At an interview given on Bastille Day--the celebrated anniversary of a riot that precipitated decades of anarchy, mass murder, despotism, and war--Jacques Chirac, the president of France, unburdened himself of some opinions about the superiority of his nation to the uncouth and perfidious Anglo-Saxons.

At an interview given on Bastille Day--the celebrated anniversary of a riot that precipitated decades of anarchy, mass murder, despotism, and war--Jacques Chirac, the president of France, unburdened himself of some opinions about the superiority of his nation to the uncouth and perfidious Anglo-Saxons. Clearly, he opined, in really important things like public health and relief for the poor, the French were better off than the British. When his interviewer gently pointed out that Britain's economy is growing faster than France's, with half the French unemployment rate, Chirac volleyed back with some carefully memorized statistics about government spending on scientific research and the like. Well, well, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, and Chirac desperately needs a refuge from recent misfortunes--his countrymen's rejection of the EU Constitution, the loss of the 2012 Olympics to London, France's continuing slide into stagnation and irrelevance. A storming of the Elys,e Palace does not seem to be in prospect, but it is hard not to suspect, from his recent remarks, that in the privacy of his own chambers, Chirac is starting to get that Louis XVI feeling.