This volume is neither a diary nor a narrative. To have given it either of these forms, each of which has its obvious advantages, would have extended it beyond all reasonable limits. It is simply a selection from my very full memoranda of a series of visits paid to different parts of France during the year 1889. These visits would never have been made, had not my previous acquaintance with France and with French affairs, going back now--such as it is--to the early days of the Second Empire, given me reasonable ground to hope that I might get some touch of the actual life and.
