1 /^<}-»«**''»'''^' • • - " ■ ^' ^.t,' - .;'-'"'>«T* k 'rm 1 1 1 J ■it* *^^H UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 7 9 ? ■. ^^ i ^ ^P*' 1 LOUIS ADOLPIIE THIERS P^RANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC BY JEAN CHARLEMAGNE BRACQ LITT.D., LL.D. Professor of French Literature ia Vasstf CoIleg« NEW AND REVISED EDITION NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1916 MARl 8 r Copyright, 1910, 1916, bt Charles Scribner'b Sons • • _ • • • I • • • « « • 3030 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION The first edition of this volume was pub- lished at a time when Conservatives and Cleri- cals in France were asserting and reasserting her decadence. The book was intended as an answer to these pessimistic charges. It was an honest attempt to inventory the constructive work of the nation under the Republic, to gauge French life, not by those rhetorical assertions so frequently made by its official defenders, but by a calm statement of facts. Though well re- ceived by the public at large, a few accused it of excessive optimism. The writer again and again reiterated that there were great evils in the land of his birth; some of them he pointed out at length; others he assumed, perhaps with- out sufficient warrant, were known to his read- ers. To show the wholesome growth of the country, he produced a large array of evidence, very little of which has been contradicted, and all of which demonstrated the untenableness of the assertions of the opponents of the Republic. The terrible test of life and character to which vi PREFACE the nation has been subjected during the last twenty months has more than confirmed his conclusions. The writer has used the word "Republic** in a chronological and not in a causal sense, though the form of government has been a factor in the results which he sets forth. Following the example of biologists, he has taken a cross- section of the recent life of France, and has shown its healthfulness by its functions and growth. He never claimed that the progress indicated had existed only under the present government, but that the Republic helps this growth and, as an historical landmark, fur- nishes us with a definite sweep of time in which to measure it. With all its deficiencies, it is the government which, in the long run, has best furthered the development of the latent powers of the people. Some important changes have been made in this edition involving the introduction of new matter. The extracts from moral text-books, showing their decided religious character, have been eliminated, now that the reasons which de- manded their publication no longer exist, but the general structure of the book has not been disturbed. Wherever possible the facts given have been brought up to date; otherwise they PREFACE vii have remained untouched. The word now, used frequentl^^ refers to the period immediately pre- ceding the present war. The author gratefully acknowledges the many suggestions made by his colleague, Professor Burges Johnson, which he has incorporated in this text. He has nothing to change in his estimates of the illustrious land which he has ever defended. The conviction expressed in 1910 has become an absolute cer- tainty in 1916. He feels that when the present conflict is over, France, her head high after her great victories — moral above all — will resume her march forward according to her humane genius, along the path of civihsation and peace. Jean Charlemagne Bracq. Vassak College, AprU 18, 1918. CONTENTS CBAPTBm rA«B Preface to the Second Edition .... v Chronological Table xi *» L The Work of Political Reconstruction 1 X II. The Transformation and Expansion of France 31 "V^ III. The Development of Commerce and ~* Wealth 57 >^. '^F^. The New Education in the New Life . 75 ^ ^^ Changes in Literature, Art, and Phi- ^^"^^ LOSOPHY 95 ^YL The New Activity in History and Sci- "^ ENCE 124 ^/vJL 'Social Reform and Philanthropy . . . 152 ^VML Social Improvement and Morality . . 173 yO ^15L .Religious Doubt and Religion .... 190 ^ '*5L The Contemporary Frenchman in the New Life 207 y^ Moral Instruction in French Schools 229 Xil. The Dispersion of the Unauthorised Religious Orders 252 iz X CONTENTS CHAFTEB PASS /yv Xm. The Separation of Church and State . 280 XfVT The Crisis of the Separation of Church 307 AND State 7i JS. Contemporary French Protestantism . 329 Index 861 ILLUSTRATIONS Louis Adolphe Thiers Frontispiece rAciNO Marshal Mac-Mahon 12 Jules Grevy 60 Jules Ferry 82 Leon Gambetta 98 Marie F. S. Carnot 140 Raymond Poincaire 230 Jean Leon Jaures , 312 a .X FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC .• I tf. eit., p. 121. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 5 publican regime, while the blunders of the Re- public of 1848 seemed to many inseparable from republican rule. The upholders of demo- cratic ideals were maliciously made responsible for the Commune, and represented as leaning toward socialism, then the terror of all respect- able Frenchmen. In such circumstances, a re- public seemed but a distant possibility. ( Yet this was the government imposed upon^ the nation, not by a delib^ate choice, but by a hard, harsh necessity.