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ROMAN  . 
^<5ATHOLIGISM 

■As  XPACTOR  IN 

EUROPEAN 
POLITICS 

FRED.  C.  - 

CO  NY  BE  A  RE  '' 


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ROMAN    CATHOLICISM 

AS    A    FACTOR    IN     EUROPEAN     POLITICS. 


Ex  Libris 
C.  K.  OGDEN 


ROMAN    CATHOLICISM 


AS     A     FACTOR     IN     EUROPEAN     POLITICS. 


BY 

FREDERICK    C.    CONYBEARE, 

Latt  Fellow  of  University  College,  Oxford. 


1     -l' 


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LONDON : 

SKEFFINGTON    &    SON,    PICCADILLY,    W. 

^ubltBijtts  to  V^.fR.  tt)t  ^Qtcn  anD  %.1S..^.  tijt  ^priiut  of  CZSoks. 

igoi . 


i.'HKARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALTPOHNIA 

SA>rrA  BAEBAJRA 


PREFACE. 


The  republication  of  the  following  Articles  has  been  under- 
taken at  the  earnest  request  of  numerous  correspondents.  In 
writing  them  my  aim  was  to  initiate  my  countrymen  into  the 
methods  openly  pursued  by  the  Latin  Church  in  France  in 
its  eternal  campaign  against  civil  liberty,  against  freedom  of 
conscience,  against  a  true  and  spiritual  Christianity.  The 
French  Republicans  are  about  to  introduce  fresh  legislation 
against  the  monkish  orders,  and  especially  against  the  Jesuits 
and  Assumptionists.  They  hope  thereby  to  safeguard  their 
Army  and  Navy  and  Civil  Service  from  the  insidious  inroads 
of  these  Orders,  which  have  acquired  too  much  control  over 
the  education  of  French  youth.  Such  efforts  to  avert  the 
catastrophe,  moral  and  intellectual,  which  the  clericals  would 
bring  upon  France,  could  they  ever  succeed  in  realizing  their 
aspirations,  deserve  the  sympathy  of  Englishmen.  Notwith- 
standing, the  influence  of  the  Latins  and  of  that  section  of  the 
Anglican  Church  which  apes  their  rites  and  methods,  and 
looks  forward  to  reunion  with  them,  is  so  great  in  the  English 
press,  that  even  in  intelligent  journals  like  the  Spectator  we 
already  meet  with  denunciations  of  the  religious   intolerance 


VI. 


of  French  Republicans.  Certainly  they  will  blunder  here  and 
there,  for  men  who  are  groaning  under  a  sacerdotalist  tyranny, 
which  begins  by  violating  the  family  and  home,  are  apt  to  hit 
out  wildly.  It  is  certain  however  that,  if  in  England  the 
mischief  ever  grew  to  the  dimensions  which  it  assumes  in 
France  and  Italy,  we  should  not  hesitate  to  resort  to  measures 
equally  or  more  drastic. 

Frederick    C.    Conybeare. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

A   CLERICAL   CRUSADE     ...            ...             ...             i 

IL  CASO   DREYFUS;  OR.   THE  JESUIT   VIEW     ...            ...  33 

JEAN   GALAS              ...             ...             ...             ...             63 

SWORD   AND   CASSOCK      ...             ...            ...            ...            ...  91 

POPULAR   CATHOLICISM   IN   FRANCE     ...            ...             ...  118 

THE  CONSPIRACY   AGAINST  THE    FRENCH   REPUBLIC  140 


ROMAN     CATHOLICISM 

AS   A    FACTOR   IN   EUROPEAN   POLITICS. 


A    CLERICAL    CRUSADE. 


From  the  "National  Review,"  February,  1899. 

jfjN  an  article  contributed  to  this  journal  in 
November  of  the  last  year,  the  present  writer 
declared  the  malady  from  which  France  is 
suffering  to  be  that  of  "  Militarism  doubled  with  Jesuitry." 
In  a  volume  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  Dreyfus  case 
which  has  more  recently  appeared,  he  felt  himself  again 
obliged,  after  a  careful  study  of  French  opinion,  to  lay 
the  chief  blame  upon  the  Latin  Church  in  France,  and  in 
particular  upon  the  Jesuits  of  that  country.  For  this  he 
has  been  taken  to  task  by  more  than  one  reviewer  and  by 
several  personal  friends,  to  whom  his  language  appears 
to  be  harsh  and  unwarranted  by  the  facts.  In  the  present 
article,  therefore,  he  intends  to  look  a  little  more  closely 
into  the  question.  Within  the  short  compass  of  a  few 
pages  he  cannot  hope  to  reproduce  all  the  manifold  indicia 
of  French  Catholic  feeling  which  he  has  either  met  with 
in  Continental  journals,  or  which  have  been  set  before 
him  in  conversations  and  correspondence  with  trustworthy 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


and  temperate  Frenchmen.  Of  a  mass  of  these  he  has 
kept  no  record  except  that  of  mere  memory.  In  such  an 
enquiry  it  is  obligatory  to  derive  one's  evidence,  not  from 
sources  hostile  to  French  CathoHcism,  but  from  the 
writings  of  French  clerics,  from  the  columns  of  strictly 
Catholic  newspapers,  from  the  works  of  professed  and 
accredited  friends  of  the  Church. 

The  Abbe  Pichot  is,  or  was,  until  a  few  weeks  ago. 
Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the  Seminary  of  Felletin. 
In  consequence  of  an  article  about  the  Dreyfus  case  which 
appeared  in  the  Supplement  of  the  popular  religious 
paper.  La  Croix,  for  August  28th,  1898,  he  addressed  an 
open  letter  to  the  editor,  in  which  clearly  and  temperately 
he  set  forth  the  grounds  on  which  the  condemnation  of 
Dreyfus  and  the  acquittal  of  Esterhazy  appeared  to  him 
to  be  unjust;  he  also  besought  the  editor  to  reproduce 
his  arguments  instead  of  merely  assuming,  as  was  his 
wont,  that  all  partisans  of  revision  were  "simpletons 
igogos),  pretentious  and  conceited  persons,  who  look  for 
noon  at  fourteen  o'clock."  One  or  two  paragraphs  of  his 
letter  deserve  to  be  quoted  at  length  : — 

"La  Croix,"  he  wrote,  "represents  Christianity.  It  gives  itself  out  to 
be  the  Christian  journal.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  Christianity  it  jreflects 
is  over  much  destitute  of  critical  spirit.  Catholics  have  hardly  recovered 
from  the  universal  mystification  of  which  they  were  the  victims  at 
the  hands  of  Leo  Taxil  .  .  .  Leo  Taxil  had  antecedents  which  were 
unmistakable  by  those  who  reflected.  He  even  continued  to  write  filthy 
books  .  .  .  None  the  less  the  mystification  went  on  for  ten  or  twelve 
years,  to  the  confusion  of  Catholics,  until  some  critics— who  were  of  course 
stigmatized  as  unbelievers — succeeded  in  unmasking  the  humbug  himself. 
Now  once  more,  two  years  after,  from  want  of  critical  sense,  from  want 
of  reflection,  from  want  of  any  desire  to  understand  the  psychology  of  the 
professional  soldier,  thanks  to  a  credulous  and  blind  Press,  here  we  are 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


fallen  once  more  into  the  same  snare  !  We  see  the  Catholics  partisans  of 
an  evident  illegality,  of  an  injustice  almost  as  evident,  just  at  a  time  when 
Catholics  no  longer  dare  ask  for  themselves  anything  beyond  legality  and 
common  right." 

The  entire  letter,  from  which  we  quote  the  above,  was 
published  in  pamphlet  form  under  the  title,  The  Christian 
Conscience  and  the  Dreyfus  Affair,  with  a  short  preface  on 
the  first  page  of  which  we  read  the  following  well-put 
truths  : — 

"The  great  Christian  mystic  Tolstoi  recently  remarked,  in  respect  of  the 
Dreyfus  affair,  that  the  French  have  at  last  a  case  of  conscience  to  settle 
(les  Francais  out  enfin  un  cas  de  conscience  a  resoudre).  ...  It  is  long  since  my 
conscience  dictated  to  me  the  writing  of  this  letter.  But  I  needed  first  to 
witness  crimes  heaped  upon  crimes,  all  to  cover  a  simple  error,  to  see 
Colonel  Picquart  — a  Catholic — arrested,  to  see  him  kept  brutally  au  secret, 
before  I  resolved  on  an  action  which  will  arouse  the  protests  of  the 
admirers  of  the  army,  but  will  perhaps  stand  in  the  way  of  future  crimes. 

••  I  needed  also  to  read  such  words  as  these,  fallen  from  the  lips  of  an 
infidel : — '  Amidst  dissensions  in  which  the  various  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
have  abrogated  the  precept  of  the  peacemaker:  "  Love  ye  one  another," 
which  should  dominate  all,  we  take  up  this  mot  d'ordre  and  make  it  our  law. 
Since  there  is  such  a  lack  of  heirs  to  maintain  the  succession  of  the  Divine 
crucified  one,  we  will  try  to  win  a  little  portion  of  the  heritage  for  our- 
selves.' I  needed  to  read  this,  before  I  resolved  to  assert  my  rights  in  the 
succession  of  Him  who  came  to  bring,  twenty  centuries  ago,  peace  into  the 
world." 

At  the  end  of  this  preface  the  Abbe  Pichot  adds  a  letter 
which  he  has  received  from  a  priest  who  was  his  teacher. 
In  it  the  facts  which  will  be  dwelt  upon  in  this  article,  are 
set  forth  in  language  that  to  every  well-wisher  of  the 
Latin  Church  must  be  painful  to  read  : — 

•'  Mv  Very  Dear  Friend,— If  I  were,  like  yourself,  a  simple  priest,  I 
should  not  hesitate  to  come  forward  publicly  and  so  obey  an  impulse 
which  conscience  sanctions  and  which  can  dispense  with  other  authority. 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


.  .  .  Bni,  being  a  member  of  a  religious  congregation,!  cannot.  .  .  .  I  entirely 
share  your  way  of  regarding  this  sad  Dreyfus  affair  ;  not  that  I  have  in  any 
special  way  been  let  into  any  secret,  but  because,  having  read  without 
prejudice  the  documents  which  have  been  published,  it  clearly  appeared 
to  me  that  one  could  not  judge  otherwise. 

"  I  am  deeply  distressed  at  the  attitude  of  the  Catholics.  Their  preju- 
dice is  so  intense,  that  if  a  tribunal  ever  rehabilitates  the  condemned  man, 
they  are  ready  to  accuse  the  judges  of  having  sold  themselves  to  the 
Tews.*  Regard  for  justice,  the  great  question  of  conscience  which  over- 
shadows the  whole  discussion,  does  not  appear  to  interest  them.  They 
model  themselves,— and  it  is  a  fatal  thing  to  do,— upon  their  journals.  In 
their  eyes  everything  is  lost  sight  of  save  race-hatreds  and  the  antagonisms 
of  religion.  If  we  would  hear  expressed  about  this  matter  sentiments 
that  are  reasonable  and  Christian,  we  must  look  for  them  in  the  papers 
that  are  Rationalist  and  Protestant.  It  is  a  deplorable  state  of  mind. 
You  try  to  remedy  it.  You  will  certainly  reap  some  fruit.  In  any  case 
you  will  have  the  merit  and  satisfaction  of  having  courageously  fulfilled  a 
great  duty.     I  congratulate  you. — G.C." 

The  Abbe  Pichot  reaped  this  fruit,  that  he  was  censured 
and  punished  by  his  ecclesiastical  authorities,  as  we  learn 
from  another  "  Letter  of  a  Catholic,"  published  in  the 
Siecle  of  December  i8th,  1898.  It  is  signed,  F.  Depar- 
dieu,  and  is  well  worth  reading.  It  was  written  with 
special  reference  to  a  letter  sent  to  the  Figaro  of  Decem- 
ber I2th,  1898,  in  which  the  Abbe  Pichot,  while  denying 
that  the  Catholic  clergy  are,  and  will  be,  before  history 
responsible  for  the  Dreyfus  affair,  or  that  they  have  in- 
stigated the  conduct  of  the  Etat-Major,  yet  admits  that 
they  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  deceived  and  duped 
by  their  journals,  and  now  wilfully  ignore  the  facts. 

M.  Depardieu  thus  begins  his  letter  in  the  Siecle  : — 

*  This  is  the  line  which  the  anti-Dreyfusards  in  France,  under  the  guidance  of 
Rochefort,  Drumont,  Francois  Copp^e,  and  Bruneliere,  are  now  taking. 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


•'Monsieur  I' Abbe, — I  have  read  your  letter  to  the  Figaro,  and  I  associate 
myself  with  the  just  ones  of  all  religions,  as  with  those  of  my  own,  in 
praising  you  for  having  suffered  for  the  truth* 

"  But  since  you  recognize  that  truth  and  justice  are  the  chief  good  and 
the  common  patrimony  of  all  ho7igst  people,  let  me  protest  against  some  of 
the  statements,  the  inaccuracy  of  which  a  prejudice,  very  natural  on  your 
part,  has  concealed  from  you.  We  must  not  alter  the  truth,  even  in  favour 
of  the  Church.  .  .  . 

"  You  will  not  then  deny  that  there  are  errors  which  deserve  blame,  and 
that  persons  deceived,  because  they  have  done  everything  in  order  to  be 
deceived  and  because  they  obstinately  shut  their  eyes  to  the  light,  are 
responsible  for  their  mistake  and  its  consequences. 

"Now,  if  this  is  true,  Monsieur  VAhbi,  then  the  clergy  of  France,  from 
the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  down  to  the  last  country  cure,  are  with  very 
few  exceptions  gravely,  sadly  responsible  for  the  blind  obstinacy  with 
which  a  portion  of  the  French  people,  less  and  less  considerable  every  day, 
but  yet  still  almost  the  preponderant  portion,  has  upheld  for  nearly  a  year 
injustice,  falsehood,  atrocious  barbarism,  nay,  the  agents  and  partisans  of 
all  this. 

"  And  to  begin  with,  let  not  our  priests  come  and  say  to  us :  '  This  Jew's 
business  did  not  concern  us.'  Are  those  glorious  times  for  ever  gone, 
when  not  a  public  crime,  not  a  scandal  of  court  or  of  street,  but  found  a 
Bishop  to  protest  against  it?  Is  not  the  Episcopus  before  all  things  he 
who  looks  after,  watches  over  the  people,  and  preserves  them  from  going 
astray  ?  But  a  few  paces  from  the  place  in  which  I  am  writing,  the  Bishop 
Praetextatus  fell  under  the  knife  of  the  Sicarii,  because  he  publicly  con- 
demned the  crimes  of  an  all-powerful  Queen. 

"  If  only  the  clergy,  so  prompt  to  mix  themselves  up,  often  very  indis- 
creetly, with  public  affairs,  had  confined  themselves  in  this  matter  to  a 
prudent  reserve  !  But  it  is  proved  that  on  every  occasion,  in  all  places. 
they  have  been  zealous  in  their  support  of  the  miserable  authors  of  a 
judicial  crime  that  has  aroused  all  over  the  world  the  most  legitimate 
reprobation.  I  know,  alas!  but  two  Catholic  priests,  the  Abbe  Fremont 
and  yourself,  sir,  that  have  had  the  courage  to  dissociate  yourselves  from 
the  troop  of  wolves.  ...  All  the  ecclesiastics  with  whom  I  have  conversed 
on  the  subject,  not  only  approved  of  the  brutal  executioners  of  Dreyfus,  of 
the  persecutors  of  I'icqunrt,  but  made  public  profession  of  their  approval. 

•  The  italics  are  mine.—  F.C.C. 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


"You  lay  the  blame  on  your  journals,  which  you  say  have  led  you  into 
error.  But  your  journals,  Monsieiiy  I' Abbe,  are  written  by  your  pupils  and 
by  your  confreres.  They  are  what  you  make  them.  ...  No !  If  the 
Church  of  France  would  be  sincere,  let  it  be  thoroughly  so,  and  let  it  cry 
vied  culpa.  Let  it  give  up  that  grovelling  flattery  of  the  sword  which  has 
lowered  it  so  much  in  the  world's  esteem. 

"  What  true  Catholic  soul  but  has  been  deeply  distressed  to  see  an 
illustrious  preacher,*  addressing  himself  to  young  people,  basely  flatter 
violence,  and  defend  the  view  that  force  is  the  supreme  argument  ?  If  the 
soldier.f  whose  smile  he  thus  courted,  had  retained  under  his  uniform  the 
the  heart  and  dignity  of  an  honest  man,  what  contempt  must  he  not  have 
felt  for  this  unworthy  disciple  of  Him  who  said  :  '  Blessed  are  the  meek  !  '  " 

The  writer  then  outhnes  the  history  of  the  case,  the 
three  weary  years  during  which  Dreyfus  had  no  champions 
outside  his  own  family,  the  launching  of  the  formal 
accusation  against  the  wretched  man  Esterhazy,  his 
acquittal  to  order,  the  prostitution  of  justice  in  the  Zola 
trials,  the  confession  and  death  of  Henry.  Then  he 
continues  thus  : — 

"  While  these  revelations  were  being  made,  honest  men,  from  one  end 
of  France  to  the  other,  men  who  think  and  feel,  were  stirred  at  first  by 
legitimate  curiosity,  and  then  by  irrepressible  indignation  against  the  band 
of  scoundrels  that  had  compromised  a  section  of  the  general  staff  and 
sought  to  compromise  the  entire  army  in  this  villainous  affair.  These 
men  of  heart  and  head  stept  forward  out  of  all  ranks,  out  of  all  corpora- 
tions, the  Church  excepted.  The  Church  alone  on  this  occasion  furnished 
no  champion  of  right,  of  innocence,  of  truth,  so  hatefully  outraged.  I  ask 
you,  Monsieur  I'Abbc,  what  avails  the  priests  their  five  years  of  philosophy, 
if  in  a  matter  of  such  public  interest  they  merely  acquiesce  in  the 
blasphemous  follies,  the  gross  sophistries,  the  cowardly  lies  of  the  Libre 
Parole,  of  the  Patrie,  the  Jour,  the  Gaulois,  lastly  of  the  Croix,  a  journal 
which  takes  for  its  frontispiece  Jesus  crucified,  and  yet  contains  nothing 
but  hatred,  spleen,  and  falsehood. 

"  Sursiim  corda!  O  ye  priests,  beat  your  breasts  and  say  ergo  erravimus  ! 

*  P^re  Didon.  |  General  Jamont. 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


For  greatly  are  you  gone  astray,  more  so  than  the  pretenders  whom  you 
have  dragged  along  with  you  in  your  fanaticism,  and  whose  feeble  hopes 
of  restoration  you  have  for  ever  destroyed. — F.  Depardieu." 

On  Christmas  Day  the  Steele  published  interviews  which 
a  correspondent  had  had  with  two  leading  members  of 
the  French  clergy.  The  first  of  these  was  M.  Mugnier, 
Vicar  of  Sainte-Clotilde,  one  of  the  most  enlightened  and 
upright  of  the  Paris  clergy.  Asked  whether  he  did  not 
think  the  time  had  come  for  the  clergy  to  give  a  lead,  he 
answered  that  the  clergy  had  no  business  to  take  sides. 
"They,  too,  were  soldiers,  and,"  he  added,  "what  does 
it  matter  to  you  what  a  priest  thinks  ?  "  "  Nevertheless,'" 
said  his  interviewer,  "  are  there  not  people  who  expect 
you  to  direct  their  consciences  ?  "  "  Certainly,"  was  the 
answer,  "  and  consciences  which  can  look  for  direction 
from  me  have  a  right  to  direction  on  quite  another 
plane.  .  .  .  They  hold  different  opinions,  yet  to  all  I  must 
indicate  the  aim,  truth,  and  justice.  Leave  the  priest 
aloncf"  he  added,  "leave  him  in  his  right  place,  above  all 
that,  above  these  conflicts.     His  mission  is  a  higher  one." 

"  The  clergy,  then,"  objected  his  interviewer,  "  refuse 
to  take  any  interest  in  this  question,  which  yet  stirs  the 
human  conscience  from  one  end  of  the  earth  to  the 
other." 

"  Ask  that  of  our  chiefs,"  was  the  answer.  "  Question 
the  bishops  if  you  would  make  the  clergy  speak." 

"  Then  you  priests  would  only  answer  after  them  ?  " 

"  Yes,  after  them,  or  not  at  all.  I  think  that  that  is 
our  duty.     Ask  Monseigneur  the  Archbishop." 

The  correspondent  accordingly  sought  an  interview 
of  Monseigneur  Richard,    the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  who 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


declined  the  honour,  and  sent  him  a  message  through  a 
secretary  that  he  had  a  thousand  other  things  to  attend  to 
than  the  Abbe  Pichot's  letter. 

Lastly,  M.  Gayraud,  a  priest  and  member  of  Parliament 
for  Brest,  was  interviewed.  He  retrenched  himself  behind 
the  authority  of  the  chose  jugee  ;  though  he  said  he  could 
allow  of  revision  as  a  political  measure  destined  to  con- 
found the  defenders  of  Dreyfus.  He  could  not,  however, 
hide  his  violent  indignation  against  the  campaign  made 
on  behalf  of  revision,  for  he  considered  that  no  one  had 
the  right  to  disturb  men's  minds  in  such  a  way ;  better 
that  justice  should  go  wrong,  the  light  be  made  darkness, 
and  an  innocent  man  remain  in  the  galleys. 

"If  only  the  clergy  had  confined  themselves  to  an 
attitude  of  prudent  reserve  !  "  is  the  regretful  wish  of  a 
sincere  Catholic,  M.  Depardieu.  Let  us  begin  with  the 
Jesuit  order,  and  ask — Have  they  observed  such  an 
attitude  ? 

Far  from  it.  The  Civilta  Cattolica,  published  in  Rome, 
is,  as  all  the  world  knows,  the  official  organ  of  the  Jesuits. 
On  February  3rd,  i8g8,  it  defined  their  attitude  with 
regard  to  the  Dreyfus  case  in  a  long  and  carefully  formu- 
lated article,  of  which  the  gist  was  this  :  that  it  is,  on  the 
whole,  better  not  to  kill  Jews  or  send  them  into  exile,  but 
that  they  ought  to  be  disfranchised  in  every  Christian 
polity,  and  forbidden  to  serve  as  public  functionaries  ; 
they  may  rightly,  indeed,  be  excluded  from  citizenship 
and  from  all  participation  in  the  control  of  public  affairs. 

Is  it  a  mere  coincidence  that  for  several  years  past 
Drumont  has  preached  exactly  the  same  doctrine  in  the 
columns  of  the  Libre  Parole  ?     That  it  has  been  the  text  of 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


six  hundred  articles  which  he  has  written,  and  of  all  his 
books  ?  If,  indeed,  his  pen  differs  from  that  of  the  Roman 
Jesuit  editor,  it  is  only  in  this — that  the  latter  observes  a 
certain  literary  restraint  in  the  expression  of  his  mediaeval 
intolerance,  whereas  Drumont,  who,  by  the  way,  writes 
detestable  French,  has  the  literary  tastes  and  graces  of  a 
bargee.  And  in  this  connection  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  manager  of  the  Libre  Parole  was,  if  he  is  not  still, 
M.  Odelin — the  same  person  who  presides  over  and 
controls  the  great  Jesuit  training  school  in  the  Rue  des 
Postes  at  Paris.  This  statement  rests  not  on  rumour,  but 
is  Drumont's  own.  He  himself  announced  the  fact  in  an 
article  that  he  wrote  on  January  i6th,  1895,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  a  temporary  disagreement  with  his  manager.  The 
school  in  the  Rue  des  Postes  prepares,  as  is  well  known, 
candidates  for  the  great  military  colleges,  St.  Cyr  and  the 
Poly  technique.  Most  of  the  Catholic  officers  in  the  French 
army  have  been  trained  there,  and  the  young  officers  so 
educated  know  themselves  as  postards,  and  ostentatiously 
flout  every  Jewish  officer.  From  the  day  it  was  started 
the  Libre  Parole  has  been  the  official  organ  of  this  section 
of  the  French  officers. 

How  far  the  Jesuits  admire  Drumont  we  know  not. 
They  are  too  discreet  a  race  to  let  us  into  their  secrets. 
But  the  admiration  of  Drumont  for  the  order  is  unfeigned 
and  fulsome.  He  abominates  Jews,  and  Freethinkers  and 
Protestants  are  still  more  odious  to  him.  F"or  devout 
Catholics  alone  has  he  any  liking,  and  he  goes  down  on 
both  knees  to  the  Jesuits. 

In  the  first  volume  of  La  France  Jnive  (p.  261),  we 
learn  that  "  the  Jesuit,  in  his  extreme  subtlety  and  clear- 


10  A    CLERICAL    CRUSADE. 

ness  of  vision,  personifies  the  French  spirit  at  its  best." 
"They  are  all  very  brave,  very  loyal,  and  very  sincere" 
{Testament,  p.  20).  In  another  work,  Fin  cVnn  Monde 
(p.  333),  he  bids  us  "  apply  in  our  projects  of  intervention 
in  public  matters  the  admirable  method  of  meditation 
of  the  *  Exercises  '  of  St.  Ignatius."  Nor  has  Drumont, 
who  takes  as  the  motto  of  his  journal  the  words,  "  France 
for  the  French,"  left  us  in  the  dark  as  to  his  political 
ideal.  It  is  one  which  will  be  realized  the  day  when 
France  is  handed  over,  eyes  bandaged  and  hands  bound, 
to  the  Jesuits.  "If,"  he  says,  "they  had  the  control  of 
things,  everything  would  go  well,  as  everything  went  well 
in  Paraguay,  of  which  they  had  made  an  earthty  paradise." 
Why  does  he  not  include  in  his  ideal  the  Philippines  as 
well? 

What  is  the  matter  with  the  existing  order  ?  This  is 
the  matter.  It  concedes  civil  rights  not  only  to  Jews,  but 
to  Protestants.  "  To  us  Catholics,"  writes  Drumont  in 
his  Testament  (p.  15),  "  the  Protestant,  when  he  usurps  a 
show  of  authority,  is  worse  than  the  Jew.  He  is  an 
enemy  more  disloyal  and  more  lying.  .  .  .  Whenever  I 
have  met  with  a  Protestant  on  my  path,  I  have  seen  him, 
in  the  exercise  of  his  functions,  do  the  work  of  valet  to 
the  Jew."  And  elsewhere  in  La  France  Juive  (I.,  p.  190), 
he  declares  that  "  every  Protestant  is  half  a  Jew." 

It  is  not  astonishing,  then,  to  find  that  Drumont  casts 
back  wistful  glances  to  the  age  of  the  Inquisition. 
"  Torture,"  he  asserts,  in  his  Fin  cVun  Monde  (p.  468), 
"  never  existed  in  the  Christian  Middle  Ages  "  ;  even  as, 
forsooth,  "  the  ancien  regime  put  everyone  in  a  position  to 
resist  injustice,  and  assured  to  all  the  rights  which  would 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  ii 


enable  them  to  defend  themselves  against  tyranny." 
"  The  Anti-Semites,"  he  declares,  in  the  Libre  Parole 
for  July  20th,  1892,  "do  not  blame  the  Inquisition.  .  .  . 
They  are  convinced  that  it  assured  the  grandeur  and 
independence  of  Spain,  and  their  first  care,  if  they  were  in 
power,  would  be  to  establish  a  tribtiuiil  which  would  be,  it  is 
true,  exclusively  laic,  but  which  would  very  much  resemble 
the  Spanish  Inquisition."  Here  we  learn  whence  the 
French  Etat-Mnjor  gets  its  idea  of  military  justice,  which 
as  Ravary,  the  acquitter  of  Esterhazy  and  accuser  of 
Picquart,  has  truly  remarked,  is  not  as  other  justice. 
The  trial  of  Dreyfus,  who  was  falsely  condemned  after 
preliminary  torture  by  du  Paty  de  Clam,  upon  evidence 
withheld  from  himself  and  his  counsel,  was  certainly 
arranged  after  Drumont's  ideal,  the  Spanish  Inquisition, 
of  which  he  proclaims  the  advantages  also  in  these 
words  : — "  Never  was  there  any  procedure  so  admirable 
in  its  equity,  so  minute  in  its  circumspection.  Never  did 
any  tribunal  take  so  many  precautions  against  possible 
error ;  never  was  respect  for  the  rights  of  the  defence 
pushed  to  such  a  length  "  {Fin  d'un  Monde,  p.  227). 

Such  is  the  inmost  soul,  at  once  naive  and  cruel,  of  the 
man  who  is,  above  all  others,  responsible  for  the^iniquities 
which  at  this  moment  are  a  burthen  on  the  conscience  of 
the  entire  world,  of  the  chief  instigator,  aider,  abettor, 
and  apologist  of  the  French  Etat-Major.  No  wonder  that 
he  repudiates  the  only  people  who  in  modern  France 
appear  to  retain  any  conscience.  "  The  truth  is,"  he 
cries,  in  fury,  "that  the  society  which  in  '89  issued  from 
the  Masonic  lodges  and  the  plottings  of  the  Jewish 
cabal  (!)  was  born  in  the  state  of  mortal  sin.     It  has  not 


12  A    CLERICAL    CRUSADE. 

been  baptized,  it   is  outside  the  Church,  and  is  no  good 
except  to  be  cast  out  into  the  draught." 

Let  us  now  leave  Drumont,  and  turn  to  the  strictly 
religious  Press  of  France ;  and  no  one  can  find  fault,  if 
the  two  most  widely  disseminated,  and  so  most  influential 
of  its  journals,  be  selected  for  examination.  These  are 
the  Pelerin  and  its  political  supplement.  Though  they 
are  edited  in  the  same  office,  8,  Rue  Francois  I",  Paris, 
they  are  practically  two  papers.  The  only  difference 
between  them  is  that  matter  strictly  religious  prepon- 
derates in  the  Pelerin,  which  not  only  sells  all  over 
France,  but  is  to  be  also  seen  in  the  hands  of  every  Latin 
pilgrim  who  visits  Rome  and  Jerusalem.  It  is  a  journal 
of  magazine  form,  and  usually  contains  twenty  pages, 
beside  the  coloured  wrapper  and  a  detachable  feuilleton  of 
eight  or  more  pages  in  length  devoted  to  the  history,  often 
legendary,  of  the  Saint  for  the  day.  It  costs  ten  centimes, 
and  is  now  in  the  twenty-third  year  of  its  circulation. 
On  the  cover  of  each  copy  is  a  well-executed  plate  of 
St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  distributing  bread  to  the  sick  and 
poor.  Angels  and  fellow-monks  escort  him  bearing 
baskets  of  bread  ;  and  above  is  the  Virgin  with  Child,  the 
latter  holding  a  wreath  over  the  Saint's  head.  Above  this 
illustration  we  read  the  words  : — 

"  The  bread  of  St.  Anthonj'  of  the  Rue  Francois  P'',  in  Paris." 

and  underneath  always  appears  a  notice  of  this  kind  : — 

"  645  letters  have  been  placed  this  week  in  the  box  of  St.  Anthony,  8, 
Rue  Francois  I"^^  They  announced  or  recommended:  138  cures,  155 
spiritual  graces,  450  temporal  graces,  239  conversions,  124  positions 
obtained,  467  thanksgivings,  79  calls,  45  marriages,  443  special  graces, 
II  first  communions,  78  schools,  82  religious  houses,  212  shops,  21  objects 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  13 

lost,  23  examinations,   135  families,   148  deaths,  25   lawsuits,  218  young 
people,  22  parishes." 

The  rest  of  the  four  pages  of  the  wrapper  is  filled  with 
selected  thanksgiving  notices  under  these  various  cate- 
gories. They  are  headed,  Extraits  dii  Courrier;  and  a 
footnote  assures  us  that  from  want  of  space  it  is  impossible 
to  print  all  the  thanksgivings  received,  but  that  beside 
those  here  given  in  the  Pelenn,  there  are  inserted  every 
day  in  the  Croix  some  of  these  "  edifying  recitals."  We 
select  from  the  Pelerin  of  Sunday,  February  6th,  1898,  a 
specimen  of  these  notices.  The  list  for  that  day  begins 
with  the  followine: : — 


'f) 


"  Army.— Meuse. — 2  francs,  promise  made  to  St.  Anthony,  if  I  obtained 
a  good  number  of  points  in  the  firing  practice.  I  have  obtained  more 
than  1  hoped  for,  as  I  am  not  a  very  good  shot.     Thanks. — A  blue." 

Certainly  the  prayers  are  often  for  things  we  ourselves 
might  not  pray  for,  but  they  as  a  rule  breathe  a  very 
sincere,  if  uninstructed,  piety.  Now  let  us  turn  to  the 
contents  of  the  magazine. 

The  first  page  of  the  Pclevin  has,  under  the  motto, 
A  dveniat  regmim  tuum,  a  coloured  frontispiece  representing 
the  Virgin,  Child  in  arms,  standing  on  the  globe,  with 
views  of  Jerusalem  and  of  the  Vatican  in  the  back- 
ground on  either  hand.  The  rest  of  the  page  is  filled 
with  a  review  of  the  events  for  the  week.  Four  or  more 
pages  of  each  number  are  taken  up  with  coloured  illus- 
trations of  current  events.  Thus,  in  the  issue  of  February 
6th,  i8g8,  we  have  pictures  of  the  burning  and  sacking  of 
Jewish  houses  in  Algiers,  of  the  scrimmage  in  the  French 
Chamber  on  January  22nd,  i8g8,  when  M.  de  Bernis,  the 


14  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

Royalist  and  anti-Dreyfusard  member,  insulted  M.  Jaures. 
The  last  page  is  a  coloured  cartoon,  intended  to  cast 
odium  and  contempt  on  the  French  Republic. 

Let  us  now  give  a  few  specimens  of  the  political  style 
of  this  journal.  In  the  issue  for  February  6th,  i8g8,  we 
read  this  : — 

"  The  agitation  caused  by  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Jewish  Syndicate  has 
died  down  a  little.  But  the  fire  smoulders  under  the  cinders,  and  we  fear 
that  the  Zola  trial,  which  is  to  come  on  in  the  Assize  Court  next  week, 
will  rekindle  this  but  half-extinguished  conflagration.  If  France  had  been 
more  Christian  and  more  faithful  to  her  baptism,  she  would  not  have  had 
to  suffer  this  audacious  act  of  insolence  on  the  part  of  a  handful  of  Jetvs 
and  Protestants.  At  any  rate,  this  lesson  must  not  be  lost.  The  Catholics 
have  numbers  on  their  side  ;  they  ought  to  be  the  moving  force  and  power. 
Let  them  at  last  show  that  they  are." 

The  above  is  directly  below  the  motto  :  "  Thy  kingdom 
come."  We  turn  over  a  few  pages,  and  on  the  verso  of 
the  picture  of  the  riots  at  Algiers  find  a  description  of 
what  took  place  under  the  heading  :  "  Anti-Semitism  in 
Algeria." 

Algiers  was  on  January  the  23rd,  i8g8,  the  scene  of  a 
violent  and  fatal  riot,  instigated  by  the  Anti-Semites. 
Max-Regis,  subsequently  elected  their  Mayor,andDrumont, 
elected  last  May  as  their  Deputy  in  the  Chamber  by  the 
French  of  Algiers,  were  mainly  responsible  for  the  dis- 
turbances. The  rioters,  with  cries  of  Mort  aiix  Juifs, 
overcame  the  few  policemen  and  Zouaves  opposed  to 
them  by  a  timid  Governor,  M.  Lepine,  and  invaded  one 
of  the  chief  thoroughfares,  the  Rue  Bab-Azoun.  The 
pillage  of  Jewish  shops  began.  The  rioters  tore  down  the 
shutters,  and  used  the  fragments  of  them  to  destroy  the 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  15 

shop  fronts.  All  the  goods  within  were  seized  and  thrown 
to  the  winds,  or  set  on  fire,  where  they  were  not  simply 
looted.  Then  the  Rue  Bab-el-Oued  was  sacked  in  the 
same  way.  The  Jews  defended  themselves  from  their 
house-tops,  but  were  in  many  instances  murdered  in  the 
fray.  The  disorder  lasted  all  day  and  during  half  the 
night.  On  the  next  day,  after  the  funeral  of  a  man 
named  Cayrol,  who  had  been  killed  in  the  general  riot, 
the  crowd  set  upon  two  Jews,  who  refused  to  give  up 
their  places  in  an  omnibus,  and  murdered  them  in  cold 
blood.  In  describing  these  scenes  the  Pelerin  declares 
that  they  were  mainly  due  to  the  nondescripts  dumped 
down  by  European  nations  in  the  French  colonies ;  but 
at  the  same  time  it  admits  that  "  the  looters  were 
encouraged  by  the  approbation  of  all  true  colonists." 

Then  follows  this  passage,  which  it  behoves  everyone 
to  read  who  desires  to  gain  insight  into  the  inner  aspira- 
tions of  Latin  monks  of  France.  It  begins  with  a  frank 
avowal  that  an  Attila's  methods  of  spreading  the  faith  are 
by  no  means  to  be  despised.  Barbarians,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Assumptionist  monks,  may  make  even  better  mission- 
aries than  Madame  de  Maintenon's  dragoons  : — 

"  Are  these  modern  barbarians  about  to  open  out  for  Christianity  a  new 
path,  as  formerly  did  the  hordes  of  Attila  ?  This  would  certainly  appear 
to  be  the  case,  judging  from  the  following  letter  addressed  to  the  Croix : — 

"  '  The  dominant  note  in  the  troubles  at  Algiers  has  been  intentionally 
passed  over  in  silence  by  all  the  Press.     It  was  thus : — 

" '  In  the  first  place,  the  perfect  quiet  amidst  all  the  disturbance  of  the 
French  element  in  the  population.  One  only  had  to  look  at  one's  neighbour 
to  understand.  All  felt  that  this  explosion  had  to  come,  that  it  was  inevit- 
able.    No  one  was  surprised  ;  quite  the  contrary. 

"  '  When  the  riot  became  serious  and  the  disturbance  general,  one  saw, 


i6  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


as  if  by  enchantment,  all  the  French  houses  cover  themselves  with  inscrip- 
tions of  this  kind  written  by  hand  or  on  printed  placards  :  French  and 
Catholic  house.  Christian  house.  Catholic  shop.  No  Jews  in  this  house. 
We  are  all  Christians  and  Catholics.  Long  live  France !  Down  with  the 
Jews ! 

"'Well,  on  that  day  Algiers  made  a  more  open  demonstration  on  the 
side  of  Christ  than  it  had  ever  done  before.  She  put  herself  spontaneously, 
openly,  under  the  protection  of  Christ.  All  was  clear  at  a  glance;  Christ- 
ian, anti-Jew  ;  there  are  for  you  the  two  inseparable  terms. 

"  '  Who  had  given  this  mot  d'ordre  ? 

"'Who  had  suggested  this  idea?  Ah!  no  one,  if  it  was  not  Christ 
Himself,  the  Christ  who  loves  the  Francs,  and  to  whom  one  must  needs 
come  back,  since  He  alone  is  the  Saviour. 

"'What  is  more,  the  protection  vouchsafed  was  clear,  palpable,  and 
evident.  Not  a  French  house,  nor  even  a  foreign  one,  nor  an  Arab  one 
either,  suffered  the  least  harm  ;  yet  close  beside  they  pillaged  everything 
in  the  Jew's  home,  very  often  when  it  stood  between  two  non-Jewish 
shops.  Not  a  single  mistake  was  made.  The  French  traders  had  no  fear 
for  themselves  for  a  single  moment.  And  even  if  the  pillage  had  lasted 
longer,  they  would  have  come  to  no  harm.     No  one  had  any  misgivings. 

"  '  France,  under  the  protection  of  Christ,  shielded  all,  save  only  the 
traitors.  May  she,  therefore,  at  last  come  to  realize  what  influence  she 
will  wield  in  the  world  in  proportion  as  she  makes  it  more  and  more  clear 
what  she  really  is,  namely  before  all  things,  Christian  and  Catholic'  " 

The  Pelerin  of  February  13th,  1898,  has  brutal  carica- 
tures on  p.  12  of  Dreyfus  on  his  island.  On  February 
20th,  1898,  a  full-page  coloured  illustration  of  General 
Mercier,  at  the  Zola  trial,  swearing  with  quiet  recklessness 
— that  "  Dreyfus  is  a  traitor,  and  justly  condemned." 
On  p.  16  another  cartoon,  in  which  Henry  is  depicted 
insulting  Picquart  in  the  presence  of  the  judges,  along 
with  offensive  caricatures  of  Zola,  his  counsel,  and  of 
various  Jews. 

March  20th,  1898,  a  coloured  full-page  illustration  of 
the  Comte  de  Mun,  who  declared  in  the  Chamber  that  he 


A    CLERICAL  CRUSADE.  17 

would  like  to  see  all  Dreyfusards  taken  and  strangled 
without  ceremony.  On  the  last  page  a  coloured  cartoon 
representing  a  stage  on  which  a  French  artisan,  with 
votes  and  ballot  boxes,  is  in  conflict  with  a  Jew,  cari- 
catured in  the  usual  way,  and  scattering  gold  pieces. 
The  stage  lights  throw  their  shadows  on  the  background, 
and  the  shadow  of  the  artisan  appears  as  Christ  with 
nimbus,  that  of  the  Jew  as  Satan  with  horns  and  hoofs. 

April  loth,  1898.  In  the  weekly  review  of  events  we 
read  this  note  relative  to  the  Pope's  attempted  mediation 
between  Spain  and  America  : — 

"  At  the  last  moment  we  learn  that  the  Protestants  are  working  might  and 
main  to  prevent  the  Holy  Father  from  intervening  as  a  peace-maker." 

On  page  7  of  the  same  issue  is  a  homily  explanatory  of 
the  large  coloured  cartoon  of  our  Lord's  Resurrection. 
It  is  headed  :  "  Resnrrexit  sicut  dixit."  In  it  we  read  the 
following  : — 

"Christ  no  doubt  is  persecuted,  flouted,  crucified  by  His  enemies.  In 
their  speeches  they  lay  Him  in  the  tomb.  They  cry  out  that  they  have 
done  for  the  Galilean.  But  the  Galilean  triumphs  after  all.  He  reappears 
always  resplendent  in  His  glory.  .  .  .  And  Christians  sing :  •  Resurrexit 
sicut  dixit :  Alleluia.' 

"We  must  needs  say  these  things  in  view  of  the  Jewish  {i.e.,  Drey- 
fusard)  agitation.  .  .  . 

"  They  that  have  sold  themselves,  that  betray  everything  for  the  Jew's 
gold,  conscience,  justice,  honour,  religious  convictions,  country — these 
keep  up  their  odious  traffic.  And  they  say :  '  We  will  put  an  end  to  it 
all,  to  religion,  to  Christ,  to  all  they  love  who  are  not  of  our  race.'  .  .  .  Yet 
we  shall  see  those  whom  the  devil  inspires  reduced  to  silence.  Let  them 
utter  their  savage  cries.  The  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ  will  triumph  over 
them.  In  the  hour  marked  out  by  Providence,  the  as^itation  of  impiety 
v.i\\  cease.  .  .  .  Catholics,  let  us  never  be  discouraged." 


A   CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 


As  the  general  elections  of  May  8th  draw  nigh,  the 
Pelerin  provides  various  forms  of  prayer  and  pious 
exercises  destined  to  secure  the  triumph  of  Saint  Michel 
over  Lucifer — that  is,  of  the  Church  over  the  Republic. 
In  the  issue  for  April  28th  is  a  cartoon  of  M.  Brisson,  the 
subsequent  author  of  Revision.  He  sits  in  the  Tribune 
of  the  Chamber  with  the  Croix  before  him,  and  behind, 
Time,  armed  with  Scythe  and  Watch,  touches  him  on 
the  shoulder.  About  this  time  the  French  Catholics 
organized  a  league  of  "Justice — Egalite,"  as  they  called 
it,  for  electoral  purposes.  The  Croix  and  the  Pelerin 
advertised  it,  and  it  had  its  headquarters  at  their  office, 
8,  Rue  Francois  I".  The  religious  papers  claim  that  it 
was  a  great  success,  and  Catholics  certainly  won  many 
fresh  seats,  and  had  large  minorities  in  places  which  in 
former  years  they  had  not  dared  even  to  contest.  In  the 
Pelerin  for  April  24th,  1898,  is  to  be  found  a  copy  of  the 
manifesto,  with  a  form  of  personal  adhesion  attached,  of 
the  Secretariat  d' Action  Electorale  Catholique — "Justice — 
Egalite.'"     It  runs  as  follows : — 

"  Sir, — The  elections  for  the  legislature  require  of  us  urgent  efforts  and 
sacrifices.  The  boldness  and  the  unspeakable  manoeuvres  of  the  Dreyfus 
syndicate  demonstrate  the  immensity  of  the  danger. 

"The  Committee  of  the  Catholic  Canvassing  Committee — 'Justice — 
Equality' — calls  upon  men  of  heart,  Catholic  patriots,  to  join  together  as 
one  man  and  oppose  the  coalition  of  sectaries  and  revolutionaries. 

"  It  is  a  question  of  saving  all  works  Catholic  and  French,  and  of  saving 
our  country  itself. 

"  The  work  of  Catholic  organization  has  made  good  progress  during  the 
last  year,  but  is  still  very  inadequate.  Men  and  money  are  wanted  in 
order  to  put  forward  good  candidates. — L.  Laya,  Advocate  at  the  Court 
of  Appeal,  General  Secretary,  22,  Cours  la  Reine." 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  19 

On  May,  15th,  i8g8,  the  elections  were  over,  and  we 
read  in  the  weekly  review  of  the  Pelerin  the  following  : — 

'■  The  election  of  Drumont  at  Algiers,  in  spite  of  the  efiforts  of  the 
Government  and  of  the  Governor,  M.  Lepine,  the  pitiful  fall  of  M.  Reinach, 
the  friend  of  Dreyfus,  mark  a  new  and  favourable  phase  in  the  progress 
of  anti-Semitism.  Solemn  prayers  have  been  offered  for  the  elections  in 
many  dioceses  and  will  be  renewed  before  the  final  balloting." 

The  Pelerin  of  Sunday,  June  5th,  1898,  contains  a 
flaming  testimonial  from  Cardinal  Rampolla  to  the  re- 
ligious work  achieved  by  itself  and  by  the  Croix.  It  is 
addressed  to  "  T.  R.  P.  Picard,  General  Superior  of  the 
Augustinian  Assumptionists,"  the  Order  that  owns  and 
runs  these  journals.  On  the  last  page  is  a  cartoon  repre- 
senting Satan  interviewing  M.  Goblet,  in  a  manner 
apparently  little  relished  by  this  unsuccessful  politician, 
who  lost  his  seat  on  May  8th,  1898. 

The  Pelerin  of  June  12th  has  a  cartoon  of  its  favourite 
politicians,  MM.  de  Cassagnac,  Millevoye,  Deroulede, 
Piou,  Motte,  Lerolle,  and  Drumont,  the  rump  of  the 
Boulangist  party,  and  all  of  them  now  partisans  of  a 
coup  d'etat  by  the  Church  and  Army  combined. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  political  supplement  of  the  Pelerin. 
It  is  in  newspaper  form,  four  sides  with  four  columns 
each.  As  a  frontispiece  we  have  a  large  engraving  of 
Christ  stretched  upon  the  cross,  with  the  legend  Chrisius 
Vincit.  Beneath  are  a  biblical  text  and  a  calendar  for  the 
week.  On  the  second  page,  at  the  back  of  the  engraving, 
is  printed  the  Gospel  lesson  for  the  day  in  French.  A 
notice  heads  the  letterpress  to  the  effect  that  the  journal 
is  edited  at  8,  Rue  Francois  I",  Paris  and  at  all  the 
bureaux  of  the  supplements  of  La  Croix. 


