Duke that no buman power could save them now, and that every ship was doomed. A hasty council was called. 'What shall I do ?' said the Duke. Oh! what shall I do?' 'Do! What should you do? Why, turn and fight them again till you die,' cried hot-blooded Oquendo. Recalde too was for turning and fighting the way back to Calais. 'But,' said another, there is no ammunition, and this is no time for bravado.' Francisco de Bobadilla, brave old general though he was, wailed that the only thing left for them was to pray to God for rescue. Then suddenly-they said, by a miracle-the wind shifted to the south-west, and gradually the Armada drew away from the threatened destruction of the shoals.

'The Armada is so battered and crippled,' wrote the Duke to the King, that I considered it my first duty to save it from utter destruction.' So the fatal order was given to run before the wind up the North Sea, round Scotland and Ireland, far out into the North Atlantic; and then to set a course for home. Run away! Mad with grief and rage, the sailors protested in vain. 'die a thousand deaths than turn tail like this.' shut up in his cabin, deaf and blind to all but his fears. Home to dry land and safety; for he had had enough fighting for the rest of his life, and he would face the 'devilish folk' no more.

Rather,' cried they,
But the Duke was

Bringing his barge close to the San Martin, Oquendo cursed and insulted the King's High-Admiral and his Andaluz countrymen who were disgracing the name of Spaniard. 'Back to your tunnypools! chicken-hearted cravens that ye are, for ye are fit for naught else.' 'Body of God!' shouted De Leyva, the second in command; 'the King has given us a leader unfit to live on land, much less on sea.' And so, one after the other, the admirals cursed their chief, and with tears of rage and broken hearts turned tail to the foe andran away. The Duke's orders were that the ships should sail north before the wind to the height of the Orkneys, beat far out to the west on the Atlantic, and then set a course for home. Beyond this no help, no counsel, no command, could be got from Medina Sidonia. In his abject collapse all he could do was to hang a captain whose ship had accidentally preceded him in the flight.

The awful story of the ultimate fate of half of the great Armada must be told elsewhere. The appalling sufferings of the plaguestricken, famished men, the sudden founderings in the wild Atlantic, the wrecks and massacres in the west of Ireland, added dire dramatic completeness to the catastrophe. But with them or without them the result would have been the same. The sceptre of the sea passed to England on the day when it was proved that English ships were stouter and handier, and that English sailors and gunners were hardier and more skilful, than their rivals. The hour that this ceases to be the case Britannia's realm passes to other rulers.-God grant that the hour may never come!

MARTIN HUME.

THE FRENCH ARISTOCRACY

DOES France possess a genuine aristocracy, an upper class composed of people who are either noble by descent or have been elevated to high rank for services rendered to the country? One would believe so if one placed exclusive faith in what is said in French newspapers, Parliamentary speeches, novels, and books of a more solid character; and this belief would amount to a conviction if 'one accepted the statements published by journals of the most opposite shades on the occasion of the fire at the Bazar de la Charité. According to some, who spoke with a touch of irony, indicating envy rather than commiseration, the flower of French society had been cut down, while according to others, who failed to hide their misplaced pretensions and a pride anxious to appear legitimate, the aristocracy had left in the ashes of that catastrophe the bluest of its blood, the remains of its most illustrious families. A priest improved on this by launching from the pulpit of Notre-Dame words which re-echoed through the world as to the necessity of this sacrifice of innocent and exalted victims in expiation of the sins of the nation. In short, there sprang forth from every side, like a watchword, the assertion that in the midst of the democratic population of France there still existed a nobility, a patrician aristocracy, and that this aristocracy had been decimated by the recent disaster. We will show how incorrect that assertion is.

The honour of founding the philanthropic institution called the 'Bazar de la Charité' is due to Mr. Henry Blount, an Englishman. It was established in 1885, and he has remained its honorary president, the effective president being M. le Baron de Mackau, who belongs to an illustrious family of sailors. His father was a Minister of the Navy. M. le Baron de Mackaů is a Deputy and a member of the group called the 'Droite Ralliée.' He does not profess to trace his ancestry back to the crusades. Then come the committee, M. le Baron Robert Oppenheim, a baron of finance, of German extraction; M. Amédée Dufaure, son of M. Dufaure the barrister, who was Minister of Justice in the last two Governments; M. Jules Auffray, a manufacturer, of middle-class stock, like the preceding member; M. le Comte Marcel de Germiny, a count of financial origin; M.

Léon Gosselin, called De Gosselin; MM. Paul, Leturc, Léon Marty, le Comte Georges de Montgermont, le Comte Albert de Mun, le Baron Reille (created under the Empire), and Baron Fernand Schickler, of the Berlin house of that name, a family related to the Duc d'Albufuera, long established in France and occupying a most honourable position there. How many out of the dozen, including the President, belong to the French nobility? Four to the old nobility and only one to the Imperial nobility. The modesty of these five members of the privileged class would be hurt if they were described as representative of the French aristocracy. They only claim to form part of it.

