places, may constantly be seen, simply to
this effect—" Substitutes Wanted; " and then
follows the address. The dealers in men,
however, have fine establishments on the
quays, and in the great streets, with signboards
representing gigantic grenadiers and
tempestuous-looking hussars, to attract heroically
disposed passers-by. Messrs. Xavier
de Larsalle et Cie., Rue Montmartre, 140, are
at present announcing through the medium
of the press that they have a fine choice of
substitutes " at the disposition of the youths
of the class eighteen hundred and fifty-three,
now being called into activity." Sometimes,
from caprice, or in hope of making a good
bargain, " a father of a family "— this is an
implied appeal to the generosity of these mercenary
warriors—placards the wall with
written handbills; or you may see the announcement
that a man in excellent condition
may be heard of for sale at such an address.
These substitutes are sometimes soldiers discharged
after their regular term of service;
but, generally they are youths of vagrant disposition,
whom chance has spared. According
to the testimony of French generals, they perform
excellent service in the field, but are remarkable
for a tendency to insubordination. A
large proportion of the crimes committed in
the army are attributed to the remplaçants.

In country places, where little confidence
exists in the companies set up with speculative
views, it is not uncommon for seven or
eight heads of families to combine in a sort
of club, each advancing a certain sum for the
formation of a fund to be divided amongst
those of their sons on whom the lot happens
to fall. The peasantry of Bretagne are especially
averse to military service. In many of
their villages are sorcerers, who pretend to
have the power of selling one good number
every year. They are never without customers,
who sometimes bid high to be ensured a life
of peace: and we are gravely assured that
their incantations never fail. All these circumstances
combine to show that the military
career is by no means popular in France.
Another, still more extraordinary, remains to
be mentioned. The eldest son of a widow is
exempt from service by right; and not a
month ago a peasant killed his father in a
wood, in order to bring himself within that
category.

The youth of France, then, without exception,
on arriving, as we have said, at the age
of twenty-one, prepare themselves with what
cheerfulness they may for the great event. If
they are abroad, they must return: which is
one of the reasons why few fathers send
their sons early to foreign parts, even if
tempted by advantageous offers. It is not
necessary to have any very great experience
of the French character to be sure that in
the majority of cases, the young men, who
have sympathised with their parents most
sincerely in endeavours to prepare against
ill-luck, put a good face on the matter
when the fatal epoch arrives. The drawing
takes place on a particular day, in Paris, at
the Mairie; in the provinces, at the chief
town of the department, or the principal
village of a canton. Early in the morning
all the lads are astir, emancipating themselves
for ever from the paternal control.
All the world over victims are adorned as
they are led to the altar. The youths whose
hearts are trembling—not with physical fear,
but with anxiety, for their destiny is at stake
—dress out in their best clothes, and adorn
their hats with cockades and ribbons prepared
by the hands of sisters or sweethearts. To
see them, you would fancy they are all boiling-
over with military ardour. They set out
arm in arm, and gradually, as they go from
house to house, and hamlet to hamlet, often
swell into potent crowds. The country rings
with martial songs; and, as it seems required
by immemorial custom that a considerable
halt shall take place at every cabaret or
auberge by the way, it may easily be conceived
that before the afternoon jollity and
courage come together, and every one pretends,
at least, to aspire to the marshal's baton.

Each district is required to furnish a certain
number of men fit for service, according
to its population. By " fit for service," is now
meant, one metre fifty-six centimetres in
height, without bodily infirmities of any kind.
Not long since, the military height was
lowered by a certificate, to the great disgust
of the dwarf portion of the people. The examining
doctors are not very severe in finding
out defects, and are often blind to those
which the patients take care to exhibit and
announce. We have known a man forced to
serve who was so deaf that he could never
hear the word of command. In spite of this
laxity, however, the peasantry in some of the
provinces of France are so ill-fed, so weak, so
small, that every able-bodied youth is taken
away for service; and yet very often the
number required by the government is not
made up. In Paris, Lyons, and the other
great cities, where the workmen are comparatively
well fed, most of those who are
designated by chance become soldiers; but
throughout the country thirty-six per cent
are rejected as absolutely unfit. Among these
are included many who, like the fellahs of
Egypt, mutilate themselves by cutting oil' a
finger, or drawing their teeth, in order to be
exempt by reason of infirmity.

Two or three weeks after they have drawn
their numbers, the young men are again
called upon to appear to undergo an examination.
If the district has been required to
furnish a hundred men, there is tremor and
anxiety up to one hundred and fifty. The
eldest sons of widows; second and fourth
sons of families of which the first and third
are already in the service, and other persons
designated by the law, as well as the dwarf,
the blind, the halt, the maimed, the deaf, the
consumptive, the weakly, the deformed, are