20  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

We  take  up  the  number  for  Sunday,  February  13th, 
1898.  The  bibHcal  text  beneath  the  crucified  one  is 
this  :  —  "  Arise,  O  Lord  :  Why  dost  Thou  slumber  ? 
Arise,  and  turn  us  not  away  for  ever.  Why  dost  Thou 
turn  away  Thy  face  ?  Why  forgettest  Thou  us  in  our 
distress  ?  "  Underneath  this  text  is  a  large  print  review 
of  the  week's  events,  the  first  paragraph  of  which  is 
abuse  of  Zola  and  his  counsel.  Next  comes  a  paragraph 
headed: — "  Masses  offered  for  the  Church  of  St.  Joachim," 
from  which  we  learn  that  this  paper,  the  Croix,  has  been 
the  means  of  45,000  masses  being  offered  to  the  Holy 
Father,  and  that  the  generosity  of  the  faithful  is  such  that 
promises  of  500  to  1,000  masses  and  more  reach  every 
day  the  office  of  the  Croix,  8,  Rue  Francois  I".  These 
figures  give  some  idea  of  the  enormous  circulation 
enjoyed  by  the  paper. 

In  the  second  column,  side  by  side  with  the  engraving 
of  Jesus  on  the  cross,  is  the  leading  article,  entitled  "  The 
Plot."     It  begins  thus  :— 

"  Labourers,  workmen,  traders,  the  Dreyfus-Zola  Scandal,  so  systemati- 
cally worked  by  all  who  hate  France,  demonstrates  that  our  country  is  the 
prey  of  a  foreign  invasion.  .  .  .  The  interests  of  the  nation  are  daily 
betrayed  to  the  foreigner  by  this  German-Jewish  band,  under  the  cover  of 
freemasonry. 

"  The  accomplices  more  or  less  wilful  of  these  criminal  efforts  are 
these : — 

"I.  The  Protestant  Sectaries  who  are  led  astray  by  a  confessional 
solidarity  (solidaritc  confessionell:),  and  for  whom  the  true  fatherland  is  in 
London  and  Berlin. 

"  2.  The  Socialist  agitators,  who,  under  the  guidance  of  Prussian  Jews, 
aim  at  destroying  all  the  forces  of  society." 

There  follows  much  more  of  the  same  kind,  very  sug- 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  21 

gestive  that  Drumont  hires  out  his  pen  to  the  Croix.  On 
the  next  page  Scheurer-Kestner  is  abused  for  being  a 
Protestant.  The  editors  also  gloat  over  the  fact  that  the 
members  of  the  Dreyfus  syndicate  are  nearly  lynched  by 
the  mob  on  their  way  to  and  from  the  law-court.  "  Why 
not  put  them  all  in  prison  ?  "  they  ask.  On  the  third 
page  is  an  account  of  the  electoral  agitation  conducted 
by  the  Croix,  which  ends  thus  : — 

"  The  league  of  the  Ave  Maria  forms  an  invincible  army.  See  how 
Providence  forestalls  our  wishes — the  Dreyfus-Zola  affair!  The  enemies 
of  France  and  of  the  Church  could  not  have  invented  anything  better 
calculated  to  discover  to  patriots  the  awful  international  plot  which  we 
have  incessantly  denounced." 

In  the  issue  of  March  13th,  i8g8,  our  eye  lights  on  a 
paragraph  which  shows  that  the  teaching  of  the  Jesuit 
organ  Civilia  Cattolica  has  not  been  thrown  away.  It  is 
headed  :  Pas  de  Jui/s,  and  runs  thus  : — 

"  In  the  Assetnblee  Agricole  of  the  East  of  France  the  following  resolution 
has  been  adopted : 

"'We  will  vote  for  no  candidates  who  will  not  pledge  themselves  to 
propose,  support,  and  pass  a  law  forbidding  Jews  to  have  electoral  rights 
or  to  exercise  civil  and  military  functions. 

"  '  We  ask  all  Catholics  and  patriots  to  adopt  this  platform  at  the 
elections.' 

"  Here  (adds  the  Croix)  is  a  programme  short,  clear,  and  simple.  It  will 
be  easy  to  propose  and  even  force  it  on  candidates  at  election  meetings." 

The  exclusion  of  Jews  from  all  citizenship  has,  as  was 
pointed  out  above,  been  consistently  urged  by  Drumont, 
particularly  in  an  article  in  the  Libre  Parole  of  December 
2ist,  1894,  at  the  time  of  the  Dreyfus  court-martial. 

April  loth,  i8g8,  was  Easter  Sunday  ;  the  Calvary  was 


22  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

the  Pelerin's  supplement,  the  Croix  had  a  plate  represent- 
ing our  Lord's  Resurrection.  Alongside  of  both  is  a 
manifesto  of  the  "Justice — Egalite''  league,  in  which  the 
faithful  are  thanked  for  the  prayers  they  have  offered  and 
the  subscriptions  they  have  sent,  and  then  stimulated  to 
fresh  exertions  by  the  following  appeal : — 

"  God  is  good,  and  He  comes  visibly  to  aid  our  dear  country.  .  .  . 

"  The  committee  'Justice — Egalite  '  addresses  to  tiie  French  Army  and  to 
its  chiefs  the  expression  of  its  respectful  and  sympathetic  admiration. 

"  And  utters  the  fervent  hope:  That  the  French  electors  will  deal  sum- 
marily at  the  coming  elections  with  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Dreyfus 
Syndicate  : — 

"  I.  By  refusing  their  votes  to  any  candidate  who  is  allied  with  the 
Jewry  and  with  Freemasonry,  and  who  is  not  a  resolute  opponent  of  the 
Dreyfus  Syndicate. 

"  2.  By  putting  forward  in  every  electoral  district,  and  energetically 
supporting  candidates  who  are  French  by  nationality  and  origin  and  of 
proved  patriotism." 

On  Sunday,  April  17th,  the  Croix  has  a  fresh  article  on 
the  electoral  situation.  After  a  bitter  attack  on  Protes- 
tants we  read  this  : — 

"Is  it  too  much  to  require  that  future  deputies  should  have  no  pacts 
with  the  partisans  of  the  traitor  Dreyfus  ?  .  .  . 

"  Fervent  prayers  are  raised  to  Heaven.  The  leaguers  of  the  Avr Maria 
will  do  wonders.  The  readers  of  the  Croix  and  adherents  of  the  committee 
'Justice — Egalite '  will  fight  like  lions,  and  God  will  give  them  the  victory. 

"  Let  us  not  forget  that  the  elections  take  place  on  May  the  8th,  the 
Feast  of  Jeanne  d'Arc  and  of  St.  Michel." 

On  April  24th,  under  the  rubric  Gazette,  the  following: — 

"  A  fresh  symptom  of  the  decay  of  anti-clericalism  : — 
"  The  commis-voyageurs  (merchant  travellers),  whose  impieties  used  to  be 
famous  at  tables  d'hote,  and  who,  in  Gambetta's  time,  were  exalted  as  the 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  23 

destroyers  of  clericalism,  now  never  travel  without   an  important  docu. 
ment,  their  certificate  of  baptism. 

"  Every  time  one  of  them  is  asked, '  But  are  you  not  a  Jew  ? '  he  answers, 
•  I !     Never.     Here  is  my  baptismal  certificate.'  " 

These  truly  pious  bagmen  remind  us  strangely  of  the 
Christian  and  Catholic  colonists  of  Algiers,  a  city  where, 
if  you  enter  a  Jewish  shop  you  run  the  risk  of  being 
photographed  in  doing  so  by  a  Catholic  artist,  who  lurks 
outside  in  order  to  your  subsequent  identification  and 
exposure  as  a  friend  of  the  Jews. 

The  same  issue  contains,  under  the  capital  rubric  : — 
"  Candidat,  Repondez"  hints  for  the  heckling  of  candidates 
at  the  approaching  election. 

"Let  us  rather  see  who  you  are. 

"  Here  are  three  questions.     Enlighten  us  and  answer  frankly. 

"  Are  you  in  favour  0/  liberty  for  ail  except  for  evil  and  for  evil-doers  ? 

"  Are  you  for  the  equality  of  all  good  and  true  Frenchmen  ? 

"  Or,  on  the  contrary,  are  you  a  grovelling  valet  of  the  new  aristocracy, 
and  do  you  believe  in  restoring  privileges  simply  and  solely  in  favour  of 
Freemasons,  foreign  Jews,  Panamists  and  Sectaries  [i.e.,  Protestants). 

"CANDIDATE,    ANSWER! 

"Are  yod  the  Friend  of  Jew.s? 

"  The  friend  of  Jews  is  not  our  friend.  .  .  . 

"  What  think  you  of  Zola  ? 

"  What  think  you  of  the  traitor  Dreyfus  and  of  the  Syndicate  ? 

"The  electors  must  know;  for  it  is  said  already  that  the  weak-kneed 
ones  of  the  Government  have  promised  to  capitulate  on  the  morrow  of  the 
elections  to  the  influences  of  Jews,  Protestants,  Masons  and  foreigners,  and 
to  revise  the  Dreyfus  case. 

"If  you  were  a  deputy  would  you  be  in  the  flock  of  tlie  Syndicate? 

"Would  you  be  with  those  who  will  basely  forsake  the  Army  ? 

"  Will  you  be  one  of  the  dumb  dogs  ? 

"  Are  you  a  Freemason  ?  .  .  ." 


24  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

The  issue  of  May  ist  has,  along  with  a  letter  of  advice 
how  to  vote  from  the  Archbishop  of  Aix,  the  text  of 
another  broadside  issued  for  voters  by  the  Committee 
"Justice — Egalitc."  This  committee,  the  reader  must 
bear  in  mind,  is  composed  of  ecclesiastics,  and  has  its 
headquarters  in  the  office  of  the  editors  of  the  Pelerin 
and  the  Croix.  It  is  entitled  Les  Sans-patrie,  and  we 
reproduce  one  or  two  flosciili  from  it : — 

"  Frenchmen,  it  appertains  to  your  good  sense  and  patriotism  to  frustrate 
the  plot  of  the  international  Jewry,  represented  by  Dreyfus  the  traitor,  and 
Zola  the  Italian,  to  parry  the  blow  levelled  by  Freemasonry.  Patriots, 
to-day  more  than  ever,  it  needs  be  that  our  loved  France  should  be  kept 
for  the  French.*  .  .  . 

"  No  more  slavery !     But  a  France  independent,  proud,  and  respected. 

"  Down  with  the  Jews  !     Down  with  the  Freemasons  ! 

"  To  the  Devil's  Island  with  all  anti-patriots  !  " 

There  is  about  the  above,  as  indeed  about  most 
that  meets  the  eye  in  these  remarkable  religious 
newspapers,  the  true  ring  of  Drumont  and  Deroulede, 
and  of  the  other  friends  and  allies  of  the  hired  traitor 
Esterhazy.  In  the  same  issue  we  have  the  text  of  another 
electoral  broadsheet  or  placard,  also  sold  at  the  rate  of 
fifty  for  the  half-franc.  It  is  entitled  :  "  Freemasons,-  let 
us  have  no  more  of  them  !  "  From  it  we  learn  that  the 
Freemasons  "form  an  imperium  in  imperio,"  iha.t  "they 
take  their  mot  d'ordre  from  Lemmi,  the  great  enemy  of 
France,  from  the  Cornelius  Herz,  the  Artons,  the  great 
Panama  swindlers,  from  the  Dreyfus,  the  Zolas  .  .  ." 
we  are  begged  to   "  remember  that   nearly   all   the  per- 

*  "  La  France  aux  Francais"  is  the  motto  which  Drumont  sets  at  the  head  of 
his  paper,  the  Lib>e  Parole. 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  25 


sonages   mixed    up    with    the  proces    Zola-Dreyfus   were 
members  of  the  lodges."     It  ends  thus  : — 


'b^ 


"  We  must  have  no  more  of  them.  Why?  Because  they  excite  and  heep  up 
a  war  of  religion  (!)  Full  of  tenderness  for  the  Jews,  full  of  regard  for  the 
Protestants,  they  are  ever  filled  with  a  sectarian  hatred  of  the  religion  of 
the  majority  of  Frenchmen.  .  .  ." 

On  May  8th,  the  day  of  the  elections,  we  read  that  : — 

"  The  army  of  Catholics  and  patriots  has  aroused  itself.  They  thought 
it  was  dead  and  buried.  The  sectaries  and  Dreyfusards  affected  to  trample 
on  us.  To-day  they  change  their  tune.  Very  few  are  the  departments 
which  hold  aloof  from  the  Catholic  and  patriotic  movement.  All  the  worse 
for  them !  .  .  .  The  Catholic  executive  committee '/ws^w — Egalite'  is  to- 
day known  all  over  France,  and  shelters  itself  under  the  shadow  of  La  Croix. 
It  feels  the  heart  of  France  palpitate  with  a  marvellous  impulse  of  generosity. 
In  a  few  weeks  it  has  received  120,000  francs,  and  will  go  on  receiving  money 
till  the  ballotings  are  over  ;  for  it  is  necessary  to  contribute  to  the  cost  of 
numerous  candidatures.  .  .  .  God  be  praised  1  Its  efforts  have  not  been 
in  vain.  The  results  won  are  most  encouraging.  Henceforth  France  has 
a  Catholic  organization." 

One  more  extract  will  suffice.  It  is  from  a  leader  in 
the  supplement  politique  of  the  Pelerinfor  July  loth  entitled, 
Totijours  Dreyfus  : — 

"  Here  we  are  plunged  again  into  the  cursed  Dreyfus  affair.  The  Jews 
and  their  accomplices,  partisans  of  the  traitor,  have  sworn  to  move  heaven 
and  earth.  All  the  worse  for  them  if  they  provoke  fresh  troubles  inside  our 
country  and  even  complications  with  foreign  nations.  .  .  . 

"  Shall  we  then  never  have  done  with  this  business  ? 

"Is  there  then  no  law  to  chastise  these  partisans  of  a  traitor  who  give 
rise  to  the  gravest  difficulties,  and  threaten  to  plunge  the  country  into 
revolution  or  war  ? 

"Alas!  The  truth  must  be  avowed.  The  triumph  of  the  masonic  sect 
in  France  is  withal  that  of  the  international  Jewry.  Even  if  this  band 
does  not  govern  outright,  anyhow  no  one  dares  to  govern  without  and  in 


26  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

spite  of  it.  If  you  lay  hands  on  the  lowest  of  these  wretches,  you  at  once 
bring  the  whole  sect,  the  whole  Jewry  about  your  ears.  They  dared  to 
strike  Dreyfus  and  send  him  to  the  Devil's  Island.  The  blow  fell  upon 
them  all,  and  they  are  resolved  to  return  it,  blow  for  blow." 

The  above  extracts,  culled  from  sixteen  issues  only  of 
these  "  religious "  journals,  could  be  multiplied  in- 
definitely by  anyone  who  cared  to  run  his  eye  through 
their  files  for  the  whole  of  the  year  i8g8,  and  especially 
through  the  file  of  the  daily  Croix.*  They  bear  out  the 
following  conclusions  : — 

1.  The  French  bishops,  throughout  the  year  1898, 
allowed  their  Church  to  identify  itself  with  the  cause  of 
the  guilty  Etat-Major,  to  ally  itself  with  a  band  of  forgers, 
assassins,  and  traitors,  whom  as  Christians  they  should 
have  led  the  way  in  denouncing  and  repudiating. 

2.  They  cannot  plead  that  they  knew  no  better,  and 
had  no  data  upon  which  to  form  a  judgment.  As  early 
as  November,  1897,  the  innocence  of  Dreyfus  and  the 
guilt  of  Esterhazy  were  established;  and  the  documents 
and  depositions  published  before  the  end  of  February, 
1898,  were  more  than  sufficient  as  a  basis  for  a  clear  and 
certain  pronouncement  on  the  merits  of  the  case.  In- 
telligent persons  all  over  France,  especially  the  Protes- 
tants, recognized  the  truth  ;  the  whole  civilized  world 
outside  France  recognized  it.  The  French  bishops, 
through  their  relations  with  the  outside  Catholic  world, 
were  peculiarly  well  situated  to  come  by  the  truth,  had 
they  wished  to  do  so. 

3.  They  have  allowed  Drumont  to  come  forward  and 

♦There  are  several  religious  journals  of  this  name  in  France.  They  give 
different  local  news,  but  are  all  alike  in  sentiment. 


A    CLERICAL  CRUSADE.  27 

pose  urbi  et  orbi  as  the  political  spokesman  of  French 
Catholicism.  They  have  suffered  their  religious  journals 
all  over  France  to  disseminate  the  gospel  of  Drumont,  a 
man  whom  future  generations  of  Frenchmen  will  execrate 
as  the  evil  genius  of  his  country  in  this  last  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  as  the  preacher  of  civil  war,  as  the 
apostle  of  religious  hatreds  and  intolerance  ;  of  anarchy 
and  assassination,  of  fraud  and  injustice,  of  forgery  and 
treason,  the  friend,  apologist,  and  accomplice, 

4.  The  French  bishops  have  allowed  all  this  without  a 
single  protest.  In  private  they  have  encouraged  it. 
They  have  hoped  to  exploit  the  popularity  of  the  French 
Army  on  behalf  of  religion  as  they  conceive  it.  They 
have  not  cared  whether  Dreyfus  was  innocent  or  Ester- 
hazy  guilty.  All  they  saw  in  their  shortsightedness  was 
the  ephemeral  truth  that  Dreyfus  would  make  a  good 
stick  with  which  to  belabour  Freemasons,  Protestants, 
and  Republicans  of  conviction.  Accordingly  by  nerveless 
acquiescence,  where  not  by  active  participation,  they  have 
caused  the  faithful  to  stumble. 

5.  The  French  Jesuits,  in  particular,  are  responsible. 
For  firstly,  they  in  their  great  school  of  the  Rue  des  Pastes 
educate  the  vast  majority  of  French  officers  ;  they  turn 
them  out  devout  Catholics  in  opinion,  and  Royalists  in 
their  sympathies.  But  they  have  not  used  their  influence 
over  their  pupils,  young  and  old,  on  behalf  of  humanity, 
justice,  truth,  and  of  that  peace  and  brotherhood  between 
officer  and  officer  which  is  essential  to  the  well-being  of 
a  national  army.  Secondly,  they  have  not  repudiated 
Drumont  and  his  works.  Thirdly,  in  their  official  organ 
the  CiviWl  Cattolica  they  preach  the  very  doctrine  which 


28  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

is  the  keynote  of  all  Drumont's  works,  and  which  con- 
stitutes the  official  programme  of  the  party  of  treason  and 
injustice,  of  violence  and  forgery.  Fourthly,  the  intimate 
connection  between  their  Order  and  the  Libre  Parole  of 
Drumont  has  been  attested  by  Drumont  himself, 

6.  The  Catholic  party  in  the  French  Chamber,  led  by 
the  Comte  Albert  de  Mun,  has  above  every  other  party 
distinguished  itself  by  its  bitter  hostility  to  the  cause  of 
justice  and  humanity.  It  would  be  unfair  to  the  leading 
spirits  of  this  party  to  suppose  that  they  have  any  illusions 
about  the  innocence  or  guilt  of  Dreyfus  and  Esterhazy. 
Nevertheless,  when  Drumont  in  the  course  of  last  Decem- 
ber appealed  for  subscriptions  with  which  to  prosecute 
MM.  Yves  Guyot  and  Reinach,  as  many  as  300  Royalist 
and  Catholic  princes,  dukes,  marquises,  counts,  and 
viscounts  of  France  hastened  to  record  in  the  columns  of 
the  Libre  Parole  their  unfeigned  admiration  for  Henry  the 
forger,  and  accomplice  in  treason  of  Esterhazy.  All 
these  personages  are  devoted  sons  of  the  Latin  Church. 
To  the  mottoes  which  they  append  to  their  subscriptions 
we  will  presently  refer. 

It  is  improbable  that  the  English  reading  public  have 
much  insight  into  the  inner  spirit  of  the  French  clerical 
party,  or  the  present  writer  would  not  have  been  called 
to  task  by  his  reviewers  in  Tlie  Times,  in  Literature,  in 
The  Glasgow  Herald,  and  in  The  Outlook,  and  Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  for  his  criticisms  of  the  attitude  in  the  Dreyfus 
case  of  the  French  Church  and  Jesuits.  That  these 
journals  are  so  reluctant  to  believe  evil  of  the  Latin 
Church  abroad  is  really  a  high  tribute  to  the  patriotism, 
honesty,  and  humanity  of  those  who  within  these  islands 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  29 

are  adherents  thereof.  To  praise  the  English  ultramon- 
tanes  for  these  qualities  would  be  to  insult  them  ;  because 
it  would  be  to  impute  to  them  the  possibility  of  being 
other  than,  as  English  subjects,  trained  like  the  rest  of  us 
in  self-government,  self-reliance,  religious  tolerance,  and 
political  fair  play,  they  must  necessarily  be.  They,  no 
doubt,  have  been  as  much  in  the  dark  as  many  others, 
with  respect  to  the  sinister  and  self-compromising  line 
taken  in  this  terrible  business  by  the  French  Church — a 
Church  which  is  only  too  ready  to  miss  great  moral  issues 
when  they  are  set  before  it,  and  to  cause  others  to  miss 
them.  A  true  friend  would  surely  suggest  to  English 
Catholics  that  they  might  do  worse  than  send  out  mis- 
sionaries to  their  French  co-religionists  to  instruct  them 
in  the  elementary  principles  of  political  righteousness. 
English  Catholics  have  surely  a  vital  interest  to  save,  if 
they  can,  from  moral  bankruptcy  the  eldest  daughter  of 
their  Church. 

The  demoralization  wrought  by  the  anti-Semitic  Press, 
to  which  we  must  reckon  the  religious  journals  above 
examined  to  belong,  is  painfully  shown  in  the  posthumous 
honours  which  its  readers  heap  upon  Colonel  Henry. 
That  this  officer  was  a  perjured  and  self-convicted  forger 
was  an  acknowledged  fact ;  yet  this  Press  has  ever  since 
his  death  acclaimed  him  as  a  patriot,  a  hero,  a  martyr  of 
the  Jews.  M.  Charles  Maurras  in  the  royalist  Gazette  de 
France,  the  doyenne  of  Paris  papers,  long  ago  extolled  this 
miscreant  as  a  suitable  object  of  a  culte  domestique  in  every 
French  home,  and  declared  that  nothing  but  "  the  scruples 
of  a  mischievous  half -Protestant  education  restrained " 
the  Revisionist  Press  from  doing  honour  to  his  memory. 


30  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

More  recently  Colonel  Henry's  widow,  for  whom  every- 
one must  feel  the  deepest  pity,  has  been  instigated  by  the 
military  faction  to  prosecute  MM.  Yves  Guyot  and  Joseph 
Reinach  for  an  article  written  by  the  latter  in  the  Steele, 
of  which  M.  Guyot  is  editor.  This  article  was  an  attempt 
to  gauge  the  extent  of  Colonel  Henry's  complicity  in 
treason  with  Esterhazy,  who,  be  it  remembered,  in  his 
memoirs,  admits  that  he  has  been  for  twenty  years  the 
intimate  friend  of  Henry,  whereas  the  latter's  widow 
denies  that  they  ever  knew  each  other  until  the  middle  of 
the  year  1898.  The  drift  of  M.  Keinach's  article  was 
identical  with  that  of  one  which  appeared  from  the  present 
writer's  pen  in  the  National  Review  for  December, 
1898. 

The  kindest  thing  would  have  been  to  dissuade  this 
poor  lady  from  a  prosecution  which,  if  impartially  con- 
ducted, can  only  involve  her  husband's  memory  in  fresh 
infamy.  But  to  the  partisans  of  the  Etat-Major,  who 
hope  to  have  another  Judge  Delegorgue  or  Perivier  to 
plead  before,  it  seems  a  splendid  opportunity  of  wreaking 
vengeance  on  the  two  men  who  have  been  so  strenuous  in 
the  uphill  fight  for  truth  and  justice.  Accordingly,  the 
Libre  Parole  opened  in  December  a  subscription  Irst  to 
raise  funds  wherewith  to  sustain  this  ill-timed  suit. 
Royalists  and  Catholics  all  over  France  hastened  to  sub- 
scribe, and  within  a  fortnight  130,000  francs  were  raised. 
As  is  often  the  case  with  partisans  inspired  by  mere 
passion  to  open  their  purses,  many  contributors  accom- 
panied their  subscriptions  with  an  expression  of  their 
inmost  feelings ;  and,  if  we  glance  down  the  lists  of  the 
Libre  Parole,  we  meet  with  many  such  entries  as  these  : — 


A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE.  31 

"  St.  Bartholomew's  night  saved  France  from  dismemberment,  2  francs. 
"A.  Bailliere  and  one  of  his  friends,  who  would  like  to  see  100,000  Jews 
and  other  traitors  to  the  country  guillotined,  100  francs." 

As  there  are  less  than  80,000  Jews  in  France,  this  friend 
of  Esterhazy  leaves  a  good  margin. 

"  For  the  widow  of  Henry,  for  the  extermination  of  the  Jew  and  of  the 
Huguenot,  i  franc. 

"  Out  of  France  with  the  Jews  !  A  St.  Bartholomew's  for  the  Free- 
masons, 8  francs. 

"  A  group  of  officers  who  impatiently  wait  for  the  order  to  experiment 
with  the  new  explosives  and  new  cannon  on  the  100,000  Jews  who  poison 
the  country,  25  francs. 

"  A.V.     For  the  complete  extermination  of  the youtres,  1  franc. 

"  Some  gold  while  we  wait  for  lead  !     Ariste  and  Jeanne,  20  francs. 

"  One  who  begins  to  understand  St.  Bartholomew's  in  view  of  the 
anti-patrio'.ic  attitude  of  the  Protestants,  C.  L.,  o  francs.  50. 

"  R.  J.  For  the  extermination  of  Jews  and  those  indoctrinated  by  them, 
2  francs. 

"  Out  of  France  with  Jews  or  let  them  be  hung,  5  francs. 

"The  Abbe  C.  The  blood  of  Colonel  Henry  cries  out  for  vengeance,  3 
francs. 

"  An  aggrege  of  the  university  who  begins  to  understand  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's and  the  i8th  Brumaire,  2  francs. 

"  A  licencii  in  history  who  finds  the  Inquisition  to  be  an  institution  of 
public  utility,  and  St.  Bartholomew's  a  work  of  national  purification,  5 
francs. 

"  Hurrah  for  a  Jewish  St.  Bartholomew's,  M.  A.  Poisson,  3  francs." 

Such  is  the  ferocity  inspired  by  the  I.ibre  Parole  and  the 
Croix.  It  remains  to  mention  what  appears  to  us  to  be 
one  of  the  mo.^t  mebincholy  signs  of  the  time.  This  was 
a  sermon  preached  in  the  Madeleine  on  Sunday,  Decem- 
ber I2th,  to  a  crowded  and  fashionable  congregation  by 
the  Pere  Coub6.  For  an  hour  he  assailed  the  Jews  with 
every  formula   of   opprobrium    dear    to   their   mediaeval 


33  A    CLERICAL   CRUSADE. 

oppressors ;  and  his  vast,  well-dressed  audience  uttered 
not  any  protest,  but  greeted  the  gravest  of  his  insults  with 
a  hum  of  approval.  Nevertheless  Jesus  said :  Blessed 
are  they  that  have  been  persecuted  for  righteousness' 
sake :  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Surely  this 
is  the  lot  of  the  Jew  in  France  at  this  time.  And  if  a 
tree  is  to  be  known  by  its  fruit,  what  shall  be  the  judg- 
ment on  modern  French  Catholicism  ? 


IL    CASO    DREYFUS;   OK,    THE    JESUIT 

VIEW. 


N  the  last  number  of  this  Review  I  could  only 
refer  in  passing  to  a  remarkable  article,  entitled 
" //  Caso  Drey/tis,"  which  appeared  in  the 
Civilta  Cattolica  for  February  5th,  i8g8.  It  was  not 
signed,  and  it  professes  to  be  written  from  the  fixed 
standpoint  of  this  journal,  which  has  always  been  recog- 
nized as  the  official  exponent  of  Jesuit  opinion.  I  have 
been  accused  of  reckless  calumny  of  the  Jesuit  Order, 
because  in  my  history  of  the  Dreyfus  case  I  pointed  to  it 
as  a  mainspring  of  the  affair.  I  now  propose,  by  way  of 
substantiating  my  opinion,  to  examine  somewhat  at  length 
this  officially  authorized  exposition.    It  begins  as  follows : — 

"  In  the  memory  of  man  there  was  never  got  up  such  a  hullabaloo  over 
a  legitimate  sentence  judicially  pronounced  more  than  three  years  before,  ^  >* 

as  has  lately  been  raised  all  over  the  civilized  world  about  that  which  has  ^ 

in  France  condemned  the  traitor  Captain  Dreyfus  to  perpetual  banishment 
to  the  Island  of  the  Devil.  .  .  . 

'  "What  has  unchained  such  a  tempest  all  of  a  suddenj  Where  is  the 
/Eolus  who  has  let  his  reins  go?  The  Count  de  Man,  amidst  the  applause 
of  the  Chamber,  hinted  at  the  truth  in  the  course  of  December  last,  when 
he  spoke  in  veiled  language  of  pa  mysterious  force,  of  an  occult  power^J 
that  has  turned  France  topsy-turvy,  all  in  order  to  vilify  the  guardians  of 
her  flag.  His  words  called  forth  loud  cheers,  when  he  eloquently  appealed 
to  his  hearers  to  defend  the  honour  of  the  army  against  this  malignant 

C 


34  IL  CASO  DREYFUS; 

power ;  and  the  ovation  awoke  echoes  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the 
other. 

"The  veil  was  transparent  enough.  Who  did  not  know  the  history, 
•^^^  open  or  secret,  of  the  traitor  Dreyfus  ?  A  captain  in  the  French  Army 
and  appointed  to  the  Etat-Major,  of  Alsatian  origin,  he  is  a  Jew  by  race 
and— what  is  more— he  is,  so  it  is  said,  a  leader  in  Freemasonry^!^  All  the 
same,  it  was  discovered  some  three  years  back  that  he  was  a  common  spy, 
and  that  he  had  communicated  to  a  foreign  Government,  which  paid  him 
for  them,  French  documents  of  great  military  importance.  Brought  before 
a  court-martial  and  convicted  of  treason,  he  was  by  an  unanimous  vote  of 
the  judges  condemned  to  be  deported  to  Guiana. 

"The  trial  was  held  in  secret.     The  proof  of  his  treason  was  presented 

to  his  defenders  in  the  shape  of  a  bordereau  or  list,  authentic  and  wholly  in 

jv,  his  handwriting.     But  the  other  documents,  still  more  irrefragable,  which 

'0*^ — vponstituted  clear  evidence  of  his  guilt,  were  of  such  a  delicate  and  ticklish 

f>V    f    nature  that  the  French  Government  was  not  able  to  divulge  them  without 

^«^  endangering  the  safety  of  the  State.     For  this  reason  the  judges  alone, 

under  pledge  of  the  most  absolute  silence,  were  made  acquainted  with 

them  and  accorded  liberty  to  examine  and  study  them  as  much  as  they 

liked.     Apart   from  this  necessary  secrecy,  all  the  rest  of  the  trial  was 

conducted  and  concluded  in  accordance  with  the  strictest  rules  of  law." 


There  are  four  points  in  the  above  which  merit  atten- 
tion. The  first  is  that  a  certain  spirit  of  levity  characterizes 
the  words  in  which  the  Jesuit  editor  approaches  a  ques- 
tion about  which  most  good  and  reflecting  persons,  not 
only  in  France,  but  all  over  the  world,  already  felt  the 
most  serious  misgivings.  The  second  is  the  rumour, 
eagerly  caught  at  by  him,  that  Dreyfus  was  a  Freemason, 
whereas  he  was  not.  Thirdly,  we  note  the  assertion 
about  the  bordereau.  To  all  who  had  eyes  and  ears  it 
had  been  satisfactorily  demonstrated  three  months  before 
that  the  bordereau  was  not  in  the  handwriting  of  Dreyfus, 
but  of  Esterhazy.  Lastly,  we  must  particularly  notice 
the  conception  of  a  fair  trial,  as  one  in  which  closed  doors 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  35 

do  not  suffice,  but  in  which  the  accused  is  condemned 
upon  documents  freely  shown  to  a  dozen  officers  picked 
at  random,  but  withheld  from  the  accused  and  his  counsel, 
who  was  one  of  the  most  upright  and  loyal  members  of 
the  French  bar.  The  reason  of  State  advanced  by  a 
d'Ormescheville  or  a  Ravary  is  to  countervail  all  the  safe- 
guards of  the  French  military  code,  which  enacts  severe 
penalties  against  such  illegalities.  The  arch-violator  of 
the  law,  Mercier,  has  up  to  the  last  stoutly  declined  to 
admit  that  secret  evidence  was  used,  and  is  at  least  . 
ashamed  to  publicly  confess  his  crime.  Not  so  the 
Civilta  Cattolica,  which  begins  by  frankly  avowing  and 
palliating  a  felony  which  strikes  at  the  basis  of  modern 
society.  Its  political  conscience  has  not  advanced  beyond 
the  letlre  de  cachet. 

Section  2  of  the  article  begins  thus — 

(  "  The  brand  of  treason  to  his  country  was  thus  for  ever  stamped  on  the 
forehead  of  this  misbegotten  Hebrew.^  Nor  did  the  public  ever  doubt  in 
the  least  that  it  was  deserved,  seeing  that  a  court-martial,  in  which  loyalty 
and  honour  joined  hands,  had  impressed  it.  (And  this  brand  was  burned 
into  the  brow  not  of  Dreyfus  only,  but  of  cosmopolite  Jews  at  large^  (jMost 
painfully  of  all,  its  smart  was  felt  by  the  colony  of  them  which  dominates 
France.^ 

I  have  been  blamed  by  English  members  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  for  writing  of  the  Dreyfus  trial  that  in  it  "  the 
Jesuits  had  secured  their  victim,  their  indispensable 
traitor.  .  .  ."  Henceforward,  I  have  said,  they  could  argue 
"  that  Dreyfus  being  a  traitor,  all  Jews  were  traitors  as 
well."  I  think  no  one  who  reads  the  Civilta  Cattolica  will 
dispute  my  assertion. 

The  Jesuit  publicist   next  relates  to  us  how  the  Jews 


36  IL   CASO   DREYFUS; 

were  emancipated  in  France  and  given  equal  rights  with 
other  citizens.  This,  he  remarks,  "  was  a  corollary  of 
the  so-called  principles  of  1789,  the  yoke  of  which  was 
then  imposed  on  the  necks  of  Frenchmen." 

After  this  subtle  tribute  to  the  merits  of  the  ancien 
regime,  the  writer  proceeds  to  combine  in  one  sentence 
two  misstatements,  y  "  By  means  of  immigration  from 
Germany,  their  race  has  increased  in  France,  not  out  of 
measure  indeed,  but  so  much  that  one  already  counts 
130,000  of  them. '^  It  is  well  known  that  nearly  all  Jews 
who  have  entered  France  during  the  last  100  years,  the 
Dreyfus  family  in  particular  and  the  Reinachs,  are  immi- 
grants, and  often  patriotic  refugees,  from  Alsace  and 
Lorraine,  and  not  from  Germany  at  all.  The  last  French 
census  also  shows  that  the  entire  number  of  Jews  in 
France  is  75,000,  about  half  of  the  above  estimate. 

There  follows  an  unaccountably  over-coloured  picture 
of  the  influence  and  power  of  the  French  Jews.  The 
modicum  of  truth  in  it  is  that  the  Jews,  along  with  the 
Huguenots,  the  secular  victims  of  the  Latin  Church,  have 
allied  themselves,  as  it  was  their  right  and  duty  to  do, 
with  that  party  in  French  politics  which  opposed  the 
machinations  of  the  Vatican  against  the  Republic"  and 
against  those  principles  of  liberty,  truth,  and  justice  which, 
until  yesterday,  that  form  of  government  symbolized  in 
France.  Such  is  the  sense  which  we  may  attach  to  the 
words  in  which  the  Civilta  sums  up  its  reflections  on  this 
point,  viz.,  these  : — 

"  Masonry,  mistress  of  the  State,  depends  servilely  upon  the  Jews;  and 
by  means  of  it  they  hold  in  their  hands  the  Republic,  which  for  that  reason 
has  been  called  Hebraic  rather  than  French." 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  37 

After  this  approval  of  the  favourite  thesis  of  Drumont, 
the  Jesuit  organ  complacently  reproduces  an  absurd 
calumny  of  Edouard  Demachy,  the  scoundrel  who  tried, 
and  tried  in  vain,  to  blackmail  the  Rothschilds.  It  is 
useful  to  notice  this  calumny,  because  it  reveals  the  inner 
mind  of  the  clerical  party  in  France  towards  Protestant 
England. 

"As  regards  the  English  occupation  of  Egypt,  it  was  possible  to  assure 
the  Government  of  London  that  a  single  one  of  the  Jews  (?  Baron  Roths- 
child) could  be  relied  upon  to  hocus  the  Press,  the  Ministers,  and  the 
Parliament  of  France.') 

In  a  similar  strain  of  confiding  simplicity,  M.  Drumont 
announced  in  the  Libre  Parole  of  October  15th,  i8g8,  that 
M.  Delcasse's  policy  of  evacuating  the  Upper  Nile  was 
inspired  by  Mr.  Strong  and  myself: 

"  Les  rodomontades  anglaises  nous  laissent  froids.  Malheureusement, 
elles  n'ont  pas  le  mcme  effet  sur  Delcasse,  qui  en  remplit  ses  culottes  et 
dont  la  politique  exterieure  est  dirigee  par  Conybeare  et  le  gentleman 
Strong." 

But  we  must  return  to  the  Civilta  Cattolica.  After 
propounding  seriously  the  fiction  of  Drumont  that  the 
French  Jews  own  80  out  of  the  260  milliards  of  property 
which  there  arc  in  France,  it  proceeds  to  a  friendly 
appreciation  of  that  author's  labours. 

"It  is  true,"  it  writes,  "  that  anti-Semitism  had  already  taken  vigorous 
root,  but  it  was  more  economical  than  political  and  national.  The  school 
of  Edward  Drumont,  which  has  waged  war  most  pertinaciously  on  the 
Jews,  appeared  to  many  to  lean  towards  some  sort  of  Socialism  rather  than 
towards  a  Christianity  of  justice  and  civil  right.  (However,  the  Dreyfus 
case  proved  a  lamp  which  shed  the  light  abroad  better  than  all  the  books, 
pamphlets,  and  journalistic  articles  in  the  world  could  do.'X 


38  IL   CASO   DREYFUS; 

We  shall  see  presently  how  the  modern  Jesuits  con- 
ceive of  a  christianesimo  eqiio  e  civile.  Meanwhile  we  must 
reproduce  their  caricature  of  an  agitation  in  which  all 
who  were  participators  were  noble  and  disinterested  men, 
who  had  pure  justice  and  the  redress  of  a  fraudulent 
iniquity  for  their  aim,  and  whose  action  will  in  future 
generations  be  surely  recognized  as  the  only  bright  side 
of  this  miserable  episode.     It  is  as  follows  : — 

"The  treason  and  condemnation  of  Alfred  Dreyfus  were  regarded  by 
cosmopolite  Judaism  as  a  terrible  blow  falling  on  all  alike.  Some  steps 
had  to  be  taken  to  remedy  it.  But  how  ?  Jewish  subtlety  excogitated  the 
subterfuge  of  a  judicial  error,  which  might  be  feigned  to  have  occurred." 

Let  the  reader  not  forget  that  our  writer  has  already 

*\j  ^dmitted  that  the  Dreyfus  verdict  was  illegally  obtained 

\r  /  ^y  '^^^  °^  secret  evidence.     He  continues  thus  : — 
,/ 

"Taking its  stand  on  the  revelations  made  by  Rochefort  in  the  Iniransi- 
geantS^he  Hebrew  Congress  held  last  summer  in  Basle  had  for  its  pretext 
to  discuss  the  recovery  of  JerusalenA;  but  it  was  really  held  to  hatch  the 
whole  conspii3r.y.  The  Hebrews  \jrere  joined  in  it  by  Protestants  of  high 
position.  An  Israelitish  syndicate  was  formed,  which  raised  the  millions 
necessary  to  the  success  of  so  difficult  an  undertaking.  Rochefort  has 
afl&rmed  that  by  October  the  first  four  of  these  millions  had  already  been 
raised,  pretty  well  all  in  Germany.  So  far  one  does  not  know  how -much 
has  been  raised  in  France.  More  than  others  the  Jew  takes  it  for  his  axiom  yj^ 
that  pecuniiB  ohediunt  omnia.  .  .  .\One  thing  is  certain,  that  gold  flowed  yv 
rivulets  through  the  market  of  venal  busybodies,  scribblers,  lawyers,  and 
journalists  of  every  country.]  Un  various  styles  and  all  sorts  of  ways  they 
were  hired  to  win  regard  and  public  pity  for  the  '  innocent  victim  '  of  a 
trial  hurried  through  behind  closed  doors,  for  the  '  martyr  confined  in 
the  Devil's  Island. 'Y^.^  v",  ,  0C\ 

Mark  how  this  writer  borrows  from  Drumont  his  whole 
."'■explanation  of  the  Dreyfus  agitation,  his  entire  political 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  39 


philosophy;  how  also  he  welcomes  the  fables  of  a  man 
like  Rochefort.  And  in  the  fourth  section  of  his  essay  he 
almost  surpasses  them  in  their  own  peculiar  style  of 
writing  ;  for  he  tilts  at  what  he  is  pleased  to  call  "the 
Jewish  and  Judaizing  journalism  of  the  two  worlds."  ^He 
tells  us  of  "  the  mass  of  fables,  lies,  impostures,  resorted  . 
to  "  by  the  Dreyfusards ;  he  weeps  over  "  the  foul  trick 
played  on  the  unfortunate  Major  Esterhazy,  by  way  of 
shifting  on  to  his  shoulders  the  weight  of  Dreyfus'  sins." 
He  exults  in  the  Major's  ''triumphant  acquittal  by  the 
Court-Martial  of  Jan.  ii.'  )  Then  he  dwells  con  amore  of 
course,  on  the  "  abominable  patronage  (of  Dreyfus)  by 
Emile  Zola,  the  filthiest  novelist  that  ever  contaminated 
France  "  ;  as  if  the  greater  number  of  French  romanticists, 
with  Paul  Bourget  at  their  head,  were  not  now  basking  in 
Royalist  saloons,  as  their  reward  for  sympathizing  with 
Drumont ;  and  as  if  a  great  author's  noble  championship 
of  truth  and  right  were  the  less  noble  by  reason  of  faults 
which  characterize  them  equally  with  him. 

Zola,  we  learn,  was  "in  the  last  resort  joined  by  way 
of  ally  by  the  ex-frate,  the  apostate  Hyacinth  Loyson." 
To  the  mind  of  the  writer  of  the  Civiltd  the  whole  "  dirty 
plot,"  as  he  calls  it,  is  clear  ;  and  he  once  more  goes  to 
Rochefort  for  a  choice  of  language  in  which  to  describe  it : — 

"  Rochefort,"  he  writes,  "  adverse  as  he  is  to  all  religious  faith,  summing 
up  the  obscene  history  of  such  heinous  wickedness,  has  ended  by  defining 
it  as  a  '  great  conspiracy  of  anti-Catholic  and  anti-French  interests.'!  In 
this  conspiracy  Protestantism  has  played  a  leading  part,  with  its  Lutherans 
and  Calvinists,  Scheurer-Kestner,  Gabriel  Monod,  Trarieu>4»  Leblois,  and 
other  half-hearted  paladins  of  ihe  ignoble  Jewish  joust\  lAnd  by  way  of 
keeping  it  going  the  Anarchists  and  Socialists  at  last  took  the  field,  with  a 
tail  of  a  few  Liberalist  associations  and  bands  of  law  students  from  Italy.' 


40  IL   CASO   DREYFUS; 

All  this  concentration  of  trickery,  perfidies,  and  intrigues  opened  the  eyes 
of  all  who  were  not  resolved  to  keep  them  shut ;  and  as  a  consequence 
public  opinion,  which  the  Synagogue  had  hoped  to  capture,  revolted  when 
it  looked  it  in  the  face  and  saw  it  unmasked.  So  much  so  that  in  the  end 
Masonry  did  not  dare  to  openly  take  sides  with  it.  .  .  .  Hence  the  general 
applause  with  which  the  Deputies  greeted  the  noble  words  of  the  Count 
de  Mun  when  he  exposed  and  crushed  their  dark  machinations.  Hence 
the  unanimous  votes  given  in  Chamber  and  Senate  to  the  Minister  who 
declared  that  the  betrayer  of  the  flag  and  country  had  been  properly  and 
duly  condemned.  Thus  put  to  the  test,  the  Masonic  brethren  of  the  two 
assemblies  were  obliged  to  cold-shoulder  their  Jewish  brethren  and 
patrons,  and  to  applaud  anyone  who  pointed  to  them  as  enemies  of  France, 
and  felons." 

Such  a  passage  as  this  in  the  official  journal  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  amply  confirms  the  explanation  supplied 
in  the  February  number  of  this  Review  of  the  attitude 
assumed  in  the  Dreyfus  case  by  the  Latin  Church  and  its 
journals.  They  wanted  a  scourge  for  the  backs  of  the 
Protestants  and  friends  of  freedom,  and  they  found  it 
ready  to  hand  in  the  Dreyfus  agitation.  It  was  a  real 
good  fortune  to  them  to  be  able  to  exploit  the  natural  and 
unassailable  popularity  which  in  France  the  Army  enjoys. 
How  successfully  they  wielded  the  whip  is  seen,  if  we 
examine  the  election  manifesto  of  M.  Lebret,  the  present 
Minister  of  Justice  in  France,  and  the  chief  author  of  the 
loi  de  circonstance  lately  devised  to  deprive  the  hapless 
victim  of  the  last  chance  of  being  justly  tried.  The 
clauses  of  that  manifesto  are  so  many  capitulations  to  the 
electoral  questions  drawn  up  by  the  monkish  editors  of 
the  Croix  and  Pelerin. 

"  Je  ne  suis  ni  juif,  ni  franc-magon  ! 

"Je  ne  suis  I'ami  ni  de  M.  Trarieux,  ni  de  M.  Reinach,  dont  tousles 


OR,   THE  JESUIT   VIEW.  41 

bons  Francais  ont  juge  la  conduite.  Dreyfus  a  ete  justement  condamne, 
et  je  suis  energiquement  oppose  a  toute  agitation  ayant  pour  but  la 
Revision  de  son  proces.  Commetous  les  patriotes,  je  reprou%'e  hautement 
la  campagne  infame  menee  en  faveur  du  traitre  par  un  Syndicat  de  Sans- 
patrie. 

