French Passive Resisters

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 17, 26 April 1906, Page 3

French Passive Resisters

There are myriad ways ot suggesting hlame— from the slightest arching of the eyebrows to ihe blow of a knobkerry. Some newspapers th<at are cautious in their editorial matter, are much given to praise or damn in headlines. A nunUjfcr ot Mew Z/eaiand dailies adopted this method ot mulcting a journalistic anathema maranatha upon the men and women who opposed a passive resistance to the U-ovtrnment's tyrannical invasion oi the churches ot lJaris—Ul3l J aris— Ul3 first step towards their confiscation, to the £>taue. The .fans correspondent of the .New York ' Evening Ho^'t,' a well-rntoimed writer who was an eye-witness ot the proceedings, puts the matter m a different light. He says in part :— ' The nucleus ot the agitjation is made up ot young men irom twenty, .to lt,rty, of ret,pcctaoie lamily, ie£uiaray uinvL'isiVy-i.reu, aie.t, cUiu looking to the lutuie — a new generation, irresusiiuly they remind one ot (jambctta's young men in the agitating years that closed the Second Empire. ' Marc Suigpicr, the leader of the young Catholics and working m unity &•! wews with sucu oluer liaymen as Brunetieie and Anatole Leruy-Bcauheu, is a good sample. He is Jieither aristocrat, royalist, politician, nor Apache : but he was piesmt to protest in his church. . . ' There is no doubt lh.it the older Catholic laymen are following these jcunyur men. In ihe> churches during the UouLLs weie s .en of tnem as Denys Cochin, deputy, disciple of 1-asteur, the luuith generation 01 a lamily ttssoo ated with th.> charitable institutions of Paris for two centunes, and himself universally respected toy all panics. One of the arrested was M. Odelin, "Jesuit plenipotentiary," as the London "Times ' calls him (he was president 01 ihe civil corporation of one of their colleges) , but he is in reality a man of property and municipal positicn,, and brother of the Cardinal-ArchDishop s Vicar-General. Francois Coppee perhaps feebly represents the Academy among the Resist ers ; Uit there were more than a dozen members of Parliament and of the Municipal Council in the trouble, and some of Ihem incurred arrest. Christian de Tocquevi 1", third in descent from the author of "Democracy in America," got :>flt with three nights at the Police Depot and a forty days' prison sentence. Before foreirners pronounce, it wouH be well to >now who is on this s-ide, sure to he beaten clown for the present, yet bound to surprising Jack-in-tbe box resurrections in the future.' Here is the verdict of the New York 'Daily News ' regarding the sham democracy in which the whole electoral machinery is contrclled, through removable and obse^iuious prefects, by the Minister for the Interior :— ' Undoubtedly, if. there could be held in France tomorrow a fair and free election, m which the form of the (government was to L© determined, the people would choose a monarchy. The leaders would not. They would choose what they have at present— a hybrid thing, supported by the gold of the Rothschilds and the trickery of the diplomats. They called it into existence, and have made it their 'plaything,. When they leel 'like slapping it hard they do so, in the face oi mankind. 'It i-s impossible to exaggerate the scorn of the French Deputies for their Republic. The present moment is critical for France. It looked at cne time as if the Kaiser had made up his mind to war over Morocco. The diplomats of Europe were not sleeping nights in their labor and thought to prevent a rupture. Yet this is the moment selected by the Deputies to upset the Ministry, which is dene with a laugh. The people observe the proceedings with indifference. The air of the Chaml/er of Deputies, however, had on that day the strona; , scent of Wood. In defending church property against the vile mob that sought to desecrate it, a Frenchman hqd been slain. The Catholics were furious, the Radicals more furious still. The scent of blood roused feeling against a feeble Government, and the Ministry perished. ' It is the stimulus of blood which France needs to do away with, <rtsi p/resemt ifiorm of Government. Had e\ery parish resisted the imitation Republic in its at-

tack on personal libjerty, it • would not We a Ministry but a fake Republic that fell tlie other day. Had every parish ottered up one oi its members in the cause of freedom. President Falhercs would be sending for the Commander-in-Chief tc defend him, and not for the head ot a new Ministry. It is impossible for us to realise the injury done to the cause of liberty, and particularly to the popular form of government called a Republic by this wretched imitation Government, called the French Republic. ' This is severe. But it closely corresponds with Lecky's studied verdic* on the instability, intellectual poverty, tyranny^ ,and corruption of the swiftly-passing series of administrations that have afflicted France since its year of disaster, 1870 (' Democracy and Liberty,' vcl. i.).