^ ]A republic had, at least, theoretic chances of stability for which the people greatly longed, while the triumph of the Monarchists would have doomed the coun- try to an ^ndless series of disturbances and revolutions. ) Again, any one of the three other parties, raised to power, would have removed all hopes from the opposition, while the Republic - — for a while at least — kept them alive. Mul- titudes rallied to this political experiment but without any enthusiasm, with the feeling that it was the only possible peaceful government, and the one they wanted. "*"" A good constitution — not the wisest that ' It is said that, on the evening when the National Assembly ac- cepted the republican form of government, the wife of the President, MacMahon, said to some one sitting near her at dinner: "At last we have it, that rascally Republic." (Avenel, Comte Georges d', Les Fran- Hais de man temps, p. iQ.) 6 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC could be conceived but the best one for France, adapted to national needs, and capable of sub- sequent readjustments — was framed. It was not a high-sounding decalogue like most of its predecessors, but one susceptible of modifica- tions which experience might suggest. The slight changes introduced into it, in 1875, 18.^4, 1885, and 1889, tend to show the wisdom of those who framed it. No country has elected its presidents more easily, more rapidly, or, as a whole, more successfully. The method of elec- tion provided by the constitution has proven a superb instrument of selection. Thiers, Mac- Mahon, Grevy, Carnot, Faure, Casimir-Perier, Loubet, Fallieres, and Poincare constitute a line of presidents of a fairly large mental calibre, of great dignity of life and efficiency. Without be- ing blind to some of their limitations, w^here is the land whose chief magistrates during the same period would offer a finer record ^ So real have been the services rendered by them that no one now, as in the early days of the Republic, speaks of abolishing the office of president. In the executive machinery, also, a great change has taken place. Several ministers have been added to those already existing. Agri- culture, the colonies, and labour came to have their distinct places in the administration of the POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 7 country. The efficiency of the ministries has been increased by the gradual introduction of under secretaries of state, and by the co-opera- tion of elected superior councils whose members are men of special competence chosen by their peers. The ministries thereby became to some extent representative institutions controlled by the Parliament. When this change took place for education, Jules Ferry rightly said that that ministry had ceased to be an administration, *'to become an organised and living body."^ The ministries are not simply executive, but also agencies carrying on extensivb investigations and studies upon innumerable subjects affect- ing the national works and policies in many di- rections. The cabinets may change, but the regular officials of the ministries seldom do. It is owing to this that one sees designs planned and carried out with remarkable con- tinuity of purpose. The gradual control of North Africa by France is a notable illustration of this. The steady diplomatic policy since 1887 is another. Many other instances might be ad- duced to show the working of the permanent and unchangeable elements in the ministries. The cabinets, until recent years, were short- lived, and that was ascribed to French fickle- ' Rambaud, A., Juleps Ferry, Paris, 1903, p. 102. 8 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC ness; but critics failed to recall that the min- istries were not constituted so much with a view to longevity as to national security. French legis- lators wished to avoid the repetition of Na- poleonic dictatorship and of coups d'Etat. Even from the point of view of duration there is progress. While there were fifteen different ministries during the first decade of the Republic, there have been only five during the last ten years.^ This increasing permanence of cabinets has often been secured at the cost of the favours of ministers to deputies who endeavour to ob- tain offices for their constituents; but even at this point the spoils system has never gone to the extreme which it has attained in some other countries. The wonder is that, with a system whereby a majority against one single proposal of a minister entails the overthrow of a whole cabinet, ministerial changes should not have been more numerous. The Senate is perhaps the most perfect work of the Republic. It has had among its members scientists like Wurtz, Berthelot, Broca; philos- ophers like Littre and Jules Simon; literary men like Scherer and Deschanel pere; religious men like Dupanloup and Edmond de Pressense; royal spirits representing all shades of political ' Before 1910. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 9 opinions, Laboulaye, Challemel-Lacour, d'Au- diffret-Pasquier, Jaureguiberry, Haussonville pere, Grevy, and Francis Cliarmes, the editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes. It contains now the flower of French poKtical intelligence. We see at its sessions de Freycinet, Berenger, Bour- geois, de Marcere, de Lamarzelle, de Courcel, Delpech, Dupuy (Ch.), Mezieres, Clemenceau, Meline, Combes, Ribot, Siegfried, Rouvier, Ranc, Lintillac, Loze, d'Estournelles de Cons- tant, Ph. Berger, and Trouillot. It would be diflScult to find another upper house in the world representing so much personal and polit- ical worth. In the intention of its founders the Senate was, above all, to be a conservative institution. Gambetta, who, like most of his followers, op- posed it at the outset, came to recognise its im- portance; then he spoke of it as "the Great Council of the Towns of France," a necessary check upon the Chamber of Deputies, the organ of French democracy as organised in cities.^ At first it owed its superiority to the fact that its members might be selected by the govern- ment from among the most distinguished sons of France, outside of the political machinery. Now it has the signal advantage of drawing its * Adam, Mme. Ed., Nos amities politiques, Paris, 1908, p. 24'!. 