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Show THE CRISIS IN FRANCE What the Pope Denounces Is the Conspiracy Conspir-acy of the Philosophers, Who Have Our Politicians in Leading Strings They Aim at Destroying Religion Altogether, Never Before Has the Vofce of Rome , Produced So Profound an Impression Responsible Men Know It Will Be Impossible Im-possible to Close the Churches. Continued from Last Week. (Translated from the Paris Le Figaro for Tho Freeman's Journal.) From published interviews with the most prominent prom-inent statesmen, we gather that their chief desire is that the third Sunday in December, 190G. will bo exactly like the Sundays preceding it; that tho same parish priest, thought not conforming to the law, shall conduct the usual religious services in the same church nominally confiscated, and that everything shall pass off as if there were no separation. separa-tion. All this would be very sensible, since in reality re-ality there will be no separation. Our rulers thought it was a master stroke on, their part to answer the Encyclical by making interesting in-teresting revelations, which, if true, disclosed the fact that the decision of the Pope was opposed to the sentiments of the majority of the BisVps. A splendid rejoinder ! was the first comment of those who read this reply. -They gave voit to their indignation in-dignation or smiled, according tVh.-ir temperament. tempera-ment. Well, after all. the replv, not so clever. You are playing a dangerous g- ' y he most ele-mentary ele-mentary knowledge of psycho' vmld have rrr... v. Q f n i o.v ft vlers would reach 'on secciiXtrv MCjAAutburst of ...cdenvorSTu.-; - lSOTfTOWj? ramingle leled strength! of' tni army, in vlv.'h aiPH .. j . iiinH.n, unhesitatingly ulev nfhT 1riZf I they desired to be different from what i k They are liko veteran officers, who. after ..tlMMrr-" """ ing the plan of oarjje, will march forward as one '' ' ' ; man to carry it out hen'they receive from their general the word of command to do so. ' What a contrast there is between this formidable formid-able union in passive obedience, and the disorder, the lack of discipline and the cross purposes that enfeeble the camp from which came this smart reply re-ply to tho Pope's Encyclical. Be assured that thi demonstration will make a far different impression from what you expect upon a public which is more influenced by displays of disciplined force from the fact that it is conscious of its inability to compete with it. And who ara the leaders who have given to their armv this noble example ? They are those whose power your law has increased immeasurably. They are those of whom Ronan wrote these words in his preface to his "Questions Contemporaines": "The Revolution disintegrated everything; it smashed to pieces all organized bodies, except the Church. Outside of the State, the clergy alone remained organized. or-ganized. Just as cuies, when the Roman Empire was in ruins, chose their Bishop to represent them, so in the province the Bishop alone will stand erect in the midst of a society that has been shattered to pieces." We hear the timid wailings of the politicians and of the lover3 of peace. The Holy See, they tell us, has ventured upon an undertaking that is foolhardy and dangerous, and that it would have been much better if it had chosen the lesser evil. Those who speak this way may be riirht front the viewpoint of human wisdom. We shall not undertake under-take to pass judgment upon the Encyclical, nor shall we apportion the responsibility between Roma and Paris. But one is forced to concede that resistance re-sistance on 'the part of the Pope can be defended by an argument that it is hard to answer. Tla wishps to have nothing more to do with the bogus goods ther have been constantly offering him. What he denounces is the underhand, constant and ever successful advancement of a conspiracv that lies concealed behind the texts of laws strictlv no. ceptable and behind tho intentions of ministers versed in the management of public affairs the conspiracy of the philosophers who have our politicians poli-ticians in leading strings. These heirs of the ency- j clopedists do not aim so much at restraining cler- ! icsd encroachments as at destroying religion alto- ' gether. We have seen a senator in the department of Ala me brandishing ngainst th Encyclical the ancient an-cient weapons of Philip the Fair, of Louis XIV and of Xaprleon. These stout defenders of the prerogatives of the State did not aim at de-Chris-tiariz?nir France. Far from it. The whole misun-derstarding misun-derstarding is due to the essential difference be-tweop be-tweop their policy and the policy now forced upon ns. Whoever says these thhsrs today finds himself accused of clericalism and of prejudice. A hundred hun-dred years hence all historians, whether favorably disposed to the religious idea or