"  En  votant  pour  moi,  vous  ferez  justice  designobles  calomnies  afiSchees 
a  la  derniere  heure  sous  le  voile  de  I'anonyme,  et  vous  vous  associerez  a 
ma  confiance  inalterable  dans  I'armee  nationale. 

"  Vive  I'Armee  !  ! 

"  Vive  la  Republique  !  !  " — Gkorges  Lebret. 

It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  how  this  confession  of  faith 
of  a  so-called  Republican  answers  line  by  line  to  the  code 
of  intimidation  compiled  by  the  Catholic  electoral  com- 
mittee and  scattered  all  ov^er  France  in  May,  189S,  in 
myriads  of  posters.  I  translated  this  code  in  the  last 
number  of  this  Review,  and  now,  that  it  may  be  the  better 
compared  with  M.  Lebret's  manifesto,  I  cite  it  in  French. 

CANDIDAT,  REPONDEZ  ! 

"  Etes-vods  l'ami  des  jdifs? 

"  L'ami  des  juifs  n'est  pas  le  notre.  .   .  . 

*'  Que  pensez-vous  de  Zola  ? 

"  Que  pensez-vous  du  traitre  Dreyfus  et  du  syndicat  ? 

"  II  faut  que  les  electeurs  le  sachent,  car  on  dit  deja  que  les  faiblards  du 
governement  ont  promis  de  capituler  au  lendemain  des  elections  devant 
I'infiuence  juives,  protestantes,  ma9onniques  et  etrangeres  et  de  reviser  le 
proces  Dreyfus. 

"  Si  vous  etiez  depute,  serez-vous  dans  le  troupeau  de  moiitons  du 
syndicat  ? 

"  Serez-vous  avec  ceux  qui  lacheront  I'arm^e  ? 

"  Serez-vous  parmi  les  chiens  muets  ? 

"CANDIDAT.  REPONDEZ! 

"  Etes-vous  franc-ma9on  ?  .  .  . 

"  Nous  voulons  que  la  chamhre  gonverne  au  nom  de  la  France. 

"  Et  non  le  Grand-Orient,  au  nom  de  le  fr;inc-ma9onnerie  cosmopolite. 


42  IL    CASO   DREYFUS; 

"  Nous  voulons  etre  en  Republique  frangaise  et  non  en  franc-magonnerie 
enjuivee  et  allemande. 

"  Candidat,  Repondez.     Etes-vous  franc-macon." 

It  is  the  secular  policy  of  the  Vatican  to  strengthen  and 
consolidate  the  power  and  authority  of  its  priests  by  fair 
means  or  foul  in  France  or  elsewhere.  Sometimes  it  trips 
and  falls  into  ambushes  laid  by  Leo  Taxils  and  Diana 
Vaughans.  Over  the  Dreyfus  case  also  it  may  reap  the 
whirlwind  where  it  has  sown  with  the  wind.  Meanwhile, 
it  has  by  means  of  it  succeeded  in  intimidating  scores  of 
the  weaker-kneed  Republicans.* 

We  must  once  more  return  to  the  Civilta  Cattolica.  The 
Jesuit  essayist  has  quoted  a  saying  which  he  attributes  to 
Bismarck,  that  "  God  created  the  Jew  in  order  that  he 
might  serve  as  a  spy  to  anybody  who  was  in  want  of 
one  "  ;  and  in  the  last  three  of  the  seven  sections  into 
which  he  divides  his  diatribe,  he  considers  the  problem 
of  what  position  to  give  to  the  "  Jewish  spy  "  in  a 
Christian  State  where  justice  and  civil  equality  shall 
prevail.     He  begins  this  part  of  his  subject  thus — 

"  The  thing  which  most  grieves  and  terrifies  the  cosmopolite  Jewry  is 
the  practical  conclusion  which  people  are  beginning  to  draw  from  all  this 
witches'  carnival.  The  civil  parity  which  the  Jew  now  enjoys  notwith- 
standing his  national  disparity  is  beginning  to  be  regarded  as  constituting 
a  real  privilege,  not  to  be  justified  at  the  bar  of  true  reason,  and  on  many 
grounds  dangerous  to  the  welfare  of  a  country.  In  France,  and  as  a  result 
elsewhere,  anti-Semitism,  from  being  economical,  is  ever  more  and  more 

*  A  flippant  friend  remarks  to  me  of  Georges  Lebret  as  follows  : — 
"When  I  peruse  the  credo  of  this  betrayer  of  the  last  stronghold  of  his  country's 
honour,  I  can  well  believe  that,  after  reciting  it  before  a  mob  of  Pelerins,  he 
turned  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  crossed  himself  devoutly,  and  like  the  pious  bag- 
men, dear  to  the  heart  of  assumptionist  monks,  handed  all  round  a  copy  of  his 
baptismal  certificate." 


\ 


OR,   THE  JESUIT   VIEW.  43 

becoming  political,  and  winning  general  adhesion.  This  is  seen  in  the 
various  proposals  for  putting  legal  restrictions  on  Jews,  which  are  every- 
where being,  discussed,  and  are  widely  and  more  than  usual  regarded  as 
necessary.  (The  racial  solidarity  of  Jews,  anterior  and  superior  in  them  to 
all  patriotism  of  any  kind,  has,  owing  to  the  outcry  raised  over  the  Dreyfus 
case,  been  made  as  clear  as  day  and  brought  home  to  the  popular  mind.j 
That  the  Jew,  however  much  he  be  naturalized,  can  never  cease  to  be  first 
a  Jew  and  then  a  citizen  of  the  country  in  which  he  was  born  and  raised  • 

to  equality  with  its  people,  is  to-day  a  truth  accepted  as  an  irrefutable 
postulate.  The  truth  is  at  last  being  brought  home  to  Frenchmen  ;  and 
the  pretended  error  of  justice,  invented  in  1897  by  the  Jews  in  order  to 
rescue  one  of  themselves  who  i%  a  felon  to  France,  is  being  transformed 
into  a  clear  demonstration^  of  the  true  political  error  committed  by  the 
Assembly  which  in  1791  conferred  French  nationality  on  the  Jews."\ 

Our   essayist    next    looks    about    for   authorities    that  jj 

support  his  view,  and,  as  we  might  expect,(fbegins  with  /«,j/- 
J.  E.  M.  PortaHs,  the  reactionary  and  clerical  instrument 
of  Napoleon  I.  a  hundred  years  agoA  The  passage  which 
he  quotes  from  this  author  is  a  sure  indication  of  what  is 
really  uppermost  in  the  Jesuit's  mind,  for  it  is  one  in 
which  Portalis  argues  for  the  exclusion  of  Jews  from 
citizenship  on  the  score  of  their  religion.  "  The  truth," 
blandly  observes  our  writer,  "thus  lucidly  set  forth  by 
Portalis  has  been  amply  demonstrated  in  the  Civilta 
Cattolica." 

Another  authority  quoted   is  the  manifesto  addressed 
by  thirty-one  members  of  the  jRoumanian  Parliament  to  QK 

the   Powers  when,  in  1878,  these  claimed  to  impose~on — ^^ 
the  Roumanian  State  a  law  granting  civil  equality  to  the 
Jews.     In  this  manifesto  we  read  the  following  : — 

"The  Jews  form  not  only  a  religious  sect,  but   a  complex  indelibly*--:^ 
peculiar  in  respect  of  race,  and  of  those  definite  beliefs  of  nationality 
which  cause  every  one  of  them  to  remain,  though  immersed  among  other 


44  IL   CASO  DREYFUS; 


people,  a  Jew.  Hence  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  form  blood-relationships 
with  other  peoples,  and  impossible  for  others  to  share  with  them  their 
feelings,  which  are  directly  opposed  in  every  way  to  those  of  Christians. 
And  the  strongest  obstacle  lies  in  their  religion,  which  for  them  is  law  at 
once  sacred  and  civil,  and  which  fixes  their  cult  as  well  as  their  political 
and  social  organization." 

It  is  evident  from  their  use  of  the  above  citation  that  it 
is  ultimately  the  religion  of  the  Jew  which,  in  the  opinion 
of  these  successors  of  Loyola,  disqualifies  him  for  citizen- 
ship ;  and  they  prize  the  effete  wisdom  of  Portalis  or  the 
prejudices  of  a  half  civilized  Roumanian  more  highly  than 
the  counsel  of  the  great  civilized  Powers  of  Europe. 

Our  publicist  next  refers  with  satisfaction  to  the  various 
proposals  made  in  the  French  Chamber  during  the  last 
year  or  two,  and  eagerly  adopted  by  the  party  of  the 
Count  de  Mun  for  exceptional  treatment  of  the  Jews.  He 
particularly  exults  in  M.  de  Beauregard's  proposal  of 
January  12th,  1898,  to  deprive  them  of  citizenship.  This 
proposal,  he  complacently  remarks,  was  the  result  of  the 
scandals  which  followed  the  acquittal  of  Esterhazy. 
f"^  He  next  looks  round  for  authorities  nearer  home,  and 

singles  out  M.  L.  Vial's  book,  Le  Juif  Roi,  comment  le 
detroner,  Paris,  1897.  The  character  of  this  book  will  be 
judged  by  the  fact — recorded  with  satisfaction  by  the 
Civilta — that  it  gained  the  first  prize  in  a  competition 
opened  by  Drumont  in  the  columns  of  the  Libre  Parole 
for  the  best  book  against  the  Jews.  This  book  has,  so  we 
learn,  for  its  motto  the  saying  of  Peter  the  Venerable  : 
Servetur  indceis  vita,  auferatur  eis  pecimia.  "  The  means 
propounded  in  this  book,"  says  our  Jesuit  essayist,  "  for 
ridding   France  of  Jewish  influence  appear  to  be  on  the 


V  ' 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  45 


whole  well  conceived  and  reasonable."  He  only  objects 
to  the  last  of  M.  Vial's  plans,  which  is  "to  hunt  out 
Jews,  by  love  (!)  or  by  force,  after  the  example  of  Russia, 
constraining  them  to  leave  behind  the  riches  they  have 
plundered." 

Probably  it  is  the  sense  that  Russia  has  a  similar  short 
method  of  dealing  with  Jesuits,  which  leads  the  Civilta 
Cattolica,  not  without  humble  apologies  to  M.  Drumont, 
col  biiona  venia  di  chi  gli  ha  decretato  il  premio,  to  hint 
that  "  this  last  solution  of  the  problem  is  neither  practical 
nor  just  nor  Christian."  Not  practical,  because  even  if 
France  did  obtain  the  much-to-be-desired  anti-Semitic 
Government,  her  social,  political,  and  economic  conditions 
are  unlike  those  of  Russia.  Not  just,  because  in  taking 
from  the  Jew  his  ill-gotten  gains,  there  is  a  risk  of  your 
depriving  him  also  of  what  he  has  fairly  earned.  This  is 
the  only  obstacle  which  presents  itself  to  the  Jesuit  mind 
in  the  way  of  a  policy  of  confiscation  which  would  spare 
the  Christian  usurer,  but  strike  down  the  Jewish  one. 
Not  Christian,  because  not  in  strict  accord  with  that  of 
the  Roman  Church  and  of  the  Popes. 

However,  it  is  chiefly  its  impracticability  which  con- 
demns M.  Vial's  plan.  Otherwise  it  is  clear  our  Jesuit 
philosopher  would  adopt  it.  Where,  he  asks,  could  the 
Jews  go,  if  all  nations  adopted  a  plan,  otherwise  so 
excellent  ?  ^ 

("To  the  6ery  sands  of  the  Sahara  or  to  the  frozen  seas  of  the  poles  J 
Mbreover,  their  expulsion  en  masse  from  every  country,  even  if  it  were 
possible,  would  not  be  lasting,  nay,  would  be  contrary  to  the  designs  of 
God,  who.  in  the  people  of  Israel,  cursed  and  dispersed  to  every  corner  of 
the  world,  by  the  mouth  of  His  prophets,  has  established  a  manifest  proof 
of  the  truth  of  Christianity." 


46  IL    CASO   DREYFUS; 

Accordingly  in  his  seventh  section  our  Jesuit  friend 
sums  up  the  view  which  the  reasonings  of  Portahs,  of  the 
Roumanians,  of  MM.  Drumont  and  Vial,  incline  him  to 
regard  as  the  only  sound  one  : — 

"  Nearly  the  only  remedy,  and  anyhow  the  most  efficacious  one,  as  we 
have  never  ceased  for  years  and  years  to  point  out,  lies  in  a  fundamental  law 
agreed  upon  by  the  several  States,  which  would  assimilate  Jews  to 
foreigners  and  have  them  treated  not  as  citizens  but  as  strangers.  ...  It 
is  no  use  to  cling  to  the  mockery  of  equality  or  common  rights.  To  insist 
on  a  common  right,  where  social  conditions  are  disparate,  is  like  insisting 
on  one  and  the  same  measure  for  different  statures.  What  is  fair  and 
necessary  is  equal  respect  for  different  rights.  This  is  a  truth  which  our 
ancestors  understood  thoroughly  well,  and  that  is  why  the  civil  edifice, 
erected  by  them,  resulted  in  a  fair  harmony  and  not  in  the  anarchy  which 
in  our  days  is  deplorable. 

"  We  need  not  consider  now  the  details  of  the  many  reforms  (sic)  which 
must  accompany  this  law,  in  order  to  reconcile  the  rights  of  Christian 
peoples  with  the  charity  and  duty  due  to  Jews.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  insist 
on  the  point  which  is  most  important,  and  we  could  wish  that  it  were 
unanimously  inculcated  with  the  eloquence  which  is  wasted  in  preaching 
other  means  by  those  who  merely  beat  the  air." 

Such,  then,  is  the  Jesuit  ideal.  Jews  because  of  their 
religion,  and  because  the  Dreyfus  case  demonstrates  that 
they  are  a  race  of  spies,  are  to  be  deprived  of  the  ele- 
mentary rights  of  citizenship  and  given  that  status  of 
pariahs  which  Christians  enjoy  in  Turkey.  The  Jesuit 
Order  is  the  brain  of  modern  Latin  Catholicism  ;  and 
such  is  the  net  result  of  its  reasonings. 

And  as  we  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  Civilta  Cattolica, 
and  I  have  waded  through  the  whole  of  its  dreary  series 
for  the  year  1898,  we  form  the  conviction  that  the  civil 
rights  of  Protestants  would — if  Jesuits  had  their  way — 
very  soon  follow  those  of  Jews.     In  number  after  number 


OR,    THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  47 

the  French  Protestants  who,  led  by  men  like  Trarieux 
and  Scheurer-Kestner,  have  so  nobly  come  forward  as  the 
champions  of  truth  and  justice  are  held  up  to  contempt 
and  abhorrence.  If  anyone  doubts  this,  let  him  run  his 
eye  through  the  pages  which  chronicle  the  development 
of  the  Dre5'fus  case  in  the  issues  of  Jan.  ist,  Feb.  6th, 
Feb.  igth  (p.  497),  March  5th,  May  7th.  The  comment 
on  the  case  at  this  last  date  is  particularly  noticeable, 
because  in  his  letter  to  The  Times  of  Jan.  17th,  M.  de  Mun, 
the  leader  of  the  French  Catholic  party,  has  declared  that 
it  was  ''a  complete  error"  on  my  part  to  connect  the 
French  Catholics  so  closely  as  I  have  done  with  anti- 
Semitism,  and  to  lay  upon  them  a  prime  share  of  its  guilt. 
He  has  declared  that 

"  The  representatives  of  the  Catholic  Church — the  bishops,  the  clergy, 
the  religious  congregations,  and  particularly  the  Jesuits  .  .  .  stand  alto- 
gether outside  it.  Most  of  them  gave  it  a  cold  welcome,  many  of  them 
extend  to  it  but  scant  sympathy.  .  .  .  They  have  all,  too,  and  at  all  times, 
been  careful  not  to  confound  it  in  the  least  with  Catholic  actions,  and, 
above  all,  with  Catholic  Apostleship." 

If  only  one  could  interpret  the  above  words  as  indi- 
cating on  the  part  of  M.  de  Mun  and  his  followers  some 
faint  misgivings  as  to  the  part  they  have  played  in  openly 
applauding  and  advocating  violence  and  forger}',  in  hound- 
ing to  death  men  more  clear-sighted  and  patriotic  than 
themselves  !  Alas,  the  general  tone  of  his  letter  assures 
us  that  he  is  past  remedy,  and  he  does  not  scruple  to 
stigmatize  the  noble  struggle  of  a  minority  of  his  countr}'- 
men  for  truth  and  justice  as  *'  an  odious  campaign  against 
the  heads  of  our  national  army,  undertaken  with  the 
connivance  of  the  Jews,  or  at  least  without  any  protest  on 


48  IL   CASO   DREYFUS; 

their  part."  All  honour  to  them  for  joining  in  it.  Many 
of  them  have  shown  that  they  still  have  in  them  the 
moral  strength  and  independence  which  makes  of  men 
martyrs  and  Maccabseans.  In  "  A  Clerical  Crusade  "  I 
proved  how  remote  from  the  truth  are  M.  de  Mun's  state- 
ments in  regard  to  the  clerical  representatives  of  French 
Catholics.  That  they  are  equally  untrue  as  regards  its 
political  representatives,  the  Civilta  Cattolica  for  this  date, 
May  7th,  i8g8,  assures  us.  For  what  do  we  learn  from  it  ? 
It  begins  by  exulting  in  the  document  forged  by  Henry, 
of  which  it  says  Colonel  Picquart  had  had  the  "  audacity  " 
to  deny  the  genuineness  ;  and  it  points  out  that  as  a 
result  of  the  "  heads  of  the  army  having  adduced  this 
warranty  of  Dreyfus'  guilt  before  the  court  of  assize  .  .  . 
all  France  had  thrilled  with  a  patriotism  spurring  them 
not  only  towards  the  Government,  but  still  more  towards 
the  iwmini  teniperati,  onesti."  Who  are  these  "temperate 
and  honest  men  "  ?  They  are  the  Catholics  and  the  Con- 
servative rallies.  Meline,  my  reader  will  remember,  had 
slammed  the  door  in  the  face  of  MM.  Dron  and  Millerand, 
Radical  Deputies  who  were  pleading  for  bare  justice  and 
warning  their  countrymen  of  the  dangers  of  an  alliance 
with  the  Reactionaries. 

"This,"  says  the  Civilta,  "  is  the  first  time  that  a  Minister  has  solemnly 
repudiated  the  help  of  the  Radicals  in  order  to  accept  that  of  the  Catholics 
and  Conservative  rallies  (i.e.,  Royalists  who  at  the  Pope's  bidding  pretend 
to  accept  the  Republic).  Thus  the  way  is  opened  for  an  agreement  in 
regard  to  questions  which  the  Catholics  have  at  heart." 

There  is  no  denying  it.  The  Latin  Church  in  France 
is  largely  responsible  for  the  Dreyfus  case.  A  great 
historic   church   which    in   a   case   like   this   supplies  no 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  49 

champions  of  innocence,  must  as  a  whole  be  regarded  as 
championing  guilt.  "  He  that  is  not  with  m.e,  is  against 
me."  This  carnival  of  crime  in  France  is  the  firstfruits 
of  the  new  and  unholy  alliance  between  the  Pope  and  the 
French  Republic. 

In  the  Civilta  Cattolica  of  May  21st  we  have  an  eulogy 
of  Edouard   Drumont,  who,   it  is  said,  ''  has   in  Algiers     y')\ 
moved  heaven  and  earth  with  his  burning  words  to  shake     ,(^^0^ 
off  from  the  neck  of  the  people  there  the  yoke  of  the/'  (^"^ 
Jews."     The  methods  employed  in  Algiers  are,  as  readers 
of  the  last  number  of  this  Review  have  learned,  arson  and 
assassination.     At  the  same  date  the  Civilta  congratulates 
itself  upon  the  results  of  the   French  General  Election.  jil 

The  leading  Dreyfusards  had  lost  their  seats,  thanks  to  /  ^ 

the  wide  diffusion  of  the  political  catechism  of  the  Croix,         jA 
so  the  Jesuit  organ  complacently  remarks  as  follows  : —         ►  -r 

"  Considering  the  quality  of  the  adversaries  who  have  fallen  and  of  the   , 
friends  we  have  made  a  conquest  of,  the  Conservative  party  has  gained 
enough;  and  that  was  all  that  was  desired  by  good  Frenchmen  and  the 
Pope.""^ 

By  this  testimony,  then,  the  Pope  had  at  last  got  a 
French  Chamber  that  he  liked.  We  know  its  exploits. 
In  its  first  Session  it  placarded  all  over  France  the  forgery 
of  Henry,  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  Cavaignac  ;  and  a  few 
months  later  it  has,  with  the  help  of  the  clericals,  voted 
away  the  last  safeguard  of  justice  and  civil  liberty,  and  so 
initiated  that  policy  of  exceptional  legislation  towards 
Jews  of  which  the  Civilta  has  been  for  years  the  ardent 
advocate.  How  well  M.  Dupuy,  one  of  those  originally 
responsible  for  the  judicial  crime,  has  learned  the  lesson 
which  the  Civilta  has,  by  its  own  confession,  inculcated, 

o 


50  IL   CASO   DREYFUS; 

is  seen  by  the  defence  he  offered  lately  in  the  French 
Chamber  of  the  Loi  de  circomtance,  by  which,  with  the  aid 
of  Lebret,  he  has  dethroned  justice.  To  lovers  of  consti- 
tutional methods  who  objected  that  the  shameful  law  was 
exceptional,  M.  Dupuy  could  only  reply  that  the  Dreyfus 
case  was  so  exceptional  as  to  justify  exceptional  laws.  In 
other  words,  when  an  impartial  court  of  justice  threatens 
to  acquit  an  innocent  Jew,  special  legislation  must  be  run 
through  to  avert  such  a  calamity.  Well  may  the  Civilta 
welcome  in  its  next  issue  of  June  i8th  the  presence  in  the 
French  Chamber  of  Drumont,  Deroulede,  and  Millevoye 
as  "  friends  of  religious  liberty." 

Further  revelations  of  Jesuit  feeling  over  the  Dreyfus 
case  meet  our  eye  in  the  issues  of  July  i6th,  p.  232,  and 
August  6th.  In  the  numbers  for  September  we  naturally 
look  for  a  dirge  over  the  corpse  of  the  forger  Henry,  but 
in  vain.  Except  for  a  faint  allusion  on  September  17th 
to  the  malaugurata  questione  Dreyfus,  the  hyaena  of  the 
Vatican — as  the  respectable  Italian  Press  rudely  but  not 
inexcusably  calls  the  Civilta — ceased  to  shriek  for  a  few 
weeks.  It  was  evidently  staggered  a  little  by  the  revela- 
tion of  Henry's  crime.  However,  by  October  ist  it  has 
recovered  its  equanimity,  and  in  default  of  any  arguments 
of  its  own  gladly  avails  itself  of  those  which  Drumont,  to 
the  disgust  of  all  Europe,  had  invented  in  order  to  palliate 
almost  the  worse  crime  of  our  generation. 

"Henry,"  so  we  are  informed,  "  wrote  his  forgery  that  it  might  be  used 
as  a  proof  of  Dreyfus'  guilt  and  put  a  stop  to  the  agitation  which  had 
already  begun,*  the  true  proofs  being  such  that  they  could  not  be  laid 

*  It  is  hardly  true  to  say  that  the  ngitatim  had  begun  as  eaiiy  as  November  1st, 
1896,  when  Henry  perpetrated  his  forgery. 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  51 

before  the  public.  From  his  mode  of  operation  it  is  evident  that  he  was 
braver  in  the  battles  he  fought  in  the  colonies  than  he  was  commendable  as 
chief  (commendevole  capo)  of  the  important  Intelligence  Department,  in 
which  he  succeeded  his  former  superior,  Picquart." 

So,  then,  Henry's  forgery  was  merely  a  bank-note  issued 
by  the  Etat-Major  against  the  anti-Dreyfus  bullion  hidden 
away  in  its  coffers.  It  was  onl}-  Henry's  way  of  going  to 
work  {modo  di  operaie)  that  was  at  fault.  He  was,  in 
short,  a  brave  officer,  but  a  bad  jurist.  The  same  argu- 
ment was  advanced,  as  has  often  been  remarked,  in  M. 
de  Mun's  organ,  the  Gazette  de  France,  by  his  friend, 
M.  Charles  Maurras,  who  also  regretted  that  the  Drey- 
fusard  organs  were  "restrained  by  the  scruples  of  a 
mischievous  half- Protestant  education  "  from  consecrating 
the  forger  and  making  of  him  a  domestic  idol.  There 
is  an  almost  entire  identity  of  sentiment,  argument, 
aspiration,  and  even  of  language,  between  the  Civilta 
Cuttolica  and  the  Libre  Parole,  which  was  founded  by 
Odelin,  the  administrator  of  the  Jesuit  school,  founded 
with  Jesuit  money,*  and  for  several  years  managed  by  him. 

One  is  the  more  surprised  at  the  hardihood  of  the 
Comte  de  Mun's  denials,  if  one  examines  the  school- 
books  put  into  the  hands  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  Latin 
Church  schools  of  France.  For  example,  I  take  up  one 
entitled  Fleurs  de  VHistoire,  by  Theophile  Valentin,  and 
issued  by  Edouard  Trivat,  15.  Rue  des  Tanneurs, 
Toulouse.  The  title-page  informs  us  that  it  is  written 
a  I'lisage  dc  la  Jcuncsse,  and  it  is  published  under  the 
approbation   of  the  following    French   ecclesiastics :  Son 

•  This  interesting  fact  is  attested  by  the  editor  of  J'/te  Month,  ii  Jesuit  journal, 
in  the  article  to  which  I  refer  below. 


52  IL   CASO  DREYFUS; 

Eminence  le  Cardinal  Desprez,  Archbishop  of  Toulouse  ; 
The  Abbe  Tages,  Vicar-General  at  the  Archbishopric  of 
Paris ;  Monsignor  Coste,  Bishop  of  Mende ;  M.  G.  Pela- 
got,  Vicar-General  in  the  Bishopric  of  Puy ;  M.  I'Abbe 
Touzery,  Vicar-General  and  director  of  the  journal  L'Edu- 
cation  Catholique  (who  signs  for  the  Bishop  of  Rodez  et  de 
Vabres) ;  M.  I'Abbe  Courchinoux,  laureat  of  several  acade- 
mies (who  signs  for  Mgr.  the  Bp.  of  St.  Flour)  ;  M  I'Abbe 
Figuiere,  honorary  canon  and  professor  of  rhetoric  in  the 
Petit-Seminaire  of  Mende. 

On  page  ii8  of  this  book,  so  loaded  with  high  episcopal 
sanction  and  constantly  given  as  a  prize  in  Catholic 
schools,  it  is  pretended  that  the  army  of  Prince  Eugene, 
cut  off  in  Russia,  owed  its  safety  to  the  treason  of  a  Jew 
who  sold  the  password  of  the  Russians ;  and  we  find  the 
following  note  added  :  "  Le  fond  du  caractere  des  Juifs, 
c'est  d'etre  traitres,  fourbes  et  menteurs,"  and  we  are 
referred  to  p.  122  for  further  information  about  the  Jews. 
On  p.  122,  accordingly,  we  read  the  following : — 

(jj^Note  upon  the  Jews. — The  Jews  are  a  cursed  race,  since  they  sold  our 
Saviour  and  disowned  His  blessings.  j|By  their  religion  and  their  politics 
they  tend  to  enslave  and  ruin  all  nations,  and  in  particular  the  French,  on 
whom  they  have  alighted  like  vultures  on  a  rich  quarry/  They  are 
dangerous  and  insatiable  parasites  that  lay  hands  on  everything — soil, 
money,  commerce,  industry,  administration.  All  means  come  handy  to 
them  in  order  to  divert  into  their  own  pockets  the  sources  of  wealth — 
treason,  crime,  fraud,  theft,  assassination.  ... 

"  The  wealth  of  France  is  estimated  at  150  milliards,  and  the  Jews  alone 
own  more  than  eighty  milliards  of  it.  And  yet  they  came  to  us  without  a 
farthing.  Not  being  numerous  enough  to  do  what  they  want  by  them- 
selves in  the  light  of  day,  they  organize  themselves  in  the  dark,  and  hatch 
their  perfidious  plots  against  religious  as  well  as  civil  society — against 
everything  which  stands  for  order,  morality,  and  justice. 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  53 

"  Freemasonry  is  in  their  hands  a  docile  instrument,  and  by  means  of  it 
they  to-day  govern  the  world. 

"If  the  peoples  do  not  take  care,  they  will  perish  through  the  Jews. 
For  the  edification  of  our  readers  we  refer  them  to  the  following  works  of 
M.  Drumont  :  La  France  Juive.  La  fin  d'un  Monde,  and  La  Derniere  Bataille." 

With  what  truth,  in  presence  of  such  facts,  can  it  be 
said  that  the  representatives  of  the  French  Church  have 
held  aloof  from  anti-Semitism.  The  Comte  de  Mun 
asserts  that  "  he  has  been  very  intimate  with  English- 
men," and  he  declares  that 

"  He  respects  too  much  those  among  us  who  do  not  share  his  religious 
beliefs  to  imagine  for  an  instant  that  they  will  consent  to  be  brought  back 
by  such  writings  (as  '  the  Dreyfus  case ')  to  their  former  habits,  now  so 
entirely  abandoned,  of  cherishing  unjust  suspicions  against  the  Roman 
Church." 

It  is  a  pity  that  M.  de  Mun  and  his  friends  evince  so 
little  respect  for  other  religions  than  their  own  in  France. 
They  had  much  better  husband  for  home  use  the  con- 
sideration which  he  lavishes  on  Englishmen.  But  when 
he  goes  on  to  appeal  to  "the  shades  of  Gladstone  and 
Manning"  we  are  fairly  astonished.  Was  Manning  a 
Jew-baiter  ?  Was  he  not  rather  full  of  cordiality  for 
Jews  ?  Did  he  not  come  publicly  forward  to  express  his 
sympathy  with  them  over  the  cruel  persecution  they  have 
endured  in  Russia  ? 

And  why  M.  de  Mun  should  profane  the  name  of 
Gladstone  by  appealing  to  it  as  he  does,  I  hardly  know. 
Has  he  forgotten  that  famous  pamphlet  in  which  our 
great  statesman,  in  a  series  of  resounding  charges,  never 
retracted  and  never  seriously  refuted,  since  they  directly 
rested  on  the  inspired  utterances  of  the  infallible  pontiffs, 


54  IL   CASO  DREYFUS; 

exposed  just  those  vices  of  modern  Catholicism  which  are 
so  apparent  in  the  pages  of  the  Civilta  Cattolica,  in  the 
French  reHgious  and  clerical  Press,  in  the  public  policy 
of  the  Comte  de  Mun  ?  Those  charges  have  by  many 
been  forgotten,  so  we  reproduce  them  : — 

"  I.  That  Rome  has  substituted  for  the  proud  boast  of  semper  eadem  a 
policy  of  violence  and  change  in  faith. 

"  2.  That  she  has  refurbished  and  paraded  anew  every  rusty  tool  she 
was  fondly  thought  to  have  disused. 

"  3.  That  no  one  can  now  become  her  convert  without  renouncing  his 
moral  and  mental  freedom,  and  placing  his  civil  loyalty  and  duty  at  the 
mercy  of  another. 

"  4.  That  she  (Rome)  has  equally  repudiated  modern  thought  and 
ancient  history." 

There  is  only  space  to  reproduce  here  parts  of  the 
catena  of  evidence  with  which  Mr,  Gladstone  supports 
the  second  of  his  charges,  and  I  will  omit,  also,  for  the 
sake  of  brevity,  the  chapter  and  verse  references  which  he 
supplies  to  papal  encyclicals  and  syllabus.  He  writes 
thus : — 

"  I  will  state,  in  the  fewest  possible  words,  and  with  references,  a  few 
propositions,  all  the  holders  of  which  have  been  condemned  by  the  See  of 
Rome  during  my  own  generation,  and  especially  within  the  last  twelve  or 
fifteen  years.  And  in  order  that  I  may  do  nothing  towards  importing 
passion  into  what  is  matter  of  pure  argument,  I  will  avoid  citing  any  of 
the  fearfuHy  energetic  epithets  in  which  the  condemnations  are  sometimes 
clothed : — 

"  I.  Those  who  maintain  the  liberty  of  the  Press. 

"  2.  Or  the  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  worship. 

"  3.  Or  the  liberty  of  speech. 

"  4.  Or  who  contend  that  Papal  judgments  and  decrees  may,  without  sin, 
be  disobeyed,  or  differed  from,  unless  they  treat  of  the  rules  {dogmata)  of 
faith  or  morals. 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  55 

"5.  Or  who  assign  to  the  State  the  power  of  defining  the  civil  rights 
(jura)  and  province  of  the  Church. 

"  16.  Or  that  any  other  religion  than  the  Roman  religion  may  be 
established  by  a  State. 

"17.  Or  that  in  'countries  called  Catholic'  the  free  exercise  of  other 
religions  may  laudably  be  allowed. 

"  18.  Or  that  the  Roman  Pontiff  ought  to  come  to  terms  with  progress, 
liberalism,  and  modern  civilization." 

Now  no  one,  least  of  all  myself,  would  suggest  that 
English  Roman  Catholics,  if  they  were  brought  to  the 
practical  test,  would  put  in  force  the  principles  above 
enumerated  ;  for  the  very  good  reason  that  with  very  few 
exceptions  they  are  Englishmen  first  and  Latin  Catholics 
second.  Moreover,  they  live  in  a  medium,  social  and 
political,  where  such  propositions  do  but  excite  a  smile, 
where  no  one  pays  any  attention  to  them  or  takes  them 
seriously.  Englishmen  and  Americans,  as  I  have  before 
urged,  just  because  they  have  left  so  far  behind  the 
mediaeval  intolerance,  which  is  yet  after  all  the  theoretical 
backbone  of  the  Papacy,  find  it  almost  insuperably  diffi- 
cult to  put  themselves  in  the  position  of  a  French  or 
Italian  Liberal,  for  whom  the  Roman  adherence  to  these 
principles  is  an  ever-present  menace  to  much  that  for 
him,  as  for  us,  makes  life  worth  living.  And  no  doubt 
it  is  the  sense  that  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  communities 
have — let  us  hope  for  ever — emerged  from  the  miasmatic 
mist  which  he  himself  breathes  that  leads  the  writer  in 
the  Civilta  Cattulica  to  omit  them  from  his  purview,  and  to 
recommend  only  France,  Germany,  Austria,  Roumania, 
and  Italy  as  suitable  regions  for  the  realization  of  the 
"fair  harmony"  which   he  boasts  was  "erected  by  his 


56  IL    CASO   DREYFUS; 

ancestors  "  (gli  avi  nostri),  but  overthrown  in  such  large 
measure  by  "  the  so-called  principles  of  1789." 

The  reality  of  the  menace  to  civilization  which  the 
Latin  Papal  code,  ever  unrepealed  and  constantly  re- 
affirmed, really  constitutes,  is  brought  home  to  us  in  a 
striking  way  if  we  take  up  another  work,  identical  in  tone 
with  the  Civilta  Cattolica.  This  is  a  book  entitled  Analecta 
Ecclesiastica,  Revue  Romaine,  Theovetique  et  Pratique  de 
Theologie,  Droit,  etc.  After  this  title  follows  the  motto  : 
"  Ubi  Petrus,  ibi  Ecclesia,"  and  the  name  of  the  editor, 
Felix  Cadene,  Prelat  domestique  de  sa  Saintete.  M. 
Cadene,  who  stands  so  near  to  the  Pope,  has  twenty-one 
collaborators,  w^ho  mostly  occupy  high  positions  in  the 
Latin  Church.  In  the  first  issue  of  this  publication  for 
the  year  1895  we  find  a  study  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition 
by  P.  Pius  a  Langonio,  a  member  of  the  Capuchin  order; 
and  assessor,  judge,  and  general  secretary  of  the  holy 
office  of  the  Inquisition.  This  writer,  in  the  course  of 
his  disquisition,  takes  occasion  to  relate  how  on  February 
28th,  1404,  in  Cordova  a  priest  was  accused  of  having 
merely  kept  up  an  outward  show  of  Christianity,  but  of 
having  lived  in  secret  as  a  Jew,  observing  the  Mosaic  law. 
After  hearing  the  record  of  his  sins  read  out,  the  Inquisi- 
tors, who  were  armed  with  full  Papal  authority,  condemned 
the  accused  without  any  further  hearing  as  a  heretic,  and 
handed  him  over,  after  a  bishop  had  duly  stript  him  of 
his  priestly  garb,  to  the  civil  arm.  The  recreant  priest  was 
then  led  with  a  rope  round  his  neck,  seated  on  an  ass,  to 
the  gate  of  the  city  and  then  burned  alive.  After  narrating 
this  ghastly  story  our  Capuchin  general  secretary  of  the 
holy  office  of  the  Inquisition  continues  in  these  words  : — 


OR,   THE  JESUIT   VIEW.  57 

"  It  is  true  that  there  are  a  great  many  children  of 
darkness  who,  when  they  read  the  above  sentences,  will 
rage  against  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  mediaeval  in- 
tolerance with  fury  in  their  eyes,  with  snarling  jaws  and 
snorting  nostrils.  .  .  ." 

Then  he  proceeds  to  liken  this  condemned  priest  in  his 
backsliding  to  Captain  Dreyfus  in  his  treason — treason 
which,  he  says,  "  all  France  cannot  think  of  without 
flaming  wrath,  and  which  public  opinion  has  branded  as 
a  crime  to  be  expiated  only  with  death."  Then  he 
exclaims  : — 

"  The  beneficent  vigilance  of  the  holy  Inquisition  is  the 
true  religious  peace,  and  to  it  we  owe  that  fixity  of  faith 
which  makes  the  true  nobility  of  the  Spanish  nation." 

And  then  his  holy  joy  overpowers  the  Capuchin,  and 
he  bursts  forth  into  the  following  rhapsody  over  the  flames 
which  consumed  the  unhappy  victim  of  the  year  1404  : — 

"Oh,  may  ye  be  blessed,  ye  flaming  pyres,  by  which 
some  few,  and  they  all  too  cunning,  persons  were  put  out 
of  the  way,  yet  in  any  case  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
souls  rescued  from  the  abyss  of  errors  and,  perhaps,  also 
from  eternal  damnation.  .  .  ." 

And  he  concludes  with  the  words :  "  How  glorious  is 
the  memory  of  a  Torquemada  !  " 

If  my  reader  will  turn  to  the  February  issue  of  this 
Review  he  will  find  on  page  793  a  similar  eulogy  of  the 
Inquisition,  the  glory  of  Spain,  from  the  pen  of  Drumont, 
and  extracted  from  the  Libre  Parole  of  July  20th,  1892. 
Whether  Drumont  draws  his  inspiration  from  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Pope's  Domestic  Prelate,  or  the  Prelate  from 
Drumont,  I  leave  it  to  my  reader  to  decide. 


58  IL    CASO   DREYFUS; 

On  February  27th,  1896,  Herr  von  Eynern  quoted  in 
the  German  Parliament  this  Capuchin's  rhapsody,  where- 
upon a  member  of  the  Catholic  centre,  Herr  Porsch, 
denied  all  knowledge  of  the  book,  and  declared  that  Herr 
von  Eynern  "  seemed  to  be  wallowing  in  an  altogether 
peculiar  kind  of  literature."  *  I  have  done  a  good  deal  of 
such  wallowing,  and  on  another  occasion  will  produce 
results  of  it,  omitted  now  because  I  am  confining  myself 
to  citing  what  has  special  reference  to  the  Dreyfus  case. 
The  same  tone  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  journalism  inspired 
by  the  Vatican,  notably  in  the  Latin  fortnightly  paper 
called  Vox  Urbis,  founded  in  i8g8,  in  the  second  number 
of  which,  for  November  last,  we  find  a  spiteful  resume  of 
the  current  phases  of  the  Dreyfus  case,  written  in  clumsy 
Latin,  and  ending  thus  : — 

"  Caveant  tamen  et  Clemenceau  et  eius  factiones  pro 
Dreyfus  constitutae,  ne  stultis  suis  factis  amplissimos 
homines  exercitum  que  lacessant,  et  memoria  teneant 
quod  est  in  proverbio  :  ne  quid  nimis." 

Such  evidence  as  I  have  adduced  leads  us  to  doubt 
whether  Father  Humphrey  was  not  wholly  serious  when 
he  made  in  a  room  at  Balliol  long  ago  that  onslaught  upon 
Jews  and  Protestants,  which  is  still  remembered.  I  alluded 
to  it  in  my  volume  t  upon  the  Dreyfus  case,  and  as  Father 

*  "  In  einer  ganz  eigentlimlichen  Sorte  von  Literatur  herumzuwiihlen." 
fNot  wishing  to  be  personal,   I  disguised  in  my  book,  The  Dreyfus  Case,  the 
identity  of  Father  Humphrey  under   the    pseudonym   Father  Humbert.     I  have 
given  the  evidence  so  fully  in  the  text  because  the  Editor  of  Tke  Month  inserts 
this  note  in  his  issue  for  February,  1899  :  — 

"  By  way  of  .  .  .  discovering  to  us  his  own  value  as  a  witness  to  facts,  Mr. 
Conybeare  here  mentions  (i.e.,  in  The  Dreyfus  Case,  p.  7)  an  undergraduate  recol- 
lection of  his  own.  About  twenty  years  ago,  '  Father  Humbert,  the  Oxford 
Jesuit,'  at  a  breakfast  party  at  Balliol  College,  when  the  conversation  turned  on 
Italian  unity,  lost  his  temper,  and  exclaimed,  '  Oh  !  if  I  could  only  have  the  civil 


OR,   THE  JESUIT   VIEW.  59 


Humphrey  has  lately  impugned  the  general  accuracy  of 
the  story  as  I  have  told  it  there,  I  venture  to  retell  it  in 
the  very  words  of  Mr.  J.  O.  Simon,  to  whom  he  spoke : — 

"  The  conversation  turned  to  the  subject  of  the  Inquisition,  and  Father 
Humphrey  was  attempting  to  defend  it.  This  made  me  boil,  as  I  alwa}S 
do,  because  of  my  own  family  tradition.  For  our  ancestor,  Don 
Caesar  Orobio,  was  burned  alive  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  his  son, 
Balthasar  Orobio,  was  incarcerated  for  three  years.  He  was  the  famous 
author  of  Israel  Avenged.  I  said  to  Father  Humphrey,  '  Perhaps  then,  if 
you  had  the  chance,  you  would  begin  by  applying  thumbscrews  to  me  and 
to  my  Protestant  friends  here  ?  ' 

'■  Father  Humphrey  :  '  Oh!  dear,  no,  I  should  go  for  your  necks  at  once.' 

"Whereupon  I  said,  'Well,  we  may  be  thankful  that  in  England  at  any 
rate  we  have  an  efficient  police  force  to  restrain  you.' 

"  Father  Humphrey  :  '  That  is  our  only  deterrent.'  " 

Forgetful  of  the  maxim  noscitur  a  sociis,  the  editor  of 
The  Month  has  taken  up  the  cudgels  for  the  French 
Jesuits  in  the  February  number  of  his  journal.  "There 
is,"  he  says,  alluding  to  my  own  and  Mr.  Barlow's  books 
on  the  Dreyfus  case,  "  a  persistent  attempt  to  fasten  the 
responsibility  for  it,  and  for  the  anti-Semitic  campaign 
connected  with  it,  upon  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  that 
naturally  is  a  feature  in  the  case  which  we  cannot  view 
with  unconcern," 

Those  who  have  followed  the  proofs,  easily  to  be  multi- 
plied, which  I  have  furnished  in  the  preceding  pages  and 
in  the  February  number  of  this  Review,  would  naturally 
expect  a  Roman  Catholic  who  feels  so  much  concern 
about  the  point  mooted  to  take  the  first  opportunity  of 

government  in  my  hands  for  six  months  !  I  w  juld  hedge  round  Jews  and  Protes- 
tants like  yourselves,  and  stamp  you  out."  Father  Humphrey  nmst  have  been  the 
Jesuit  intended,  and  his  comment  on  this  veracious  story  is,  '  Mr.  Conybeare's 
recollection  of  my  words  is  about  as  accurate  as  his  recollection  of  my  name.'  " 


6o  IL   CASO   DREYFUS; 

dissociating  himself  from  Drumont  and  his  confederates. 
Instead  of  doing  so  the  editor  of  The  Month  regards 
Drumont  as  a  prime  witness  to  the  truth  on  every  subject, 
and  rests  his  statement  that  French  anti-Semitism  is  not 
rehgious,  but  social  and  financial,  entirely  on  Drumont's 
own  ipse  dixit,  as  if  that  were  worth  having.  No  doubt  it 
is  to  some  extent  social  and  financial.  That  I  have  never 
denied,  but  that  even  in  Drumont's  case  it  is  in  a  still 
higher  degree  religious,  no  one  who  reads  his  eulogies  of 
the  Inquisition  can  doubt.  Were  it  not  so  he  would 
hardly  have  a  hundred  times,  and  notably  in  his  preface 
to  the  Abb6  Desportes'  book,  Le  Meurtre  Rituel,  have 
repeated  the  fable  that  the  Levitical  customs  of  the  Jews 
oblige  them  to  murder  Christian  children.  In  Portugal 
this  same  fable  is  told  by  every  peasant,  not  of  the  Jews, 
but  of  the  Jesuits  themselves.  This  article  in  The  Month 
teems  with  misstatements  that  I  could  correct  if  I  had 
space.  I  will  only  notice  two,  both  on  page  122.  The 
writer  there  declares  that  the  Union  General  or  Finance 
Company  got  up  by  the  Jesuits  was  resented  by  the  Jewish 
bankers  as  an  "  invasion  of  their  monopoly,"  and  that 
these  bankers  "  accordingly  bought  up  all  its  paper  and 
presented  it  all  for  payment  at  the  same  hour."  This  is 
an  error.  The  Jews  are  no  more  the  only  bankers  in 
Paris  than  they  are  in  London  ;  and  anyone  who  takes 
the  trouble  to  read  the  article,  "Union  Generale,"  in 
Larousse's  Supplem.ent  for  1889,  will  see  that  the  company 
was  an  ill-managed  bubble  from  the  first,  in  which  mis- 
guided French  people  invested  their  savings  on  anti- 
Semitic  or  religious  grounds  just  as  they  invested  them 
in  the  Panama  Canal  on  patriotic  ones.     The  next  state- 


OR,   THE  JESUIT    VIEW.  6i 

ment  is  that  the  Baron  de  Reinach,  the  banker,  enriched 
himself  by  the  Panama  collapse,  and  handed  on  his  ill- 
gotten  gains  to  his  nephew,  M.  Joseph  Reinach,  that  the 
latter  lives  on  them,  and  that  "  this,  his  hereditary  rela- 
tion to  the  Panama  catastrophe,  explains  that  which  is  so 
unintelligible  to  English  readers,  the  special  bitterness 
with  which  M.  Joseph  Reinach  is  regarded  by  the  anti- 
Semites  of  the  present  hour." 

