THE DREYFUS CASE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12427, 16 February 1901, Page 7

THE DREYFUS CASE.

Fbanch is laboriously but surely eliminating the famous “ affair ” from its political and social life. By one great criup, M. .Waldeck-Rousseau has practically banished it from the Chamber of Deputies and me Courts of Justice. The Amnesty Bill iwiich he carried through in December was ’confessedly designed to terminate all jagitatioU concerning the rights and responsibilities of, all persons involved in me Dreyfus case. It wiped clean the /huge charge-sheet that had been filled up with plaints arising out of, the affair. It stopped all criminal proceedings against innocent and guilty alike for ever. Mercier afid Eeterhazy and all their, accomplices are free to come and go like honest men, so far as the officers of the law are concerned. It was a bold stroke on the part of the Premier, and it needed all his strength pf purpose, his splendid determination and his great tact to make it (successful. "We may have doubts as to the morality of his action. It left Dreyfus still with the stigma of treachery attached: to hie name, and it allowed a hand of conspirators against the Republic to escape punishment. But M. .WftMeck-Roussean realised that if he con- , sen ted to,the re-opening of the case before : ItHfe criminal courts nothing could: save the state from turmoil, perhaps from anarchy. All the bitter passions that shook tho moral and social foundations of France a year or two ago would again have been loosed. A truce had been declared for- the Exhibition season, and having tasted the sweets of peace, M. WaMeck-Rousseau proposed by this Act of oblivion to make it permanent. The fitiit in tne Chamber was brief and sharp. Amnesty had no attractions for the Nationalists who wanted only to embarrass tha...Oovernment, and it was evfen less : acceptable to men like Zola and Picquart,. who desired the publication of the truth ; but the great mats of the nation was sick and tired of the evil th'ingf and the Premier carried his point. Strangely enough, the measure did not apply to civil actions. Private citizens rniglat quarrel to their heart’s content, but M. WaldeckRousseau was determined that the State should -have nothing more to do . with the caise. He made an exception, however, with regard to the religions Associations, .and wri learnt a few weeks ago that the Chamber had consented to discuss a measure dealing with these organisations and their privileges. It has yet to be seen (whether this Act of Parliament will.deliver France from the influence of an evil spirit, whether "the country will be rid of the dread Dreyfus spectre. For monthisj as we know, the social and political life was poisoned as though by foul l air, and the nation will not readily shake off its affects. The full tale ■*iof mined lives will never be told. With the traitor Esteibazy, penniless and broken in body and spirit, we have not much sympathy ; but Dreyfus, the chief sufferer, has no hope of justice. He must go down to the grave a pardoned criminal, bearing tne brand of the meanest crime a man can commit. Picquart, too, has lost all save his self-respect, and now, it seems, he has despaired of obtaining justice from the Country he served -so courageously in, such difficult circumstances. Possibly this Was the wisest way.- There was no guarantee that a new court-martial would have given Dreyft® his own again, or that Picquart ' and Zola would not have suffered fresh indignities. Francs will he glad to forget an episode.that brought her such tribulation, even if, .iff forgetting, she perpetuates a monstrous injustice.