inimical to it, will be in full accord as to the truthfulness of the statement state-ment just made. For the politicians that will be a long, time to wait, but for a writer it will be only a short time. The litter does not demand the ratification rati-fication of hi3 assertions by universal suffrage, but by the suffrage of generations, whose verdict he' will not live to hear. Our ministers who are apostles of Continued on Pags 4, ) THE CRISIS IM FRANCE. Continued from Page 1. free thought should not fall back upon the names of our kings, but on that of the Emperor Julian. One would like to see them exhibiting in their conduct the admirable frankness he displayed in his. a On several occasions we have declared that there i3 something noble in the eternal Revolt of Prometheus, in the perpetual renewal of a task no one has been able to accomplish, in that intense longing after the impossible which compels certain philosophers to attempt to bring about a change in, the human soul. It is similar to the impulse that urges mariners to make voyages of discovery in the polar regions, but these mariners risk only their lives in their fruitless efforts. But ruler3 and legislators leg-islators have no right to jeopardize the tranquillity, the interests and the spiritual liberty of a great nation. Who will restore to us these blessings which have been compromised by thi? stupid law of separation? sep-aration? All that it will be necessary to do will be to open the inevitable negotiations. It was a huge mistake not to have begun them much, sooner. We are convinced that for some this will be a bitter pill, but it should not be any more so than was the going to Algeciras. There will be a certain amount of growling in some newspaper offices and on some parliamentary benches. Canossa! they will exclaim. ex-claim. Pshaw! Call Canossa Fontainebleau and ask that a legate be sent to Parii. It is all a matter mat-ter of words. A Bismarck would not indulge in false pride when he recognized the mistake he had made. We French have wished to read into the Encyclical Ency-clical a war challenge; the Italians, who are something some-thing of experts in diplomacy, are unanimously of the opinion that it is an invitation to en'er into further negotiations. We know not which of these views is the correct one. But we do know, and those who have had the most to do with this matter mat-ter know in their hearts that sooner or later recourse re-course must be had to negotiations. It will be a repetition . of the Dreyfus affair. Many who growled from the force of habit and from the annoyance an-noyance they felt at having been deceived, were thoroughly convinced that some day or other Dreyfus Drey-fus would have to be rehabilitated. Where is tha minister possessed of common sense and of courage, the statesman truly republican who will save u years of discord at the small sacrifice of his amour propre, and thus consolidate the republic for half a century to come? Will M. Clemenceau be the man of the hour? He is a fighter, a man of remarkable intellectual resources, who is not frightened by attacks even when they are unexpected. The confidence one feels disposed to place in him is somewhat shaken when we recall a fine and profound saying of Renan. whom we have quoted above. In his "Souvenirs de jeunesse" he lauds the strength his old masters at Saint Sulpice derived from prayer, in other words, from daily meditation away from the noisy din of the world, and then adds: "Some things are explicable by the fact that M. Clemenceau does not pray." The ill-disguised anxiety the Encyclical Encycli-cal has caused some persons may be due to the fact that Pius X prays. In default of a pacificator, the "separated" Church and State, which will not be separated, will tear each other to pieces. The" Encyclical has dissipated dis-sipated the frail hopes of a truce with which some deluded themselves. The echoes of the tumult that is a precurser of battle reaches the writer whilst he is staying in a country which recently passed through a religious strife that is now at an end. It is a prosperous country, where social order and labor la-bor in the enjoyment of undisturbed domestic peace have increased the comforts of life to a rgmarka-ble rgmarka-ble degree. The Figaro has placed before its readers read-ers the able studies of M. Hurct. They cannot be read too often, as they five an exact description of what one sees at every turn. Whilst the Germans are gathering unto themselves wealth, we are neglecting neg-lecting our interests and abandoning all ambition. The vast and rich universe we leave to our neighbors neigh-bors to go in search of the Xorth Pole a land without God. which our philosophers dream of reaching. May the good genius of France save us from the inevitable shipwreck in which ail these chimerical enterprises will founder if we do not tack about in time. f . |