This  is  all  a  calumny  as  base  and  cruel  as  it  is  false, 
and  one  is  surprised  that  a  self-respecting  English  editor 
did  not  leave  it  to  repose  in  the  columns  of  Drumont  who 
invented  it,  instead  of  thrusting  it  before  the  eyes  of  his 
Catholic  readers.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  M.Joseph  Reinach 
declared  in  the  Press  before  the  death  of  his  cousin,  Baron 
de  Reinach,  that  he  would  not  in  any  case  accept  the 
succession,  and  he  has  inherited  nothing  from  his  cousin, 
for  the  very  good  reason  that  Cornelius  Her2  had  ruined 
him.  The  Baron  incurred  enormous  debts  to  satisfy  the 
extortionate  claims  of  Herz  on  the  agents  of  the  company, 
and  died  altogether  penniless. 

We  look  across  our  narrow  seas  and  our  eyes  are 
riveted  with  horror  on  the  events  which  are  passing  in 
France.  There  we  gaze  upon  a  second  tragedy  of  Lao- 
coon,  on  an  ominous  struggle  in  which  the  heroic  figures 
of  Justice  and  of  her  children  Liberty  and  Truth  are 
being  slowly  strangled  and  crushed  to  death  in  the 
monstrous  folds  of  militarism  and  priestcraft. 

It  has  not  been  within  the  scope  of  this  article  to  dwell 
upon  this  conflict  which  may  well  be  the  prelude  for 
France   of  the  fate  which    befel   a  famous   city  of  old. 


62  IL    CASO   DREYFUS. 


Indeed,  I  felt  too  disheartened  at  the  turn  events  have 
taken.  I  rather  chose  as  my  task  the  work  of  aiding  the 
future  historian  by  trying  to  ascertain  and  fix  upon  the 
right  persons  the  true  responsibihty,  to  do  this  in  the 
present  while  the  evidence  is  fresh  and  the  ink  still  wet 
on  their  pens.  Individuals  pass,  but  the  Latin  Church 
will  remain  ;  and  its  partisans  will  assuredly  try  to  obscure 
the  truth  about  the  Dreyfus  case  in  the  future  as  they  are 
trying  to  do  it  in  the  present.  It  is  therefore  the  duty 
of  all  who  have  knowledge  now,  and  have  the  records 
open  to  them,  to  publish  what  they  know.  Nothing,  alas, 
that  is  said  or  done  in  England,  can  prevent  the  act  of 
base  vengeance  which  the  Camerilla  of  the  French  War 
Office  have  planned  to  execute  on  their  noble  victim 
Picquart.  Nothing  we  say  or  do  can  retrieve  the  honour 
of  a  nation  which,  in  response  to  the  clamour  of  such  men 
as  Quesnay  de  Beaurepaire,  Drumont,  and  Rochefort,  has 
dethroned  Justice  just  as  she  was  about  to  acquit  the 
innocent  and  condemn  the  guilty.  Hardly  ever  before 
in  modern  history  has  a  legislative  chamber  framed  and 
passed  a  retrospective  law  for  the  expressed  and  avowed 
purpose  of  ensuring  judicial  murder.  Englishmen  can 
only  stand  by  and  deplore  the  fate  which  at  the  end  of 
this  century  overtakes  the  nation  that  at  its  beginning 
heralded  sooner  than  others  the  advent  of  better  things. 
There  is  an  old  eastern  proverb : — "  Son,  be  not  like  the 
almond-tree,  which  is  first  to  bloom  and  last  to  ripen  its 
fruit.  But  be  like  the  mulberry,  which  is  last  to  bloom 
and  first  to  ripen  its  fruit."  It  is  much  to  be  feared  that 
France  is  like  the  almond-tree  in  this  figure. 


JEAN    CALAS. 


(August.  1S99.) 

]N  the  13th  of  October,  1761,  a  young  man  of 
twenty  named  Gober  Lavaisse  crossed  the 
bridge  over  the  Garonne,  by  which  the  dusty 
highway  from  Bordeaux  entered  Toulouse.  As  became 
the  son  of  a  weaUhy  advocate  he  was  on  horseback,  and 
he  proceeded  leisurely,  for  it  was  barely  four  o'clock,  to 
the  stables  where  he  could  procure  a  fresh  horse  to  carry 
him  to  the  country  chateau  on  the  further  side  of  the  city, 
where  his  parents  were  then  staying.  No  horse  was  to  be 
had,  so  he  accepted  the  invitation  of  some  friends  who 
had  met  him  in  the  street  to  stay  to  supper  with  them. 
These  friends  were  no  other  than  Jean  Galas,  the  subject 
of  this  article,  a  man  of  sixty-eight  years  of  age  and  some- 
what infirm,  and  his  son.  They  led  him  into  their  house, 
and  presented  him  to  Madame  Galas.  Jean,  the  father, 
was  a  Protestant  and  a  rich  merchant,  much  respected  by 
his  fellow-townsmen,  even  by  the  Gatholics.  His  wife 
was  English  by  birth,  but  connected  by  descent  with  the 
house  of  Garde-Montesquieu,  one  of  the  oldest  families  of 
Languedoc.  They  had  four  sons,  with  whom  they  had 
ever  lived  on  terms  of  the  utmost  affection.  The  second 
of  these,  Louis,  had  been  converted  to  the  Latin  religion. 


64  JEAN   CALAS. 


largely  through  the  influence  of  the  faithful  old  honne 
Jannette.  But  his  change  of  religion  had  not  broken 
the  harmony  which  reigned  in  the  family,  and  not  only 
did  his  father  allow  him  a  pension  of  400  livres,  but  the 
nurse  Jannette,  a  devout  Papist,  continued  to  live,  and 
had  now  lived  for  thirty  years,  with  them  as  their  only 
servant.  The  eldest  son,  Mark  Antoine,  the  peculiar 
friend  of  young  Lavaisse,  was  a  romantically  inclined 
youth,  moody  and  melancholy,  but  a  clever  musician  and 
litterateur.  Having  no  business  talent,  he  wished  to  go  to 
the  bar ;  but  found  it  closed  to  him  as  a  Protestant,  and 
was  averse  to  changing  his  rehgion.  In  those  days  the 
Huguenots,  if  they  wished  to  pursue  any  other  profession 
but  trading,  had  to  arm  themselves  with  billets  de  con- 
fession or  certificates  bought  from  accredited  Latin  priests 
attesting — and  that  falsely — that  they  had  received  the 
absolution  of  the  Church.  Mark  Antoine  had  failed  to 
get  the  requisite  certificates,  and  had  furthermore  lost  a 
little  while  before  what  money  he  possessed  at  billiards. 
He  was  in  despair,  and  having  stimulated  his  already 
overwrought  brain  with  readings  of  Plutarch,  of  Seneca, 
Montaigne,  of  Hamlet's  monologue,  which  he  knew  by 
heart,  and  of  a  French  tragi-comedy  entitled  Sidney,  he 
had  resolved  to  commit  suicide  that  very  evening.  A 
younger  brother,  Donat,  was  away  on  business  in 
Switzerland ;  but  the  youngest  of  all,  Pierre,  was  at 
home,  as  also  the  two  youngest  children  who  were  girls. 

Lavaisse  entered  their  house  about  five,  and  chatted 
awhile  with  Madame  Calas,  till  she  rose  to  help  her 
servant  prepare  the  supper.  At  the  same  time  she  sent 
Mark  out  to  buy  some  Roquefort  cheese,  of  which  he  was 


JEAN   CALAS. 


a  connoisseur.  Lavaisse  also  went  out  to  bespeak  a  horse 
to  carry  him  on  his  journey  early  the  next  morning.  At 
seven  o'clock  they  all  sat  down  to  their  meal,  which 
passed  pleasantly  enough,  the  sons  discussing  with 
Lavaisse  the  antiquities  of  the  town.  They  were  still 
at  dessert  when  Mark,  whose  gloom  the  whole  party  had 
noticed,  got  up  and  went  into  the  kitchen  which  adjoined 
the  eating-room  on  the  first  floor.  The  servant  Jannette 
asked  him  :  "  Are  you  cold,  Monsieur  I'Atne  ?  Won't  you 
warm  yourself?  "  And  he  answered  :  "  No,  on  the  con- 
trary, I  am  too  hot,"  and  abruptly  quitting  the  room  he 
went  downstairs.  The  rest  of  the  party  finished  their 
supper,  and  then  went  into  the  adjoining  salon  to  talk  ; 
Lavaisse  and  the  father  seating  themselves  on  the  sofa, 
the  youngest  boy  in  an  armchair,  where  he  went  to  sleep. 
Close  upon  ten  his  mother  woke  him  up,  and  bade  him 
light  M.  Lavaisse,  who  was  leaving,  down  the  stairs. 
They  descended,  and  at  once  their  cries  brought  the 
father  and  the  servant  running  downstairs,  at  the  top 
of  which  Madame  Calas  halted  in  terror.  Pierre  and 
Lavaisse,  as  they  turned  to  pass  through  the  counting- 
house  into  the  street,  had  run  against  Mark  who  was 
hanging  dead,  suspended  by  a  cord  with  a  running  knot 
to  a  pole  placed  across  the  top  of  the  folding  doors,  which 
stood  open. 

The  father  grasped  the  body  to  lift  it  and  cut  it  down, 
but  one  end  of  the  pole  slipped  away  from  the  top  of  the 
door,  and  the  corpse  fell,  the  father  falling  over  it.  The 
mother  at  the  same  time  ran  downstairs,  while  Pierre  and 
Lavaisse  went  for  a  surgeon.  Their  cries  and  those  of 
the  bonne  Jannette  brought  the  neighbours  running  to  the 

E 


66  JEAN    CALAS. 


house,  where  they  found  the  father  and  mother  bending 
over  the  body  and  applying  restoratives,  but  in  vain. 

Except  for  the  marks  of  the  cord  on  the  neck,  the  body 
bore  no  signs  of  violence.  The  suicide  had  taken  off  his 
coat,  and  had  laid  it,  neatly  folded  up,  on  the  counter, 
before  committing  his  crime.  His  hair  was  not  dis- 
arranged nor  his  shirt-frill.  It  was  only  noticed,  when 
the  body  reached  the  town  hall,  that  the  tip  of  the  nose 
was  scratched,  and  the  chest  slightly  abrased — injuries 
due  to  its  transport  face  downwards  in  the  first  cart  that 
came  handy  over  roughly  paved  streets. 

Ever  since  the  thirteenth  century,  when  the  streets  of 
Toulouse  ran  with  the  blood  of  the  Albigeois  saints, 
the  Catholics  of  that  city  have  been  famous  for  their 
fanaticism,  accentuated  by  the  presence  of  a  minority  of 
hard-headed,  stubborn,  and  independent-minded  Protes- 
tants. It  was  at  Toulouse  that  the  Catholics  solemnly 
thanked  God  for  the  death  of  Henri  III.,  and  made  oath 
to  murder  the  first  man  who  should  recognize  Henri  IV. 
as  his  Sovereign ;  and  nearly  up  to  the  close  of  the  last 
century  they  commemorated  witn  joyous  processions  and 
fireworks  the  massacre  in  1562  of  4,000  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  in  the  sacred  cause  of  religion.  It  is  the  -Arch- 
bishop of  Toulouse  and  the  neighbouring  members  of  the 
French  hierarchy  who  to-day  lend  their  sanction  to  such 
infamous  Catholic  school-books  as  the  Fleurs  de  I'histoire.* 

Some  gloomy  fanatic,  among  those  who  ran  up  that 
evening  to  see  what  had  happened,  whispered  his  suspicion 
that  it  was  no  case  of  suicide;  but  that  Jean  Calas  had 
strangled  h.is  own  son  to  prevent  his  becoming  a  Catholic. 

*  See  The  National  Review  for  March,  1899,  p.  151. 


JEAN   CALAS.  67 


Perhaps  even  it  was  the  father's  indignant  denial*  that 
his  son  could  have  committed  such  a  crime  of  his  own 
initiative,  which  drew  the  suspicion  on  to  himself.  For 
we  must  not  forget  that  in  those  days  the  body  of  a  suicide 
was  denied  burial,  and  exposed  at  the  crossways.  Any 
parent  who  loved  his  children  so  fondly  as  did  Jean  Calas, 
might  well  begin  by  making  such  a  protest.  Whether  or 
no  his  fatherly  love  gave  a  starting-point  to  the  infamous 
rumour,  it  quickly  spread ;  and  in  a  few  hours  all  the 
Catholics  of  the  quarter  were  telling  one  another  how  the 
unfortunate  Mark  Antoine  had  meaned  to  abjure  his 
heresy  the  very  next  day ;  how  his  father  had  been  caught 
bending  over  his  son's  body  in  the  act  of  strangling  him ; 
how  the  neighbours  had  heard  the  murdered  man's  cries  ; 
how  the  Protestant  religion  makes  it  a  duty  for  parents  to 
strangle  their  children  rather  than  allow  them  to  become 
Catholics  ;  how  in  this  case  the  Protestants  had  in  a 
preliminary  conclave  appointed  one  of  their  number,  the 
young  Lavaisse,  to  assist  the  father  in  murdering  his  son. 
"  Voila  bien  le  peuple  !  Voila  un  tableau  trop  fidele  de  ses 
exces  !  "  wrote  Donat  Calas,  on  July  2nd,  1762,  in  a  memoir 
from  which  I  borrow  the  above  details. 

The  fate  of  the  unhappy  family  was  sealed  by  the  action 
of  a  capiioul,  or  alderman  of  Toulouse,  the  Sieur  David,  who 
from  the  first  gave  ear  to  the  accusing  crowd,  and  arriving 
on  the  scene  hurried  the  whole  family  off  to  the  hotel  de 
ville.  There  he  cast  them  into  separate  undergound  cells, 
not  excepting  even  the  Catholic  bonne,  and  one  Caseing 

•  Pierre  Calas  defxjsed  on  July  23rd,  1762,  as  follows  : — "  My  father  in  his  first 
outbufbt  of  grief,  said  to  nie  :  '  Do  not  go  and  spread  the  tale  that  your  brother 
has  made  away  with  himself;  save  at  least  the  honour  of  your  unhappy  family.'" 


6S  JEAN  CALAS. 


by  name,  a  merchant  and  intimate  friend  of  the  family, 
whom  Pierre  Calas  had  fetched  to  aid  and  advise  them ; 
and  at  whose  instance  it  was  that  Lavaisse  had  called  in 
a  surgeon  named  Gorse,  and  then  had  run  to  inform  the 
greffier  or  clerk  of  the  aldermen.  The  next  day  Caseing 
was  released  ;  but  the  others,  after  interrogatories  in  which 
their  guilt  was  assumed,  were  committed  for  trial  and  put 
in  irons  on  November  i8th,  about  five  weeks  after  the 
tragedy. 

Meanwhile,  the  suicide's  body  had  been  subjected,  not 
to  the  statutory  and  horrible  exposure  at  the  cross-roads, 
but  to  the  pomp  and  ceremony  of  a  martyr's  interment. 
He  had,  of  course,  died  a  Calvinist ;  yet  the  brotherhood 
of  white  penitents  claimed  him  as  their  own,  because  some 
fanatic  came  forward  and  pretended  that  he  had  meaned 
to  join  their  fraternity.  This  gave  the  aldermen  an  excuse, 
and  they  decreed  a  public  funeral  in  the  great  Church  of 
St.  Etienne.  Forty  priests,  and  ten  times  that  number 
of  white  penitents,  escorted  the  bier.  The  function  was 
held  in  their  chapel,  and  the  whole  church  was  draped 
with  white.  In  the  centre  of  the  nave  a  catalfalque  was 
set  up,  surmounted  by  a  skeleton — a  loan  from  a  local 
surgeon,  and  so  contrived  as  to  move  its  limbs  and  head, 
when  concealed  strings  were  pulled  from  below.  This 
ghastly  figure  bore  in  one  hand  a  white  placard  on  which 
one  read  the  words.  Abjuration  de  Vheresic,  and  in  the  other 
a  palm,  the  emblem  of  martyrdom.  On  the  next  day  the 
grey  friars  held  a  like  service,  and  no  detail  was  omitted 
which  could  inflame  the  fanatical  temper  of  the  Catholics. 
The  death  sentence  of  Jean  Calas  was  thus  agreed  to  by 
all  in  advance,  in  the  same  way  as  the  Libre  Parole  and 


JEAN   CALAS.  69 


Mercier  decreed    Dreyfus'  guilt  weeks  before   his  Court- 
Martial. 

Strict  canonization  alone  did  the  suicide  escape,  and 
that  he  would  have  received  except  for  the  timely  inter- 
vention of  Voltaire's  pen.  For  the  people  already  looked 
upon  him  as  a  saint ;  some  invoked  his  name ;  others  went 
to  pray  at  his  tomb ;  others  entreated  miracles  of  him ; 
more  still  had  to  tell  of  those  he  had  wrought.  A  man 
stone-deaf  heard  the  church  bells  ringing ;  an  apoplectic 
priest  had  miraculously  recovered,  with  the  joint  aid  of  the 
new  saint  and  of  an  emetic.  A  written  attestation  of  these 
and  other  miracles  was  drawn  up  and  existed  ready  for  the 
use  of  the  Committee  of  the  Roman  Curia,  which  has  to 
certify  to  the  miracles  of  a  son  of  earth,  before  the  Pope  can 
canonize  him.  Over  and  above  all  this,  the  bi-centenary  of 
the  great  sixteenth  century  massacre  of  the  Huguenots 
was  drawing  near;  and  it  was  generally  felt  by  the 
Catholics  that  Calas'  scaffold  would  fitly  grace  the  festival. 
Providence  itself — so  it  was  declared  from  the  local  pulpits 
— had  furnished  a  victim  for  the  occasion.  Even  so  in 
the  last  four  years  the  fanatics  of  the  Latin  Church  have 
acclaimed  the  unjust  sentence  on  Dreyfus  as  a  heaven-sent 
opportunity  of  cudgelling  Jews  and  Protestants.  Naturatn 
expellas  furca,  tamen  usque  reciirret. 

From  the  hands  of  the  aldermen  of  Toulouse,  the 
victims  passed  before  the  Parliament  of  Languedoc,  and 
this  august  body  organized  a  trial  to  which,  in  many 
particulars,  the  Dreyfus  Court-Martial  of  1894  offers  a 
striking  parallel.  One  witness  had  heard  Mark  Antoine's 
cries  from  the  further  end  of  the  city,  just  as  if  the 
victim    had    shrieked    like   a  steam-syren.     Another  had 


70  JEAN  CALAS. 


peeped  through  the  kej'hole,  and  seen  men  running  about 
inside  Calas'  house.  A  house-painter  named  Matei  swore 
that  his  wife  had  told  him  that  a  woman  named  Mandrille 
had  told  her  that  a  woman  she  did  not  know  had  told  her 
that  she  had  heard  the  groans  of  the  victim  at  the 
extremity  of  the  street.  What  a  parallel  this  to  the 
story  of  Dre3^fus'  confession  of  guilt !  A  half-witted  but 
devout  surgeon — perhaps  the  one  who  lent  the  skeleton — 
declared  that  the  food  he  found  during  the  post-mortem  in 
the  stomach  of  the  deceased  had  been  there  four  hours, 
and  not  two  only,  as  the  case  for  the  accused  pre- 
supposed. On  the  other  hand,  the  depositions  of  the 
Calas  household,  taken  separately,  agreed  on  all  essential 
points,  and  it  was  pointed  out  than  an  infirm  old  man  of 
sixty-eight  years  could  not  have  throttled  a  strong  man 
in  the  prime  of  life,  even  with  the  help  of  Lavaisse,  who 
was  also — be  it  noted — the  bosom  friend  of  the  deceased. 
It  was  allowed  by  all  that,  if  the  young  man  had  been 
assassinated,  the  whole  family,  including  the  Catholic 
bonne,  must  be  equally  guilty,  and  this  was  at  first^the 
opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  judges.  Nevertheless,  they 
condemned  the  father  alone  to  be  broken  on  the  wheel 
and  burned,  in  the  belief  and  hope  that  in  his  agony  he 
would  yield  and  avow  the  complicity  of  the  rest.  Ques- 
tioned in  the  midst  of  his  torment,  he  merely  answered, 
"  Alas,  where  there  was  no  crime,  how  could  there  be 
accomplices  ?  " 

A  single  subdued  cry  escaped  the  lips  of  Calas  when  the 
tortures  began,  and  the  executioner's  first  blow  was  struck. 
The  rest  he  bore  with  fortitude.  He  spoke  during  the 
last  minutes  of  his  life  only  of  the  truths  of  Christianity. 


JEAN   CALAS.  71 


Against  his  judges  he  uttered  no  word  of  complaint,  but 
declared  that  he  did  not  impute  his  death  to  them  ;  they 
must  have  been  deceived  by  false  witnesses.  His  very 
last  words  to  the  Jacobin  monk,  Bourges,  Professor  of 
Theology  in  Toulouse,  who,  with  another  monk  of  the 
same  order,  Caldagues,  was  charged  to  minister  to  him  in 
his  last  moments,  were  the  following:  "  I  die  an  innocent 
man  ;  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  innocence  itself,  consented 
to  die  by  a  punishment  yet  more  cruel.  I  do  not  regret  a 
life  which,  I  trust,  ushers  me  into  eternal  bliss.  I  only 
bewail  the  lot  of  my  wife  and  my  son  ;  and  the  thought  of 
yon  poor  stranger,  the  son  of  M.  Lavaisse,  to  whom  I 
thought  I  was  doing  a  mere  act  of  courtesy  in  asking  him 
to  supper,  intensifies  my  regret," 

As  he  spoke  the  alderman  who  first  arrested  him,  and 
had  come,  though  not  by  official  necessity,  to  gloat  over 
the  spectacle  of  his  death,  exclaimed  :  "  Wretch  !  Behold 
the  executioner  who  is  about  to  reduce  your  body  to 
ashes;  tell  the  truth!"  Calas  merely  turned  his  head 
away  a  little,  and  next  moment  the  executioner  did  his 
work.     This  was  on  March  gth,  1762. 

Pierre  Calas,  who,  after  his  father,  was  looked  upon  as 
the  guiltiest  of  the  family,  was  sentenced  to  perpetual 
banishment.  He  quitted  the  city  by  one  gate,  but  was 
promptly  rearrested,  led  back  through  another,  and  in- 
carcerated in  the  Jacobin  monastery.  There  the  monk 
Bourges  offered  to  rehabilitate  him  and  have  the  sentence 
of  banishment  repealed,  if  he  would  change  his  religion. 
After  being  imprisoned  by  the  monks  for  four  months,  he 
escaped,  and  it  was  largely  through  his  means  that  the 
attention  of  the  King's  Council  was  drawn  to  the  case  and 


72  JEAN   CALAS. 


the  injustice  remedied,  so  far  as  it  was,  humanly  speak- 
ing, possible  to  remedy  it.  Lavaisse  and  Jannette  had 
been  let  go  free  by  the  executioners  of  Calas ;  although, 
had  there  really  been  any  crime  committed,  they  must 
have  been  privy  to  it.  The  widow  also  had  been  liberated, 
although  her  guilt  could  be  in  no  way  inferior  to  that  of 
the  rest.  The  truth  was  that  the  judges  themselves  were 
impressed  with  the  composure  and  dignity  in  sufferings 
and  death  of  their  victim,  and  already  felt  misgivings. 
The  very  priests  who  attended  him  on  the  scaffold  openly 
declared  that  he  had  died  like  an  ancient  martyr.  All 
the  same,  the  widow's  daughters  were  taken  away  from 
her  and  placed  in  a  convent.  She  herself,  penniless, 
starving,  afraid  of  all,  as  an  English-born  woman  well 
might  be  under  such  terrible  circumstances,  begged  her 
way  to  Paris,  in  the  desperate  hope  of  being  someday  able 
to  lay  her  case  before  the  King  and  appeal  to  his  mercy. 

Thanks  to  the  leaven  of  the  French  Ency^opgedists 
which  had  already  begun  to  work,  Paris  was  less  fanatical 
in  those  days  than  Toulouse,  and  the  widow  found 
defenders.  M.  de  Beaumont,  a  celebrated  advocate  in 
the  Paris  Parliament,  interested  himself  in  her  case,  and 
drew  up  an  appeal  for  her  to  which  fifteen  advocates' put 
their  names.  M.  Loiseau  composed  an  eloquent  memoir 
on  the  case  in  all  its  aspects.  M.  Mariette,  advocate 
before  the  King's  Council,  drew  up  her  plea  in  a  manner 
which  carried  conviction  to  all.  Lastly,  Voltaire,  ready 
then  to  defend  the  cause  of  innocence,  as  he  was  subse- 
quently when  he  pleaded  for  Count  Lally,  La  Barre,  and 
our  own  Admiral  Byng,  threw  himself  for  three  years  into 
the  agitation,  and  more  than  anyone  else  forced  it  on  the 


JEAN   CALAS.  73 


ear  of  society.  The  case  inspired  his  masterly  treatise  on 
Tolerance,  of  which  the  Parliament  of  Languedoc,  in 
solemn  mockery  of  themselves,  ordered  a  copy  to  be 
publicly  burned,  just  as  they  had  done  with  Pascal's 
treatise  against  the  Jesuits. 

But,  although  opinion  was  almost  unanimous  in  Paris, 
long  before  the  King,  in  council,  annulled  the  barbarous 
sentence,  there  were  many  eager  for  the  part  of  advocates 
diaboli.  The  divots,  or  truly  pious  people,  said  out  loud 
that  it  was  better  to  let  an  old  Calvinist  be  broken  on  the 
wheel,  even  if  he  were  innocent,  than  oblige  eight  coun- 
cillors of  Languedoc  to  admit  that  they  had  been  mis- 
taken. So  to-day  in  France  the  Ligne  de  la  Patrie  of 
Coppee  and  Brunetiere  would  rather  that  Dreyfus  was 
left  chained  to  his  torrid  rock  than  that  the  credit  of  the 
General  Staff  of  the  army  or  of  the  seven  officers  who 
illegally  sentenced  him  should  be  impugned.  "  There  are 
more  magistrates  than  there  are  Galas,"  was  the  remark 
of  the  eighteenth  century  analogues  of  General  Gonse. 
The  whole  of  the  Galas  family  was,  in  short,  to  be  sacri- 
ficed in  honour  of  the  magistracy.  Times  have  changed  ; 
and  in  France  of  to-day  it  is  no  longer  the  honour  of  the 
judges — which  is  cheap  enough — but  of  officers,  which  is 
incompatible  with  admission  of  fallibility. 

For  long  months  the  Toulouse  Gourt  refused  to  deliver 
up  the  proccs  verbal  and  other  documents  of  the  case,  but 
in  vain.  The  widow,  her  son  Pierre,  Lavaisse,  and 
Jannette  were  all  cited  before  the  chamlre  des  reqiietes  de 
Vhutel,  or  Supreme  Gourt.  The  young  Lavaisse,  in 
particular,  presented  depositions  which  moved  the 
admiration  of  all.     He  could  well  have  pleaded  from  the 


74  JEAN   CALAS. 


first,  had  he  been  a  liar,  that  he  left  the  house  before  the 
supposed  crime  was  committed.  He  had  been  threatened 
with  torture,  yet  he  had  held  bravely  to  the  truth,  and 
had  shown  himself  ready  to  share  death  with  the  Calas 
family  as  he  had  shared  their  bonds.  In  the  end  the 
Judges  of  the  Paris  Court  unanimously  declared  the  family 
innocent,  rehabilitated  the  father's  memory,  condemned 
the  Toulouse  jurisdiction,  and  issued  a  faculty  to  the 
family  to  sue  it  for  damages.  They  also  laid  before  the 
King  a  formal  appeal,  that  he  would  in  his  bounty  make 
good  the  financial  ruin  which  had  befallen  the  family. 
The  King  responded  by  bestowing  36,000  livres  on  the 
mother  and  children,  and  3,000  on  the  faithful  old  servant 
Jannette. 

The  happy  conclusion  of  a  case  which  had  agitated 
French  society,  and,  indeed,  all  Europe,  hardly  less — 
considering  the  different  circumstance  of  that  age — than 
has  the  Dreyfus  case  to-day,  created  widespread  joy, 
especially  in  Paris.  The  highest  society  flocked  to  visit 
the  widow  and  her  children  in  the  Paris  prison,  to  which, 
pending  the  sentence  of  the  Supreme  Court,  they  volun- 
tarily betook  themselves ;  and  when  they  were  acquitted 
and  liberated,  the  public  places  and  promenades  of  Paris 
were  crowded  with  the  triumphant  partisans  of  innocence. 
What  completed  their  joy  was  the  circumstance  that  the 
acquittal  was  pronounced  on  March  gth,  1765,  exactly 
three  years  after  the  victim  of  Catholic  intolerance  had 
perished. 

I  have  spoken  of  those  who,  during  those  three  years, 
chose  for  themselves  the  part  of  advocatus  diaholi.  They 
had   the  excuse  of  being  contemporaries,  of  being  im- 


JEAN   CALAS.  75 


mersed  in  the  current  strife  of  the  day,  of  Hving  before 
the  French  Revolution,  of  being  at  least  sincere  Catholics, 
blinded  by  zeal  and  devoid  of  hypocrisy.  Who,  however, 
would  have  thought  it  possible  that  in  the  year  of  grace 
1898,  when  just  136  years  had  passed,  during  which  all 
historians  had  sifted  the  facts  and  admitted  them,  as 
related  in  the  above  pages,  there  should  arise  a  French- 
man eager  to  pla}'  the  part  over  again,  and  that  without 
extenuating  circumstances  ;  eager  to  rival  the  Abbe  Freron 
who,  in  the  Anue  Litletaire  of  1765,  earned  the  scorn  and 
moved  the  indignation  of  all  men  by  arguing  that  it  was 
perfectly  natural  that  Calas  should  have  murdered  his  son 
from  fanaticism  ;  because,  forsooth,  Junius  Brutus  had 
executed  his  from  a  sense  of  duty ;  and  that,  if  the  King's 
councillors  at  Paris  had  given  credit  to  the  depositions  of 
the  Calas  family,  that  merely  proved,  not  Calas'  inno- 
cence, but  their  credulity.  Our  modern  Freron  is  no 
other  than  M.  Brunetiere,  academician  and  editor  of  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 

On  March  15th,  1898,  soon  after  the  conclusion  of  the 
Zola  trial,  this  writer  published  in  his  review  an  article 
entitled  Apres  le  Proces,  which  was  in  effect  an  apology  for, 
and  eulogy  of,  brute  force — blind,  deaf,  and  dumb. 

The  moral  suggested  to  him  by  the  Zola  trial,  and  the 
part  played  in  it  by  the  most  distinguished  French  paleo- 
graphers, biologists,  and  chemists,  is  this,  that  of  all 
governing  classes,  one  composed  of  intellectual  persons  is 
in  a  republic  and  a  democracy  the  worst.  He  does  not 
scruple  to  declare  his  preference  of  an  oligarchy  composed 
of  priests,  plutocrats,  and  praetorians.  He  tenders  an 
assurance  of  his  contempt  and  hatred  "  to  the  intellectucls, 


76  JEAN   CALAS. 


who  for  the  last  hundred  years  have  done  us  so  much 
harm."  What  business,  he  asks,  has  a  paleographer 
(e.g.,  Paul  Meyer)  to  oppose  his  own  judgment  about  the 
bordereau  to  that  of  a  court-martial.  France,  we  are  told, 
is  fallen  the  victim  of  Freemasons,  Protestants,  and  Jews. 
Anti-Semitism  is  the  legitimate  revenge  of  the  Catholics. 
Only  let  Frenchmen  renounce  the  right  to  think  for  them- 
selves and  make  it  over  to  the  Vatican  ;  only  let  them 
embrace  his  own  idea  of  militarism,  and  everything  will 
come  right  at  once.  Such  is  the  drift  of  M.  Brunetiere's 
reflections. 

In  the  year  i8g8  a  series  of  articles,  entitled  Billets  diHa 
Province,  appeared  in  the  Paris  Steele,  from  the  pen  of  a 
brilliant  writer  calling  himself  Michel  Colline.  The  one 
for  August  I2th  contained  a  just  sketch  of  M.  Brunetiere 
under  the  transparent  title  of  "  Basile."  It  begins  by 
rallying  him  for  his  insincerity,  for  the  charlatanry  and 
pedantry  of  his  new  flights  in  the  art  of  literary  criticism. 
Then  the  writer  asks  : — 

"Why  is  he  now  paying  court  to  the  Catholic  clergy?  Why  in  the 
Dreyfus  affair  has  he  put  himself — to  use  his  own  pretty  phrase— on  the 
side  on  which  he  never  ought  to  be  ?  Why  has  he  written  this  detestable 
article  'Apres  le  Prods'  the  pervading  ugliness  of  which  is  peculiarly  visible 
in  the  paragraph,  so  truly  dishonourable  to  a  man  of  reflection,  entitled, 
•  De  guelques  intellectuds  '  ?  .  .  .  For  if  one  must  suppose  that  he  believes 
one  word  of  what  he  has  said,  it  would  follow  that  be  denies  the  utility 
of  individual  action  in  history,  denies  the  possibility  of  a  wise  man  being 
in  the  right  when  he  opposes  public  error,  denies  the  part  played  by  genius 
in  the  work  of  civilization,  denies  liberty  of  thought,  the  sovereignty  of 
conscience,  all  in  a  word  that  makes  up  the  intellectual  and  moral  dignity 
of  man. 

"  If,"  continued  Michel  Colline,  in  words  solemn,  but  not  too  severe, 
"  if  he  is  not  merely  making  mock  of  us  all,  then  he  has  done  it  out  of  sheer 


JEAN   CALAS.  77 


wickedness,  and  to  aid  the  spirit  of  darkness,  which,  from  the  time  of  the 
Crucifixion  of  Christ  up  to  that  of  the  butchery  of  Jean  Huss  and  of 
Galileo's  imprisonment,  seeks  to  overwhelm  from  age  to  age  the  light  which 
will  make  us  free. 

"Nothing,"  he  continues,  "is  more  sacred,  I  know  it  well,  than  a 
religious  conviction ;  and  it  seems  at  first  sight  as  if  we  had  no  sort  of 
right  to  call  on  a  man  to  give  reasons  for  things  incapable  of  demon- 
stration, which  he  is  free  to  believe,  if  he  chooses.  And  no  doubt  this  is 
true,  as  long  as  it  is  a  religious  conviction  that  we  are  dealing  with ;  but, 
by  his  own  admission,  Basile  has  none,  and  he  has  left  himself  no  divine 
hopes.  Never  has  one  beheld  aught  more  dry  and  hard,  less  softened  by 
any  tinge  of  mysticism  than  this  man's  soul.  Naturally  the  Church  would 
rather  have  an  atheist  to  work  and  fight  for  it  than  a  Christian  who 
labours  only  for  God  ;  and,  delighted  to  have  such  an  instrument,  she  asks 
no  question  about  his  motives.  But  this  question  we  may  here  ask,  with- 
out fearing  to  be  found  indiscreet.  Since  it  is  no  impulse  of  faith  that 
urges  him,  what  is  his  motive  ?  What  political  end  does  he  follow  in 
constituting  himself  a  missionary  of  the  Pope  ?  " 

But  the  Sting  of  ihisjeti  d' esprit  lay  in  its  last  parag;raph, 
wherein  the  writer  regrets  the  long  delay  of  Brunetiere's 
promised  volume  on  Voltaire  : — 

"This  I  regret,"  remarks  the  satirist  in  concluding.  "I  should  have 
been  curious  to  read  the  censure  which,  if  he  be  logical,  he  must  pass  on 
the  generous  defender  of  Calas  ;  or  if,  by  chance,  he  approved  of  Voltaire's 
action,  I  should  be  very  curious  to  see  how  he  reconciles  this  traditional 
approval  with  the  hasty  judgment  which  he  has  lately  passed  on  indi- 
vidualism and  on  intellectuals." 

M.  Brunetiere  lost  no  time  in  fitting  the  cap  on  his 
head.  He  sat  down  and  penned  a  letter  to  the  Siccle, 
angrily  threatening  the  editor,  M.  Yves  Guyot,  with  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  the  law  if  it  was  not  inserted  at 
once.  It  was  easy  to  please  him,  and  his  diatribe 
appeared  the  next  day. 


78  JEAN   CALAS. 


"  One  of  your  collaborators,  M.  Michel  Colline,"  he  writes,  "is  curious 
to  know  what  I  should  have  been  able  to  say  of  the  '  generous  defender  of 
Galas'  in  a  volume  which  I  have  not  written.     I  can  easily  satisfy  him." 

He  then  quotes  from  his  article  on  Galas,  which  had  long 
before  appeared  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Monies,  and  in 
which,  while  candidly  recognizing  Galas'  innocence,  he 
yet  somewhat  ignobly  disputes  Voltaire's  "  generosity," 
and  does  his  best  to  disparage  him  as  an  apostle  of  tolera- 
tion. The  last  paragraph  of  his  letter  it  is,  however, 
which  contains  M.  Brunetiere's  latest  self-revelation. 

"These  few  pages,"  he  writes,  alluding  to  his  citations  of  his  own 
article,  "  are  twenty  years  old.  ...  I  will  content  myself  by  adding  this 
much  to  them  to-day,  namely,  that  I  am  not  so  sure  as  I  used  to  be  of  the 
innocence  of  Calas ;  and  every  question  of  judicial  error  being  a  specific 
one,  I  do  not  believe  that  there  was  any  judicial  error  in  the  Dreyfus 
affaire." 

M.  Brunetiere  is  a  type  of  which  many  examples  exist 
in  modern  France,  nearly  twenty  of  them  meeting  us 
without  our  going  beyond  the  charmed  circle  of  his 
brother  academicians.  It  is  with  reason  therefore  that 
the  league  of  self-styled  patriots  formed  to  do  honour  to 
the  memory  of  Henry  the  forger  by  the  poets  Coppee  *  and 
Deroulede  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  Ligue  des  Basiles. 
In  French    literary  history  M.  Brunetiere,  if  he  lives  at 


*  For  those  English  readers  who  desire  a  nearer  acquaintance  with  M.  Copp6e, 
the  dear  friend  and  political  henchman  of  General  Mercier,  I  may  point  out  that  he 
has  told  the  story  of  his  conversion  to  "  Catholicism,"  in  a  work  entitled,  "  Happy 
Sufferings,"  recently  translated  by  Catharine  M.  Welby,  with  a  sympathetic  intro- 
duction by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Hutton,  B.D.,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  St.  John's 
College,  Oxford,  and  Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Bishop  of  Ely.  This  translation 
is  published  by  Messrs.  Rivington.  M.  Coppde's  conversion  to  Catholicism  un- 
happily coincides  with  his  conversion  to  the  cult  of  Fraud,  Forgery,  Treason,  False 
dossiers,  and  hateful  Injustice  to  Jews  and  Protestants. 


JEAN   CALAS.  jg 


all,  will  live  not  as  the  pedant  who  discovered  the  evolution 
des  genres  in  literature,  and  claimed  in  consequence  to 
have  founded  a  new  school  of  criticism,  but  as  the  man 
who,  in  order  the  better  to  believe  in  Dreyfus'  guilt,  in 
order  to  sink  his  conscience  and  intelligence  to  the  level 
required  by  Drumont  and  the  Libre  Parole,  began  at  last 
to  question  even  the  innocence  of  Jean  Calas. 

It  is  nearly  one  hundred  and  forty  years  since  Calas 
perished  on  the  rack,  and  in  the  interval  France  has  seen 
the  great  Revolution,  in  honour  of  which  her  citizens 
inscribe  on  their  archways  and  public  monuments  the 
legend  of  Liberie,  Egalite,  Fratemite.  Nevertheless,  a 
great  proportion  of  them,  and  in  particular  those  over 
whose  lives  and  minds  the  Latin  Church  retains  its  sway, 
are  still  strangers,  as  much  as  Bossuet  was  and  more,  to 
the  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  and  toleration. 
Witness  the  cowardly  behaviour  of  the  French  clergy  and 
bishops  throughout  this  struggle  to  obtain  justice  for  the 
innocent  man  Dreyfus.  Merely  because  he  was  a  Jew, 
the  mot  d'ordre  has  been  passed  to  every  confessor  in  the 
land  to  warn  those  whose  consciences  they  directed 
against  feeling  or  showing  any  sympathy  with  the  victim. 
The  Church,  as  a  whole,  has  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
forger  Henry  and  of  the  traitor  Esterhazy ;  and  it  has 
done  so  with  open  eyes  and  wilfully,  because  it  aspired  to 
deal  through  Dreyfus  a  blow  at  the  modern  civilization 
which  in  its  heart  of  hearts  it  detests. 

A  book  lies  before  me  of  which  the  popularity  is,  per- 
haps, one  of  the  worst  symptoms  of  the  insane  wickedness 
which  seems  to  be  inseparable  from  latter-day  French 
Catholic  piety.     It  is  called  ''  Le  Peril  Protestant,  an  Essay 


8o  JEAN   CALAS. 


in  Contemporary  History."  It  had  already  in  March  last, 
when  I  purchased  my  copy,  gone  through  eleven  editions 
in  as  many  weeks,  and  is  no  doubt  still  selling  at  the  same 
rate.  It  is  issued  from  a  "religious"  press,  and  by  a 
publishing  house  which  devotes  itself  to  selling  works  of 
piety,  the  Librairie  St.  Joseph,  and  its  author  is  the  same 
Ernest  Renauld  who  has  been  lately  urging  the  officers 
who  are  to  retry  Dreyfus  at  Rennes  to  discard  all  evidence, 
to  listen  only  to  their  conviction  intime  of  his  guilt,  and 
send  him  back  to  the  He  dii  Diable  to  die.  This  advice 
he  tenders  in  its  proper  place,  the  columns  of  the  Libre 
Parole  ;  and,  needless  to  say,  his  volume  is  the  quintessence 
of  all  the  worst  falsehoods  with  which  that  flagitious 
journal  has,  since  it  was  founded  by  the  Jesuits  and  with 
Jesuit  money  in  1892,  been  poisoning  the  French  mind. 
A  notice  on  the  cover  indicates  the  author's  end  and  aim 
to  be  nothing  less  than  a  general  proscription  of  the 
Protestants  all  over  France.  "  In  this  book,"  says  this 
notice,  "  will  be  found,  department  by  department,  the 
names  of  and  posts  filled  by  Protestant  functionaries,  as 
well  as  the  names  of  Protestant  university  men,  not  only  in 
Paris  but  in  the  provinces."  Opening  it  we  read  this  on 
the  first  page  : — 

"  The  aim  of  this  book  is  then  to  unmask  the  enemy,  the  Protestant,  the 
ally  of  the  Jew  and  the  Freemason,  against  the  Catholic,  who  is  to-day  the 
victim  of  this  diabolical  alliance." 

There  are,  according  to  this  writer,  650,000  Protestants 
in  France,  and  he  accuses  this  slender  minority  of  oppress- 
ing thirty-eight  millions  of  Frenchmen,  because,  as  he  says, 
it  monopolizes  the  universities,  and  because  Protestants 


JEAN   CALAS.  8i 


everywhere  fill  posts  of  confidence  in  the  administrative 
and  financial  system  of  France.  At  first  sight,  he  says, 
one  might  infer  that  their  moral  and  intellectual  superiority 
was  overwhelming,  and  so  any  unbiassed  judge  would  do. 
But  this  conclusion  ill  suits  a  scribe  of  the  Libre  Parole 
writing  for  Catholics,  and  he  accordingly  sets  out  to  prove, 
in  six  hundred  pages  of  close  print,  that  it  is  because  they 
excel  in  fraud,  vice,  treason  to  France,  and  every  form  of 
impiety,  that  they  have  come  to  the  fore. 

Of  course,  the  Dreyfus  affair  is  the  stock  topic  of  the 
book.  Here  is  the  writer's  characterization  of  some 
courageous  members  of  the  Ecole  des  Charles,  who  were 
among  the  first  to  champion  the  cause  of  right. 

"  What  is  Paul  Meyer  ? 

"  A  Jew,  in  spite  of  his  conversion  to  Protestantism.* 

"What  are  Messrs.  Molinier  ? 

"Two  Protestants,  friends  of  the  Dreyfusard  Monod. 

"What  is  M.  Giry  ? 

"  Nothing  but  the  husband  of  two  Protestant  wives  in  succession,  just 
as  are  Ribot  and  Trarieux. 

"  What  is  M.  Bournou  ? 

"  The  intimate  friend  of  Molinier. 

"  The  Ecole  des  Chartes  also  has  become  the  prey  of  a  Protestant 
Syndicate." 

And  this  is  his  sketch  of  Scheurer-Kestner,  the  last 
representative  in  France  of  an  undivided  Alsace,  and  one 
who,  after  1870,  gave  up  everything  in  order  to  remain  a 
French  subject  : — 

"  Yes,  indeed,  many  veils  are  rent,  many  masks  torn  off;  and  the  man 
whose  life  we  are  told  was  clear  as  crystal,  this  last  deputy  of  Alsace,  as  he 
calls  himself,  with  tremolos  in  his  voice,  has  been  shown  up  as  a  Protestant 

•  M.   Paul  Meyer  is  a  Catholic. 


82  JEAN   CALAS. 


sectary,  who  puts  his  religious  hatreds,  his  Germanophile  sympathies  at 
the  service  of  the  most  abominable  campaign  which  ever  agitated  opinion 
and  exasperated  the  French  conscience." 

And  then,  after  the  manner  of  the  Libre  Parole,  he 
proceeds  to  attack  Scheurer's  private  hfe,  which  is  as 
blameless  as  his  public  life  has  been  noble,  and  his  services 
to  science  eminent. 

"Do  you  dream  that  he  is  a  paragon,  this  Scheurer  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it. 
It  remains  to  show  him  to  you  in  a  very  different  light.  It  appears  that, 
austere  Protestant  though  he  be,  he  is  yet  a  man  for  all  that ;  and  papa 
Scheurer,  in  spite  of  his  white  hairs,  still  feels  his  heart  thrill  with  feelings 
all  the  more  burning  because  they  are  returned. 

"  And,  perhaps,  if  nature  had  created  him  less  giddy,  our  Senator  would 
not  have  made  up  his  mind  to  enter  the  Dreyfusard  plot.  Dans  tous  les 
grands  evenements  cherchez  la  femme." 

When  we  see  such  ordure  as  this  slung  at  the  noblest 
figure  in  modern  France,  we  understand  how  it  is  that 
the  Francophile  party  in  the  annexed  provinces  has  in  the 
last  two  years  dwindled  to  insignificance.  The  eleventh 
edition  has  an  appendix  entitled  Loew  et  Cie,  full  of  such 
insults  to  the  President  of  the  Criminal  Chamber  of  the 
Cour  de  Cassation  as  are  dear  to  the  heart  of  Quesnay  de 
Beaurepaire  and  his  faction.  M.  Loew,  like  Scheurer- 
Kestner,  is  an  Alsatian,  and  therefore,  according  to 
M.  Renauld,  a  Prussian  and  a  Jew. 

