PERSONAL QUALITIES OF THE FRENCH AND PRUSSIANS.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 1004, 25 February 1871, Page 16

PERSONAL QUALITIES OF THE FRENCH AND PRUSSIANS.

Mr Henry Labouchere, who Is now a besieged resident in Paris, writes to the Daily News : —

I really am sorry for these vain, silly, gulled humbugs among whom 1 am living. They have many amiable qualities, although in trying to be Spartans they have mistaken their vocation. They are, indeed, far too agreeable to be Spartans, who in private life must have been the most intolerable of bores. It is a sad confession of human weakness, but, as a rule, persons are not liked on account of their virtues. Excessively good people are — speaking socially — angular. Take, for instance, the Prussians : they are saints compared with the French. They have every soirt of excellence; they are honest, sober, hard-working, well instructed, brave, good sons, husbands, and fathers ; and yet all this is spoilt by one single fault — they are insupportable. Laugh at the French, abuse them as one may, it is impossible to help liking them. Admire, reßpect the Prussians as one may, it is impossible to help disliking them. I will venture to say it would be impossible to find 100 Germans born south of the M»ino *ho wcwld. declare, en their

honour, that they prefer a Prussian to a Frenchman. The only Prussian I ever knew who was an agreeable man was Bißmarck. All others with whom I have been thrown — and I have lived for years in Germany — were proud as Scotchmen, oold as New Englanders, and touchy as only Prussians can be. I once had a friend among them. His name was Buckenbrock. Inadvertently I called him Butterbrod. We have never spoken since. A Prussian lieutenant is the most offensive specimen of humanity that nature and pipe-clay have ever produced. Apart from all political considerations, the supremacy of this nation in Europe will be a social calamity, unless France, like vanquished Greece, introduce the amenities of Society among those pedant quires and martinets.