This Bazar de la Charité, of which so much has been said, is the outcome of a happy idea of grouping in a single organisation the majority of those philanthropical institutions which reflect so much honour on French society, without distinction of creed or origin. It is, therefore, quite natural that society ladies who are well off and charitably inclined should combine in this way to economise expenses and stimulate each other's zeal in aiding the poor. The object is good, and the idea ingenious; but in practice it does not represent an act of nobility according to the French conception of what a noble may and may not do. In France it used to be considered infra dig. for a nobleman to engage in trade. The ruined noble who wished to become rich again otherwise than by fighting—that is, by trading or cultivating his land-had to lay aside his sword until he had abandoned the occupation which he had taken up to restore him to easy circumstances. It is true that the notion of acting comedies and aping professional players took hold of the most distinguished ladies of the Court. This fashion sprang naturally from the Italian Renaissance, and thence worked its way into the French Court. But no one would ever have thought of building, either at Versailles or Paris, a street of stalls with such sign boards as Le Chat botté or La Truie qui file, where duchesses of high lineage, and even princesses of the blood, should vend toilet articles, baby linen, sleeve links, and cigars. The sale of cigars, it appears, is particularly lucrative. A gentleman who is offered a cigar by a lady of his own class cannot well refuse it, and when he asks the price the reply is, 'Un louis.' Some things are still dearer. It is said that a very pretty woman with whom a certain personage was smitten offered him some small articles, the prices of which were, for him, fabulous. 'No,' said he, 'your stall contains but one thing that tempts me, and you would not care to sell it.' 'Say what it is, at all events,' replied the lady, ' and tell me the price you are willing to pay.' 'Twenty thousand francs for a kiss.' 'Double the figure and you shall have it,' the lady answered, presenting her cheek and holding out her hand. The gentleman, of course, had to comply. People admired the way the poor had been benefited, but there does not appear to have been a repetition of the incident.

These charity sales, a modern invention, have now become the fashion in France. More than two thousand of them are held in Paris during the season. The best known and most admired ladies consider it an honour to preside or take part therein, and consequently it was not surprising to see a princess of royal blood, closely allied to the House of France, managing a stall and busying herself in selling goods. She did it with perfect grace and a zeal evidently inspired by love of her fellow-creatures. This lady was a daughter of Duke Maximilian and Princess Louise of Bavaria. She thus belonged to the younger branch of the royal House of Wittelsbach, and was a sister of the Empress of Austria, of the Princess of Tour and Taxis, of the ex-Queen of Naples, and of the Countess de Trani. She married, in 1868, Prince Ferdinand d'Orléans-Bourbon, Duc d'Alençon. Eye-witnesses agree in saying that she refused to flee until all the ladies who were assisting at her stall had escaped. This devotion cost her her life.

In examining the names of the other stall-holders we are astonished to find so few noblewomen. Out of twenty-two there are only eight belonging to the old nobility and two of recent creation. The other twelve are members of families which, although very worthy and highly esteemed, are distinctly plebeian. The central office, presided over by the Marquise Costa de Beauregard, was pointed out at the time as being the most aristocratic in its composition, and yet, leaving aside the Duchesse d'Alençon and the Duchesse de Vendôme, niece of the King of the Belgians, it numbered among its staff of seventy-two saleswomen only twentytwo who could legitimately claim to belong to a house dating further than a century back. Even then a reserve must be made in regard to foreign titles borne in France. The title of prince, for instance, belongs exclusively to members of the old Royal Family.

The above figures show that, in the staff of the bazaar, the bourgeoisie preponderated largely. The list of victims is scarcely less eloquent. Without speaking of the injured, whose number and rank will never be accurately known, no less than 132 persons lost their lives, of whom only six were men. The vast majority of those present when the fire broke out were ladies who had come to buy or to sell, and a few children. It is true that among these 132 victims there were women who belonged to the very highest society, and no doubt their names, more brilliant than the rest, so dazzled the scribes as to make them count double. Apart from a score of titles which are perfectly authentic we note thirty-two names indicating in a more or less debatable manner a connection with the genuine French nobility. We abstain from discussing their claims, and will simply remark that three-fourths of the persons who perished formed part of what is denominated la haute bourgeoisie parisienne, which is composed of the families of bankers, manufacturers, and people

who have attained wealth through trade or financial speculations. It is, therefore, incorrect to say that the nobility was decimated in that terrible disaster, unless we suppose that of this nobility, old and new, so few are left that the loss of thirty members makes an irreparable breach in their ranks.

The upper stratum of French society, as it exists at the present day, is a sufficiently curious mixture to warrant a close examination. France is governed by means of democratic institutions, of which universal suffrage forms the base; but the aristocratic spirit is so deeply rooted in the nation that there are constant collisions, the victory finally resting with the aristocratic element. It has been well said that in France the democratic sentiment exists only on the surface, and that in his heart every democrat aspires to the aristocracy. History bears witness to this. The French Revolution, the great one, although the populace unconsciously took part in it, was nothing else but an uprising of the wealthy bourgeoisie against an aristocracy by birth whose place it desired to take. The French nobility had, it is true, been recruited by the elevation of certain financiers of the last century, without, however, gaining much honour thereby; but, on the other hand, men of merit who aspired to enter its ranks were rigorously excluded. Saint-Simon well expressed the sentiments of his time and caste when he heaped scorn on those new recruits. The English aristocracy has been compared with a perennial tree that extends its roots deep into the earth, in order that it may bear abundant and savoury fruit at the top. There is nothing of the kind in France. The French aristocracy was never anything else but a closed caste, and, under the name of parties, the state of things is just the same to-day. One might say that there are as many aristocracies as there are parties which come successively into power. And what may astonish those who are not well acquainted with French society is that there is not a single democrat who, after having aspired to the aristocracy and secured a place therein, does not consent-much against his will, of course-to accept, or even try to obtain, an honorific title, something having the appearance of nobility.

This desire to appear noble, even without being so in mind or character, is so strong in France that it has given rise to a very picturesque saying. The conferring of titles of nobility has been called savonnette à vilain. Napoleon, who, after the great revolutionary storm, aimed at forming an entirely new aristocracy and a new nobility, naturally met with no obstacle in the democratic principle. The most ardent revolutionists, those who had tried with all their might to destroy the old nobility, entered almost with transports into the new.

It is quite conceivable that a military chief, after having exhausted the hierarchy of grades and the sumptuary liberalities at his