This  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  calumnies  which  M. 
Renauld  has  collected  about  leading  Huguenots  all  over 
France.  In  the  spring  of  i8g8  he  sent  out  to  reliable 
Catholics  and  priests  in  almost  every  parish  in  France  a 
confidential  circular,  in  which  we  find  propounded  the 
following  question  : — 


JEAN   CALAS.  83 


"  Do  you  know  about  the  Protestants  any  facts  of  a 
kind  to  compromise  them  or  excite  pubHc  opinion  against 
them  ?  " 

A  postman  dropped  one  of  these  by  mistake  into  the 
box  of  one  M.  Lecoat,  a  Breton  Protestant  and  pastor  at 
Tremel,  who  unkindly  communicated  it  to  the  public 
Press.  On  page  457  of  his  book,  M.  Renauld  gives  us 
the  secret  dossier  of  the  hidenx  Lecoat,  as  he  calls  him. 
We  learn  that  he  takes  English  money,  like  the  rest  of 
the  Huguenots,  that  he  falsified  the  Renauld  circular,  and 
so  forth.  But  it  is  there  to  confute  him,  as  is  also  the 
book.  Its  six  hundred  pages  stuffed  with  libels  fished  up 
all  over  France  are  in  themselves  a  sufficient  attestation 
of  the  rag-picking  methods  employed  in  order  to  compile  it. 

This  book  breathes  the  adoration  of  Henry  the  forger, 
to  which  we  are  long  ago  accustomed  among  the  followers 
of  the  Comte  de  Mun.  "  The  Colonel,"  we  read,  page 
203,  "  lost  his  head.  He  confessed.  He  sacrificed  him- 
self. In  prison  at  Mont  Valerien  he  asked  himself  whether 
Cavaignac  had  not  turned  Dreyfusard  .  .  .  and,  victim 
of  blind  discipline,  he  preferred  to  die.  He  committed 
suicide." 

M.  Renauld's  repertory  of  abuse  is  considerable.  Thus 
M.  de  Pressense  is  a  parpaillot ;  the  Times  correspondent 
at  Paris  is  a  "filthy  reptile":  '' Lc  Times  bavait  par  la 
plume  de  Vimmonde  reptile  connu  sous  le  nam  de  Blowitz." 
As  to  Picquart,  M.  Renauld  "  cannot  quite  make  out 
what  his  religion  may  be,  but  he  has  good  reason  to 
believe  that  he  is  of  Jewish  origin.  And  judging  from 
his  dirty  tricks,  it  seems  as  if  he  made  his  own  to  the 
utmost  the  cult  of  servility,  delation,  spying,  cowardice 


84  JEAN   CALAS. 


and  lying.  What  is  more,  the  spelHng  of  his  name  shows 
that  it  is  not  one  of  French  origin."  The  National 
Review,  we  are  told,  is  a  Dreyfusard  journal,  and  when 
in  June,  i8g8,  it  printed  my  "awful  article"  (article 
cpouvantable  contre  Vetat-major  frangais),  it  "  showed 
clearly  how  much  of  calumny,  vulgarity,  and  outrage 
Englishmen's  hatred  can  inspire." 

And,  indeed,  as  one  reads  this  book,  a  type  of  many 
which  make  their  appearance  every  month  in  modern 
France,  one  realizes  how  England  and  things  English 
are  viewed  by  the  average  Catholic  abroad.  We  are 
beheved  to  be  leagued  with  the  United  States  and 
Germany  with  the  triple  object,  firstly,  of  dismembering 
certain  States  in  which  we  regard  Catholicism  as  being 
still  too  firmly  rooted.  These  States  are  France,  Spain, 
and  Portugal.  Secondly,  of  securing  the  preponderance 
of  the  Protestant  States  all  over  the  world  ;  and  thirdly, 
of  giving  to  the  Jews  the  control  of  the  Protestant  States. 
It  is  solemnly  affirmed  that  England  is  bound  by  treaty 
to  pay  Prussia  one  million  sterling  per  annum  in  further- 
ance of  these  aims  ;  and  the  supposed  programme  and 
secret  treaty  are  printed  in  leaded  type  as  an  introduction 
to  the  book.  Nor  is  it  only  against  Catholicism  that  we 
Englishmen  seem  to  plot  so  diabolically.  The  reader  is 
gravely  assured  on  page  53  that  three  hundred  thousand 
Christians  were  massacred  by  the  Turks  in  1896-1897 
at  the  instigation  of  England.  One  might  hope  after  this 
that  the  writer  would  condemn  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew's.  It  was  cruel,  he  says,  but  it  was  politic. 
He  accuses  the  handful  of  French  Protestants  in  the 
Chamber   of  being   responsible   for   Hanotaux'  policy  of 


JEAN   CALAS.  85 


giving  the  Turk  a  free  hand  three  years  ago,  and  pretends 
that  he  cannot  after  that  "understand  the  factitious 
indignation  of  the  French  Protestants  when  they  speak  of 
St.  Bartholomew's."  They  were  traitors  to  their  country, 
he  declares,  and  sold  to  England  then  as  now. 

The  same  rancorous  bigotry  animates  another  recent 
volume  which  lies  before  me,  entitled:  Americanism  and 
the  Anti-Christian  Conspiracy,  by  the  Abbe  Henri  Delassus, 
Canon  of  Cambrai  and  Director  of  the  Semaine  Religieuse. 
It  is  published  by  the  Societe  de  Saint  Augustin,  printed 
by  the  press  of  the  Catholic  faculties  of  Lille,  and  recom- 
mended by  the  Archbishop  of  Cambrai,  The  massacres 
and  acts  of  cruelty  by  which  Protestantism  was  nearly 
exterminated  in  France  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  were,  we  are  told  on  page  8,  "miracles  recog- 
nized as  such  by  ecclesiastical  authority,"  a  statement 
which  perhaps  refers  to  the  service  of  thanksgivings  for 
the  St.  Bartholomew's  massacre,  which  was  printed  by 
the  Pope  in  1572,  and  of  which  a  copy,  almost  unique,  is 
preserved  in  the  Bodleian.  "The  same  protection  was 
accorded  us,"  continues  Delassus,  "  by  the  Divine  Mother, 
using  the  same  means,  against  Jansenism."  And  he 
piously  ejaculates  :  "  Gatide  Maria  Virgo,  cunctas  hcereses 
sola  in'.eremisti  in  nniverso  mundo." 

The  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man  is,  according  to 
this  writer,  the  very  worst  of  the  heresies  against  which 
Frenchmen  are  to  look  for  such  supernatural  aid.  "  Here 
we  have  the  root  of  all  the  evil,"  he  remarks,  in  his  intro- 
duction (p.  vii.).  "This  declaration,"  he  says,  on  page 
94,  "  was  condemned  by  Pius  VI.,  and  from  it  flows  the 
entire  sum  of  modern  errors,  to  wit,  liberty  of  the  human 


86  JEAN   CALAS. 


person  in  respect  of  God  ;  and  as  corollaries  therefrom, 
liberty  of  thought  and  liberty  of  the  Press,  liberty  of  con- 
science and  liberty  of  cult,  the  supremacy  of  society  and 
its  independence  from  the  Church,  sovereignty  of  the 
nation,  or  the  right  to  make  laws  which  derive  their 
authority,  not  from  God,  but  from  a  majority  in  Parha- 
ment."  "All  these  '  montrosities,'  "  he  continues,  "  were 
condemned  anew  by  Gregory  XVI.  in  his  encyclical 
Mir  art,  and  by  Pio  IX.  in  the  Syllabus."  The  liberal 
Catholic  movement  which,  under  the  name  of  Ameri- 
canism, has  spread  to  France,  is  declared  to  be  a  mixture 
of  all  these  errors,  with  the  poison  of  the  "liberal  and 
humanitarian  Judaism  "  of  the  Association  Israelite  Uni- 
verselle  thrown  in  as  a  ferment.  The  result,  he  declares, 
is  religious  indifference  among  the  masses.  "  Tolerance 
is  another,  and  not  less  efficacious  solvent  of  religion,"  as 
this  monk  conceives  of  religion,  "  that  tolerance,"  he 
adds,  "  which  Freemasonry  elevates  into  the  first  of  all 
rights  and  the  first  of  all  duties  in  the  sphere  of  religion." 
Such  is  the  true  inwardness  of  the  Papist  outcry  against 
Freemasonry. 

The  old  tract  to  which  I  have  alluded  as  preserved  in 
the  Bodleian,  and  of  which  an  excellent  facsimile,  edited 
by  the  librarian,  Mr.  E.  B.  Nicholson,  can  be  bought  for 
one  shilling,  is  entitled  :  "  Ordine  delta  solenissima  proces- 
sione  fatta  del  Sommo  Pontefice  nelV  A  Ima  citta  di  Roma, 
per  la  felicissima  nova  delta  destruitione  delta  setta  ugonotana,'" 
that  is,  "  The  order  of  the  solemn  procession  held  by  the 
Supreme  Pontiff  in  the  city  of  Rome  to  commemorate  the 
most  happy  news  of  the  destruction  of  the  Huguenot 
sect."     The  Pope  and  his  Cardinals  began  the  solemnities, 


JEAN  CALAS.  87 


SO  we  read,  with  "  Un  hellissimo  Te  Deiim  laiidamns  da 
excellentissimi  musici,"  and  the  tract  was  printed  on  the 
very  day  of  the  celebration,  September  8th,  1572,  by  the 
Impressori  Camerali,  that  is,  at  the  Pope's  private  press. 
The  massacre  had  taken  place  on  August  24th,  sixteen 
days  before. 

In  spite  of  the  proud  boast  of  Rome  that  she  remains 
ever  the  same.  Englishmen  had  in  the  last  fifty  years 
begun  to  think  that  she  had  accommodated  herself  a  little 
to  the  modern  conceptions  of  tolerance  and  civil  liberty. 
In  the  Dreyfus  affair,  however,  she  has  shown  herself  just 
as  full  of  rancour,  just  as  hostile  to  modern  ideas,  just  as 
ready  to  oppress  and  proscribe  Jews  and  Protestants  as 
ever  she  was.  Not  a  word  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  famous 
tract  on  Vaticanism  of  which  she  is  not  now,  a  whole 
generation  after  it  appeared,  anxious  to  exemplify  the 
truth. 

The  situation  in  France  is  summed  up  in  the  following 
letter,  written  in  view  of  an  article,  entitled  "  A  Clerical 
Crusade,"  published  in  the  February  number  of  this 
Review.  Its  writer  is  one  of  the  most  spiritually-minded 
of  French  religious  writers.  His  books  are  in  the 
liands  of  every  cultivated  Catholic  all  over  Europe  and 
America,  and  his  monographs  never  fail  to  arouse  the 
enthusiasm  of  our  own  High  Church  journals.  It  is  as 
follows  :  — 

"  Lorsque  I'infaillibilite  du  pape  fut  proclame  il  se  trouva  hiiit  ^veques 
fran^ais  pour  s'y  opposer.  Aujourd  hui  il  ne  n'en  est  pas  trouv6  un  seul 
pour  Clever  la  voix  et  dire  une  parole  de  paix.  La  liaine  devemie  le 
thermometre  de  la  piet6,  voila  le  spectacle  que  nous  reservait  lY-glise  de 
home  pour  la  fin  du  19""^  siecle. 


88  JEAN   CALAS. 


"  II  y  a  la  plus  qu'un  fait  ordinaire.  C'est  une  maniere  de  miracle,  que 
jamais  les  adversaires  les  plus  acharnes  de  cette  eglise  n'auraient  ose 
s'imaginer. 

"  Je  vous  suis  tres  reconnaissant  comme  Frangais  et  comme  Chretien 
d'avoir  appele  I'attention  du  public  qui  reflechit  sur  le  fond  de  la  arise  qui 
nous  tourmente. 

"  When  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  was  proclaimed  there  were  found 
eight  French  bishops  to  oppose  it.  To-day  there  has  not  been  found  a 
single  one  to  raise  his  voice  and  speak  a  word  of  peace.  Hatred  become 
the  thermometer  of  piety,  such  is  the  spectacle  which  the  Church  of  Rome 
had  in  store  for  us  for  the  close  of  the  igth  century. 

"  This  is  no  common  fact.  It  is  a  sort  of  miracle,  of  which  the  bitterest 
enemies  of  the  Church  would  never  have  dared  to  dream. 

"  I  am  very  grateful  to  you  as  a  Frenchman  and  as  a  Christian  for  having 
drawn  the  attention  of  the  public  which  reflects  to  the  real  nature  of  the 
crisis  which  torments  us." 

In  the  last  century  it  was  only  through  the  influence  of 
Voltaire  and  of  the  Intellectuals  whom  he  represented  that 
the  wrongs  of  the  Calas  family  were  redressed.  It  is  the 
same  class  that  has  to-day,  after  one  of  the  most  honour- 
able struggles  ever  beheld  in  history,  succeeded  in  lifting 
off  the  neck  of  France  the  millstone  of  guilt  which  Jesuitry 
and  militarism  had  fastened  there.  But  they  would  have 
found  the  task  impossible  if  the  French  did  not  retain,  as 
a  legacy  from  their  Revolution,  a  large  measure  both  of 
liberty  of  speech  and  of  emancipation  of  the  male  con- 
science from  the  thraldom  of  priest  and  confessional. 
The  end  for  which  the  French  Jesuits  have  toiled  unceas- 
ingly since  1870  has  been  to  exploit  in  their  own  interest 
the  2eal  of  their  countrymen  for  a  renovated  army.  They 
have  aspired  to  govern  the  army  through  its  corps  of 
higher  officers,  and  through  a  Jesuitized  army  to  govern 
France.     They  have  failed  ;  for  we  cannot  suppose  that 


JEAN   CALAS.  89 


the  officers  at  Rennes,  who  will  in  a  few  days  retry  Dreyfus 
on  the  charge  of  betraying  the  documents  enumerated  in 
the  bordereau,  will  follow  M.  Renauld's  counsel,  and,  in 
the  teeth  of  all  the  evidence,  condemn  him  afresh  on  the 
strength  of  a  conviction  intinie.  If  they  do,  France  will 
find  herself  at  a  lower  level  than  she  ever  touched  under 
the  ancien  regime,  for  under  that  Calas'  memory  was  at 
least  rehabilitated,  even  if  it  was  too  late  to  repair  the 
crimes  of  fanaticism. 

In  the  coming  century,  the  position  of  France  and 
Belgium  and  Italy  among  the  civilized  States,  and  the 
amount  of  good  work,  moral  and  intellectual,  they  will  be 
able  to  achieve,  the  measure  of  their  civilization,  will 
depend  upon  how  far  the  sleepless  fanaticism,  intolerance, 
and  intrigues  of  the  ultramontane  Church  can  be  counter- 
worked and  crushed. 

It  is  a  proof,  were  any  needed,  of  Captain  Dreyfus' 
magnanimity  that  he  has  been  the  last  man  in  the  world 
to  realize  or  even  suspect  the  true  nature  of  the  forces 
which  from  the  first  were  arrayed  against  him.  Up  to 
the  very  end  he  has  supposed  that  he  was  the  victim  of  a 
judicial  error,  has  believed  in  the  good  faith  of  those  who 
condemned  him,  in  the  loyalty  of  such  men  as  Mercier, 
Felix  Faurc,  and  Boisdeffre.  The  latter,  if  the  minis- 
trations of  the  Pere  du  Lac  have  left  in  him  any  lingering 
relic  of  a  human  conscience,  must  feel  himself  seared  as 
with  a  hot  iron  when  he  reads  that  all  through  the  last 
year  of  his  agony  of  suspense  on  the  Devil's  Island  the 
victim  supposed  that  it  was  to  him  that  he  owed  the 
promised  revision  of  his  case,  that  he  even  wished  to  send 
him  a  telegram  at  Cape  Verde  when  at  last  he  was  on  his 


90  JEAN   CALAS. 


way  home,  to  thank  him  for  the  success  of  his  efforts  in 
behalf  of  his  innocence.  It  had  to  be  left  to  Maitres 
Demange  and  Labori  to  disillusion  him,  to  recount  to 
him  all  the  dreadful  details,  the  conspiracy  of  his  own 
comrades,  the  mediaeval  hatreds  ever  smouldering  on  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Catholics,  and  now  fanned  into  a  flame 
by  their  religious  Press.  It  needed  courage  to  broach  the 
truth  to  him  ;  it  was  an  effort  to  convince  him.  They 
knew  that  at  last  he  understood,  when  he  exclaimed  of 
the  judges,  who  gave  ear  to  forged  evidence  which  they 
gave  him  no  chance  to  refute,  "  They  were  not  judges. 
They  were  assassins,"  and  added  these  memorable  words, 
"  Henceforth  I  shall  live  for  the  weak,  for  the  oppressed, 
for  the  unhappy." 


SWORD    AND    CASSOCK. 


(October,  1899.) 

ERINDE  AC  SI  CADAVER — "Act  as  though  you 
were  a  corpse."  Such  is  the  maxim  in  which 
Ignatius  Loyola  summed  up  the  intended  re- 
sults of  his  new  method  of  disciplining  the  individual  soul, 
and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  five  French  officers,  who 
in  wanton  defiance  of  the  evidence,  of  their  oaths,  and 
of  humanity  at  large,  have  just  recondemned  an  innocent 
comrade  to  the  galleys,  do  not  faithfully  reflect  the  spirit 
of  their  Jesuit  instructors.  The  gist  of  their  method  may 
be  gathered  from  the  following  passage  of  the  Spiriiiial 
Exercises  of  Loyola  : — 

"  Rule  13.  Lastly,  that  we  may  ourselves  be  altogether  of  one  mind 
with  and  in  conformity  with  the  Catholic  Church,  in  case  she  shall  have 
defined  as  being  black  that  which  to  our  eyes  appears  white,  we  are  in  duty 
bound  to  at  once  pronounce  it  black." 

And  this  from  the  "  Letter  on  Obedience  "  : — 

"  You  shall  diligently  beware  of  at  any  time  endeavouring  to  twist  aside 
unto  your  own  the  will  of  your  Superior.  His  will  you  ought  to  regard  as 
the  will  of  God.  Such  an  endeavour  would  be  not  to  conform  your  will  to 
the  divine,  but  to  control  the  divine  by  the  standard  of  your  own  will, 
thereby  inverting  the  order  of  that  divine  wisdom.  How  great  in  truth  is 
the  error  of  those  who,  blinded  by  self-love,  are  led  to  esteem  themselves 


92  SWORD   AND   CASSOCK. 

obedient  when  they  have  by  some  means  or  other  brought  round  their 
Superior  to  what  they  wish  themselves.  .  .  . 

"  He  that  would  wholly  immolate  himself  to  God  must  offer  not  his 
will  alone,  but  also  his  intelligence — that  is  the  third  and  highest  grade  of 
obedience;  so  that  he  not  only  wills  his  Superior's  will,  but  feels  as  he 
feels,  and  submits  to  his  judgment  his  own,  so  far  as  a  devout  will  can 
bend  the  understanding  to  itself.  .  .  . 

"  I  ought  to  desire  to  be  ruled  by  a  Superior  who  endeavours  to  subju- 
gate my  judgment  and  subdue  my  understanding.  .  .  .  When  it  seems  to 
me  that  I  am  commanded  by  my  Superior  to  do  a  thing  against  which 
my  conscience  revolts  as  sinful,  and  my  Superior  judges  otherwise,  it  is  my 
duty  to  yield  my  doubts  to  him,  unless  I  am  otherwise  constrained  by 
evident  reasons." 

But  where  blind  and  dumb  obedience  is  put  first  and 
the  voice  of  conscience  second,  the  latter  has,  inside  an 
army  or  monastic  order,  small  chance  of  being  heard: — 

"  I  ought  not  to  be  my  own,  but  His  who  created  me,  and  his,  too,  by 
whose  means  God  governs  me,  yielding  myself  to  be  moulded  in  his  hands 
like  so  much  wax.  ...  I  ought  to  be  like  a  corpse,  which  has  neither  will 
nor  understanding ;  or  like  a  small  crucifix,  which  is  turned  about  at  the 
will  of  him  that  holds  it  ;  or  like  a  staff  in  the  hands  of  an  old  man,  who 
uses  it  as  may  best  assist  or  please  him." 

It  is  true  that  in  a  solitary  passage  Loyola  seeks  to  fix 
a  moral  limit  to  the  carrying  out  of  his  system  : — "  In  all 
things,"  he  says,  "  except  sin,  I  ought  to  do  the  will  of 
my  Superior,  and  not  my  own."  But  this  sentence  is 
only  read  in  the  introduction  to  his  treatise,  where  he 
wishes  not  to  shock  the  novice  who  has  just  taken  up  his 
book.  Such  a  passage  hardly  breaks  the  monotony  of  the 
discipline,  and  certainly  cannot  change  its  general  aim 
and  tendency,  which  is,  as  it  were,  to  eradicate  and  scoop 
out    the    conscience   of    the    individual    man,    leaving   a 


SWORD   AND   CASSOCK.  93 

vacuum  into  which  the  dictates,  good  or  evil,  of  the 
hierarchical  Superior,  accepted  blindly  and  without  criti- 
cism as  Divine,  are  to  be  thrust.  Esprit  de  corps  (there  is 
no  English  phrase)  is  to  override  all  distinctions  of  right 
and  wrong.  Men  are  to  be  broken  in  exactly  as  if  they 
were  colts.  They  must,  before  all  things,  achieve  that 
highest  grade  of  obedience,  which  Loyola  defines  as  the 
"  sacrifice  of  the  intellect."  They  must  learn,  that  is,  not 
only  to  will  as  the  Superior  wills,  but  to  will  to  judge  of 
a  situation  as  he  judges.  They  must  make  his  wish  their 
own,  and  let  that  wish  be  father  of  their  thoughts.  Least 
of  all  must  they  claim  a  right  of  private  judgment,  but 
must,  whenever  authority  has  proclaimed  its  mandate, 
treat  all  secret  misgivings  of  the  conscience  as  the  voice 
of  the  Tempter.  There  is  to  be  but  a  single  will  and 
conscience  pervading  the  Order,  that  of  its  General.  Its 
members  shall  have  none  of  their  own. 

Without  any  wish,  therefore,  to  excuse  the  action  of 
these  five  military  judges,  we  may  yet  understand  it.  It 
is  the  result  of  what  we  may  call  the  Jesuit  mentality, 
which  is  exclusive  of  genuine — that  is,  individual — moral 
responsibility.  Certain  savage  races  squeeze  the  heads  of 
their  infants  so  that  their  skulls  assume  a  particular 
abnormal  shape,  which  is  never  lost  all  through  life.  The 
same  result  is  attained  in  the  moral  and  intellectual 
sphere  by  Jesuit  training ;  and  as  in  France  it  is  partic- 
ularly the  priests  and  the  officers  who  fall  under  this 
influence,  they  are  most  apt  to  display  the  moral  deformity 
which  results.  And  as  the  savage  races  to  which  we  have 
alluded  regard  their  tortured  skulls  as  handsome  and 
fashionable,  so  French  monks  and  officers  reckon  to  be 


94  SWORD   AND    CASSOCK. 

their  peculiar  glory  that  which  the  rest  of  the  world  sees 
to  be  ugly  and  infamous.  This  explains  why  Esterhazy, 
the  friend  of  Drumont,  as  well  as  traitor,  brothel-keeper, 
and  mercenary  of  the  Pope  of  Rome,  is  "the  man"  of 
the  French  General  Staff,  and  was  lately  acclaimed  as  the 
incarnation  of  military  honour  :  also  why  Drumont,  the 
friend  of  Esterhazy,  as  well  as  arch-liar,  blackmailer,  and 
moral  assassin  is  "  the  man  "  of  the  French  Church,  its 
most  trusted  adviser  and  henchman. 

M.  Carriere,  who  conducted  the  prosecution  of  Dreyfus, 
betrayed,  in  his  closing  appeal  to  the  Rennes  Court- 
Martial,  a  shrewd  appreciation  of  the  Jesuit  mentality  of 
at  least  five  out  of  the  seven  officers  who  composed  it. 
There  they  sat,  the  crucifix  suspended  over  their  heads, 
on  which  they  had  sworn  to  judge  according  to  the 
evidence  without  hatred  and  without  fear.  On  the  one 
side  were  ranged  the  witnesses  for  the  truth,  Picquart, 
who  has  already  endured  over  a  year's  imprisonment  for 
its  sake,  Freystatter,  the  only  one  of  the  1894  judges  who 
has  a  conscience  along  with  courage  to  tell  the  truth, 
Trarieux,  Forzinetti,  Lamothe,  Sebert,  Cordier,  Hartmann, 
Ducros,  and  a  handful  of  other  brave  men.  On  the  other 
side  the  Generals  and  five  Ministers  of  War,  convicted  of 
fraud,  false-witness,  attempted  assassination,  of  complicity 
with  the  traitor  and  brothel-keeper.  Before  the  judges 
stood  the  victim  of  their  lies,  the  typical  martyr  of  our 
age,  the  modern  Prometheus  liberated  for  a  space  by  the 
fifty  highest  judges  of  his  land  from  his  rock  of  torture, 
spiritualized  by  suffering,  resolved  to  live  only  that  he  may 
at  last  win  justice.  These  five  officers  were  the  sub- 
ordinates of  the  guilty  Generals.     They  knew  the  truth. 


SWORD   AND   CASSOCK.  95 

and  knew  that  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world  were  turned 
upon  them.  They  had  either  to  acquit  or  else  enforce  the 
maxims  of  the  founder  of  the  Jesuit  Order.  And  Carriere 
knew  how  engrained  in  their  souls  was  the  doctrine  that 
you  should  do  anything,  dare  anything  for  your  hierarchical 
Superior.  So  he  did  not  shrink  from  the  vile  task  imposed 
upon  him.  The  last  words  with  which  he  overawed  the 
five  are  memorable  : — 

"  I  have  a  single  observation  to  make,  and  that  a  simple  one. 

"  You  have  heard  a  great  number  of  witnesses. 

"  I  must  ask  you  to  divide  them  in  your  thoughts  into  two  groups,  of 
which  the  one  asks  you  to  acquit  the  accused,  the  other  demands  of  you 
his  condemnation. 

"  It  will  be  your  duty  to  weigh  these  two  groups  and  to  give  to  each  the  moral 
importance  which  you  ought  to  attribute  to  it ;  and  you  will  give  your  decision 
in  favour  of  the  one  which  influences  in  its  favour  the  scales  of  your 
justice." 

The  judges  listened  to  this  appeal,  and  five  of  them 
gave  their  verdict — against  their  knowledge  of  the  facts, 
against  the  evidence,  in  favour  of  the  guilty  Generals,  who 
were,  after  all,  their  official  superiors. 

The  Court- Martial  of  1894  was  opened  five  years  ago 
with  these  significant  words  from  the  lips  of  its  President, 
Colonel  Maurel,  addressed  to  Dreyfus'  counsel,  Maitre 
Demange : — 

"  Silence !  There  are  other  interests  at  stake  than 
those  merely  of  the  accusation  and  defence." 

"  Other  interests  ?  "  Yes,  those  of  the  higher  officers, 
Boisdeffre  and  Henry,  whose  guilt  and  treachery  and  pecula- 
tions the  unpopular  Jew  was  singled  out  to  expiate.  The 
Court-  Martial  of  Rennes  in  1899  closed  with  a  similar  appeal. 


96  SWORD  AND   CASSOCK. 

It  is  on  record  that  the  Court-Martial  of  1894  would 
not  and  could  not  condemn  on  the  bordereau  alone.  They 
were  not  satisfied  that  Dreyfus  wrote  it ;  and  it  needed 
the  perfervid  perjury  of  Henry  and  the  wilful  forgeries  and 
falsifications  of  Mercier's  secret  dossier  to  overcome  their 
scruples.  They  had  no  knowledge  that  the  handwriting 
was  that  of  Esterhazy,  or  they  would  have  acquitted 
Dreyfus.  In  1899  every  doubt  which  hung  about  the  case 
is  dissipated.  The  real  traitor  has  been  recognized, 
though  acquitted  to  order  eighteen  months  before.  He 
has  admitted  his  guilt  before  all  the  world.  Nevertheless, 
the  five  judges  of  1899  condemn  Dreyfus  afresh  and 
mechanically  on  the  bordereau,  and  on  it  alone.  The 
three  Court-Martials  of  1894,  1898,  and  1899  thus  form  a 
crescendo  of  crime,  a  series  of  three  waves,  of  which  the 
last  is,  according  to  the  proverb,  the  greatest ;  what  an 
ancient  Greek  would  call  the  triknmia  of  infamy. 

And  it  cannot  any  longer  be  alleged  that  the  guilt  is 
only  that  of  a  few  officers,  as  I  for  long  strove  to  main- 
tain, and  as  Colonel  Picquart  once  alleged,  though  I  think 
he  would  now  no  longer  do  so.  In  the  years  1898  and 
1899  at  least  seven  military  courts  have  been  called 
together  to  condemn  Dreyfus,  to  acquit  Esterhazy,  to 
eject  Picquart  from  the  active  army,  similarly  to  eject 
Joseph  Reinach  from  the  army  of  reserve,  to  decide  that 
Esterhazy,  the  brothel-keeper,  adulterer,  and  swindler  of 
his  kith  and  kin,  had  in  no  way  tarnished  his  military 
honour,  to  acquit  Colonel  du  Paty  de  Clam,  to  recondemn 
Dreyfus.  Some  fifty  French  officers  have  sat  as  judges  in 
these  courts.  I  will  not  take  into  account  the  Ravarys, 
the  Dj  Pellieux,  the    D'Ormeschevilles,  the   Taverniers, 


SWORD  AND   CASSOCK.  97 

the  Carrieres,  who  assisted  and  guided  their  deliberations, 
for  they  may  have  been  selected  for  their  vile  tasks  by  the 
military  authorities  because  their  vileness  was  tried  and 
ascertained  beforehand.  But  these  fifty  odd  military 
judges  were  chosen  at  random  from  the  entire  corps  of 
officers  according  to  panels  fixed  long  beforehand.  Of 
them  three  only  have  been  found  to  possess  conscience  or 
honour,  intelligence,  or  a  sense  of  truth  and  justice. 
Three  alone  are  not  a  disgrace  to  humanity,  three  alone 
not  cannibals,  ready  at  the  word  of  command  to  offer 
human  sacrifices  on  the  altar  of  shame.  Captain  Frey- 
statter  is  one  of  them.  The  names  of  the  two  who  did 
their  duty  at  Rennes  have  not  transpired,  though  Captain 
Beauvais  is  thought  to  have  been  one. 

It  was  the  spectacle  of  the  mental  and  moral  degradation 
of  the  average  French  Officer  which  from  the  first  forbade 
us  to  expect  much  from  the  tribunal  of  Colonel  Jouaust. 
All  knew  that  one  of  its  members  had  alread}'  offered 
incense  to  the  memory  of  the  forger  Henry  by  subscribing 
to  the  fund  raised  in  his  honour.  The  insolent  request  of 
the  General  in  command  of  the  Rennes  garrison,  in  the 
name  of  his  officers,  to  the  editor  of  the  local  Liberal 
journal  VAvenir  de  Rennes,  "not  to  send  his  paper  any 
more  to  the  military  club,"  was  an  earnest  of  what  was  to 
follow.  It  was  a  final  demonstration  to  the  world's  Press 
that  French  officers  are  resolved  to  feed  their  minds  only 
on  the  lies  of  Drumont's  Libre  Parole,  of  the  Eclair,  the 
Soir,  Judet's  Petit  Journal,  and  Rochefort's  Intransigeant. 
I  knew  how  bold  and  difficult  a  task  it  is  to  try  to  snatch 
away  from  a  bird  of  prey  the  quarry  into  which  it  has  once 
set  its  talons.     Therefore  I  despaired  of  the  second  Court- 

c 


gS  SWORD   AND    CASSOCK. 

Martial,  much  as  I  admired  the  quixotism  shown  by 
Dreyfus'  friends  and  family  in  petitioning  the  Court  of 
Cassation,  not  simply  to  annul  the  verdict  of  1894,  but  to 
send  the  victim  once  more  before  his  peers,  in  order  that 
by  those  who  had  first  condemned  him  he  might  be  finally 
acquitted.  And  now  there  is  left  faint  hope  of  any 
redress.  In  order  to  secure  a  fresh  appeal  to  the  Court 
of  Cassation  the  champions  of  innocence  must  be  able  to 
allege  a  new  fact  unknown  to  this  last  Court-Martial. 
But  there  was  nothing  that  was  unknown  to  its  members. 
All  the  facts  stared  them  in  the  face ;  they  knew  the  whole 
truth,  and  chose  to  flout  it.  The  numerous  irregularities 
of  the  trial  might  be  used  to  upset  it,  if  it  were  not  in 
France.  The  five  have,  by  the  very  cynicism  of  their 
procedure,  closed  every  avenue  of  judicial  remedy. 

As  the  Constitution  permits  it.  President  Loubet  may 
grant  a  free  pardon,*  for  he  has  all  along  been  convinced 
of  Dreyfus'  innocence.  But  as  to  anythmg  further,  even 
he  seems  to  be  cowed  by  the  verdict,  no  less  than  his 
Ministers,  Gallifet  and  Waldeck-Rousseau.  They  had 
signed  a  writ  for  the  arrest  of  the  criminal  Mercier  several 
days  before  the  conclusion  of  this  last  trial,  and  it  was 
already  in  the  hands  of  the  Rennes  police.  Yet  it  has  not 
been  served,  and  Mercier  is  not  arrested,  though  he  only 
left  that  city  on  the  Monday  after  the  trial.  It  is  evident 
that  his  intention  in  staying  there  was  to  dare  the  Govern- 
ment to  arrest  him,  and  they  have  flinched  from  doing  their 
duty.  Cowardice  and  impotence  beset  almost  all  the 
fugitive  Ministries  of  the  third  Republic.  A  free  pardon, 
alone,  would  only  be  a  fresh  insult  to  justice  and  a  fresh 

*  Since  this  was  written  the  pardon  has  been  granted. 


SWORD   AND    CASSOCK.  99 

stain  on  France,   unless  the  President    expressly  alleged 
the  prisoner's  innocence  as  his  reason  for  granting  it. 

The  present  French  Ministry  is  not  likely  to  be 
permanent.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  must  shortly 
reassemble,  and  its  first  act  will  be  to  get  rid  of  the  motley 
incongruous  Cabinet,  which  shuns  its  responsibility,  and 
has  not  the  courage  even  to  arrest  M.  Guerin  in  his 
extemporized  fortress  in  the  Rue  Chabrol.  The  baser 
sort  of  Republicans,  who  only  want  an  excuse  for  dropping 
the  matter,  have  already  begun  to  proclaim  the  sanctity  of 
this  new  chose  jiigee,  and  Meline  is  likely  to  be  restored 
to  power  in  order  to  protect  it,  as  for  over  two  years  he 
protected  the  crime  of  1894.  No  French  Premier  has 
nowadays  a  chance  of  retaining  power  for  more  than  three 
months,  unless  he  is  employed  with  the  aid  of  the  Comte 
de  Mun  and  the  clericals,  in  hushing  up  a  great  crime. 
And  when  M.  Meline  comes  back,  the  Generals  will 
insist  on  the  resignation  of  M.  Loubet,  who  has  given  them 
deep  offence.  Their  unspeakable  instrument,  Cavaignac, 
will  probably  succeed  to  the  office  of  President,  and  the 
walls  of  forty  thousand  communes  will  be  placarded  afresh 
with  new  forgeries  destined  to  prove  to  the  French  peasant 
that  there  do  not  really  exist  even  the  extenuating  circum- 
stances for  Dreyfus'  crime  which  the  five,  recoiling  from 
their  own  guilt,  have  alleged  to  exist.  Fresh  forgeries, 
too,  are  badly  needed  to  counteract  the  moral  eflfect 
produced  by  the  dissent  of  two  honest  judges  from  the 
iniquity  of  the  five.  The  first  action  of  the  Generals,  so 
soon  as  they  get  another  Minister  of  War,  will  be  to 
Court-Martial  and  condemn  these  two  judges  and  wreak 
their  full  vengeance  upon  Picquart.     In  doing  this  they 


100  SWORD  AND   CASSOCK. 

will  have  the  approval  of  such  austere  Republicans  as 
Freycinet,  Ribot,  Dupuy,  and  will  win  the  applause  of 
M.  de  Mun  and  the  French  hierarchy.  A  military 
oligarchy,  pitiless  and  shameless,  will  control  France  as 
before.  Yet,  perhaps,  not  openly,  for  it  can  always  make 
sure  of  nominal  Republicans  to  do  all  it  wants. 

The  only  Party  which  is  at  all  likely  to  protest  against 
this  policy  of  "  appeasement  and  reconciliation,"  which 
the  knock-kneed  Republicans  are  already  advocating,  are 
the  Socialists  led  by  Jaures — who,  however,  is  not  in 
the  Chamber — and  the  few  old  Radicals  who  follow 
Clemenceau.  They  may  be  able  to  prevent  the  general 
proscription  of  Dreyfusards  which  Cavaignac  had  planned 
and  prepared  just  before  he  fell  from  office  in  the  autumn 
of  last  year,  and  which  will  soon  be  advocated  afresh  ;  but 
they  will  not  be  able  to  avoid  the  condemnation,  by 
packed  juries  of  Nationalists,  of  Yves  Guyot,  of  Joseph 
Reinach,  and  of  Zola — of  the  two  former  as  a  peace- 
offering  to  the  manes  of  the  patriotic  forger  Henry,  of  the 
latter  as  an  act  of  homage  to  the  traitor  Esterhazy. 

There  are  at  present  60  Socialists  in  the  Chamber ;  57 
Radical  Socialists  who  are  practically  of  the  same  Party ; 
121  Radicals  who  may  be  relied  on  to  unite  with  the 
former  in  moments  of  danger  ;  226  Republicans,  few  of 
whom  can  be  trusted  to  oppose  the  officers,  and  lastly  100 
rallies  and  reactionaries,  professed  champions  of  Church 
and  Army  alike.  The  Socialists  are  really  stronger  in 
France  than  the  number  of  their  Deputies  would  lead  one 
to  suppose.  At  the  General  Election  of  May,  1898,  which 
was  fought  under  great  disadvantages,  because  Meline  and 
his  followers  rigged  the  election  as  much  as  they  could, 


SIVORD  AND   CASSOCK.  loi 

they  polled  1,402,000  votes  out  of  a  total  of  6,346,000 
cast — that  is  nearly  a  quarter.  This  was  an  increase  of 
their  strength  by  more  than  a  hundred  per  cent,  upon 
the  election  of  1893,  when  they  only  cast  598,000  votes. 
They  were  thus  the  only  Party  which  in  i8g8  gained 
ground  to  any  marked  extent. 

The  proved  cowardice  of  the  ordinary  Republican 
politician  being  what  it  is,  it  is  probable  that  the  Military 
Party  will  get  their  way.  The  one  danger  which  threatens 
them  would  also  be  far  from  advantageous  to  the  Dreyfu- 
sards ;  it  is  that  of  violence  in  the  streets,  rioting  and 
incendiarism.  For  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  Latin 
countries  the  Roman  superstition  has  a  peculiar  faculty  of 
generating  out  of  its  own  bosom  antagonists  hardly  less 
dangerous  to  society  than  the  Jesuits,  feather-headed 
fanatics  whose  ideal  is  anarchy  and  indecency,  and  their 
method  of  attaining  it  the  wrecking  of  churches  and  the 
destruction  of  property.  This  Party,  along  with  the  Black 
Internationals  or  Jesuits,  formed  the  strength  of  General 
Boulanger's  movement.  In  it  they  joined  hands  to  wreck 
a  Republic  which  combined  public  order  with  liberalism 
and  toleration.  Drumont  has  tried  to  reunite  the  broken 
segments  of  this  party,  and  started  the  Anti-Semitic  cry 
because  the  Jews  were  hated  by  the  Anarchists  as  capital- 
ists, and  by  the  Jesuits  on  religious  or  rather  superstitious 
grounds.  The  Anarchists,  however,  have  after  all  more 
sense  of  justice  and  principle  than  the  Jesuits;  the  foul 
wrong  done  to  Dreyfus  has  stirred  their  indignation,  and 
they  will  not  again  join  forces  with  the  Jesuits  even  to 
overthrow  the  State. 

At  the  time  of  the  election  in  May,  1898,  Dreyfus  had 

^.IHKARY 

untvv:p?tty  01^  caufor 


r.   •    vrrn  A        nADDAUA 


I02  SWORD  AND   CASSOCK. 

few  supporters  among  the  candidates,  and  the  merits 
of  his  cause  were  unknown  among  the  masses.  The 
artisans  were  listless,  or  regarded  the  case  as  a  mere 
internal  squabble  among  the  capitalists.  Consequently, 
Jaures  and  Joseph  Reinach,  who  alone  tried  to  ventilate 
the  grievance,  lost  their  seats.  The  exposure  of  Henry's 
forgery  woke  up  a  certain  number  of  artisans.  Pressense, 
Jaures,  and  other  eloquent  champions  of  right,  have,  often 
at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  addressed  meetings  all  over 
France.  The  trials  of  Urbain  Gohier  and  of  Picquart 
called  attention  to  the  misdoings  of  the  General  Staff;  and 
this  last  supreme  deed  of  open  and  cynical  injustice  has,  let 
us  try  and  hope,  lit  a  flame  of  indignation  which  will  not 
easily  be  extinguished.  Fresh  prosecutions  of  Dreyfusards 
and  the  attempts  which  will  be  made  to  silence  them,  will 
only  spread  the  fire.  It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
two  out  of  five  of  the  conscripts  called  up  year  by  year 
take  with  them  into  the  barracks  the  opinions  they  have 
picked  up  in  the  Socialist  clubs  and  cafes  of  their  qtiartier. 
They  have  learned,  especially  in  the  last  two  years,  to  look 
upon  the  officer  as  a  monster  of  injustice  and  arbitrary 
brutality.  This  before  they  enter  the  army.  In  two  or 
three  years'  time  they  return  to  their  homes  with  all  their 
fiercest  prejudices  verified  and  strengthened.  The  hatred 
of  the  General  Staff  and  of  the  whole  corps  of  officers  is  at 
this  moment  gathering  force  in  the  great  cities  with  the 
rapidity  of  a  snowball,  and  may  at  any  moment  lead  to 
a  dangerous  explosion. 

In  an  open  letter  which  I  wrote  in  June  of  last  year  to 
M.  Joseph  Reinach,  on  the  occasion  of  his  being  expelled 
from  the  territorial  army  for  having  translated  paragraphs 


SWORD   AND   CASSOCK.  103 

of  my  first  article  in  this  Review,  I  ventured  to  assert  my 
confidence  in  the  traditions  of  honour  and  fair  play  which 
I  imagined  to  prevail  in  the  French  army  as  in  our  own. 
An  unknown  correspondent — one  of  many  such — at  once 
wrote  to  me  from  the  Ardeche  to  thank  me  for  my 
denunciation  of  Esterhazy,  yet  to  blame  me  for  speaking 
of  the  officers  as  I  had  done. 

"  Je  vous  demande,"  he  wrote,  "  de  ne  plus  croire  une  seconde  aux 
qualites  de  justice  et  de  courage,  qu'auraient  selon  vous,  les  Laubardemont 
de  rfitat-Major,  ignare,  podagre,  gateux,  que  la  Republique  a  la  bonheur 
de  posseiier  pour  la  conduire  a  la  boucherie.  Jamais,  au  grand  jamais, 
les  militaires  ont  eu  un  dix  milliardeme  d'atome  de  justice  et  de  courage. 
Ces  qualites,  ces  vertus  sont  incompatibles  avec  leur  etat.  C'est  un  metier 
de  liche,  d'assassin  et  de  voleur  ;  d'animal  en  rut,  de  tigre."  * 

When  the  same  correspondent  goes  on  to  affirm  that 
French  Court-Martials  are  "tribunaux  de  sang  et  d'imbec- 
illite,"  one  is  certainly  disposed  to  agree  with  him.  Every 
artisan  knows  that  his  son  during  his  term  of  service  is  at 
the  mercy  of  such  tribunals,  able  to  imprison  and  murder 
at  will.  The  Generals  have  provided  him  during  the  last 
two  years  with  a  series  of  object  lessons.  Instead  of 
furthering  the  cause  of  discipline  by  their  guilty  machina- 
tions, they  have  hopelessly  ruined  it ;  and  it  cannot  be 
long  before  some  great  and  terrible  upheaval  occurs  to 
startle  the  already  scandalized  world. 

The  Generals  have,  no  doubt,  an  inkling  of  the  hatred 

•  "  I  would  ask  you  not  to  believe  for  one  ninmenl  in  the  qualities  of  justice  and 
courage  which  you  attribute  to  the  Laubardemonts  of  the  General  Staff.  It  is 
ignorant,  gouty,  rotten,  and  under  it  France's  only  luck  will  le  to  he  led  to 
butchery.  Never,  never  have  the  swashbucklers  had  a  tenth  millionth  atom  of 
justice  and  courage.  These  qualities,  these  virtues,  consort  not  with  their  con- 
dition. Their  profession  is  that  of  the  coward,  assassin,  and  thief;  of  the  rutting 
animal,  of  the  tiger." 


I04  SWORD   AND   CASSOCK. 

which  at  least  two  out  of  every  five  privates  feel  for  their 
officers.  If  it  were  not  so,  they  would  have  long  ago  effected 
a  coup  d'etat.  To  do  it  successfully,  they  must  rely  on  their 
men  to  shoot  down  the  mob  rather  than  fraternize  with  it. 
In  this  respect  the  Merciers  and  Rogets  of  to-day  are  at  a 
disadvantage  as  compared  with  Louis  Napoleon,  who  had 
at  his  command  regiments  of  veterans  dissociated  by  long 
terms  of  service  from  the  crowd,  callous  to  its  sufferings, 
and  altogether  out  of  sympathy  therewith.  They  are  as 
much  afraid  of  their  men  as  the  opportunist  politicians  are 
afraid  of  them,  and  as  long  as  they  can  get  time-serving 
Ministers  to  grovel  before  them,  they  will  acquiesce,  and 
gladly,  in  the  show  of  constitutional  government.  But  it 
cannot  last  for  ever.  Thousands  of  recruits  during  the 
last  eighteen  months  have  written  letters  every  week  to 
persons  I  could  name  filled  with  such  sentiments  as  those 
which  I  transcribed  above.  They  are  all  "enraged" 
Dreyfusards,  and  are  not — most  of  them — such  cowards  as 
the  guilty  Generals  and  the  subservient  politicians,  who 
cower  at  the  sight  of  the  gilt  braid  and  ostrich  plumes. 

Lionel  Decle  is  one  who  has  done  his  three  years'  service 
in  the  French  cavalry,  and  has  detailed  his  experiences  in 
a  graphic  narrative  entitled.  Trooper  3809,  published  this 
year  in  English  by  Mr.  Heinemann.  He  knows  his 
country's  army,  so  to  speak,  inside  out,  and  his  conclusion 
(Preface,  page  x.)  is  that  the  "  Dreyfus  case  is,  unfortunately, 
but  a  greatly  magnified  example  of  what  daily  happens 
throughout  the  French  army."  And  on  page  240  he  illus- 
trates in  an  amusing  little  history  the  extent  to  which  it  is 
a  principle  of  French  discipline  that  you  should  perjure 
yourself  to  order.     A  Sergeant  Vaillant  had  been  accused 


SWORD   AND   CASSOCK.  105 

by  a  Captain  Hermann  of  stealing  a  suit  of  M.  Decle's, 
whereas  the  latter  had  freely  lent  them  to  him. 

"  If  you  want,"  said  the  Captain  to  Private  Decle,  "  to  avoid  the  serious 
consequence  of  your  act,  I  am  prepared  to  overlook  it,  provided  that  you 
swear  that  Sergeant-Major  Vaillant  has  stolen  your  clothes." 

"  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  do  so,  sir,"  I  replied,  "as  that  would  be  committing 
perjury.  .  .  ." 

