FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. PARIS, MONDAY NIGHT.

From an ingenious test of public honesty which has just been carried out by an evening newspaper, the Paris Soir, it would appear that only about 30 per cent of men are scrupulously honest. The newspaper’s experiment was made on one hundred men, representing a wide variety of occupations and social grades. Their names were selected from a directory, five being chosen to represent each profession or stratum of social life, and to each one was sent a letter enclosing 5f in postage stamps with the following note: “In reply to your letter I am enclosing herewith the sum of 5f which I owe you.” The name of the writer and a private address were given, no mention being made, of course, of the newspaper. Those who received the letter and enclosure must have seen at once that there was an error, and that their duty was to return the sum immediately. But only thirty did so, the remaining seventy either being content do profit by a mistake, or at any rate willing to give themselves the benefit of any possible doubt without seeking explanations. The most honest were members of Parliament and men of letters, for in each of these categories four promptly returned the money, while only one kept it. Next in order of merit come civil servants, doctors, and chimneysweeps, each class having three who returned the remittance against two who kept it. Ministers of religion; academicians, diplomats, actors, and magistrates had each only two representatives out of five who did the right thing, while the proportion was only one in five among the lawyers, publishers, manufacturers, dressmakers, hairdressers, tailors, and bakers. Grocers, butchers, and wine merchants come out of the test with the least credit, for in every case they kept the cash and asked no questions.