10 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC members mostly from the deputies. The elected are better senators because they have been dep- uties, and often because they have been good deputies. The experience gained in the pop- ular Chamber brings its best fruition in the Senate. Deputies are naturally drawn to the Luxembourg by the longer term of office, nine years instead of four, by the greater indepen- dence which they enjoy from their constituents, by the more dignified function and the greater honour. Senators are more carefully chosen than any other French representatives and by a smaller, more intelligent and select electorate. Thus, of the following senators sent to the two houses, Meline had 8,238 votes as a deputy and C59 as a senator; Francis Charmes was sent to the Palais-Bourbon with 4,171 votes and to the Luxembourg with 288; Charles Dupuy was made deputy by 10,201 votes and senator by 480.^ The Senate has been all along an in- telligent moderating and controlhng power, often preventing hasty and unwise legislation. The slow ascent of its members from the Cham- ber of Deputies helps to create a homogeneity in Parliament which could not exist otherwise. It tends to eliminate the former aristocrats and » Ribeyre, F., La vouvelle chambre, 1889-1893; Grenier, A. S., Nos tenatems, 1906-1909. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 11 the ultra conservatives on behalf of more demo- cratic and progressive elements. The Chamber of Deputies has often voiced the political effervescence of the land and re- flected the spirit of its politicians. It has dema- gogues, radical demagogues and clerical dema- gogues, but judged by its best it would still bear a favourable comparison with any popular house of representatives on the continent. It suffers unquestionably from the elimination of its ablest members through their promotion to the Senate, but the new men are in closer touch with national feelings, more alert and earnest. They are less likely to become fossilised. Many of the disturbances of this house have been due to the parliamentary inexperience of the coun- try. When the National Assembly gathered at Bordeaux, in 1871, there were distinguished men in its midst, such as the Due d'Aumale, Thiers, Bishop Dupanloup, Prince de Joinville, General Chanzy, General Changarnier, Jules Simon, Leon Say, Gambetta, de Broglie, and Jules Favre — uncommon men, but as a whole not yielding the elements of a good national repre- sentation. Most of them were royahsts incapa- ble of reading aright the wants of the French nation. The Assembly was really composed of men unknown to one another and hardly ac- 12 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC quainted with the real needs of France.^ Con- tentions -without number have arisen because of the dual spirit of the members of Parliament, some representing the old spirit of the Church and the privileges of aristocracy, while the others were upholders of absolute political equality. One other reason for the frequent turmoils in this house is that French legislators have a far more difficult task to perform than the legis- lators of the United States because they have to deal with questions which, in this country, are settled by the states. The commotions in the lower house are also occasioned by the im- portance of the issue discussed. Since the con- tentions over slavery, in the legislative halls of the United States, no such burning questions have been before iVmerican legislators as that of the secularisation of French schools, the dis- persion of the unauthorised orders, and the separation of Church and State. It should also be remembered that, as the Chamber of Deputies has the initiative in the tnatter of new laws, these are presented in a rough and indefinite form which is likely to excite bitter antagonism. Furthermore, the ma- jority of deputies have the restlessness of pro- gressive men. The so-called unruly elements * Scbeurer-Kestaer, Souvenirs de jeunea.te, 1905, p. 241. MARSHAL MAC-AIAIHJN POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 13 have been those which have forced the Parha- ment to devise and to do. As a whole, the Sen- ate has represented a wise conservatism, not unfriendly to change; and the lower house, a fearless, if at times impatient, spirit of progress. The Senate is still, at least in part, inspired by the political liberalism of the French Revolu- tion, but the House of Deputies has directed its efforts toward social legislation, and endeavoured to remove some of the traditional injustice in contemporary society. The deputies have their unworthy members, but as a whole they do not deserve the sweeping denunciations of their ene- mies. The charge made against them that they are hostile to religion and bitter against religious ideas may be applied to only a few of the mem- bers. M. Paul Sabatier mentions religious speeches made before the deputies and listened to with perfect courtesy.^ The interesting but long religious discourses of M. Eugene Reveil- laud during the discussion of the Law of Separa- tion would not have been heard so respectfully by American congressmen as they were by French deputies.^ As to those who have system- atically opposed both houses, it is difficult to speak with much praise. They have all along ^ Lettre ouverte d, S. E. Cardinal Gibbons, pp. 38 and 39. ' Reveillaud, E., La separation des eglises de VBtat, Paris, 1901, pp. 239, 824, and 396. 14 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC betrayed the cause of true conservatism by a tactless opposition. They have never known how to defend their interests properly by making needful concessions to rising democracy. They have often joined their own bitterest enemies to overthrow a moderate cabinet, bringing thereby to power those from whom they had most to fear. Comte Georges d'Avenel, a distinguished member of the French nobility, does not hesi- tate to recognise this fact.