'•  What !  "  exclaimed  the  Gendarme,  evidently  much  astonished,  "  how 
can  you  say  that  Sergeant-Major  Vaillant  did  not  steal  a  suit  of  clothes 
from  you  when  your  captain  says  he  did  ?  " 

M.  Decle's  pages  teem  with  acts  of  injustice  which  it 
makes  your  blood  boil  to  read ;  yet  he  declares  that  the 
lot  of  a  trooper,  whose  higher  officers  are  gentlemen  of 
good  family,  is  much  better  than  that  of  an  infantryman, 
whose  officers  are  mostly  ex-corporals  and  sergeants  picked 
out  for  commissions  because  they  excelled  in  brutal  severity, 
injustice,  bullying  and  blackmailing. 

A  foreigner  cannot  visit  a  French  parade-ground  many 
times  without  witnessing  outbursts  of  ill-temper  on  the 
part  of  officers  altogether  unjustified.  One  such  I  will 
narrate  which  I  saw  myself  the  last  time  1  watched  soldiers 
being  trained.  It  was  at  Ajaccio,  on  the  afternoon  of 
January  22nd,  1894.*  Four  raw  recruits  were  told  to 
march  across  the  parade-ground.  They  had  evidently  only 
joined  the  ranks  the  day  before,  and  did  their  best,  but 
reached  the  further  side  a  little  out  of  touch  with  one 
another.  Instantly  a  smart  dandy  of  an  officer  stepped  up 
to  them  as  they  halted,  and  gave  the  right  file  a  slap  on  the 
face  that  made  him  reel,  lifted  his  foot  sharply  and  kicked 
the  next  man  in  the  groin  with  all  his  force,  then  gave  the 

*  I  relate  this  from  a  diary  written  at  tlie  time. 


io6  SWORD   AND    CASSOCK. 


third  a  blow  with  his  fist  in  the  stomach  that  doubled  him 
up.  That  seemed  to  exhaust  him,  and  turning  to  the  first 
man  he  snarled,  "  Ce  n'est  pas  que  tu  n'entends  pas  le  Frangais, 
mats  que  tu  es  malhonnete.''  I  then  heard  him  sentence  all 
four  to  several  days  in  the  cells.  The  recruits  stood  like 
statues,  but  I  turned  to  my  companion  and  said,  "  It 
should  need  a  temper  less  vindictive  than  these  Corsicans 
have,  to  make  any  one  of  those  four  shoot  that  fine  fellow 
at  the  first  opportunity." 

On  April  the  4th,  1871,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  Georges 
Darboy,  a  saintly  man,  who  had  been  arrested  by  the 
Communists  as  a  hostage,  was  shot  in  cold  blood  by  them 
withm  the  prison  of  La  Roquette.  The  President  of  the 
Conr  de  Cassation,  M.  Bonjean,  perished  with  him,  as  well 
as  several  lesser  personages.  This  outrage  thrilled  the 
civilized  world  with  horror,  and  somewhat  justified  the 
terrible  retribution  wreaked  by  General  Gallifet  upon  those 
who  committed  it.  Yet  it  was  not  nearly  so  foul  an 
outrage  as  that  which  has  been  perpetrated  in  the  case  of 
Captain  Dreyfus,  nor  half  so  cowardly.  It  was  done  by  a 
handful  of  civil  rebels  who  in  the  six  months'  siege  of  their 
city  had  endured  nameless  sufferings.  They  were  engaged 
at  the  moment  in  a  desperate  house-to-house  struggle  with 
the  advancing  Versailles  army.  Everyone  on  either  side 
was  roused  to  fury.  It  was  in  the  minds  of  all  the  citizens 
of  Paris  that  the  insane  ambition  of  an  empress,  who  was 
a  mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  Church  and  Jesuits,  had 
plunged  France  into  so  disastrous  a  war. 

At  Rennes,  where  France,  the  French  Army  and  the 
Catholic  Church  were  the  real  defendants,  and  were  on 
their   trial    at    the   bar   of  ecumenical  opinion,  no   such 


SWORD   AND   CASSOCK.  107 


extenuating  circumstances  can  be  alleged,  as  can  for  the 
Communists  of  1871.  It  is  a  time  of  profound  peace  ;  no 
enemy  threatens  France.  The  victim  is  known  to  be 
innocent.  His  innocence  indeed  is  the  chief  count  against 
him  ;  nay,  the  only  count,  his  Judaism  apart.  He  is  a 
tried  officer,  loyal  to  France  and  to  the  uniform  he  wears. 
He  has  already  undergone  nearly  five  years  of  unspeakable 
torture,  chained  to  a  torrid  rock  in  the  most  fever-stricken 
part  of  the  tropics.  His  health  is  ruined.  He  sits  there 
unmoved,  a  type  of  mart3rdom,  of  spiritual  dignity,  while 
his  old  companions  of  the  army  glibly  rattle  off  their 
perjuries  and  insults,  old  and  new,  against  him. 

It  is  something  that  the  whole  body  is  not  mortified ; 
and  the  Dreyfusards  may  be  truly  said  to  keep  the 
conscience  of  France.  They  form  a  splendid  minority, 
and,  we  hope,  may  be  found  yet  to  be  the  germ  of  a  national 
resurrection  from  the  grave  that  Jesuitry  has  dug.  They 
have  displayed  an  unflagging  enthusiasm  for  truth  and 
justice,  a  courage  in  the  midst  of  defeat,  a  capacity  of  self- 
sacrifice,  an  ardour,  a  burning  hatred  of  injustice,  a  love  of 
liberty,  an  intrepidity  amidst  the  howls  of  Anti-Semite 
mobs,  a  dignity  and  self-restraint  under  insult,  a  readiness 
to  take  their  lives  in  their  hands — a  complex  of  heroic 
virtues,  which  in  any  other  land  would  have  sufficed  for 
the  founding  of  a  new  religion,  for  the  constitution  of  a 
new  city,  of  an  ideal  State.  Let  us  pray  that  a  new  France 
may  arise  through  their  unselfish  efforts.  If  so,  Dreyfus 
will  not  have  suffered  in  vain.  It  is  they  alone  whose 
presence  in  a  tainted  capital  makes  one  hesitate  to  boycott 
the  coming  Exhibition.  The  apologue  of  Abraham  inter- 
ceding for  the  cities  of  the  plain  has  its  application  here  : 


io8  SWORD   AND    CASSOCK. 

"  Oh  let  not  the  Lord  be  angry,  and  I  will  speak  yet  but 
this  once :  peradventure  ten  shall  be  found  there.  And 
the  Lord  said :  I  will  not  destroy  it  for  the  ten's  sake." 
Assuredly,  unless  the  French  quickly  throw  off  the  incubus 
of  guilt  and  bring  forth  better  fruits,  they  will  some  day 
wake  up  and  find  a  big  hole  in  the  map  of  Europe  where 
formerly  the  name  of  France  was  written. 

Over  and  above  that  purification  of  the  feelings  which 
every  great  and  true  tragedy  produces  in  those  who  witness 
it,  there  is  another  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  Rennes 
Court-Martial,  especially  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  races.  We 
live  in  an  age  of  transition  and  uncertainty.  The  old 
landmarks  of  faith  have  shifted  somewhat,  and  a  large 
number  of  English  men  and  women  look  for  some  new 
rock  on  which  to  rest  their  faith.  The  Bible  sufficed  for 
our  forefathers,  but  for  the  more  cultivated  children  of 
the  Oxford  movement  it  suffices  no  more ;  and  although 
they  build  libraries  in  the  name  of  Dr.  Pusey,  this  old- 
fashioned  divine  would  feel  himself  dazed  and  lost  if 
he  entered  their  class-rooms  and  heard  the  convictions 
brusquely  thrown  aside  as  out  of  date  to  the  establish- 
ment of  which  he  devoted  a  life  of  scholarship  and 
study.  In  such  a  situation  the  elite  of  the  new 
Ritualistic  Party  has  looked  about  for  new  havens  in 
which  to  drop  anchor  and  ride  in  safety ;  and  the  Roman 
Church,  to  the  external  observer  immobile,  unchanging, 
uncompromising,  admitting  no  salvation  outside  its  pale, 
disciplined,  centralized,  equipped  with  monkish  Orders, 
learned  and  ascetic,  indubitably  ancient,  and  supporting 
a  tradition  which  reaches  far  back,  and  has  not  on  a 
superficial  view  undergone  violent  changes,  such  as  was 


SWORD   AND   CASSOCK.  109 


the  European  Reformation — a  Church  with  all  these 
quaHties,  and  in  spite  of  them  all  living  and  energetic, 
always  intriguing,  and  not  like  Eastern  Christianity, 
lethargic  and  locked  in  the  embrace  of  a  military  despotism, 
has  thrown  a  spell  over  the  minds  of  English  clergymen, 
who  wander  without  a  compass  in  deserts — so  it  seems 
to  them — of  Erastianism,  Puritanism  and  Agnosticism. 
Hence  the  talk  about  religious  reunion.  Hence  the  mis- 
giving about  the  validity  of  English  Orders.  If  that  be 
disputed  and  denied,  will  not  the  efficacy  of  the  Sacraments 
be  lost  as  well,  and  nothing  remain  save  the  shifting  sands 
of  a  higher  criticism,  which  has  already  called  much,  and 
will  yet  call  more  and  more  in  question  ?  But  reunion 
has  meaned  for  those  who  felt  themselves  in  this  plight, 
not  reunion  with  a  sturdy  Scotch  Presb}-terianism,  not 
with  the  Puritans  and  Noncomformists,  who  are  the  back- 
bone historically  of  the  English  and  American  polities, 
not  even  with  the  Eastern  Church,  a  respectable  body  if  it 
could  be  freed  from  Russian  Tsardom,  but  reunion  with 
Latin  Catholicism.  The  ill-starred  experiment  of  the  last 
of  the  Stuarts  is  to  be  tried  once  more.  Authority  and 
probabilism  is  to  replace  hard  thinking,  private  judgment, 
reasonable  faith.  The  control  of  priest  and  confessional 
over  the  individual  conscience  is  inculcated,  as  if  our  home- 
made morality  were  inferior  to  that  of  Latins,  or  our 
women  less  pure  than  Spanish  penitents.  The  apex  of 
humiliation  and  un-English  self-distrust  is  reached  when 
Lord  Halifax,  in  behalf  of  the  four  or  five  thousand  weak- 
kneed  clergymen  who  compose  the  English  Church  Union, 
crawls  cap  in  hand  to  the  footstool  of  an  Italian  Bishop, 
and  beseeches  him  to  be  so  gracious  as  to  recognize  the 


no  SWORD   AND    CASSOCK. 


validity  of  English  Orders.  His  petition  was  very  properly 
spurned,  but  the  want  of  manliness  remains.  Rome  is 
ever  there  like  a  magnet  to  attract  these  drifting  particles. 

The  European  Reformation,  like  the  dissent  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  was  in  its  essence,  a  revolt  not  against  the 
superstitions  of  the  Latin  Church,  but  against  its  callous- 
ness, its  cynical  cruelty,  its  injustice,  its  fanaticism,  against 
the  confessional  and  the  attendant  open  immorality  of 
celibate  priests  and  popes.  These  were  the  qualities  which 
earned  it  as  early  as  the  eleventh  century  from  the  saints 
of  Lyon,  of  Albi,  of  Lombardy,  the  title  of  Meretrix  Ecclesia, 
of  Nidus  Serpentmn,  of  Mundana  Ecclesia,  of  Bestia.  And 
now,  after  a  lapse  of  ten  centuries,  the  Dreyfus  affair, 
like  a  flash  of  nocturnal  lightning,  reveals  to  us  that  this 
Church,  Englishmen's  fear  and  dislike  of  which  Lord 
Halifax,  addressing  his  admirers  in  the  Guildhall,  declares 
to  be  wholly  unreasonable,  has  in  its  heart  of  hearts  learned 
nothing  and  forgotten  nothing.  Every  cannibal  instinct 
is  lurking  within  it  as  of  old.  Before  all  the  world  a  great 
historic  scene  has  been  set  up  anew,  a  drama  of  cosmic 
import  acted  over  afresh.  The  Roman  Church  has  been 
asked  to  choose  between  the  just  man  and  the  unjust. 
From  every  sacristy  the  cry  has  gone  up :  "  Release  unto 
us  Esterhazy.  But  as  for  Dreyfus,  the  innocent  Jew, 
crucify  him,  crucify  him  !     His  blood  be  upon  our  heads." 

We  are  not  exaggerating.  From  every  clerical  journal 
in  France  and  Italy  and  Belgium  during  the  last  two 
years  one  could  cull  paragraphs  reeking  with  cruelty  and 
cowardice,  panegyrics  of  forgers  and  assassins,  lies  and 
slanders,  which  if  they  were  brought  together,  would  fill 
a  series  as  long  as  the  Acta  Sanctorum.     In  every  corner 


SWORD  AND   CASSOCK.  iii 

of  this  sinister  drama  a  skulking  Jesuit  may  be  detected. 
Is  a  confessor  wanted,  who,  abusing  the  trust  reposed  in 
him  by  a  weak  woman,  prostituting  his  spiritual  functions, 
can  provide  the  French  Staff  with  a  flesh  and  blood 
original  for  their  mythical  veiled  lady  ? — the  Pere  du  Lac 
is  there,  that  paragon  of  learning  and  piety,  whose  virtues 
the  Comte  de  Mun  lately  extolled  in  the  columns  of  The 
Times.  Is  a  military  adviser  wanted  to  recommend  to 
General  de  Boisdeffre  the  good  Catholics  whom  it  is 
desirable  to  promote  to  the  highest  positions  in  the  army  ? 
Again  the  Pere  du  Lac  is  there,  and  in  his  daily  walks  at 
Versailles  with  the  disciple  he  loves,  he  faithfully  discharges 
the  pious  duty.  Is  money  wanted  and  business  talent  to 
start  the  Libte  Parole  on  its  campaign  of  lies  ?  Again  the 
Pere  du  Lac  is  there,  and  deputes  Odelin,  manager  of  his 
military  school,  to  find  both  money  and  organizers.  Never 
has  any  great  national  calamity  or  disgrace  befallen  France 
but  what  some  figure  like  the  Pere  du  Lac  may  be  detected 
hovering  beforehand  in  the  obscure  background  of  the 
crime.  It  was  so  on  the  eve  of  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew's,  it  was  so  on  the  eve  of  S6dan. 

If  the  murder  of  Dreyfus  is  not  the  handiwork  of  the 
Roman  Church,  then  how  comes  it  that  it  is  the  Jesuit 
organs  alone  all  over  the  world  which  by  their  indecent 
exultation  over  the  verdict  of  the  five,  have  jarred  upon 
the  ecumenic  conscience  ?  In  Great  Britain,  it  is  true, 
the  Latin  Catholics  are  more  temperate ;  nevertheless,  in 
Ireland  their  organ,  The  Freeman's  Journal,  seeks  to  justify 
the  crime  in  long  columns  of  feeble  sophistry.  In  French 
Canada  the  Jesuit  paper  La  Pairic,  of  Montreal,  acclaims 
it,  as  does  the  Catholic  Press  of  Belgium.     In  Rome  the 


112  SWORD   AND   CASSOCK. 

Jesuit  Voce  delta  Verita  hails  it  with  deHght,  and  explains 
that  its  sentiments  are  those  of  the  Pope  himself.  The 
other  Vatican  journals  of  Rome,  the  Osservatore  and  the 
Popolo  Romano,  do  the  same.  Lastly,  we  learn,  on  the 
authority  of  The  Times  newspaper,  that  "  during  a  conversa- 
tion which  took  place  recently  between  Cardinal  Rampolla 
and  the  representative  of  one  of  the  Great  Powers 
accredited  to  the  Vatican,  the  Papal  Secretary  of  State 
gave  strong  expression  to  his  delight  at  the  verdict  of 
Rennes,  which,  he  declared,  would  put  an  end  to  the 
Dreyfus  agitation  in  France."  Perhaps  we  ought  to  be 
grateful  to  the  Pope's  chief  adviser  for  not  having  at  once 
arranged  a  solemn  Te  Deum  of  thanksgiving,  like  that  with 
which  the  Vatican  commemorated  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew's.  Probably  he  reserves  that  for  the  actual 
massacre  of  Jews  and  Protestants,  which  the  ultramontane 
Press  in  France  has  for  the  last  two  or  three  years  been 
openly  registering  its  vows. 

The  French  Croix,  the  organ  of  the  Assumptionist 
monks,  of  whom  plenty  have  also  been  imported  into 
England,  and  who  are  ringleaders  in  the  recent  plot 
against  the  French  Republic,  prints,  underneath  its  frontis- 
piece of  our  Lord  suspended  on  the  cross,  the  following 
sentiment  in  regard  to  the  verdict  of  the  five  :  "  As  patriots 
we  are  rejoiced ;  as  Catholics  we  praise  God." 

I  have  devoted  an  article  in  an  earlier  number  of  this 
magazine  to  an  analysis  of  the  sentiments  of  this  remarkable 
"  Christian  "  organ,  which,  during  the  last  few  weeks,  has 
tried  to  persuade  its  readers  that  it  was  really  Colonel 
Picquart  who  shot  Maitre  Labori  in  the  back.  It  is 
interesting  here  to  note  the  excuses  for  it  made  by  members. 


SWORD   AND   CASSOCK.  113 

of  the  Latin  hierarchy  in  England.  Thus  Cardinal 
Vaughan  excuses  it  on  the  ground  that  it  is  only  a  cheap 
paper ;  as  if  it  were  less  wicked  to  circulate  so  hideous  a 
sheet  for  a  penny  among  millions  of  poor  people  than  for 
a  franc  among  the  rich  few. 

The  Jesuit  editor  of  the  Month,  Father  Sydney  Smith, 
makes  a  still  lamer  answer  in  his  March  issue  to  my 
e.xposure,  in  the  February  number  of  this  journal,  of  the 
methods  of  Drumont  and  of  the  Assumptionists.  He 
refuses  to  recognize  Drumont  as  a  "  practising  Catholic." 
Yet  this  is  just  what  Drurnont,  in  the  French  Chamber, 
in  his  journal  and  his  books,  openly  proclaims  himself  to 
be.  The  Month  is  "  confident  that  if  they  {i.e.,  Drumont 
and  the  admirers  of  Henry)  tried  to  approach  the  Sacra- 
ments, apart  from  repentance,  they  would  not  be  admitted 
to  absolution  by  any  priest  aware  of  what  they  had  done." 

I  defy  the  editor  of  the  Month  to  prove — i.  That  the 
Libre  Parole  is  not  the  favourite  reading  of  the  majority  of 
French  ecclesiastics ;  2.  That  in  any  instance  the  Sacra- 
ments have  been  refused  either  to  Drumont  or  Boisdeffre, 
or  to  any  other  member  of  the  gang. 

As  to  La  Croix  and  Le  Pclerin,  its  associate,  the  Month 
is  in  a  quandary.  "These  papers,"  it  says,  "are  religious 
organs ;  at  least,  religious  papers."  Here  is  a  very  fine 
distinction.  "  But  the  case  of  their  managers  is  different." 
Yes,  for  they  are  monks,  whereas  Drumont  is  only  the 
hireling  of  monks. 

"We  ourselves,"  continues  the  Month,  "know  of  their  language  only 
from  the  extracts  in  Mr.  Conybeare's  article  in  the  February  National 
Review,  and  our  feeling  is  that  we  should  like  to  have  more  of  the  context 
and  less  of  Mr.  Conybeare's  dots  of  omission  and  colouring  summaries. 

H 


114  SWORD  AND   CASSOCK. 

The  summaries,  selections,  and  omissions  of  such  a  man  one  profoundly 
distrusts,  and  one  can  conjecture  contexts  to  his  quotations  that  would 
essentially  alter  the  impression  which,  as  given  in  his  pages,  they  produce." 

The  answer  to  this  is  that  I  gave  the  number  of  issue 
and  the  page  in  the  case  of  every  single  extract,  and  that 
if  I  omitted  anything — and  in  a  magazine  article  I  had  to 
be  brief — I  omitted  contexts  which,  by  their  nauseous 
piety  or  argot,  made  the  quotations,  if  anything,  more 
revoltingly  wicked.  The  Jesuit  who  thus  impugns  my 
literary  honesty  was,  I  understand,  himself  confabulating 
with  the  Paris  Jesuits  just  before  he  wrote.  They  could 
have  supplied  him  with  the  issues  of  La  Croix  and  Le 
Phlerin  at  short  notice.  Why  did  he  not  consult  them 
before  accusing  me  of  dishonesty  ?  If  he  will  undertake 
to  publish  in  full  in  the  Month  the  incriminated  articles  in 
the  original  French,  I  undertake  to  send  them  to  him. 

The  climax  of  disingenuousness  is,  however  reached 
when  these  English  Jesuits  assert  that  their  Order  cannot 
be  held  responsible  for  the  infamous  article  of  the  Civilta 
Cattolica,  which  I  gibbeted  in  the  March  number  of  this 
Review  in  an  article  entitled  :  "  The  Jesuit  View."  Thus 
in  the  Month  for  April,  Father  Sydney  Smith,  returning  to 
the  charge,  pretends  that  the  article  of  the  Civilta  criticized 
by  me  is  no  more  than  the  utterance  of  a  pious  opinion  by 
a  single  individual,  that  it  is  the  only  one  of  the  kind 
which  has  appeared,  and  that  it  appeared  as  long  ago  as 
January,  1898.  This  defence,  like  the  Cardinal's,  reminds 
one  of  the  excuse  for  her  misfortune  which  the  wet-nurse 
offered  to  the  righteous  Mrs.  Easy  in  Marryat's  immortal 
volume :  "  Please,  ma'am,  it  was  a  very  little  one."  It  is 
enough  to  reply  to  Father  Smith  that  in  January,  i8g8, 


SWORD  AND   CASSOCK.  115 

the  entire  truth  about  Dreyfus'  innocence  was  known,  that 
the  article  in  the  Civilta  was  couched  in  the  editorial  We, 
and  specially  based  its  conclusions  on  the  principles  which 
the  Civilta  has  promulgated  ever  since,  in  1849,  a  brief  of 
Pius  IX.  raised  its  staff  into  a  perpetual  college  under  the 
General  of  the  Jesuits,  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  and 
propagating  the  faith.  No  palinode  has  appeared  in  its 
pages.  On  the  contrary  a  few  weeks  ago,  when  this 
journal  celebrated  its  jubilee,  the  present  Pope,  in  a  brief 
of  congratulation,  effusively  recognized  the  services  which 
it  has  uniformly  rendered  to  the  cause. 

It  is  true  that  the  Tablet  and  one  or  two  more  of  the 
papers  circulating  among  Latin  Catholics  in  England  (not 
in  Ireland)  have  spoken  up  for  right  and  truth  in  this 
great  crisis.  But  they  are  exceptions,  and  indignant 
"  Catholics  "  have  written  in  the  Tablet  complaining  of  its 
editorials,  and  declaring  that  "  supporting  Dreyfus  is  siding 
with  the  enemies  of  the  Church  in  France  "  {Tablet,  April 
22nd,  1899).  But  a  great  organization  must  be  taken  as 
a  whole,  and  its  few  members  who  respire  the  healthier 
air  of  England  and  the  United  States  are  distrusted  and 
condemned  in  high  Catholic  circles  both  in  France  and 
Italy,  as  is  evident  in  the  recent  conflict  over  Americanism 
and  the  ideas  of  Father  Hecker.  As  a  whole,  the  Latin 
Church,  at  any  rate  among  the  Latin  nations,  has  been 
against  Dreyfus,  against  innocence,  truth,  justice,  charity, 
humanity  itself.  The  Times  does  well  when  it  writes  as 
follows  : — 

"  T\\K  French  Church,  which  should  have  learned  from  its  own  past 
sufferings  the  danger  as  well  as  the  cruelty  of  great  injustices,  has,  by 
some  strange  aberration,  allowed  the  mantle  of  its  moral  authority  to  be 


ii6  SWORD  AND   CASSOCK. 

cast  over  every  unclean  and  un-Christian  passion  that  skulks  under  the 
name  of  Anti-Semitism  and  Nationalism." 

Such  is  the  Church  after  which  Lord  Hahfax  hankers, 
and  with  which  he  aspires  to  Hnk  his  own,  to  which  he 
humbly  goes  for  recognition  of  Enghsh  Orders.  Let  him 
leave  it  to  Cardinal  Vaughan,  if  he  likes,  to  bring  a  chapter 
of  French  monks  to  officiate  in  his  new  cathedral  in 
Westminster,  but  Heaven  forbid  that  Englishmen  should 
forget  the  lesson  which  they  read  in  every  episode  of  their 
history,  or  permit  their  brightest  traditions  to  be  brought 
to  naught. 

Among  the  Feuilles  detachees  of  Ernest  Renan  is  a  letter 
to  M.  Jules  Lemaitre,  which  is  prophetic  and  all  the  more 
remarkable  because  it  is  addressed  to  one  who  is  now  the 
coryphaeus*  of  those  whose  unparalleled  turpitude  is  aiding 
the  fulfilment  of  the  great  critic's  melancholy  forecast. 

"And  then,  after  all,"  he  writes,  "  who  knows  the  future  ?  You  think 
me  more  of  a  pessimist  than  I  am.  Yes,  I  am  terrified  to  see  a  tradition  so 
grand  as  that  of  the  French  kings  entrusted  for  keeping  to  a  sovereign  so 
narrow,  so  thoughtless,  so  prone  to  believe  in  calumny,  so  easily  deceived 
as  the  people  represented  by  universal  suffrage.  Yet  I  do  not  deny  that 
the  present  hour  has  its  advantages  and  its  sweets.  The  vain,  when  they 
no  longer  march  in  the  van  of  progress,  are  proud  to  march  in  the  van  of 
decadence.  There  is  more  liberty  among  us  now  than  there  has  ever  been 
before  in  our  land,  perhaps  than  in  any  land  in  the  world.  The  exaggerated 
criticisms  passed  on  the  present  regime  proceed  from  minds  that  have  no 
knowledge  of  the  past  nor  any  misgivings  as  to  the  future  which  they 
call  up. 

"  Provided  only  it  lasts  I  .  .  .  There  is  the  only  reserve  we  make  as 
regards  our  present  contentment.  If  it  were  only  our  poor  selves  at  stake 
-we  should  have   the  right  to  be  improvident,  venturous,  rash.     But  it  is 

*  Jules  Lemaitre  is  president  of  Brunetiere's  Ligue  de  la  Pairie,  rightly  nick- 
named Ligue  des  Basiles. 


SWORD  AND   CASSOCK.  117 


France  that  is  at  stake— her  existence,  her  destiny.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  page  of  the  Temps,  where  I  read  of  these  pleasing  festivities  *  and  of 
M.  Carnot's  great  speech,  I  read  under  the  heading  Saint-Ouen  :— 

•' M.  le  General  Boulanger      1,043,  Elected. 

"M.  Naquet,  Boulangiste       981,  Elected. 

"  M.  Laguerre.  Boulangiste 981,  Elected. 

"  M.  Deroulede,  Boulangiste 979,  Elected. 

"  Some  people  with  whom  I  have  spoken  of  it  have  answered  that  Saint- 
Ouen  is  not  a  very  enlightened  neighbourhood.  Maybe  ;  but  1  fear  that 
in  France  there  are  a  vast  number  of  cantons  which,  politically  at  any  rate, 
are  not  more  enlightened  than  Saint-Ouen. 

"  And  this  is  why,  sometimes,  I  cannot  help  seeing  amidst  the  rays  of 
this  fair  sunset  a  dark  cloud  gathering,  fringed  with  gold,  out  of  which 
may  quite  well  issue  a  rokh  that  would  rob  us  of  our  all.  However,  let  us 
continue  to  put  our  hope  in  reason,  and  believe  me  your  faithful  friend. 

"E.  R." 

Truly,  the  rokh  of  the  Arab's  fable  has  flown  forth  and 
enshadowed  a  decadent  France  with  its  foul  wings.  It  is 
the  hideous  reality  of  a  Jesuitized  army.  But  let  us  look 
away  from  the  horrible  spectacle,  and  gaze  on  the  figure 
of  innocence,  on  the  just  man  numbered  with  the  trans- 
gressors. Nineteen  centuries  back,  when  it  was  willed  to 
reveal  to  us  our  highest  self,  a  Jew  was  chosen.  Has  not 
one  been  chosen  again  to-day  in  order  to  strengthen,  and 
purify,  and  quicken  our  flagging  consciences  ? 

*  The  reference  is  to  the  inaugural /?/«  of  the  Exhibition  of  1889. 


POPULAR  CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 


(January,  1900.) 

[ANY  months  ago  I  ventured  upon  a  forecast  of 
what  would  be  the  ultimate  result  in  France 
of  the  Dreyfus  case  in  the  following  words : — 
Frenchmen  will  forgive  their  Army,  but  they  will  never 
forgive  their  Church.  Its  truth  is  already  apparent.  A 
new  project  of  amnesty  is  being  laid  before  the  Chamber, 
of  which  the  prime  object  is  to  exempt  General  Mercier 
and  his  comrades  from  the  punishment  which  their  crimes 
deserve.  At  the  same  time  is  introduced  legislation 
directly  aimed  at  the  religious  Congregations. 

The  President  of  the  French  Cabinet,  assisted  by  M. 
Monis,  his  Minister  of  Justice,  has  formulated  as  follows 
what  may  be  called  the  policy  of  the  sponge  : — 

"  A  full  and  entire  amnesty  is  accorded  to  all  the  matters  (faits), 
criminal  or  delictuous  (cviminels  on  delictueux),  connected  with  the  Dreyfus 
affair,  or  which  have  been  comprised  in  any  prosecution  relative  to  any  one 
of  those  matters. 

"  All  criminal  and  civil  actions  relative  to  the  matters  in  question  are 
extinguished." 

The  first  of  these  two  paragraphs  annuls  all  the 
sentences  which  have  already  been  passed,  that  upon 
Dreyfus  himself  excepted.     And  this  exception  is  favour- 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE.  119 


able  to  him,  for  as  long  as  the  iniquitous  verdict  of  Rennes 
stands,  it  is  possible,  in  case  a  new  fact  should  transpire, 
to  appeal  once  more  to  the  Court  of  Cassation  and  have 
it  quashed.  Such  an  appeal,  if  successful,  would  restore 
him  his  honour  and  deprive  the  party  of  lies  of  the  single 
cheap  privilege  which  the  sentence  of  Rennes  conferred 
upon  them,  that  of  being  able  to  continue  to  stigmatize 
their  victim  as  a  traitor  to  his  country. 

The  second  paragraph  revives  an  institution  \\hich 
ceased  to  exist  with  the  monarchy,  namely,  the  royal  right 
to  abolish  a  pending  prosecution.  There  are  three  dis- 
tinguished civilians  against  whom  actions  arising  out  of 
the  Dreyfus  case  are  still  pending — Zola,  Yves  Guyot, 
and  Joseph  Reinach.  The  first  of  these  demands  to  be 
retried  once  more  for  his  famous  letter,  J'accuse,  in  which 
he  denounced  General  de  Luxer  and  six  other  officers  for 
acquitting  by  order  the  traitor  Esterhazy  in  January,  1898. 
Even  apart  from  a  formal  amnesty  being  accorded,  it  is 
probable  that  General  de  Luxer  would,  on  entering  the 
court,  have  asked  leave  to  withdraw  the  prosecution  ;  for 
his  accusation  of  Zola  implied  a  defence  of  Esterhazy, 
and  the  latter  having  long  ago  freely  "  rounded  on  "  his 
exalted  military  accomplices,  and  having  been  recently 
condemned  to  three  years'  imprisonment  as  a  vulgar 
swindler,  is  no  longer  a  persona  grata.  The  Praetorian 
Party  long  ago  tried  to  jettison  so  inconvenient  an  ally, 
and  they  are  not  now  inclined  to  champion  his  innocence 
afresh.  The  other  two  defendants,  Reinach  and  Yves 
Guyot,  are  no  less  anxious  to  be  put  upon  trial.  They 
would,  like  Zola,  have  had  some  chance  of  being  acquitted, 
inasmuch  as  popular  opinion   is  now  to  a  certain  extent 


120  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 


ranged  on  their  side ;  and  in  any  case  the  advocates 
Clemenceau  and  Labori  would  have  subjected  Mercier, 
Boisdeffre,  Gonse,  and  the  other  chiefs  of  the  War  Office 
gang  to  a  damaging  cross-examination. 

But  the  most  certain  hope  of  a  new  fact  transpiring  on 
which  Dreyfus  might  have  based  an  appeal  to  the  Court 
of  Cassation  lay  in  the  prosecution  of  Mercier,  already 
resolved  upon  in  the  spring  of  1899  by  a  vote  of  the 
French  Chamber,  and  then  only  postponed  until  after  the 
issue  of  the  Rennes  Court-Martial  because  of  an  amend- 
ment introduced  by  the  philosophic  Protestant  Ribot. 
The  French  Chamber  has  thus  pledged  itself  to  prosecute 
Mercier  for  the  forgery  in  1894  of  the  Panizzardi  telegram, 
for  the  communication  to  Dreyfus'  judges  in  1894  of  a 
secret  dossier,  in  which,  amidst  much  similar  evidence,  this 
forgery  was  contained,  and  for  the  subsequent  destruction, 
in  order  to  shield  himself  and  on  the  pretence  that  it  was 
his  own  private  property,  of  Du  Paty's  commentaire  in 
which  the  forged  telegram  was  used  in  order  to  fix  upon 
Dreyfus  sundry  documents  which  alluded  to  a  spy  D.,  but 
had  no  application  to  the  accused. 

The  exemption  of  Mercier  from  the  threatened  pro- 
secution is  a  genuine  calamit}^  not  only  for  Dreyfus,  but 
for  the  French  Army  as  well.  Paragraph  3  of  Article  443 
of  the  Criminal  Code  enacts  that  : — 

"  Revision  of  a  sentence  may  be  demanded  in  case  one  of  the  witnesses 
heard  sliall  posteriorly  to  the  condemnation    have  been  prosecuted  and 

condemned  for  perjury  (faux  tcmoignage)." 

Mercier  was  not  the  only  military  witness  who  disgraced 
his  uniform  in  this  way  at  the  Rennes  trial.     Indeed,  M. 


POPULAR    CATHOLICISM   IN  FRANCE.  121 

Urbain  Gohier's  description  as  "  platoon  perjur}-  "  of  the 
evidence  given  on  that  occasion  by  the  military  witnesses 
against  Dreyfus  is  no  exaggeration.  This  amnesty  now 
makes  it  impossible  to  prosecute  Mercier  or  any  other  one 
of  thenx,  and  so  eliminates  a  whole  class  of  "  new  facts." 
The  only  hope  which  is  left  for  Dreyfus  of  being  able  to 
rehabilitate  himself  and  remove  the  stigma  attached  to 
his  family  lies  in  a  possible  revelation  b}^  the  Germans  of 
the  documents  purchased  from  Esterhaz}^  and  Henry  with 
the  connivance,  it  would  seem,  of  Boisdeffre.  In  the  end 
it  may  be  that  his  conscience  will  speak  a  little  louder  to 
Colonel  von  Schwarzkoppen  than  it  has  hitherto  done. 
Even  then,  however,  he  could  not  act  without  the  consent 
of  the  German  Emperor,  who  is  the  last  man  in  the 
world  to  be  biassed  by  conscience  in  questions  of  external 
policy.  If  he  can  at  any  critical  time  use  these  documents 
to  shatter  the  already  tottering  reputation  of  French 
General  Staffs,  he  will  do  so  ;  but  not  otherwise.  For 
the  sake  of  Dreyfus  he  will  never  embroil  himself  with  an 
important  section  of  French  opinion,  or  run  the  risk  of 
embittering  Franco-German  relations  by  interference  in  a 
case  of  which  the  rights  and  wrongs  are  without  his  help 
already  patent  to  the  whole  world. 

It  is  bad  enough  to  embarrass  Dreyfus  by  thus  elimi- 
nating his  chances  of  obtaining  a  fresh  revision  of  his 
case.  It  is  worse  still,  because  Zola  and  Yves  Guyot  and 
Reinach  are  only  too  anxious  to  be  prosecuted,  not  because 
they  love  law  courts  or  notoriety,  but  because  they  trust 
that  their  trials  would  help  on  the  sacred  cause  of  justice, 
for  which  they  have  already  risked  and  sacrificed  so  much. 
It  is  worst  of  all  for  the  Army  itself  that  a  sponge  should 


122  POPULAR    CATHOLICISM   IN   FRANCE. 

be  passed  over  Mercier's  slate.  In  a  country  of  universal 
conscription  like  France  the  whole  of  the  male  popula- 
tion passes  through  the  ranks  of  the  Army.  What  an 
opportunity  for  its  officers  to  set  an  example  to  all  of 
honour,  of  truthfulness,  of  freedom  from  bigotry  and  in- 
tolerance, of  devotion  to  the  highest  interests  of  the 
community  !  More  than  any  other  professional  class  they 
might  influence  their  fellow-countrymen  for  good.  We 
see  the  opposite.  In  decreeing  an  amnesty,  rejected  with 
scorn  b}'  the  Dreyfusards,  but  welcomed  by  Mercier  and 
his  peers,  the  French  Government  proclaims  aloud  to  the 
Army  that  the  manufacture  and  use  of  forgeries,  that 
perjur}'  and  conspiracy,  are  only  criminal  when  civilians 
indulge  in  them.  The  chiefs  of  the  Army  are,  like  the 
privileged  ecclesiastics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  above  the  law, 
and  their  stars  and  decorations  and  rank  protect  them 
from  the  consequences  of  their  crimes.  One  thing  alone 
is  unpardonable  in  a  French  officer,  and  that  is  to  have  a 
conscience  and  to  obey  it. 

One  of  Mercier's  friends  at  the  Rennes  trial,  Colonel 
Bertin,  summed  up  in  a  single  cynical  phrase  the  offence 
which,  in  the  eyes  of  the  majority  of  his  fellows.  Colonel 
Picquart  committed  when  he  refused  to  take  the  advice  of 
Gonse  and  be  a  consenting  party  to  the  death  of  an 
innocent  man.  "  I  realized,"  remarked  Bertin,  "  that 
there  was  someone  who  was  no  longer  marching  straight 
behind  the  chiefs."  Billot  promptly  complimented  Bertin 
on  the  soldierly  character  of  his  words.  "  Colonel 
Bertin,"  he  said,  "  has  all  the  qualities  of  an  officer  of 
the  Etat-Major  —  impersonality,"  etc.  Such  are  the 
beauties  of  the  passive  obedience  expected  in  the  French 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM   IN   FRANCE.  123 

Army.  Picquart  refused  to  take  a  hand  in  the  game  of 
assassination  and  to  perjure  himself;  and  he  is  the  only 
officer  who  has  been  hounded  out  of  the  Army  over  the 
matter. 

In  an  Army  where  such  an  ideal  of  conduct  prevails 
there  must  of  necessity  be  many  who,  when  they  find 
opportunity,  will  rival  the  African  exploits  of  Voulet  and 
Chanoine,  and  will  train  their  guns  on  their  own  fellow- 
citizens.  Not  a  few  of  the  higher  officers  seem  to  have 
been  implicated  in  the  plot  against  the  Republic  for  which 
Deroulede  and  Guerin  are  now  being  tried  before  the 
French  Senate.  But  they  are  not  among  the  accused. 
Their  epaulettes  are  sacrosanct.  It  is  evident,  however, 
that  the  impunity  thus  granted  them  will  in  time  bear 
such  fruit  as  every  pact  made  with  bandits  must  bear. 
The  gangrene  of  demoralization  will  spread ;  and  though 
for  the  moment  the  Army  has  been  checkmated,  because 
it  did  not  know  which  of  the  pretenders,  the  Bonapartist 
or  the  Royalist,  it  preferred,  the  moment  may  come  when 
it  will  have  made  up  its  mind,  or,  anyhow,  think  that  it 
has.  Then  will  begin  an  epoch  of  intestinal  strife  and 
civil  bloodshed,  in  comparison  with  which  the  slaughters 
of  the  Great  Revolution  were  a  mere  trifle. 

Meanwhile,  the  era  of  repressive  measures  directed 
against  the  Latin  Church,  which  seemed  to  have  closed 
with  the  death  of  Gambctta,  has  opened  anew.  The  last 
word  of  the  Jesuit  official  organ,  the  Civilta  Cattolica, 
upon  the  Dreyfus  case  is  that  the  French  Army  has  shown 
an  "  excess  of  religious  feeling,"  and  thereby  incurred  the 
enmity  of  the  Protestants,  Jews,  and  Freemasons.  The 
French  Republicans  are  afraid  to  try  conclusions  with  the 


124  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 

Army,  but  they  mean,  if  they  can,  to  wipe  off  some  old 
scores  with  the  religious  Congregations  to  whose  intrigues 
they  rightly  ascribe  that  excess  of  religiosity  on  the  part 
of  the  officers  which  has  led  to  all  the  crimes  and  scandals 
of  the  Dreyfus  case.  Accordingly,  M.  Waldeck- Rousseau, 
the  Prime  Minister,  with  much  finesse,  has  framed  a  law 
which  will  hit  them  none  the  less  hard  because  it  does  not 
mention  them  by  name  nor  contain  any  allusions  to 
religion  so-called.  The  problem  was  how  to  strike  at 
associations  of  monks  and  nuns  without  mentioning  their 
religious  character  and  without  prejudicing  trades  unions, 
joint-stock  societies,  unions  of  professional  societies,  and 
commercial  syndicates  of  every  kind.  Article  2  of  this 
new  law  enacts  that  : — 

"  Every  association  (of  persons,  not  necessarily  holding  property  in  com- 
mon) founded  for  a  cause  or  in  view  of  an  object  that  is  illicit,  contrary  to 
the  laws,  to  the  Constitution,  to  public  order,  to  morality,  or  entailing 
renunciation  of  rights  outside  the  common  (droits  qui  ne  sont  pas  dans  le 
commun),  is  null  and  of  no  effect." 

For  example,  the  Anti-Semitic  League  of  M.  Guerin  has 
an  illegal  object  in  view — namety,  the  pillage  and  murder 
of  Jews.  This  law,  therefore,  at  once  exposes  its  members 
to  prosecution.  And  the  preamble  setting  forth  the 
reasons  for  the  new  legislation  explains  the  utility  of  this 
second  article  as  an  instrument  with  which  to  assail  the 
Latin  Church. 

"Our  public  right,"  says  this  rubric,  "proscribes  everything  which 
constitutes  an  abdication  by  the  individual  of  his  rights  as  such,  a  renun- 
ciation of  the  exercise  of  the  natural  faculties  of  all  citizens  ;  of  the  right 
to  marry,  to  buy  and  sell,  to  carry  on  trade,  exercise  any  profession  ;  the 
possession,  in  a  word,  of  anything  like  a  personal  servitude." 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE.  125 

Now  the  members,  male  and  female,  of  Latin  Congre- 
gations take  vows  not  to  marry ;  they  are  also  obliged  to 
alienate  their  individual  property  and  give  up  the  control 
of  it  to  the  Orders  they  join.  It  follows  that  all  the 
religious  Congregations  fall  under  the  condemnation  of 
this  law,  for  they  are  all  alike  based  on  the  renunciation 
by  their  members  of  their  individual  liberties.  Only  such 
an  Order  as  that  of  the  Paulists,  who  take  no  vows, 
founded  in  America  by  Father  Hecker,  could  escape ; 
and,  by  a  singular  irony,  the  ideas  of  this  saintly  man 
have  been  lately  proscribed  by  the  higher  French  eccle- 
siastics, and,  under  Jesuit  dictation,  condemned  by  the 
Pope  himself. 

In  England  such  a  law  as  the  above  would  seem  to  be 
^n  unwarrantable  interference  with  personal  liberty,  and 
it  would  incidentall}'  affect  colleges  whose  statutes  impose 
celibacy  on  their  fellows.  It  only  incidentally  affects 
religious  Orders  in  France,  and  they  can  escape  its 
penalties  by  refounding  themselves  upon  a  rule  which 
curtails  among  the  associates  neither  the  liberty  to  marry 
nor  the  right  to  manage  their  individual  property.  But 
then  they  would  cease  to  be  associations  of  monks  and 
nuns.  It  will  be  interesting  to  see  whether  the  religious 
Congregations  in  France  manage  to  evade  it.  English- 
men have  no  right  to  condemn  this  proposed  law  off-hand. 
The  Latin  Church  has  no  innate  respect  for  liberty  and 
tolerance,  and  only  affects  to  love  such  things  in  order  to 
place  itself  eventually  on  a  vantage-ground  from  which  it 
may  repudiate  them.  Let  those  who  doubt  this  read  Mr. 
Gladstone's  tract  on  Vaticanism,  or  any  of  the  Catholic 
journals  of  the  Continent.     He  will  soon  reach  the  con- 


126  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN   FRANCE. 

elusion  that  the  toleration  of  those  whose  eternal  ideal  is 
one  of  intolerance,  and  who  would,  if  they  could,  restore 
the  Inquisition  and  the  Stake  to-morrow,  is  a  question  of 
expediency.  In  England  the  Latin  Church  and  its 
Anglican  imitators  have  such  a  slight  hold  on  the  masses 
that  to  take  elaborate  precautions  would  be  to  pay  too 
high  a  compliment  to  so  contemptible  a  party.  But  the 
danger  is  far  more  real  in  France.  I  once  ventured  to 
condemn  the  legislation  of  Ferry  and  Gambetta  in  con- 
versation with  one  of  the  most  reasonable  and  liberal  of 
my  teachers,  the  late  Mr.  Lewis  Nettleship,  of  Balliol 
College.  He  merely  replied  that  we  Englishmen  have  no 
right  to  criticize  the  French  in  this  matter,  for  we  have 
not  so  lately  been  under  the  heel  of  the  priest  as  they. 

But  the  ingenuity  of  M.  Waldeck- Rousseau  and  of  his 
Minister  of  Justice,  M.  Monis,  does  not  end  here.  The 
great  Latin  Orders  of  Jesuits,  Dominicans,  Carmelites, 
Capucins,  Benedictines,  and  of  the  newer  and  particularly 
vicious  Assumptionists,  are  cosmopolitan  societies,  taking 
their  marching  orders  from  Italian  officials  in  Rome  and 
ramifying  all  over  the  world.  Accordingly  Article  13  of 
the  new  law  enacts  that : — 

"  There  may  not  be  formed,  without  previous  authorization  being  given 
by  a  formal  decree  of  the  Conseil  d'Etat,*  any  associations  {i.e.,  of  persons, 
not  necessarily  of  goods  as  well)  between  French  subjects  and  foreigners, 
any  associations  between  Frenchman  and  Frenchman  of  which  the  head- 
quarters and  directorate  are  located  abroad  or  entrusted  to  foreigners." 

