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Show DIED WITHOUT ABSOLUTION. Waldcck -Rousseau, predecessor of Premier Combes in the French ministry, died at his country-home country-home near Paris, '.Wednesday afternoon. He was the one who initiated the church troubles in France, and advised the election of Combes to carry out plans which ill-health compelled him to relinquish. It would be a wide stretch of imagination imagina-tion which attempted comparison of the last two premiers. of France with the pagan emperors of Rome;' yet, generally speaking, the change from Rousseau to Combes was the change from Xero to Vespasian, divested of the physical cruelties the Caesars inflicted. If anything, Rousseau exercised more moderation than his successor. The' third French republic has produced very few remarkable men. and Waldcck-Rousseau. nltliniTi part of its history, is not one of them. Disassociated Disassoci-ated from sto'rms leading up to the present conflict between religion and infidelity in France, Waldcck-Rousseau Waldcck-Rousseau was a statesman of little consequence. The soul of the ex-premier was of 'greater consequence. conse-quence. So thought the sick man, gasping for breath, and calling for a, priest to absolve him before be-fore death.- The priest came, but too late. Rousseau, Rous-seau, however insincere he may have been in hi3 protestations of infidelity, yet trifled with the mercy and justice of God. His end was like the close of all who defy God and persecute His Church. |
