Those who know France' only through books and by hearsay are apt to imagine it a restless, ever-changing country—a notion unconsciously generated by the knowledge that several revolutions have taken place. Actual experience of life among the French people, however, tends to make one look upon them as extremely conservative in their actions and mode of life, whatever may be their conversation. Far more than the English, they are under the influence of routine. As a single instance, we may take the survival of the "témoin patent." It happens from time to time that a citizen requires some document to be officially certified and for this purpose he must, of course, prove his identity. Police commissaries, notaries and others have been in the habit, for generations, of requiring this identification to be certified by two citizens engaged in trade and paying the '"'patent:," or tax on business premises. Such persons were, in the eye of the law, responsible individuals, likely to be found when wanted and not given to roaming around promiscucusly.
This is all very wel] in theory, but in practice no citizen could call upon two of his own tradesmen to lose their valuable time by accompanying him to some town hall or police office to declare that he was himself. But, as the French saying_has it, there are ways of arranging things with Heaven. The law or custom reawres the attestation of two "témoins patentes," but fortunately does not say that these witnesses must know the person who makes the declaration. This merciful cicission saves the situation. All that one has to do is to interview the proprietor of the nearest wineshop and the rather grimy gentleman who deals in coal hard by, and, for a few francs apiece, they vill accompany you and put their Signatures to the precious attestation. They have never seen you before, and the official who takes the declaration knows this fact perfectly, but they are "témoins patentes" and that is enough for him. He has played the game and is free from reproach.
The absurdity of this system struck the late Prefect of Police and he instituted an identity card, bearing the photograph of ths holder. The idea was thet, as no card was to ko issued without the production of full evidence of identity, the document would be accepted for all official purposes and the occupation of the professional witness would be gone; but the Prefect is dead and the abuse is very much alive. A correspondent of one of the Paris papers states that, having to obtain a certificate from a notary with a view to establishing his right to a pension, he produced the Prefecture card,- but was told that it would not do and he had to enlist the services of two professional witnesses. Another correspondent says he went to the Prefecture itself to apply for a passport and showed his card bearing the Prefect's own signature, but even here it was pronounced inadequate and he had to fetch a couple of shopkeepers, complete strangers to him and to the official, but none the less acceptable
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.