M. Le Roux delivered the seventh lecture of his series yesterday on the subject, "Anatole France comme le liquidateur de la societe bourgeoise sortie de la revolution." At the present time when the bourgeoise, or third estate of France, is being replaced by a new working class, M. France has arisen as the philosopher, who reviews the spectacle from the "templas serenas" of Epicurus.

M. France appears to us as a modern Voltaire, combining the same vigor with clearness of thought and purity of style. He has less esprit than Voltaire but more grace; is equally ironical but tempers the irony with pity. As is always the case when a new class is replacing a worn out one, M. France has appeared as the writer who hastens with his pen the disappearance of the old regime.

This class; the bourgeoise that arose in the Revolution, has exhausted the role it had to play in forgetting that its ideal was democratic and its aim to work. It has affranchised its sons from the law of work, and as its strength lay in this law, it has become enfeebled quicker than a nobility which has other principles and associations. The ousting of this class by a new laborious bourgeoise is rapidly occurring by elimination and without tragical convulsions.

M. France has created a M. Bergeret, a professor of history, who possessing a keen power of criticism, can lash unceasingly the failings of the decadent class. In the four comedies, "L'Orme du Mail," "Le Mannequin d'Osier," "L'Anneau d'Amethyste" and "M. Bergeret a Paris," various characters appear, who through their ignorance of the changing conditions are easily made butts for the audience to laugh at. Pity is always indicated, so that the laugh cannot develop into cruelty.

M. Le Roux concluded by saying that the suffering and difficulties, through which French society is passing, will not be without their good results, for he believes that this society, which has done so much for civilization, art and science, but which comfort has now made torpid, will be awakened by necessity to a more vigorous and valiant struggle for existence.