"
One thing, however, remains to be said of foreign workmen generally.
Although they do not work so hard as the English, they take much better
care of their earnings. They are exceedingly frugal and economical.
Frenchmen are much soberer than Englishmen, and much better mannered.
They are, on the whole, greatly more provident than English workmen. Mr.
Brassey states that when the Paris and Rouen Railway works were
commenced, the contractors endeavoured to introduce a system by which
the workmen were to be paid once a fortnight; but very soon after the
operations had begun, the Frenchmen requested that the pay might take
place only once a month.
Mr. Reid, managing director of the line, told the House of Commons
Committee on Railway Labourers, that a French labourer is a much more
independent person than an Englishman, and much more respectable. He
stated, in support of his opinion, this remarkable circumstance, that
whereas a French labourer desired to be paid only once a month, the
English labourer desired to be paid every Saturday night,--and by the
following Wednesday he wanted something on account of the week's work.
"Nothing could be a greater test," said Mr. Reid, "of the respectability
of a working man than being able to go without his pay for a month."[1]
[Footnote 1: Thomas Brassey, M.
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