The  favourite  gravamen  of  the  Church  of  France 
against  the  Jews  and  Protestants  is  that  the  latter  are  in 
religious  communion  with  men  of  other  countries.     It  is 

*  i.e.,  the  Cabinet. 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM   IN  FRANCE.  127 

in  such  works  as  Le  Peril  Protestant,  recently  criticized  in 
this  Review,  and  in  the  pages  of  such  papers  as  Drumont's 
Libre  Parole  and  of  the  various  Croix,  that  this  rehgious 
Chauvinism  of  the  fanatical  party  finds  its  most  violent 
expression.  The  Ultramontane  Church,  however,  lives  in 
a  glass-house,  and  it  is  certainly  clever  of  the  Republicans 
to  have  thought  of  paying  it  out  in  its  own  coin.  Even 
Meline  himself,  fond  as  he  is  of  the  Papal  enemies  of  the 
Republic  who  masquerade  as  rallies,  would  shrink  from 
giving  to  any  of  these  Orders  a  formal  authorization 
to  exist  in  France.  By  consequence  they  all  become 
"  illicit  associations "  ;  and  every  man  or  woman  who 
joins  or  has  joined  one  of  them  is  liable  to  the  penalties 
set  forth  in  Article  7  of  the  new  law — that  is  to  say,  to  a 
fine  of  not  less  than  sixteen  nor  more  than  5,000  francs, 
and  to  a  term  of  imprisonment  varying  from  six  days  to 
an  entire  year. 

No  association  which  has  not  obtained  the  formal 
authorization  of  the  Conseil  d'Etat,  even  if  its  members 
are  not  fined  and  imprisoned,  will  lead  any  other  but  a 
precarious  existence.  The  new  law  specially  enacts  that 
such  unauthorized  associations  shall  be  unable  to  possess, 
borrow,  alienate,  or  defend  their  property.  This  law 
applies  to  all  such  existing  associations  no  less  than  to 
any  which  shall  be  hereafter  constituted. 

The  religious  Congregations  in  France  are  liable  to  a 
special  tax  upon  their  buildings  and  such  other  real  pro- 
perty as  they  own  in  common.  They  resent  this  tax,  and 
have  steadily  and  for  years  resisted  or  evaded  the  payment 
of  it.  In  the  period  April  ist,  1896,  to  November  ist,  1899, 
the  French  Exchequer  sued  recalcitrant  communities  of 


I2S  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 

monks  in  524  cases,  and  won  in  as  many  as  502.  In 
ninety-seven  of  these  it  executed  forced  sales  to  realize 
the  debt  due  to  itself.  Many  of  the  Congregations,  how- 
ever, evaded  the  tax  by  setting  up  a  man  of  straw,  either 
one  of  themselves  or  a  reliable  outsider,  as  the  nominal 
owner  of  their  establishments,  and  by  making  affidavits 
that  they  were  only  his  tenants  at  will.  The  Assump- 
tionists,  in  spite  of  their  parade  of  patriotism,  have  shown 
themselves  to  be  past  masters  in  the  art  of  evading  the 
law.  These  Fathers  of  the  Cross,  as  they  call  themselves, 
own  spacious  buildings  at  Paris,  Arras,  and  Bordeaux. 
They  adduced  evidence  in  the  courts  to  prove  that  they 
did  not  own  their  buildings.  The  Government  argued 
that  their  agreements  were  fictitious,  and,  when  the  lower 
courts  decided  in  favour  of  them,  appealed  to  the  Court 
of  Cassation ;  but  that  court  also,  in  a  judgment  dated 
November  21st,  1898,  decided  in  favour  of  these  holy 
men.  The  Cabinet  of  M.  Waldeck- Rousseau  has  brought 
before  the  Chamber  a  law  which  will,  in  future,  render 
such  evasions  impossible,  and  it  is  high  time  that  the 
Exchequer  should  be  protected  from  their  dishonesty. 
The  Assumptionists,  in  particular,  have  been  caught  out  in 
their  lie  just  a  year  after  they,  by  means  of  perjury, 
obtained  a  judgment  in  their  favour  ;  for,  in  the  course  of 
recent  perquisitions  made  at  their  house  in  Paris,  8,  Rue 
Frangois  P"',  in  expectation  of  discovering  evidence  of 
their  complicity  in  the  Royalist  plot  against  the  Republic, 
there  was  discovered  in  the  safe  of  the  Pere  Hippolyte, 
along  with  a  sum  of  nearly  two  million  francs,  a  contve- 
lettre  or  counter-deed,  proving  that  the  person  whose 
tenants  they  swore  themselves  to  be  was  a  man  of  straw. 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE.  129 


and  that  Fathers  Picard  and  Bailly — the  latter  the  Pope's 
favourite — are  the  real  owners  of  these  vast  premises. 
Thus  these  respectable  gentlemen  stand  convicted  of  fraud 
and  perjury,  and  we  may  hope  will  be  punished  as 
rigorously  as  the  law  permits.  M.  Waldeck- Rousseau's 
new  law  provides  that  in  future  the  proprietor,  be  he  real 
or  fictitious,  of  a  house  or  houses  tenanted  by  a  religious 
Congregation  will  be  held  liable  for  the  tax.  He  will 
have  to  recover  it  from  his  tenants,  and  this  pious  fraud 
will  be  effectually  checked. 

It  must  have  astonished  many  readers  of  English  news- 
papers to  learn  that  so  large  a  sum  as  ,^72,000  had  been 
discovered  in  the  strong-box  of  the  Paris  Assumptionists. 
But  it  is  a  fact  which  will  not  surprise  anyone  who  has 
looked  through  many  files  of  the  Croix  and  Pelerin  news- 
papers, and  it  is  also  a  fact  which  explains  why  it  was 
necessary  for  the  Pope  to  honour — as  he  did  early  in 
October,  1899 — with  a  special  reception  the  Pere  Bailly, 
whom  Mr.  St.  George  Mivart,  the  most  distinguished 
savant  of  whom  the  English  Romanists  could  boast,  has 
justly  stigmatized  in  the  columns  of  The  Times  as  a  "  mis- 
creant," and  whom  even  the  Reverend  Father  Smith,  the 
London  Jesuit,  is  at  last  ashamed  to  defend.  The 
explanation  is  a  simple  one.  M.  Bailly  has  largely  con- 
tributed to  the  Pope's  cash  balance.  It  is  a  pity  that  an 
infallible  pontiff  should  feel  such  vulgar  necessities. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  a  fact  that  he  is  peculiarly  at  the  mercy 
of  those  Orders  whose  members,  being  most  skilled  in 
playing  on  the  superstitions  of  the  vulgar,  are  the  richest 
and  so  best  able  to  replenish  his  coffers.  Foremost 
among   these   Orders    is    in    all    probability    that   of   the 

I 


130  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 


Jesuits.  Next  come,  as  M.  Zola  has  so  well  pointed  out 
in  his  Rome,  the  reverend  fathers  of  Lourdes.  The 
Assumptionists  are  not  far  behind  in  the  art  of  exploiting 
the  faithful,  and  to  a  large  extent  they  are  in  partnership 
with  the  priests  of  Lourdes,  since  they  whip  up  pilgrims 
to  the  sacred  grotto  from  all  over  France. 

But  how  do  the  Assumptionists  raise  such  enormous 
sums  of  money  ?  If  we  take  at  random  a  number  of  their 
Pelerin,  say,  for  February  20th,  1898,  we  find  on  the 
wrapper  such  a  notice  as  the  following  : — 

"  Seven  hundred  and  eighty-nine  letters  have  been  deposited  this  v^eek 
in  the  tronc  of  St.  Anthony,  8,  Rue  Frangois  I",  Paris.  They  announced 
or  recommended:  153  healings,  562  temporal  graces,  193  conversions, 
180  positions  obtained,  492  thanksgivings,  36  vocations,  52  marriages, 
553  special  graces,  12  first  communions,  260  trading  establishments, 
41  lost  objects,  24  examinations,  168  families,  no  deceased,  27  law  suits, 
125  young  people,  21  parishes,  10  literary  works." 

Of  these  789  letters  addressed  to  St.  Anthony  some  67  are 
quoted  on  the  coloured  wrapper  under  the  heading  E xtraits 
du  Courrier,  and  the  67  authors  of  them  together  con- 
tribute offerings  which  aggregate  a  total  of  643  francs,  say 
£26.  The  remaining  722  correspondents  of  the  Saint 
may  be  reckoned  to  have  supplied  him  in  the  same  week 
with  funds  amounting  to  at  least  ;^26o.  We  see,  there- 
fore, that  this  single  Paris  establishment  of  the  Assump- 
tionists derives  a  weekly  revenue  of  about  £z'^o  from  the 
particular  cult  which  they  make  it  their  business  to  push 
and  exploit.  That  is,  ^^15,600  a  year  poured  into  the 
coffers  of  one  monastery,  of  which  the  leading  members 
nevertheless  perjure  themselves  in  the  law  courts  in  order 
to  avoid  a  small  tax  which  would  help  to  pay  the  salary 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE.  131 


of  the   army   and    navy  which   they   profess  to   adore ! 

Nor  does  the  above  exhaust  the  matter,  for  the  same 
wrapper  contains  a  hst  of  subscriptions  amounting  to  400 
francs  for  the  week — over  £800  per  annum. 

Another  number  of  the  Pelerin,  taken  at  random,  that 
for  March  20th,  1898,  registers  675  letters  for  the  week, 
with  separate  subscriptions  from  the  Cellules  de  Notre- 
Dame  de  France  amounting  to  1,150  francs  from  five  con- 
tributors only.  It  is  not  clear,  however,  that  the  latter 
sum  goes  into  the  pockets  of  the  Assumptionists.  The 
wrapper  for  June  12th,  i8g8,  reports  3,170,970  francs 
collected  up  to  June  5th  for  the  Veen  National.  Over  and 
above  these  sources  of  revenue  these  perjury-loving,  but 
saintly  men,  make  a  large,  very  large,  profit  out  of  the  sale 
by  millions  of  their  pernicious  journals  and  out  of  their 
thriving  trade  in  cheap  lives,  pictures,  and  images  of  their 
saint.  They  also  issue  from  their  bonne  presse,  as  they  call 
it,  quantities  of  cheaply  got  up  but  extravagantly  super- 
stitious Lives  of  the  Saints.  It  is  always  the  R.  P. 
Hippolyte  who  invites  subscriptions  and  offerings,  and  it 
was  in  his  coffer  that  a  chance  perquisition  on  the  part  of 
the  Government  revealed  the  sum  of  ;^72,ooo. 

Some  of  the  extracts  from  the  letters  addressed  to  the 
Saint  are  simple  and  touching,  if  superstitious,  and  one 
does  not  find  it  in  one's  heart  to  condemn  the  following 
two : — 

"Hcrault. — Two  francs  promised  to  St.  Anthony  if  we  found  our  poor 
dog,  who  had  gone  astray  on  the  mountain.  He  has  turned  up  safe  and 
sound.     I  fulfil  my  promise." 

"  Haute  Saune—1  lost  my  purse  in  a  tram-car,  so  it  was  very  hard  to  6nd 
it.  I  prayed  to  St.  Anthony,  and  promised  him  something.  A  few 
instants  later  I  found  my  purse  again." 


132  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 

St.  Anthony  of  Padua  is  the  modern  Hermes,  and  more 
than  any  other  figure  in  the  Christian  mythology  is  able 
to  restore  lost  objects  to  their  owners.  But  he  is  also  most 
useful  as  a  patron  of  trade,  and  too  many  of  the  blessings 
implored  are  of  a  temporal  rather  than  of  a  spiritual  kind, 
as  witness  the  following  typical  paragraphs  : — 

"Nord. — Promised  five  francs  to  St.  Anthony  if  he  would  accord  me  his 
protection  in  regard  to  our  business,  and  in  particular  for  the  success  of 
three  ventures  which  preoccupied  us.     We  have  been  heard.     Thanks." 

'•  Nord.— Ha.ving  promised  St.  Anthony  five  francs  for  the  success  of  a 
very  risky  scheme,  I  send  them  and  thank  him." 

There  are  many  such  extracts  as  the  above,  and  in 
many  cases  the  enterprises  with  which  the  Saint  associates 
himself  seem  to  bear  a  rather  speculative  character.  He 
must  be  a  very  useful  Saint  on  'Change. 

The  Extraits  du  Courrier  of  the  Pere  Hippolyte  have 
evidently  been  carefully  selected,  and  everything  unedify- 
ing  is  excluded.  If,  however,  the  student  of  popular 
religion,  as  promoted  by  the  religious  Congregations  of 
modern  France,  desires  a  less  sophisticated  record  he 
must  turn  to  other  less  "  edited "  records  of  piety,  for 
example,  to  the  Propagatetir  de  la  devotion  a  Saint  Joseph 
et  a  Saint  Antoine  de  Padoue,  which  is  a  monthly  journal 
"edited  by  ecclesiastics  with  the  authorization  of  their 
superiors."  It  is  now  in  its  thirty-seventh  year,  and  on 
the  front  page  are  printed  suitable  testimonies  to  the 
Pontifical  approval  which  it  has  earned,  thus :  "  Cette 
revue  fait  beaucoup  de  bien  (5  Mai,  1876).  Deus  te  benedicat 
et  dirigat  (11  Mai).     Pius  P.P.  IX."  * 

*  In  the  rest  of  this  article  the  writer  is  indebted  to  a  large  extent,  both  for  his 
matter  and  his  handling  of  it,  to  an  article  in  the  Sidc/e  for  October  9th,  1899,  by 
M.  F.  Buisson,  entitled,  "  Comment  on  abetit  une  Nation." 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM   IN  FRANCE.  133 

The  first  few  pages  of  each  number  of  the  Propagateur 
contain  pious  lucubrations,  wearisome  enough  to  read, 
but  of  a  nature  to  help  you  to  understand  the  intellectual 
calibre  of  the  Anti-Dreyfusards.  Their  key-note  is  the 
Credo  quia  abstirdicm.  Premisses  are  chosen,  arbitrary 
and  out  of  harmony  with  all  history  and  human  develop- 
ment. On  them  is  raised  with  tortuous  skill  and  infinite 
subtlety  the  childish  fabric  of  sacerdotal  doctrine.  But 
what  is  really  interesting  are  the  pious  notices  printed  in 
the  second  half  of  each  issue  under  the  heading,  "Traits 
inedits  de  la  puissance  et  de  la  bonte  de  Saint  Joseph  ct  de 
Saint  Antoine  de  Padoue  envers  leur  dcvots  servitenrs." 
These  form  a  record  of  the  "  Spiritual  graces  and  tem- 
poral favours "  bestowed  by  these  Saints  on  their 
"  cherished  ones."  They  are  often  curious.  Thus  a 
young  girl  begs  her  Heavenly  patron  (as  late  as  April) 
"  to  get  her  successfully  married  before  May  comes  in  " 
(p.  183).  Another  maiden  thanks  him  because  "instead 
of  one  husband  that  she  looked  for,  she  has  now  the 
choice  of  two  "  (p.  34).  On  p.  85  we  have  the  prayer  of 
a  suitor,  who  implores  of  the  Saint  '*  success  in  a  law-suit 
against  a  Jew."  What  a  title  to  the  protection  of  a 
Saint !  Another  votary  seems  almost  to  trade  on  his 
intimacy  with  the  Saint  when  he  writes  as  follows : — 

"  We  are  now  trying  to  find  a  good  situation  for  the  lad,  and  once  more 
it  is  to  St.  Joseph  that  we  turn,  that  he  may  himself  arrange  the  matter. 
...  It  seems  to  me  that  a  child  who  bears  his  name,  who  has  so  often 
been  entrusted  and  recommended  to  his  care,  has  a  special  right  to  be 
protected  by  him." 

Women,  it  seems,  are  prone  to  a  sort  of  nervous  im- 
patience   in    the  way  they  approach  the  Saint.     One  of 


134  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 


them  writes :  '*  If  St.  Joseph  chose,  he  could  accomplish 
this  totir  de  force.  ...  My  pretensions  are  large,  but  I 
know  the  riches  of  St.  Joseph.  He  could,  if  he  only 
would"  (p.  424).  What  Saint  could  resist  such  an  appeal 
from  a  lady  ? 

The  female  teachers  in  Church  schools  are  among  the 
most  assiduous  correspondents  of  the  Saints.  Their  vows 
are  generally  for  success  over  the  hated  State  schools : — 

"I  had  made  a  promise,"  writes  one  of  them  (page  367),  "  to  my  dear 
protector  that,  if  we  got  at  least  three  pupils  from  the  lay  school,  I  would 
record  this  favour  in  the  Propagateur.  Instead  of  three  we  have  had  six. 
That  is  a  miracle,  for  in  the  whole  of  the  fifteen  years  which  have  passed 
since  the  school  was  laicized  we  have  never  succeeded  in  detaching  a 
single  one.  We  took  no  steps  ourselves,  and  it  is  St.  Joseph  alone  that 
brought  them  to  us." 

The  following  illustrates  the  little  tiffs  which  are  apt  to 
arise  between  religieuses  and  their  celibate  cures  : — 

•'  I  hasten  to  discharge  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  St.  Anthony  of  Padua  and 
St.  Joseph,  who  have  won  a  visible  favour  for  me  under  the  following 
circumstances : — 

"  In  the  parish  where  I  have  been  for  seventeen  years  at  the  head  of  a 
communal  school  we  had  a  rector  who,  instead  of  upholding  the  religieuses, 
detested  them,  and  took  pleasure  in  humiliating  them  in  everything  and 
everywhere. 

"  I  was  myself  the  particular  object  of  his  petty  persecutions,  and  yet  I 
could  not  hope  for  a  change  of  place  owing  to  the  terrible  law. 

"  V^eary  of  it  all,  and  sometimes  even  in  despair,  I  could  not  see  what 
was  to  become  of  me,  when  it  occurred  to  me  to  have  recourse  to  St. 
Anthony  and  St.  Joseph,  promising  if  the  rector  were  transferred  to  send 
five  francs  to  the  poor  of  St.  Anthony  and  to  publish  the  fact  in  the 
monthly  bulletin.  Oh  !  Prodigy  !  I  only  made  this  promise  on  Sunday, 
and  the  rector,  who  was  already  slightly  indisposed,  grew  worse  and 
worse,  and  died  on  the  following  Friday. 

"  And  now  I  fulfil  my  promise,  and  send  you  a  postal  order  for  five 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM   IN  FRANCE.  135 

francs,  hoping  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  insert  my  letter  in  your  Propa- 

gaUur,  which  I  undertake  henceforth  to  disseminate.     I  must  beg  you  not 

to  publish  my  name. 

"(Signed)         Une  Abonnee." 

(March,  1899,  p.  122  ) 

Here  is  another  of  the  same  kind  : — 

"A  poor  nun,  molested  and  persecuted  by  .  .  .  her  cure,  addressed 
herself  to  St.  Joseph,  and  prayed  him  to  procure  for  the  holy  man  an 
advantageous  change  of  post  so  that  she  might  be  freed  from  a  tyranny 
which  had  become  unbearable.  ...  It  was  a  difficult  matter,  for  the 
cure  was  not  quite  the  sort  of  man  that  rival  parishes  quarrel  with  one 
another  in  order  to  secure.  .  .  .  The  good  St.  Joseph  went  to  work  in 
another  way  :  a  beautiful  bronchitis  (une  belle  bronchite)  came  on,  the  cure 
made  a  nice  little  confession,  was  prettily  shrived,  and  went  off  all  devoutly 
to  the  other  world,*  .  .  .  and  the  poor  little  sister  Clara,  as  she  tells  her 
beads  for  him,  never  fails  to  say  after  each  Gloria  Patri,  '  Thank  you,  my 
good  Saint  Joseph.'  " 

"  La  pauvre  petite  scetir  Clare!"  Think  of  the  pretty 
little  homilies  on  forgiveness  and  humility  with  which 
this  witty  little  nun  must  regale  the  children  whom  pious 
superiors  entrust  to  her  care.  Surely  we  have  laid  bare 
before  us  in  the  above  notice  the  inward  soul  of  one  of 
those  ''  Sisters  of  the  Good  Shepherd,"  who,  in  their 
orphanage  at  Nancy,  according  to  the  testimony  of  the 
Bishop  of  that  district,  sweat  poor  children  for  years  in 
making  choice  embroideries,  pocket  the  proceeds,  and 
then  turn  them,  helpless  and  forlorn,  into  the  streets,  to 
lead  a  life  perhaps  no  better  than  that  of  the  fast  women 
of  Paris,  who  (to  quote  the  words  of  the  Mother  Superior 
in  answer  to  the  said  Bishop)  are  the  best  customers  for 
the  work  produced  in  these  establishments. 

•  "  Le  cur6  bien  confess^,  bien  adm;nistr6,  s'en  est  allc  ddvotcment  en  I'auire 
monde." 


136  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 


However,  let  us  hear  the  other  side.  Here  we  have  a 
Cure's  case  against  a  nun  : — 

"Monsieur  le  Comte.* — I  should  be  showing  ingratitude  to  our  great 
Protector  if  I  did  not  announce  to  the  readers  of  the  Propagateiir  of 
St.  Joseph  the  following  facts  : — 

"  Ciiyc  of  a  parish  of  2,000  souls  which  have  remained  Christian,  my 
ministry  was  only  hampered  by  the  words  and  acts  of  a  schoolmistress  .  .  . 
who  was,  I  regret  to  say,  not  a  laywoman.  She,  under  stress  of  I  know 
not  what  devilish  inspiration,  played  a  part  which  she  never  ought  to 
have  played. 

"  It  was  then  that  my  prayers  were  heard  and  answered  beyond  all  I 
hoped  for. 

"  One  morning  they  told  me  on  a  sudden  that  Sister  D.  was  very  ill.  I 
found  her  unconscious,  and  the  doctor  assured  me  that  she  only  had  a  few 
hours  to  live.  .  .  .  Not  desiring  the  death  of  a  sinner,  but  her  conversion, 
I  immediately  had  recourse  to  my  Protector,  who  turned  no  deaf  ear  to 
my  prayer. 

"The  patient  rallied  and  regained  life.  Her  days  are  no  longer 
threatened,  but  the  organ  she  used  in  order  to  damage  her  cure,  her 
tongue,  remains  paralysed.  The  doctors  assure  me  that  she  will  never 
speak  again. 

"Punished  in  that  part  of  herself  whereby  she  sinned,  walled  up  in  a 
perpetual  silence,  our  poor  invalid  has  time  to  think  and  expiate  her  sins. 

"In  the  hope  that  so  striking  a  fact,  so  terrible  a  chastisement,  will 
make  an  impression  on  certain  persons  too  ready  to  play  the  part  of  back- 
biters and  gossips.     I  am  yours,  &c.,  M.,  cure." 

Many  are  the  faithful  whom  the  monks  have  persuaded 
that  the  worst  sin  they  commit  is  not  to  pay  up  ready- 
money  to  their  Saint.  Thus,  in  April  (p.  176),  a  poor 
woman  avows  that,  after  getting  her  mother  cured  of 
paralysis,  she  delayed  to  send  her  money  at  once : — 

' '  I  told  the  good  Father  (Anthony)  that  he  must  grant  me  some  fresh 
favour  before  I  wrote  to  you.  Perhaps  it  is  to  punish  me  that  he  has 
allowed  my  poor  mother  to  relapse,  for  her  hand  seems  paralysed  now." 

*  Not  M.  le  Comte  de  Mun,  but  De  Travanet,  who  edits  the  Propagateur. 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE.  137 

Of  course  the  Propagateur  publishes  a  mere  selection 
made  by  the  Comte  de  Travanet.  What  must  he  not 
exclude  when  he  admits  such  matter  as  the  following  con- 
fession from  a  female  penitent : — 

"  I  had  promised  an  insertion  in  the  Propagateur  in  a  moment  so  critical 
to  myself  that  I  might  even  have  lost  fortune,  reputation,  honour — in  a 
word,  everything."     (March,  p.  123.) 

In  another  notice  (p.  133)  a  certain  young  woman  con- 
fesses that  she  is — 

"  Cast  down,  in  despair.  Oh,  St.  Joseph  knows  my  secret.  St.  Joseph 
must  do  something  at  once,  for  otherwise  I  am  lost.  Dare  I  say  it,  my 
very  faith  will  be  in  danger." 

In  turning  over  the  pages  of  such  journals  as  the 
Propagateur  and  the  Pclerin,  we  overhear  the  inner  voice 
of  popular  French  Catholicism  in  all  the  naivete  of  un- 
restrained expression.  We  have  the  religion  painted  by 
itself,  not  as  an  intellectual  elite  holds  it,  but  as  the  masses 
live  it.  Let  anyone  read  in  the  corpus  of  Greek  inscrip- 
tions the  ex  votos  from  the  walls  of  temples  of  Esculapius 
and  Aphrodite  ;  let  him  place  beside  such  ex  votos  the 
above  examples  of  modern  popular  French  piety,  and  he 
will  be  compelled  to  admit  that  between  the  old  religion 
and  the  new  there  is  little  changed  except  names.  Proba- 
bly the  Anglican  divines  who  sigh  for  a  reunion  with  the 
Latin  Church  have  no  inkling  of  the  intellectual  tempera- 
ment which  that  communion  engenders  and  fosters  among 
the  millions  of  France,  and  it  i.s  a  pity  that  a  tlorilegium 
of  extracts  from  the  cheap  Catholic  Press  of  the  Continent 
cannot  be  circulated  in  our  Anglican  seminaries.  These 
pious  ejaculations,  deemed  worthy  to  be  published,  not 


138  POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE. 

by  hundreds  but  by  thousands,  in  monkish  papers,  reflect 
the  rehgious  tone  of  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  of 
peasant  and  great  proprietor,  of  master  and  servant ;  but 
they  are  all  alike  in  this,  that  the  votaries  all  treat  their 
Saint  as  a  savage  does  his  fetish.  Never  a  moment's  mis- 
givings as  to  whether  the  prayer  is  one  meet  to  be  offered 
to  a  God  who  is  a  spirit  and  to  be  worshipped  in  spirit 
and  in  truth,  never  the  question  raised  if  the  vow  is  just 
and  good  and  holy,  never  any  scruple  as  to  whether  they 
deserve  what  they  ask  for,  or  whether  they  ought  not  to 
do  something  themselves  in  order  to  gain  the  end.  They 
make  the  vow,  promise  a  sum  of  money,  pay,  give  thanks, 
and  are  quits  with  their  idol.  Moral  scruples  rarely 
intrude  in  this  dreary  procession  of  superstitious  requests. 
It  is  true  that  the  editor  of  the  Propagateur  prefaces  the 
traits  inedits  from  which  the  above  specimens  are  taken 
with  a  caution  that  "  they  are  humbly  submitted  to  the 
judgment  of  the  Church,"  and  that  "  they  possess  but  a 
purely  human  authority."  But  what  reflections  must  they 
arouse  in  the  minds  of  educated  and  sensible  Catholics. 
Let  one  of  the  latter  publish  a  book  like  the  Life  of  Father 
Becker,  in  which  ideas  of  truth  and  justice  are  boldly  pro- 
claimed, and  a  real  attempt  made  to  shake  off  the  slough 
of  mediaeval  superstition  and  monkish  corruptions,  at  once 
the  Roman  curia  is  perplexed,  angry,  and  tumultuous. 
The  machinery  of  the  Inquisition  is  set  in  motion  and  the 
work  solemnly  condemned.  But  not  a  word  of  censure 
from  the  Pope  or  any  of  his  Bishops  for  the  monks  who 
batten  on  the  superstition  of  the  vulgar ;  not  a  syllable  of 
blame  for  the  besotted  journals  which  publish  its  out- 
pourings.    Nowhere  any  protest  of  a  higher  religion,  any 


POPULAR   CATHOLICISM  IN  FRANCE.  139 

attempt  to  raise  the  tone  of  the  faithful,  to  spiritualize 
their  hopes  and  prayers.  The  traffic  in  indulgences  of 
the  sixteenth  century  was  not  morally  half  so  deadening. 

And  in  France  what  hope  is  there  of  a  better  state  of 
things  ?  It  is  true  that  six  grown  men  out  of  seven  sit 
loose  to  the  Church,  even  when  they  are  not  actually 
hostile  to  it.  But  nearly  all  who  have  partly  emanci- 
pated their  own  minds  and  consciences,  continue  to  sacri- 
fice to  the  system  the  better  half  of  themselves,  I  mean 
their  wives  and  children.  The  priest  or  monkish  con- 
fessor is  allowed  to  dominate  and  debauch  the  souls  of 
the  latter  as  much  as  he  likes.  Few  men  have  the 
courage  so  far  to  break  with  the  Church  as  to  withdraw 
their  family  circles  from  its  debasing  influence.  It  is  a 
sign  of  the  time  that  many  enlightened  Frenchmen, 
among  them  M.  Yves  Guyot,  are  beginning  to  see  that  a 
merely  negative  attitude  on  the  part  of  fathers  and  hus- 
bands is  of  no  use.  The  bacillus  of  superstition  can  only 
be  eliminated  by  the  culture  in  the  mind  of  some  healthier 
germ.  Such  a  germ  they  see  in  French  Protestantism, 
from  which  they  have  hitherto  held  aloof,  however  deep 
might  be  their  antagonism  to  Catholicism.  Now  they 
frankly  urge  that  all  who  are  dissatisfied  with  the  super- 
stitions of  Rome  should  openly  declare  themselves  Protest- 
ants and  commit  the  religious  training  of  their  children  to 
the  nearest  pasteur.  In  no  other  way  can  their  country 
escape  the  fate  which  has  overtaken  Spain. 


THE     CONSPIRACY     AGAINST     THE 
FRENCH     REPUBLIC. 


(July,  1900.) 

UNICIPAL  elections  in  France  have  more 
political  significance  than  they  have  in  Eng- 
land, and  more  particularly  is  this  true  of  Paris. 
A  party  which  can  get  possession  to-day  of  the  handsome 
Hotel  de  Ville  upon  the  Seine  is  likely  to  assert  itself 
before  long  in  the  country  at  large.  The  recent  success, 
therefore,  of  the  Ligus  de  la  Patrie  Francaise  has  filled 
genuine  Republicans — it  is  necessary  to  distinguish 
between  genuine  and  mock  ones — with  dismay.  The 
Paris  Municipal  Council  has  hitherto  been  the  chosen 
home  of  anti-Clericalism.  It  has  on  a  sudden  become  a 
sacristy.  It  is  true  that  its  decrees  in  the  past  were  often 
feather-headed  and  revolutionary  ;  and  it  was  by  a  wise 
prevision  that  the  Prefect  of  the  Seine — an  officer  appointed 
by  the  executive  government — was  entrusted  with  authority 
to  veto  its  resolutions  whenever  they  were  ultra  vires — 
which  they  often  were.  But  in  spite  of  all  its  extrava- 
gances the  old  council  had  its  redeeming  points.  It  was 
a  bulwark  of  Liberalism,  though  of  a  hot-headed  kind. 
It  encouraged  and  promoted  the  education  of  the  people, 
and  appointed  to  its  popular  lecturerships  such  profound 


THE  CONSPIRACY  AGAINST  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  141 

and  open-eyed  students  of  the  past  as  the  late  Andre 
Reville.  In  favour  of  the  Ligiie  de  la  Patrie,  which  has 
now  captured  the  stronghold,  nothing  can  be  said,  not 
even  that  it  is  anti-revolutionary.  It  is  rather  a  Catilin- 
arian  conspiracy  of  the  worst  kind.  Its  organizers  are 
fly-blown  men  or  women  of  letters,  like  Coppec,  Jules 
Lemaitre,  "Gyp,"  and  Brunetiere  ;  perjured  assassins  and 
accomplices  of  the  traitor  Esterhazy,  like  Mercier,  Roget, 
Cavaignac,  and  Gonse  ;  gutter  journalists,  like  Rochefort  ; 
Jew-baiters  and  blackmailers,  such  as  Drumont  and  Mille- 
voye  ;  Jesuits,  like  the  Peres  du  Lac  and  Coube  ;  Assump- 
tionist  miscreants,  like  the  Pere  Bailly  ;  visionaries  who 
yearn  for  a  fresh  epoch  of  Caesarism,  and  are  on  the  look- 
out for  a  new  Boulanger,  like  Paul  Deroulede.  Perhaps 
the  latter  would  like  to  play  the  part  himself,  in  case 
General  Roget  persists  in  hanging  back.  Lastly,  there 
is  the  whole  pack  of  Royalist  curs,  from  the  Due 
d'Orleans — the  ejected  of  the  "  Bachelors'  " — downwards. 
This  motley  group  veils  its  designs  under  the  conveniently 
vague  name  of  Nationalism.  No  one,  of  course,  can 
blame  a  Frenchman  for  setting  above  all  other  interests 
those  of  France.  But  this  bastard  Nationalism  is  a  mere 
mixture  of  reactionary  and  obscurantist  Jesuitry  with  an 
unscrupulous  militarism.  It  is  dangerous  to  France,  and 
equally  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  Europe.  Its  cry  is 
France  for  the  French,  but  its  real  aim  is  the  proscription 
of  all  non-Catholics  and  the  assassination  of  Jews.  It  has 
no  sense  of  where  or  what  the  real  commercial  interests 
of  France  are,  and  would  therefore  raise  round  her  a 
Chinese  wall  of  tariffs,  destructive  of  her  prosperity.  It 
would    excite   war   at   home  and,  by  dint  of  Chauvinist 


142  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

exaggerations,  as  ridiculous  to  other  nations  as  they  are 
intolerable,  plunge  the  country  into  war  with  all  her 
neighbours.  A  loyal  Frenchman  loves  the  army,  but 
these  latter-day  patriots,  by  way  of  flattering  it,  fill  their 
journals  with  foolish  appeals  to  it  to  march  one  day  on 
Berhn,  the  next  on  Rome,  the  third  on  London,  and 
every  day  against  the  people.  An  army  constituted  and 
led  as  they  would  have  it  be — and  there  is  a  serious  risk 
of  their  getting  their  way — ceases  to  be  a  safeguard  of 
peace,  a  form  of  national  insurance  for  which  the  sober 
taxpayer  cheerfully  makes  provision,  and  becomes  a  menace 
to  liberty,  to  industry,  to  national  repose  and  well-being. 
The  respectable  traditions  of  glory  and  order  are  forgotten, 
and  have  no  place  in  the  propaganda.  Instead  of  them 
are  sown  the  seeds  of  hatred  and  violence.  It  is  a  fatal 
irony  that  such  a  faction  should  have  got  the  upper  hand 
in  Paris  at  the  very  moment  when  a  great  exhibition  is 
being  held,  destined  to  exhibit  to  the  entire  world  the 
progressive  triumphs  during  the  past  century  of  the  arts 
of  peace.  Such  Nationalism  is  a  negation  of  industry,  as 
it  is  of  religious  tolerance,  of  intelligence,  and  morality. 
It  is  inimical  to  trade  and  commerce,  and,  like  the  third 
Empire,  can  only  lead  to  disaster  and  national  humiliation. 
In  Italy  it  is  the  cue  of  the  Vatican  to  hold  aloof,  at 
least  in  appearance,  from  politics,  and  in  view  of  the 
general  election  at  the  beginning  of  this  month  of  June, 
the  usual  fiat  went  forth  to  all  the  faithful  to  be  ni  eletti  ni 
elettori.  The  object  of  Pio  Nono  in  imposing  this  rule  is 
to  boycott  the  Italian  Government,  which  he  regards,  and 
wishes  others  to  regard,  as  one  of  usurpation  and  sacri- 
lege.    The  result  has  been  to  prevent  the  formation  in  the 


THE  FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  143 

Italian  Chamber  of  a  Catholic  Party,  though  it  has  not 
hindered  the  priests  from  intriguing  with  the  Anarchists 
and  fomenting  discontent  and  a  spirit  of  riot  in  the  large 
industrial  centres.  In  France  the  Vatican  has  pla3-ed  of 
late  years  a  game  different  in  form,  but  equally  selfish  in 
substance.  Leo  XIII.  was  persuaded  ten  years  ago  that 
the  Royalist  cause  was  hopeless,  as  indeed  a  cause  must 
be  of  which  the  Due  d'Orleans,  neither  a  gentleman  nor 
a  wit,  is  the  champion.  Accordingly,  the  edict  went 
forth  to  the  faithful  to  recognize,  and  be  loyal  to,  the 
Republic.  Not  a  few  honest  Republicans — among  them 
M.  Spiiller — welcomed  this  step  on  the  part  of  the  Vatican, 
because  they  believed  it  would  lead  to  a  change  of  spirit 
among  the  clergy,  who,  it  was  hoped,  in  becoming  loyal 
to  a  Republic  which  professes  to  base  itself  on  the  Rights 
of  Man,  would  gradually  be  liberalized.  The  Vatican, 
however,  had  other  ends  in  view.  It  merely  wished  to 
capture  the  Republic  and  clericalize  it ;  to  embrace  it  in 
order  the  better  to  strangle  and  suffocate  it ;  to  purge  it 
of  what  the  priests  everywhere  denounce  as  Freemasonry, 
which  is  Clerical  slang  for  the  spirit  of  religious  tolerance 
coupled  with  respect  for  civil  rights  and  equality  of  all 
before  the  law,  of  Jews  and  Protestants  as  well  as  of 
Catholics.  They  would  substitute  for  this  spirit  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Syllabus.  A  party  of  Rallies  was  accordingly 
formed,  consisting  of  old  Royalists  who  have  nominally 
turned  Republicans,  yet  retain  all  the  prejudices  of  the 
ancien  regime.  Concurrently  the  French  Clerics  redoubled 
their  efforts  to  possess  themselves  of  the  army  and  of 
the  schools.  The  Dreyfus  case  is  a  melancholy  proof  of 
their   success   in    the    former  enterprise ;  and  they  have 


144  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

made  such  strides  in  the  field  of  education  that  the  present 
Ministry  of  M.  Waldeck-Rousseau,  as  a  last  desperate 
means  of  obtaining  public  servants  who  are  not  Seminarists 
in  disguise,  has  promulgated  a  law  requiring  every  candi- 
date for  the  army  or  bureaucracy  to  have  spent  the  last 
three  years  of  his  boyhood  in  a  State  lycee  instead  of  in  a 
Jesuit  school. 

The  Rallies  in  the  French  Chamber  do  not  number  fifty, 
but  the  impulse  which  created  the  party  makes  itself  felt 
over  a  far  wider  area.  It  is  equally  responsible  for  the 
degraded  Nationalism  of  Rochefort,  Millevoye,  and  Judet ; 
for  the  outburst  of  mediaeval  passion  against  the  Jews, 
voiced  by  Max  Regis  and  Drumont ;  for  the  conversion 
into  missionaries  of  the  Pope  of  such  men  as  Brunetiere, 
Paul  Bourget,  and  Jules  Lemaitre,  of  whom  the  last  was 
not  so  long  ago  a  clear-sighted  Intellectual,  the  friend  of 
Renan  and  participator  of  all  his  opinions.  To  it  we  may 
also  attribute  the  flabbiness  of  politicians  like  Meline, 
Dupuy,  and  Ribot,  from  the  latter  of  whom  one  expected 
something  better  than  a  silent  approval  of  the  abomin- 
ations of  Mercier  and  his  accomplices. 

To  a  much  larger  extent  than  anyone  would  suppose, 
who  has  not  narrowly  scanned  the  evidence  adduced  by 
the  Public  Prosecutor,  M.  Bulot,  in  their  recent  trial,  the 
Assumptionist  monks  have  conduced  to  this  general  re- 
action in  France.  The  Pere  Picard,  the  General  Superior 
of  the  congregation,  when  interrogated,  defined  its  aims  to 
be  primarily  of  a  religious  order,  but  accessorily  political 
also,  so  far  as  politics  depend  on  religion.  "  Other  ques- 
tions," he  said,  "  only  come  within  our  scope  incidentally, 
or  anyhow  as  depending  from  the  religious  idea,  because 


THE   FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  145 


this  latter  dominates  everything."  The  notorious  Pere 
Bailly,  editor-in-chief  of  the  many  Croix  which  circulate 
in  France,  made  the  same  admission  ;  though  some  of  the 
other  defendants,  Peres  Vaujoux,  Jacquot,  Maubon,  Chicard, 
and  Chabaud,  had  not  about  them  this  minimum  of  honesty, 
and  stoutly  denied  that  their  association  pursued  any  but 
strictly  religious  aims. 

In  the  English  Press,  even  in  such  well-informed  organs 
as  The  Standard  and  Spectator,  one  reads  from  time  to 
time  that  the  French  Republicans  have  provoked  the  just 
wrath  of  the  Latin  Hierarchybytheir  wanton  and  gratuitous 
attacks  upon  the  religious  congregations,  as  if  the  latter 
were  harmless  groups  of  devoted  clergymen  following 
purely  religious  aims,  inspired  with  and  setting  themselves 
to  inspire  others  with  purely  spiritual  ideals.  Those  who 
write  in  this  way  in  our  English  journals  imagine  that 
the  political  impartiality,  one  might  almost  say  magna- 
nimity, traditional  among  English  clergymen  as  a  body, 
is  also  the  attitude  of  French  monks.  It  is  well,  therefore, 
to  draw  a  picture  of  the  political  and  electoral  activity  of 
these  innocent  Assumptionist  monks,  most  of  whom  pro- 
fess to  play  a  merely  religious  part.  We  are  able  to  draw 
it  from  records  of  their  own  seized  in  their  convents  in 
November  of  last  year  by  the  French  police,  and  read  out 
in  their  public  trial  in  the  course  of  last  January. 

In  Italy,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  the  policy  of  the  Vatican 
to  hold  aloof  from  political  elections ;  but  in  France  the 
Assumptionists  have  devised,  at  the  instance  of  the  Pope 
and  his  curia,  an  electoral  organization  which  would  put 
to  shame  the  most  expert  American  bosses.  Tlirir  motto 
is  Adveniat  regnnm  ttuim,  their  professed  aim  the  triumph 

K 


146  THE    CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 


on    earth   of  the    Spirit   of  the    Crucified   Jesus.     Their 
methods,  however,  are  painfully  secular,  and  for  the  last 
twenty  years  have  merely  centred  round  the  polling-booth. 
In  1880  they  were  dispersed  as  an  unauthorized  religious 
congregation  ;  but  in  the  same  year  they  re-formed  their 
ranks,  and  in  1883  they  founded  the  Croix,  a  daily  journal 
which  has  for  its  frontispiece  a  large  wood-cut  of  Christ 
on  the  Cross.     There  are,  beside  the  Paris  edition  of  the 
Croix,  nearly  one  hundred  provincial  editions.     They  are 
all   similar  in  form  and  sentiment,  and  differ  chiefly  in 
their   local   news.     There   is  also  a  Croix  de  la  Marine, 
which  is  circulated  among  the  sailors  by  their  clerically- 
minded  admirals.     To  maintain  uniformity  among  all  these 
journals  there  is,  beside  the  hundred  odd  provincial  com- 
mittees, a  central  committee,  which  edits  a  secret  journal 
only   distributed   to   members   of   the   local   committees. 
This  journal  is  entitled  the  Croix  des  Comites.     Its  task  is 
to  keep  the  local  editors  in  step  with  each  other,  to  unify 
and  guide  their  policy.     The  use  of  the  Croix  in  all  its 
editions,  as  well  as  of  some  thirty  other  daily  and  weekly 
journals  edited  by  the  Congregation,  is  to  "spread   the 
light,"  that  is,  to  disseminate  hatred  of  Jews  and  Protestants, 
distrust  of  modern  science,  a  spirit  of  grovelling  super- 
stition and  prostration  before  the  priests,  and  above  all  a 
fanatical  rejection  of  all  liberal  ideas,  of  tolerance,  of  lay 
education.     Another  influential  committee  exists  to  trans- 
late into  political  action  the  spirit  thus  diff"used  among  the 
people.     This  is  the  Comite  Jiistice-Egalite,  which  ramifies 
all  over  France,  and  of  which  the  inner  ring,  or  Secretariat, 
is  presided  over  by  the  Assumptionist  monk,  Pere  Adeodat. 
Yet  other  committees  exist  of  the  same  kind  and  pursuing 


THE   FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  147 

similar  aims,  e.g.,  the  Comite  de  VAve-Maria,  and  the  Work 
or  CEuvre  de  Notre  Dame  dii  Saint.  The  reader  must  not 
be  shocked  by  the  frequent  abuse  of  sacred  names  and 
paraphernaHa  by  this  clerical  Tammany  Ring. 

The    Pere   Adeodat   has   a   secretary   of  the   name  of 
Alexandre  Laya,  who,  in  a  document  seized  last  year  in 
a    monk's  cell  at  Moulins,  gives  us  a  summary  of  the 
work  carried  on  by  the  Assumptionists  during  the  years 
1897  and  1898  in  Paris  and  the  provinces,  "  in  both  of 
which  places,  thanks  be  to    God,  their  efforts   have  not 
been  in    vain."      In    Paris,   he   says,   the   Assumptionist 
Committees  began  to   work  at    the   municipal   elections 
four  or  five  years  ago,  and  at  once  established  an  union 
of  all  the   Catholic   groups.      At   the   former   municipal 
elections  they  made  an  impression  ;  and  this  May  they 
have  secured  a  majority,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  Paris 
Civic  Council,  demonstrating  their  strength  and  impor- 
tance, and  avenging  themselves  on   the    Government  of 
Waldeck-Rousseau,    which    in    January   prosecuted    and 
fined  them  sixteen  francs  a  head.     But  let  us  return  to 
the  document  of  M.  Laya.     We  learn  from  it  that  the 
work  already  crowned  with  success  in  Paris  was  long  ago 
begun  in  the  provinces   as  well.     Letters  and  circulars 
were  showered  all  over  France,  agitators   sent  down  to 
stir  up  people,  and  permanent  politico-religious  caucuses 
formed  in  all  the  centres.     The  aim  of  these  provincial 
caucuses  was  the  same  as  in  Paris — namely,  to  co-ordinate 
for  a  common  effort  all  the  motley  groups,  united  by  no 
bond  save  a  common   hatred  of  a  well-ordered  liberty. 
Jules  Guesde,  the  Anarchist-Socialist,  D6rouledc  and  the 
dregs  of  Boulangism,  Pere  Dulac,  the  Due  d'Orlcans,  M. 


148  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

Buffet,  and  all  the  professors  of  the  religious  obscurantism 
now  fashionable,  have  been,  by  the  efforts  of  M.  Adeodat, 
welded  into  the  Nationalist  Party.  To  use  M.  Laya's 
phrase,  all  the  "  honest  groups  "  have  been  united,  and 
their  electoral  programme  is  defined  to  be  the  same  as 
that  of  the  Croix.  It  is  the  so-called  programme  of 
Christian  schools,  of  the  propaganda  of  the  faith,  of  St. 
Frangois  de  Sales.  It  is  the  sum  of  all  "  good  "  works 
promoted  and  sustained  by  Christian  generosity  for  the 
glory  of  God,  for  the  welfare  of  souls,  and  the  salvation 
of  the  Patrie.  It  is,  in  short,  applied  Catholicism. 
Whenever  there  is  voting  these  caucuses  are  to  work  for 
the  return  of  the  "good"  Catholics.  No  election  is 
beyond  their  scope ;  municipal,  cantonal,  legislative, 
presidential,  and  even  elections  of  Chambers  of  Com- 
merce and  of  Agriculture — all  alike  are  to  be  watched 
and  provided  for.  Without  such  organization,  says  M. 
Laya — and  he  is  right, — nine-tenths  of  the  electors  might 
at  the  bottom  be  on  our  side,  and  yet  we  should  continue 
to  be  beaten  at  elections. 

