The _Labourdins_ are fonder of luxuries, and less diligent than the others; and it is thought, consequently, less honest; the latter are generally sailors, and are known as good whalers." There seems a desire amongst _improvers_ in France to do away amongst the common people with the original language, or _patois_, which exists in so many of the provinces; and in many of the schools nothing is taught but French.

This would seem to be a benefit, as far as regards civilization; but it shocks the feelings of the people, who are naturally fond of the language of their fathers.

The Bretons, like the Welsh with us, are very tenacious of this attempt: the people of Languedoc, with Jasmin, their poet, at their head, have made a stand for their tongue; and the Basques, at the present moment, are in great distress that measures are now being taken to teach their children French, and do away altogether with the language of which they are so proud, and which is so prized by the learned.

In a late _Feuilleton_ of the Memorial des Pyrenees, I observed a very eloquent letter on the subject of instruction in French in the rural schools, from which the Basque language is banished.

The children learn catechism and science in French, and can answer any question put to them in that language by the master, like parrots, being quite unable to translate it back into the tongue they talk at home, where nothing but Basque meets their ears.
It is, of course, quite necessary that they should understand French for their future good; but there does not appear a sufficient reason that they should neglect their own language, or, at any rate, that they should not be instructed in it, and have the same advantage as the Welsh subjects of Great Britain, who did not, however, obtain all they claimed for their primitive language without a struggle.
The writer in the Memorial contends that the children should be taught their prayers in Basque, and should know the grammar of that dialect in order to be able to write to their friends when abroad--for many of them are soldiers and sailors,--in a familiar tongue, since those at home by their fire-sides know nothing of French, and could not understand the best French letter that was ever penned.