be neglected in a political treatise. The Executive and Legislative Powers are the special matters which form the basis of the remainder of the work. Their operation under the regime which has subsisted in France during the last quarter of the nineteenth century leads to the study of various conceptions which the French have had, during a hundred years of political experiment, of the functions of a Chief of the State and of Parliamentary Institutions. I do not think that I need apologise for having treated those important subjects in minute detail In this swift age of handbooks two volumes may seem a slender result of seven years' uninterrupted labour ; but those who have seriously studied problems of government will recognise that the time which has been devoted to the questions dealt with here is not excessive. Moreover, I may say that with half the labour expended on these pages I could have' produced, three or four years ago, three or four volumes examining much less thoroughly the same subjects. During the final stages of my work I have often realised the profound wisdom of Pascal's famous ending of his sixteenth Lettre Provinciate: " Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte." To understand properly the relations of modern France with the Revolution, and the working of French political institutions, it has been necessary to study with careful research a number of subjects referred to only incidentally in these volumes. It, however, seemed better to confine the actual scope of this work to the two themes mentioned above than to add a third volume on the jurisdictions of the great interior departments of the State, which in France survive revolutions and changes of regime. It would needs have been a fragmentary and inexhaustive supplement to a work which I have striven to make as complete as possible. " Diligence and accuracy," said a great master of our language, " are the only merits which an historical writer can ascribe to himself." My experience is that an author may with greater confidence vouch for his diligence than for his accuracy, even though he treat not of the dim ages of which Gibbon wrote, but of events in the lifetime of men he has seen or of contemporary laws and practices. The most scrupulous care does not assure perfect immunity from error, as I found out in the attentive revision to which these volumes have been submitted. There was a point of electoral jurisprudence on which the text-books were obscure, and though not of international importance, it is interesting to students of comparative procedure ; so I wrote to a Deputy who is a parliamentary authority to clear it up, and incorporated his answer in my text. Later, being invited by the experienced and intelligent Mayor of a village to be present at a poll over which he presided, I repeated the question to him, and he gave a completely different reply. Finally, I referred it to a Senator, and he demonstrated so clearly that both the Deputy and the Mayor were wrong, that I adopted his version. The incident shows that neither familiarity with a country, nor assiduous care, nor the kindly help of its best-informed inhabitants, can ensure infallibility in a work like this. I hope, however, that errors of fact are not frequent in its pages; and should any have survived its vigilant emendation I shall be extremely grateful if readers or critics will point them out to me. |
LANGUAGE: English |
SAMPLEYou can examine a sample of the book in PDF form here. |
PROVISIONThis eBook is provided as a searchable PDF document (Acrobat format Document) and so you can search for names, places and items many of which are not indexed in the normal index. The Adobe™ Acrobat™ (.pdf) format requires the FREE Adobe™ Acrobat™ Reader . Download and installation instructions for the Adobe™ Acrobat™ Reader are on the Adobe™ website. This reader allows the viewing and printing of the book.There are 689 pages in the original book. There is one PDF file, in black and white. 004422.pdf. This is the main body of the book. This file is approximately 88MB. |
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