The  duties  of  the  Assumptionist  caucus  are-  thus 
defined : — It  shall  occupy  itself  with  revisions  of  the 
register  of  voters,  shall  study  diligently  the  body  of 
electors,  their  wants  and  the  currents  of  opinion  which 
stir  them.  With  every  elector  its  members  must  be 
personally  acquainted,  so  as  to  set  him  in  one  of  three 
classes — viz.,  good,  bad,  or  doubtful.  The  "good" 
electors  must  be  reinforced,  marshalled  in  battalions, 
encouraged  to  become  apostles  of  the  good  cause.  The 
doubtful  ones  and  waverers  must  be  won  over.  The  bad 
ones  had  better  be  left  alone,  at  least  to  begin  with. 


THE   FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  149 


Among  the  "good,"  propagandism  is  to  take  the  form 
of  lectures,  pamphlets,  processions,  and,  when  an  election 
is  at  hand,  of  "  crusades  of  prayer."  The  list  of  candi- 
dates must  be  prepared,  handbills  printed  and  distributed. 
Every  polling-booth  must  be  watched,  frauds  and  acts  of 
personation  followed  up  and  punished  by  annullation  of 
the  elections  at  which  they  were  employed  ;  those  polls, 
however,  where,  by  use  of  such  m.eans,  the  vote  of  the 
faithful  wins,  must  be  upheld  against  the  indictments  of 
the  enemy.  The  party  of  the  Croix,  in  fine,  must  ever  be 
in  the  breach,  holding  the  enemy  perpetually  in  check. 
Silently  and  without  flagging  the  committee  of  "Justice- 
Equality  "  is  to  pursue  in  all  elections  the  work  so 
eminently  desired  by  Leo  XIII.,  and  so  necessary  to 
P'rance.  So  far  M.  Laya,  from  whom  all  these  details 
are  drawn. 

Another  secret  document  read  in  court  at  the  trial  of 
the  Assumptionists  on  January  22nd  gave  further  details 
of  how  the  work  of  Clerical  propagandism  is  pushed 
forward.  A  committee  must  be  got  together  in  the  chief 
town  of  every  department,  or,  better  still,  of  every 
electoral  district,  composed  of  laymen  or  priests.  How 
got  together  ?  asks  the  writer,  who  answers  his  own 
question.  To  raise  such  a  committee,  he  declares,  only 
needs  a  man  of  action,  and,  thank  Heaven,  there  are  still 
left  such  men  in  France.  Let  such  a  one  take  the  bull 
by  the  horns,  and  one  fine  day  assemble  three  or  four,  or, 
maybe,  ten  of  his  friends.  The  number  he  begins  with 
does  not  matter.  It  will  soon  grow.  The  main  thing  is 
to  make  a  beginning,  and  at  this  staf,'c  of  the  proceedings 
the  local  Croix  can  give  valuable  aid,  and  even  supply  a 


150  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

committee  ready  made.  Care  must  be  taken  to  obtain  a 
competent  secretary,  for  he  is  the  prime  wheel  in  the 
mechanism.  He  must  be  an  educated  man,  with  some 
knowledge  of  law,  keen,  clear-headed,  gifted  with  com- 
mon-sense, and,  above  all,  with  affability. 

Such  a  secretary,  we  are  told,  will  often  have  to  be  paid 
— and  that  to  the  mind  of  our  good  monks  is  the  only 
inconvenient  thing  about  him. 

The  committee  thus  formed  and  the  secretary  found, 
the  next  step  is  to  examine  in  detail  the  political  con- 
ditions of  the  borough  or  electoral  region.  Each  member 
of  the  committee  must  take  in  hand  two  or  three,  or 
more,  of  the  communes  or  parishes  which  make  it  up  ; 
and  they  must  begin  by  procuring  lists  of  the  voters,  for 
without  such  lists  they  will  be  working  in  the  dark.  And 
here  the  inborn  secretiveness  of  the  Clerical  worker  is 
shown  by  the  writer  of  the  document  I  am  summarizing. 
It  is  much  better,  he  says,  to  go  to  the  head  centre  of 
the  arrondissenient  (electoral  district)  or  of  the  department 
for  such  lists  than  to  the  mayors  of  the  communes  ;  for  in 
these  petty  centres,  even  where  the  presiding  officer  is  a 
safe  man,  the  clerk  is  apt  to  be  the  schoolmaster,  and 
will  be  likely  to  set  his  wits  to  work  and  make  suppositions 
about  what  the  list  is  wanted  for.  "  He  is  quite  capable, 
indeed,  of  suspecting  that  the  person  who  asks  for  the  list 
means  to  busy  himself  over  the  elections." 

Let  us  suppose  that  the  several  members  of  the  Croix 
committee  have  secured  the  lists  they  need  in  the  round- 
about way  described  ;  the  duty  which  next  devolves  on 
them  is  to  secure  each  in  the  one  or  two  communes  or 
parishes  selected  by  him  an  agent  or  representative  of  the 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  151 


Fathers  of  the  Assumption.  And  in  the  rules  laid  down 
for  the  choice  of  such  an  agent  the  fox-like  cunning  of 
these  monks,  who,  by  the  way,  never  weary  of  maligning 
the  Freemasons  for  the  reputed  secrecy  of  their  propa- 
ganda, is  strikingly  apparent.  The  local  agents  are  not 
to  know  that  they  are  acting  for  the  Assumptionists,  but 
are  to  be  altogether  ignorant  of  their  relations  with  them. 

Such  a  requirement  seems,  at  first  sight,  impossible  of 
achievement ;  and  yet  the  secret  document  assures  us 
that  in  nearly  all  the  departments  the  Fathers  have 
secured  agents  in  every  commune  who  fulfil  this  condition 
of  ignorance.  It  is  only  possible  if  the  member  of  the 
central  committee  of  the  province  or  electoral  district 
takes  care  that  all  communications  between  the  agent  in 
the  commune  and  the  Fathers  themselves  should  pass 
through  himself.  He  has  a  Jekyll  and  Hyde  part  to  play, 
posing  as  a  good  Republican  to  the  agent,  who  is  a  puppet 
in  his  hands,  and  as  the  obscurantist  and  anti-Republican 
that  he  really  is  to  the  good  Fathers. 

The  agent  or  correspondent  in  the  commune — and  \n 
France  there  are  about  38,000  communes — is,  so  we 
read,  to  be  of  a  certain  age,  of  good  position,  liked  and 
respected  by  as  many  as  possible,  above  all  a  conscientious 
man  and  of  irreproachable  life.  The  central  committee 
man  will  not  approach  him  as  an  emissary  of  the  Fathers, 
but  will  just  ask  him  to  help  him  as  a  private  individual  by 
informing  him  quietly  of  all  that  ^oes  on  in  his  village,  of 
all  that  concerns  either  its  common  life  or  the  lives  of  the 
individuals  living  in  it.  "  If  the  village  correspondent 
wants  to  know  what  you  arc  about,  you  will  lell  him," 
says  our  document,  "that  it  lies  in  your  power  to  smooth 


152  THE    CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

away  difficulties  and  render  services.  You  must  not  give 
him  the  name  and  address  of  the  secretary  of  the  general 
committee  unless  you  are  quite  sure  of  your  man.  Never 
let  him  know  that  it  is  for  the  Assumptionist  Fathers  that 
you  are  so  busy  over  electoral  matters." 

The  particular  services  to  be  rendered  by  the  uncon- 
scious parish  agent  of  the  Assumptionists  are  next 
described.  He  is  to  be  given  the  list  of  local  voters  and 
asked  to  note  after  the  name  of  each  whether  he  is  good, 
bad,  or  doubtful.  If  possible,  the  opinions  of  others  in 
the  place  are  to  be  obtained.  "  You  must  get  together 
several  persons  and  read  out  to  them  the  names  on  the 
list  one  by  one,  and  ascertain  from  them  the  opinions  of 
each  voter.  Very  often  they  will  disagree,  and  one  voter 
will  be  reported  good  by  one  and  bad  by  another.  In 
that  case  you  must  set  him  down  as  doubtful." 

The  village  correspondent  in  his  turn  is  to  seek  the  co- 
operation of  as  many  young  men  as  he  can  of  twenty-five 
to  thirty-five  years  of  age  ;  and  unmarried,  if  possible, 
because  unmarried  men  have  no  wives  to  gossip,  have 
more  liberty,  and  are,  as  a  rule,  less  lazy.  These- can- 
vassers, as  we  should  call  them  in  England,  must  be 
carefully  kept  in  the  dark  in  regard  to  the  Assumptionists, 
nor  must  they  know  that  they  form  part  of  an  organiza- 
tion ramifying  all  over  France.  "  Once  more,"  says  the 
secret  document,  "  what  we  want  to  effect  is  good,  and 
not  merely  to  make  a  noise."  It  is  essential  to  conceal 
from  the  agent  in  the  commune  the  cause  for  which  he  is 
really  at  work.  Neither  he  nor  the  canvassers  he  collects 
in  his  village  must  suspect  that  they  are  affiliated  to  the 
central  committee  of  the  jfustice-Egalite. 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  153 

We  have  thus  the  outline  of  a  complete  electoral 
organization  ;  of  which  only  the  upper  grades  know  what 
they  are  about,  while  the  lower  ones  work  in  the  dark  for 
employers  of  whom  they  would  be  ashamed  if  they  knew 
who  they  were.  A  complete  service  exists,  says  the 
document,  so  soon  as  the  central  committee  of  the  pro- 
vince, its  secretary,  village  correspondents  and  their 
delegates  or  canvassers  have  been  created.  The  Assump- 
tionists  will  have  then  created  "an  administration  along- 
side of  the  administration,  a  mayor  and  justice  of  the 
peace  alongside  of  the  ordinary  mayor  and  justice  of  the 
peace." 

Certainly  the  Assumptionists  deserve  to  succeed,  in  so 
far  as  energy  and  thoroughness  merit  success.  They  have 
organized  in  France  a  State  within  the  State,  with  a  secret 
police  of  their  own.  A  staff  of  public  lecturers,  who 
ostensibly  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Assumptionists  and 
are  to  deny  all  connection  with  them,  completes  the 
edifice,  which  might  well  excite  the  envy  of  a  Russian 
Minister  of  the  Interior. 

Let  us  suppose  an  election  is  at  hand,  and  the  machine 
so  carefully  elaborated  is  to  be  set  to  work.  The  boss  or 
member  of  the  great  provincial  committee  will  go  round 
to  each  parish  or  commune  beforehand,  and  interview  his 
collaborators  singly  or  together.  It  will  be  best,  however, 
on  this  occasion  to  see  them  one  by  one,  or  in  small 
groups  of  two  or  three  at  a  time ;  for  he  will  so  obtain 
more  detailed  information  about  things,  and  will  avoid 
exciting  the  suspicions  of  the  enemy,  who,  did  they  know 
the  forces  arrayed  against  them,  would  redouble  their 
watchfulness. 


154  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

It  will  be  understood  that  the  party  of  the  Assump- 
tionists  is  not  so  strong  or  popular  in  France  as  to  be  able 
to  run  candidates  of  its  own,  except  in  a  very  few  dis- 
tricts ;  but  their  compact  and  secret  organization  has 
enabled  them  to  influence  elections  almost  everywhere  ; 
and  in  May,  i8g6,  they  everywhere  heckled  the  Candidates 
about  the  Dreyfus  case,  with  the  result  that  a  Chamber 
was  elected  capable  of  applauding  Cavaignac  and  of 
ordering  Henry's  forgeries  to  be  posted  up  in  every  com- 
mune of  France. 

In  most  constituencies  a  candidate  who  frankly  came 
forward  as  a  Clerical  would  have  no  chance  ;  but  there 
is  less  difficulty  in  procuring  candidates  who  profess 
Republican  principles,  yet  are  ready  to  sacrifice  them 
under  pressure.  The  aim  of  the  Justice-Egalite  Com- 
mittee is  therefore  to  secure  the  return  of  squeezable 
candidates ;  and  in  a  secret  circular  addressed  to  its 
members  and  seized  at  Moulins,  in  the  Assumptionist 
convent,  we  read  the  following  : — 

"  In  districts  where  it  is  possible,  our  friends  will  avail  themselves  of 
local  conditions  and  of  the  state  of  opinion  among  the  voters  to  choose  a 
candidate  who  is  out-and-out  Catholic  and  faithful  to  pontifical  directions. 
Short  of  that  they  will  demand  of  the  candidate  a  minimum  at  least  of 
concessions,  substantial  and  made  in  writing." 

That  the  above  is  no  vain  pretension  was  shown  by  the 
famous  Pact  of  Bordeaux,  so  called.  This  was  a  sort  of 
Kilmainham  Treaty,  under  which  the  Anarchist  or  extreme 
Socialist  candidates  secretly  agreed  with  the  Justice- 
Egalite  League  to  aid  the  Clericals  in  return  for  their 
support  at  the  polls.  The  pact  succeeded  admirably  for 
a  time.     In  Italy  the  Clericals  have  long  intrigued  in  the 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  155 

same  way  with  the  more  turbulent  and  irreconcilable  of 
the  Socialists,  much  to  the  detriment  of  the  country  and 
without  likelihood  of  permanent  profit  to  the  Papacy. 
The  priestly  ambition  in  that  country  is  to  dislodge  the 
King  and  his  Government.  It  is  forgotten  that  the  Pope 
would  follow  the  King  out  of  Rome  within  six  weeks. 

Beside  the  Croix  in  its  numerous  issues,  the  Justice- 
Egalite  League  has  a  journal  of  its  own  bearing  the  same 
title ;  and  in  order  to  make  use  of  the  women,  who  in 
France  are  the  mainstay  of  sacerdotalism,  there  is  a 
special  branch  of  the  propaganda  called  the  "  Work  of 
Notre  Dame  de  Saltit,"  with  sub-committees  called  of  Joan 
of  Arc  and  Ave  Maria.  Nothing  proves  the  sagacity  of 
the  Assumptionist  Fathers  so  clearly  as  the  care  with 
which  they  everywhere  enrol  the  women,  and  set  them  to 
exercise  pressure  on  the  men.  A  chief  reason  why  at  this 
moment  Jewish  and  Protestant  officials  are  so  detested  in 
France  by  the  Clericals  is,  that  the  priests  cannot  get  at 
them  through  their  womenkind. 

The  association  of  Noire  Dame  de  Saint  was  founded 
immediately  after  the  Commune,  and  was  blessed  by  the 
Pope  and  enriched  with  special  indulgences  in  a  brief 
dated  May  17th,  1872.  It  is  controlled  by  a  council  of 
Assumptionist  monks,  has  its  staff,  its  president,  Pere 
Picard,  and  secretary,  Pere  Bailly  ;  its  own  fund,  superior 
and  offices  in  the  Assumptionist  Monastery  at  8,  Rue 
Fran9ois  I.,  Paris.  Its  aims,  and  those  of  the  sub-com- 
mittees we  have  named,  are  defined  as  consisting  in  united 
prayer  for  the  conversion  of  France  to  Jesus  Christ 
through  Christian  legislation,  unity  of  effort  among 
Catholics,   and    the    triumph    of    the   Church.     Zealous 


156  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

women  are  chosen  as  its  associates,  who  distribute  every 
month  its  httle  blue  journal  and  collect  funds  to  carry  on 
the  work.  The  first  duty  of  these  zealous  females,  mar- 
shalled under  the  Pere  Bailly,  is  defined  to  be  electoral 
work.  This  is  declared  by  the  circular  of  the  League  of 
the  Ave  Maria  to  be  the  work  of  works.  "  The  women 
of  France,"  it  declares,  "  anxious  to  preserve  for  their 
country  the  religion  which  is  its  grandeur  and  strength, 
have  resolved  to  combine  in  order  to  uphold  the  interests 
of  faith  and  fatherland."  Their  duties  are  many.  In  the 
first  place,  to  disseminate  the  Croix  and  other  publications 
of  the  bonne  Presse.  It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  just  as 
the  mediseval  Dissenters,  often  Manicheans  and  always 
arrayed  against  the  State,  which  in  those  days  was 
Catholic,  denominated  themselves  the  boni  homines,  so 
the  Ultramontanes  of  to-day,  equally  inimical  to  the 
State,  but  inimical  for  reasons  far  less  respectable,  talk  of 
bonnes  elections,  of  bonne  legislation,  of  their  bonne  Presse. 
Good  in  their  slang  means  obscurantist  and  reactionary. 

The  next  duty  of  this  female  league  is  to  use  whatever 
domestic  influence  they  have  on  the  side  of  the  Croix^3.nd 
its  ideas.  They  have  servants,  tradesmen,  all  sorts  of 
proteges,  on  whom  they  can  put  pressure ;  and  through  the 
wives  of  the  poor  people  they  must  seek  to  influence  the 
popular  voter.  Thirdly,  they  must  see  that  a  "good" 
tone  dominates  their  salons ;  and  this  is  the  field  on 
which  they  must  combat  with  tact  and  prudence  the 
inertia  and  prejudices  of  some,  the  vain  excuses  and 
witticisms  of  others.  The  salon  is  the  best  medium  in 
which  to  work  upon  and  win  over  waverers.  Lastly,  they 
must  be  at  their  posts  in  election  times,  foregoing  every 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  157 


social  engagement  in  order  to  be  present  in  their  various 
constituencies.  Inside  their  homes  the  women  must  take 
care  that  their  children  are  brought  up  in  the  faith  and 
conformably  to  the  ideas  of  the  Croix,  so  tliat  they  may 
be  zealous  Catholics  when  they  grow  up.  They  must 
also  collect  funds  for  the  jfustice-Egalitc  League,  must 
perpetually  warn  their  friends  against  sending  their  sons 
to  State  schools  instead  of  to  those  kept  by  Jesuits, 
Christian  brothers,  and  other  monks.  They  must  help  to 
unmask  the  Freemasons  and  the  Jews,  taking  care  not  to 
deal  with  them  to  the  detriment  of  Catholic  shopkeepers. 

The  Assumptionists  have  organized  yet  other  guilds 
and  leagues  for  girls,  whom  they  try  to  turn  into  propa- 
gandists from  the  moment  of  their  first  communion. 
There  is  also  an  order  of  "  Knights  of  the  Cross,"  formed 
of  young  men  over  eighteen.  They  are  admitted  after  a 
period  of  six  months'  probation,  three  as  noviciates  and 
three  as  postulants  ;  and  on  the  morning  of  their  admission 
they  make  a  solemn  declaration  on  their  knees  before  the 
altar  and  sign  a  promise  that  they  will  be  true  to  the  rules 
and  obligations  of  the  order.  Their  duty  is  to  propagate 
the  principles  of  the  Assumptionists,  and  to  insinuate 
themselves  into  households  for  that  purpose. 

Secret  dossiers  by  the  thousand  were  found  in  the 
Assuniptionist  houses  of  all  the  prominent  men  in  France. 
At  Bordeaux,  under  the  mattress  of  one  of  the  monks, 
was  hidden  the  dossier  of  M.  Charles  Bernard,  Anarchist- 
Socialist  Deputy  for  that  city.  It  was  a  closely-written 
book  fifty  pages  long,  drawn  up  by  a  Catholic  lady  who 
had  been  instigated  by  the  monks  to  insinuate  herself  into 
the  home  of  M.  Bernard's  mother  and  ingratiate  herself 


158  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 


with  her  for  the  express  purpose  of  spying  on  him.  It 
chronicled  his  actions  and  words,  day  by  day  and  hour 
by  hour.  M.  Bernard  is  one  of  the  Deputies  whom  the 
Assumptionists  (in  a  secret  list  drawn  up  by  Pere  Picard 
and  seized  at  Bordeaux)  claim  to  have  returned  to  the 
Chamber  by  their  efforts.  We  find  M.  Bernard's  act  of 
capitulation  to  them.  It  is  addressed  to  the  Pere  Laver- 
dure,  and  runs  thus  : — 

"My  Dear  Friend,— You  ask  me  on  which  side  I  shall  sit.  Beside 
M.  Drumont,  of  course.  Anti-Semite  I  am,  and  shall  always  remain, 
along  with  other  champions  of  liberty  ;  never  with  the  sectaries.  As  for 
the  congregations,  I  shall  demand  for  them,  you  may  be  sure,  the  rights 
common  to  all  citizens." 

We  have  seen  how  much  store  these  descendants  of 
inquisitors  set  by  the  women,  and  so  are  not  surprised  to 
hear  of  the  seizure  in  their  cells  at  Bordeaux  of  lists  of 
the  wives  of  electors  all  over  France.  They  were  com- 
piled, in  response  to  a  special  appeal,  in  all  but  four  or 
five  departments  of  France.  In  these  lists  the  women 
are  divided  into  two  classes  only  :  those  who  are  devout 
and  practising  Catholics  and  those  who  are  not ;  the 
"better"  and  the  "less  good"  among  the  husbands  are 
those  whose  wives  fall  into  one  or  the  other  of  these 
categories. 

The  English  public  is  by  now  familiar  with  the  Croix, 
for  which  Cardinal  Vaughan,  writing  in  The  Times,  could 
find  no  better  excuse  than  that  it  was  a  "  cheap  "  paper. 
The  importance  which  the  French  monks  attach  to  the 
dissemination  of  this  poisonous  sheet  may  be  measured 
by  the  rules  they  make  for  the  choice  of  Camelots  or 
street-vendors  of  it : — 


THE  FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  159 


"Choose,"  so  we  read  in  these  impounded  secret  documents,  "a  small 
boy  ten  to  fifteen  years  of  age,  sharp  and  good-looking.  A  small  boy  is 
better  than  an  older  one,  because  he  has  a  certain  cheek  about  him,  which, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  often  disappears  when  he  is  a  little  older.  He  is  not  so 
shy  about  forcing  his  paper  upon  people,  and  does  not  mind  worrying  them, 
making  his  way  into  private  houses  and  bars,  where  he  will  bother  the  people 
drinking  till  he  gets  their  halfpence  out  of  them.  If  the  children  you  engage 
are  a  little  shy  to  begin  with,  and  afraid  of  their  elders,  entrust  the  first  sales 
to  several  at  once.     When  they  are  together  they  have  more  pluck." 

We  also  find  instructions  to  inundate  an  entire  town 
with  the  Croix,  distributing  it  for  two  or  three  days 
gratuitously  so  as  to  secure  it  a  footing.  It  is  also  to  be 
sold  on  the  steps  of  every  church. 

In  England  a  vast  poHtical  organization  like  the  Prim- 
rose League  cannot  be  carried  on  for  nothing,  nor  can  the 
Assumptionists  maintain  such  a  propaganda  as  the  pre- 
ceding pages  reveal  without  ample  funds.  That  they 
have  these  at  their  disposal  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  in 
November  last  the  police  commissioned  to  search  their 
premises  in  Paris  found  a  sum  of  nearly  two  million  francs 
in  the  safe  of  their  treasurer,  Pere  Hippolyte;  and  the 
police  commissary,  when  he  expressed  surprise  at  their 
keeping  so  vast  a  sum  in  ready  money,  was  assured  by 
another  of  the  Fathers  that  in  proportion  to  their  daily 
disbursements,  it  was  not  excessive.  It  is  also  one  of 
their  cardinal  doctrines  that  money  expended  in  dis- 
seminating the  Croix  is  better  spent  than  in  building 
churches  or  in  alms.  In  an  anonymous  pamphlet  of  the 
Justicc-Ef;alite  committee  we  have  such  sentiments  as  the 
following  : — 

"Ah!  If  I  had  only  known  it  earlier!  What  a  lot  of  money  wasted 
without  advancing  the  '  good  '  cause  a  single  step  I     Praise  be  to  God, 


i6o  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

who  has  put  into  my  hands  this  precious  instrument  (viz.,  the  Croix)  of 
apostleship.  Until  now  I  confined  myself  to  succouring  physical  misery, 
to  adorning  and  embellishing  the  House  of  God,  to  aiding  the  erection  of 
new  shrines.  And  now  I  find,  after  sacrificing  the  better  part  of  my  income 
in  this  way,  that  even  if  there  be  in  my  parish  somewhat  fewer  poor 
people,  there  is  not  one  Christian  the  more.  For  while  I  was  relieving 
their  bodies  evil  journals  were  assassinating  their  souls.  The  more  I 
embellished  the  House  of  God,  the  more  these  journals  disfigured  and 
soiled  souls  which,  by  calling,  ought  to  be  the  living  sanctuaries  of  God. 
Down,  then,  with  the  old  tactics,  naive  and  generous,  but  too  often  un- 
fruitful. Instead  of  them  I  shall  spread  all  I  can  the  Christian  journal,  I 
shall  subscribe  to  it,  shall  preach  it  up  in  public,  shall  give  it  away." 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  the  present  article  to 
examine  at  length  the  scope  and  morality  of  this 
"  Christian  "  journal,  of  which  the  dissemination  is  to 
replace  old-fashioned  alms-giving.  In  former  numbers  of 
this  Review  I  first  edified  the  English  public  on  this 
subject,  and  subsequently  the  daily  and  weekly  Press  of 
England,  especially  The  Times,  took  the  matter  up  and 
drove  it  home.  Space  only  permits  me  in  this  con- 
nection to  notice  two  points.  One  is  the  extraordinary 
secretiveness  of  the  Assumptionists  who  have  formed  and 
control  this  vast  propaganda.  It  was  proved  that  in  their 
great  establishment  in  the  Rue  Fran9ois  I.  in  Paris  they 
had  beside  the  public  entrance  a  secret  approach  from  a 
back  street,  known  only  to  themselves.  Thus  they  were 
able  last  November  to  dodge  the  police,  who  only  found, 
when  they  entered,  such  documents  as  the  Fathers  had 
not  cared  to  remove.  At  Bordeaux  compromising 
documents  were  found  under  the  mattresses  of  the 
monks,  who  there  had  very  short  warning  of  the 
domiciliary  visit  and  no  secret  exit.  One  of  the  Fathers, 
P.   Hilaire,   of  Livry,    made    various    statements    to   the 


THE  FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  i6i 


magistrate  as  to  the  origin  of  a  sum  of  about  /'6,ooo 
spent  on  his  chapel.  This  was  in  November,  iSgg.  In 
January  of  this  year,  when  placed  upon  oath,  he  had 
quite  another  story  to  tell,  and  being  asked  to  explain  the 
discrepancy,  coolly  replied  that  on  the  former  occasion  he 
was  not  under  oath  nor  liable  to  punishment  if  he  con- 
cealed the  truth  ;  he  did  not  feel  himself  compelled  to  tell 
the  truth  except  when  he  was  put  on  oath  !  * 

•  The  Jesuits  long  ago  discovered  the  doctrine  of  mental  reserve.  The 
Assuniptionists  have  accepted  their  doctrine  and  made  many  fresh  discoveries  of 
their  own.  For  surely  it  is  something  new  and  unheard  of  that  the  advent  of  the 
Kin£;dom  of  God  upon  earth  can  be  hastened  by  the  dissemination  in  the  columns 
of  the  Croix  of  a  ribald  song,  originally  printed  in  the  Lidre  Parole  of  Drumonl, 
and  written  to  celebrate  the  attempted  assassination  at  Rennes  of  that  fearless 
champion  of  truth  and  justice,  the  advocate  of  Dreyfus,  Maftre  Labori.  In  every 
one  of  the  eight  or  more  stanzas  of  this  song  there  is  open  approbation  of 
assassination  and  lightly  concealed  obscenity.     Its  refrain  is  as  follows  : — 

"  As-tu  vu 
Le  trou  d'balle,  le  trou  d'balle, 

As-tu  vu 
Le  trou  d'balle  a  Labori." 

And  the  last  two  stanzas  are  these  : — 

"  Bref,  apr6s  tant  de  Souffrance, 
L'avocat  est  venu 
Prendre  sa  place  i  I'audience 
En  gardant  sa  balle  dans  le  .  .  .  dos. 

II  a  fait  une  belle  harangue, 

Son  bagout  a  reparu — 
Y  a  rien  qui  ddlie  la  langue, 
Comme  d'avoir  une  balle  dans  .  .  .  I'dos." 

Such  is  the  literature  which  P^re  Bailly,  the  welcome  visitor  of  the  Vatican  and 
the  darling  of  the  French  Episcopacy,  is  not  ashamed  to  disseminate.  "  Buy  as 
many  numbers  as  you  can  of  the  Croix,"  so  we  read  in  one  of  his  secret  circulars 
(July  12,  1899).  "  Drop  them  casually,  and  as  if  you  meant  nothing,  on  benches, 
on  the  parapets  of  walls,  under  trees  in  the  public  promcn.idcs,  on  the  se.its  in 
railway  stations  and  in  trains,  on  the  tables  of  the  cafc-s."  I.ct  us  not  forget  also 
that  the  particular  issue— it  is  167,000  on  week-days  and  350,000  on  Sundays— in 
which  Drumont's  vile  song  is  reprinted,  was  set  up  in  type,  pulled  and  sewn  by 
212  young  girls  under  the  direction  of  the  Steurs  OblaUs. 

L 


i62  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

Some  of  my  readers  may  be  saying  to  themselves : 
What  of  all  this  !  The  association  of  the  Assumptionists 
was  dissolved  by  the  French  Courts  in  January  last,  and 
the  Dreyfus  case  is  ancient  history.  And  even  if  it  be 
not,  what  concern  is  it  of  Englishmen  how  the  French 
mismanage  their  own  affairs  ? 

The  answer  to  such  criticism  is  twofold.  It  does 
matter  to  us  what  the  general  policy  of  the  Roman 
Church  is  ;  it  does  matter  how  it  is  shaped  and  controlled. 
And  when  we  find,  on  the  morrow  of  the  trial  of  these 
Assumptionist  miscreants,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris — M. 
Richard — going  to  condole  with  them,  and  M.  Gouthe- 
Soulard,  Archbishop  of  Aix,  and  other  prominent  bishops 
writing  letters  in  the  Croix  in  which  the  French  Premier, 
M.  Waldeck-Rousseau  is  insulted  and  denounced  as  a  liar 
and  a  thief,  we  can  only  conclude  that  the  Roman  Church 
approves  of  the  Croix.  When  we  furthermore  find  the 
Pope  welcoming  Pere  Bailly,  its  editor-in-chief,  and 
blessing  him  solemnly  and  in  public,  we  are  sure  that  the 
sentiments  of  the  Croix  have  got  the  upper  hand  in  the 
Vatican,  wherein  is  formed  the  public  opinion  of  CatJiolics 
all  over  the  world. 

Secondly,  it  does  matter  to  England  what  Party  is 
dominant  in  France.  It  is  true  that  the  Assumptionists 
as  a  congregation  have  now  been  once  more  dissolved ; 
but  monks,  who  for  years  evaded  the  payment  of  taxes  on 
their  houses  by  nominally  entrusting  them  to  men  of 
straw,  will  soon  begin  afresh  under  some  alias  or  other. 
It  is  true  that  the  Vatican  has  forbidden  them  in  their 
capacity  as  monks  to  write  any  more  about  politics,  but 
they  will  write  in  some  other  capacity.     And  even  if  they 


THE  FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  163 


do  not,  they  have  done  their  work ;  for  at  this  moment 
they  and    their  Party  are    really  dominant   in    France. 
This  the  recent  almost    unanimous  vote   of   the  French 
Chamber  proves.     The  Waldeck- Rousseau  Ministry  was 
suspected  of  a  design  not  so  much  to  revive  the  Dreyfus 
case  as  to  allow  certain  actions,  compromising  to  Mercier, 
Boisdeffre  and  the  late  Colonel    Henry,  to  be  threshed 
out  publicly  in  the  Law  Courts.     Accordingly  a  Deputy 
named    Chapuis   in   the   last   days   of    May   proposed   a 
resolution    pledging    the    Government   to    prevent   any 
further  discussion     of   the   case ;    and   the   Government 
bowed  to  what  was   clearly  the   general   feeling   of   the 
House.      No   other    vote   so    damaging   to    France,    so 
eloquent  of  the  moral   rottenness   of  her  politicians,  of 
their    slavish  readiness    to  drown   all   considerations   of 
truth  and  justice  in  order  to  protect  a  Mercier,  has  ever 
been  passed.     The  vote  of  July  7th,  1898,  decreeing  that 
Henry's  forgery   should  be  posted   up  in   all    the   com- 
munes  of   France,   was    not    half   so  dishonouring;    for 
ignorance  had  nearly  as  much  to  do  with  it  as  fear  of 
the  Generals.     Now  every  Frenchman  is  fully  informed, 
and   every    Deputy    has   in    his   hands   the    evidence   of 
Dreyfus'   innocence    and   of   Mercier's   guilt.      Yet  they 
pass  with  only  sixty  dissentient    voices  a   resolution  of 
which  the  drift  is  to  prevent  the  victim   ever  obtaining 
redress,    and     Esterhazy's     patrons     from     ever    being 
punished.     Not  only  so,  but  journals  like  the  Fif^aro  and 
the  Aurore,  which  have  fought  well  for  the  truth,  justify 
the  vote  on  the  express  ground  that  such  "  pacification  " 
as  this  is  the  only  way  to  save  France  and  the  Republic 
from  the  peril  of  Militarism. 


i64  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

As  a  matter  of  fact  France  lies  at  the  feet  of  Generals, 
who  can  so  overawe  the  Civil  Courts  and  Parliament  that 
a  Mercier  cannot  be  brought  to  justice,  that  Labori's 
assassin  cannot  be  found,  while  a  Picquart  can  be  perma- 
nently drummed  out  of  the  Army.  For  the  last  five  years 
the  Civil  Government  has  been  engaged  in  a  death-duel 
with  a  Militarism  of  which  the  inner  heart  and  core  is 
Jesuitry.  The  Republicans  have  made  one  concession 
after  another  to  Etat-Majors  composed  of  criminals.  In- 
stead of  being  disarmed  or  pacified  the  wolf  is  all  the 
more  hungry  ;  and  old-time  Republicans,  first  M6line  and 
now  Ribot,  have  joined  the  wolves. 

The  recent  vote  of  May  22nd  is  therefore  a  triumph  for 
the  Jesuits  and  the  guilty  Generals,  their  alumni;  with 
whom  all  the  corps  of  French  officers  of  all  grades,  and 
all  that  in  France  constitutes  or  would  like  to  be  thought 
to  constitute  good  society,  stands  solidly  united.  And 
their  alliance  is  joined  and  reinforced  by  all  the  elements 
of  disorder,  as  well  as  by  a  phalanx  of  discontented  and 
conceited  literary  men  such  as  Brunetiere,  Jules  Lemaitre, 
Paul  Bourget,  Copp6e,  and  others. 

The  Waldeck-Rousseau  Ministry  pretends  and  believes 
itself  to  be  one  of  Republican  defence.  Yet  how  can  a 
Republic  live  except  by  enforcing  respect  for  justice  and 
upholding  the  equality  of  all  before  the  law.  It  has  the 
courage  to  do  neither.  As  long  as  Dreyfus  remains  under 
the  stigma  fixed  upon  him  by  the  friends  of  Esterhazy, — 
as  long  as  the  reptile  press  of  Rochefort,  Drumont,  Judet, 
and  Pere  Bailly  can  heap  on  him  and  on  those  who  have 
stood  by  him  the  epithets  which  only  befit  themselves, — 
until  the  millstone  of  scandal  and  crime  is  lifted  off  the 


THE  FRENCH   REPUBLIC.  165 

neck  of  the  country,  so  long  the  constitution  is  Republican 
in  name  alone.  Like  any  South  American  Republic,  it 
is  a  rule  of  cut-throats  varnished  over  with  a  show  of 
constitutional  forms. 

But  what  concerns  Englishmen  most  deeply  is  that  the 
Nationalists  who  really  govern  France  at  this  moment, 
seeing  that  the  soi-disant  Republicans  have  not  the  courage 
to  strike  down  their  tyranny,  are  filled  with  a  bitter  and 
irreconcilable  hatred  of  England,  of  our  free  institutions, 
and  our  religion.  For  months  their  journals,  such  as  the 
Libre  Parole,  Gaulois,  Eclair,  Intransigeant,  and  Petit 
Journal,  have  been  preaching  a  holy  war  against  the 
British  Empire.  All  these  rags  count  their  readers  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  whereas  the  more  sober  ones 
count  them  only  by  tens.  The  old  wrong  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine  is  effaced  from  the  memory  of  most  Frenchmen. 
None  remember  the  events  of  1870  save  those  who  are 
well  past  middle  age,  and  this  explains  the  fact,  so  strange 
to  outsiders,  of  the  existence  in  French  public  opinion  of 
a  strong  current  in  favour  of  an  alliance  with  the  Prussians 
against  ourselves.  The  Germans,  unlike  the  French,  will 
never  make  war  on  us  from  sentimental  reasons  ;  but 
they  would  yield  readily  to  utilitarian  ones,  and  would 
join  with  the  French  Nationalists  to-morrow  if  a  safe 
opportunity  presented  itself  of  despoiling  us  of  our  Empire. 
It  therefore  behoves  us  to  be  watchful  of  what  takes  place 
in  France. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  both  in  Germany  and  France 
the  only  Party  disposed,  during  the  dark  moments  of  the 
Transvaal  War,  to  be— I  will  not  say  just  or  favourable 
to   England,— but  sober  and  reasonable  from   a   foreign 


i66  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

standpoint,  were  the  Socialists.  In  the  Reichstag  they 
alone  have  shown  any  perception  of  how  important  to 
German  industry  it  is  that  the  open  markets  of  England 
and  the  British  Empire  should  not  be  closed  by  hostile 
tariffs,  as  they  would  be  if  they  were  controlled  by  any 
other  Power  ;  and  as  they  may  be  by  us,  if  German  envy, 
hatred,  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness  should  strain 
overmuch  our  magnanimity.  In  France  equally  it  is  the 
Socialists  who  recognize  the  enormous  importance  to 
France  of  the  English  market.  Perhaps  what  is  most 
important  about  the  Waldeck-Rousseau  Ministry  is  the 
presence  in  it  of  M.  Millerand,  the  leader  of  the  Col- 
lectivists.  It  is  the  first  time  that  a  French  Ministry  has 
comprised  a  representative  of  this  Party,  and  no  one  can 
say  that  M.  Millerand  has  not  discharged  the  duties  of 
his  portfolio — that  of  commerce — with  sobriety  and  con- 
scientiousness. The  alliance  of  the  genuine  Republicans 
with  the  Socialists  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of 
France,  and  in  future  Cabinets  the  latter  cannot  well  be 
neglected.  It  suits  the  interest  of  lukewarm  Republicans 
like  Meline  and  Ribot  to  deliver  philippics  before  meetings 
of  comfortable  French  tradesmen  against  a  Ministry  which 
has  made  terms  with  Collectivists,  but  an  alliance  with 
men  like  Millerand  and  Jaures  is  surely  more  respectable 
than  one  with  Mercier  and  Roget. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  trial  and  condemnation  in 
the  Senate  of  Deroulede  and  his  friends,  or  the  disso- 
lution of  the  Assumptionists  by  a  Law  Court,  has  really 
strengthened  the  Republic.  It  is  time  to  recognize  that 
the  policy  of  the  so-called  Liberty  of  Instruction,  instituted 
by  the  Lot  FaUoux  some  fifty  years  ago,  has  but  given  the 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  167 


control  of  the  upper  class  education  to  the  Jesuits,  and  of 
primary  schools  to  the  Freres  Ignorantins,  the  Christian 
Brothers  founded  by  the  just  canonized  saint,  La  Salle. 
Instead  of  a  really  French  education  managed   by  the 
State,  you  have  a  system  inspired  by  an  Italian  prelate 
and  managed  by  obscurantist  monks  who  take  their  orders 
from  Rome ;  and  one  has  only  to  read  the  syllabus  and 
possess  a  very  slight  acquaintance  with  Vatican  aims  and 
methods  to  realize  that  the  Lot  Falloux,  by  freely  author- 
izing other   schools   and   colleges    in  France  than  those 
immediately  under  State  control,  has  proved  a  weapon  in 
the  hands  of  Clericals,  who  enslave  the  conscience,  and 
would,  if  they  could,  destroy  all  freedom  of  speech  of  the 
Press,  nay,  the  human  intelligence  itself.     The  system  of 
allowing  monks  to  educate  children  is  no  more  satisfactory 
from  a  moral  than  from  an  intellectual  and  political  stand- 
point.    During  the  years  1897  and  1898  some  twenty-five 
monks  were  convicted  in  French  tribunals  of  indecent 
assaults  on  children,  and  were  condemned  between  them 
to  a  total  of  over  250  years'  imprisonment.      The  large 
majority  of  these  criminals  were  Christian  Brothers.     It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  such  offences  are  peculiarly 
difficult   to  bring  home,  and  for  every  conviction   there 
must   be   hundreds   who   escape.     If    our    Board-School 
teachers   had    the    same    low   morale — inseparable   from 
monkery — as  these  Christian  Brothers,  several  hundreds 
of  them  would  go  to  gaol  every  year  for  indecent  assaults 
on  the  children  confided  to  them. 

Again,  the  Waldeck- Rousseau  Ministry  is  afraid  to 
strike  down  the  real  culprits,  Mercier,  Roget,  Boisdeffre, 
and  the  other  booted  and  spurred  employers  and  patrons 


i68  THE   CONSPIRACY  AGAINST 

of  the  traitor  Esterhaz3\  They  have,  no  doubt,  banished 
Deroulede  to  the  congenial  land  of  Spain,  but  no  other 
form  of  Government  would  have  let  off  so  easily  self- 
convicted  conspirators  against  itself.  Imagine  how  the 
German  or  Russian  Governments  would  treat  individuals 
who  confessed  that  they  only  waited  for  a  better  chance 
of  overthrowing  the  rule  of  Tsar  or  Kaiser  and  sub- 
stituting another  sort  of  sovereign.  In  monarchial  States 
— Italy  apart — high  treason  is  a  real  crime,  and  punished 
as  such.  In  France,  however,  all  persons  of  good  family 
and  connections,  all  sportsmen,  all  bon  ton  society,  con- 
spire with  impunity  against  the  Republic.  And  the 
blame  rests  less  with  the  military  ruffians  than  with  the 
weak  Republicans,  the  Melines,  Dupuys,  Ribots,  who 
tolerate  them.  Even  the  turfmen  and  snobs,  who  insult 
and  assault  the  President  at  Auteuil  or  demonstrate  in  the 
streets,  only  translate  into  action  the  tone  of  their  clubs, 
and  cannot  logically  be  punished  so  long  as  Mercier  and 
Roget  are  held  in  honour. 

The  truth  is  that  in  France  justice  is  in  abeyance,  and 
honour  and  truth  are  of  no  account.  For  the  nonce, 
travelling  rugs  and  carpets  are  being  spread  out  to  cover 
up  the  torrents  of  mud  poured  out  in  the  Dreyfus  and 
Deroulede  trials.  For  the  need  for  peace  is  just  now  felt 
to  be  more  urgent  than  the  need  for  justice.  The  Exhibi- 
tion is  the  occasion  for  a  truce  of  God,  with  which, 
however,  God  has  not  much  to  do.  It  is  merely  the 
hollow  peace  of  two  groups  who  have  hung  up  questions 
of  honour  for  a  little,  but  are  ready  to  fall  on  one  another 
again.  Meanwhile,  the  fate  of  the  Republic  hangs  on  a 
hair,  which  at  any  moment  the  sabre  may  sever,  as  soon 


THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  169 

as  a  Roget  is  found  who,  instead  of  sticking  to  discreet 
'•'  forgeries,  has  the  courage  to  risk  striking  a  blow.  The 
Republic  is  saved  for  the  Exhibition  only.  The  propa- 
ganda of  a  Church  which  has  set  truth  and  justice  at  the 
bottom  of  the  scale  and  slavish  deference  to  the  priest  at 
the  top,  has  sapped  the  conscience  of  France.  True,  the 
Intellectuals  have  made  splendid  efforts  to  awake  it  and 
infuse  fresh  life.  They  have  failed  and  are  foiled.  The 
number  of  genuine  Republicans  has  probably  never  been 
very  great  in  France,  at  least,  not  among  the  bourgeois 
middle  class  ;  and  the  revolt  of  the  Repubhcan  Centre 
against  a  Government  which  leans  on  the  Socialist  Left 
gathers  strength  every  day,  and  is  now  voiced  by  journals 
like  the  Dehats  and  Temps,  of  which  the  Republicanism 
used  to  be  above  suspicion.  As  soon  as  the  doors  of  the 
Exhibition  are  closed,  if  not  before,  Waldeck- Rousseau's 
Ministry  will  fall,  and  a  MeHne  or  a  Dupuy  will  follow  with 
a  Cabinet  of  Clerical  and  Mihtarist  puppets.  The  inevit- 
able reaction  will  follow.  In  every  large  city,  including 
Paris,  there  will  be  outbursts  of  mob  violence,  and  with 
the  new  century,  France  will  definitely  enter  upon  a  fresh 
cycle  of  revolutions,  of  proscription,  and,  possibly,  of  civil 
war. 

There  is  something  pathetic  in  the  votes  of  confidence 
in  the  Army  which  the  French  Parliament  regularly 
passes  in  the  vain  hope  of  keeping  Cerberus  in  good- 
humour.     Here  is  the  last  of  the  kind  of  May  28th : — 

**  The  Chamber,  approving  of  the  acts  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  sure  of  the  loyalty  of  the  Army  to  the  country 
and  to  the  Republic,  passes  to  the  order  of  the  day." 
Imagine  an  Anglo-Saxon  Parliament  going  out  of  its  way 

M 


170  THE  CONSPIRACY  AGAINST  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC. 

to  express  its  confidence  in  the  loyalty  of   its  Army  to 
itself.     Outside  France  or  Spain  or  a  Spanish-American 
Republic  such  a  vote  is  inconceivable.     In   the    French 
Chamber  this  resolution   was  cut  in   half  and   the   part 
expressive  of   confidence   in    the    Cabinet    received    288 
votes  against  247  ;  the  little  compliment  to  the  Army  was 
voted    unanimously.      Such   votes    are    significant,    and 
mean  that  half  the  French  Chamber  is  aware  of  what  is 
the  fact — namely,    that    practically   the   entire    corps   of 
officers  is  disloyal  to  the  Republic  ;  though  it  would  be 
hard  to  define  where  else  their  loyalty  lies,  unless  indeed 
to  the  Jesuits  who  have  taught  them  and  formed  their 
characters.     The  minority  of  247,  composed  of  Royalists, 
Anti-Semites,  coup  d'etat  men,  and  Rallies,  are  all  united 
in  a  common  hatred  of  the  free  institutions  of  which  MM. 
Loubet  and    Waldeck-Rousseau   are  left   the   last   weak 
representatives.     They  invite    the   Army   daily   in   their 
Press  to  move  and   sweep  away  Parliamentary  Govern- 
ment.    With  the  Croix  they  would  probably  prefer  that 
the  Republic  should  commit  deliberate  suicide,   and  by 
way  of  regular  vote  install  a  military  dictator  responsible 
only  to  his    mistresses   and   to   the   priests   who   would 
control    their    consciences.     But    if  they   cannot   get   a 
majority  to  do  it  by  vote  they  are  quite  ready  to  eject  by 
force  M.  Loubet  and  other  symbols  of  a  real  Repubhc  ; 
and  it  is  the  knowledge  of  this  which  paralyzes  with  fear 
the  Constitutional   Party,  and  wrings  from  it  amnesties 
for  Mercier  and  other  weak  compacts  with  crime,  which, 
instead  of  disarming,  merely  embolden  the  enemy  who  is 
knocking  at  the  gate. 


Printed  by  Curtis  &■  Beamish,  Ltd.,  Coventry. 


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