^ The general councils (conseils generaux), or department assemblies, mere shams of local gov- ernment under the Empire, have, w^ith the Re- public, become efficient instruments of provin- cial service and of decentralisation. Apart from their functions, which are constantly extended by new prerogatives, these councils have often voiced local feelings in such a manner and so concurrentlv w^ith the Parliament as to leave no doubt as to the real state of the national mind upon any policy. Through these councils local interests have an organ of representation, and local ideas a voice, heard by the nation when necessary. Though vexatious at times, the prefect is no longer the imperial satrap of Napoleon, before whom every one trembled. ^Mien he exceeds ' Les Frangais de mon temps, Paris, 1904, p. 41. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 15 his rights, the representatives of local author- ity — now that there is a local independent authority — do not hesitate to remind him of it, or to have the matter brought before the Parlia- ment. The prefect is still the representative of the central government, and, as a rule, a cour- teous and correct official. With the exception of Paris, which, like Washington, has a com- munalistic regime of its own, all municipalities are absolutely free in the choice of mayor, as well as in that of the members of their munic- ipal councils. The towns have never had so much local government, and never have they devised more measures of local utility. With this has come a new municipal spirit of reform, progress, and enterprise. The writer could mention cities and villages, the progress of which reminds him of the advance of American communities. One great change which has taken place Is that the people are not at the mercy of public officials as under the Second Empire. There is nothing left of that awful loi de surete generale, whereby one could be arrested, exiled to other countries, sent to deadly penal colonies without any form of trial. ^ Exceptionally imperfect as * Rambaud, Histoire de la civilisation contemporaine en France, Paris, 1901, p. 520; Scheurer-Kestner, Souvenirs de jeunesse, p. 101; Seche, Leon, Jules Simon, Paris, 1905, p. 7-i; Adam, Mme. Ed., Nos amities folitiques, p. 8. 16 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC the judiciary is at times, there recurs no such parody of justice as the famous Proces des Treize, when the imperial government had thirteen Hberals condemned under the most futile pre- texts.^ Similarly has disappeared the Cabinet 7ioir, in which the correspondence of suspected citizens could be, and was, examined by the government.^ All the changes which we have sketched have been encouraged and upheld by the suffrage of the nation, which has never been so free or so intelligent. Frenchmen in office, whether in politics or in the Church, have always used their influence at the ballot-box on behalf of their friends — they still do, and often with de- testable methods — but the fact remains that the individual voter has never been so inde- pendent. Those who have known the candi- datures officielles of Napoleon III smile when they hear criticism of the republican elections in which there is much, indeed, to condemn. Then, representatives of employers would visit the workingmen and practically give them orders to vote for the candidate patronised by the firm. Now, the workingmen may be bidden by labour- unions — these labour-unions affect only a lim- * Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 9. * Scheurer-Kestner, Mes souvenirs, pp. 110, 115, and 117; Larousse, Grand dictionnaire universel, vol. XVI. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 17 ited number of voters — to sustain some fa- vourites. The beneficiary of the government does what he can to influence votes. The admin- istration helps its favoured candidates, but the fact remains that the voter, even so, can dispose of his ballot more freely than ever before. The idea of liberty for all free French citi- zens, which was opposed at every step by the Empire, has carried the day. This is evident if we consider four highly important laws con- ceding new liberties. There is the law of June 10, 1881, granting freedom to hold meetings; that of July 31, 1881, sanctioning the freedom of the press; that of March 21, 1884, allowing the organisation of trades-unions and of various labour societies; and that of July 1, 1901, con- ceding freedom to organise corporations and associations. It may be asserted that as a whole the Republicans, in the midst of men systematically opposed to their ideals, have en- deavoured to secure for the greatest ^possible number of citizens a maximum of liberty and justice. In so doing conflicts have come. No live nation can advance without them, but in the struggles for better things these conflicts have scarcely interfered with good civil service and progressive life. Mr. Bodley, an English gentleman ever unfriendly to the Republic, was 18 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC obliged to recognise Its good government. "I would be perplexed,'* he says, *'to mention three nations which on the whole are better governed than France."^ The increase of freedom for individuals has been, as just noted, extended to organisations. So great were the obstacles placed in their way, even during the last days of the Empire, that it was difficult to create any form of association, or to keep it alive. The consequence was that societies were few. Foreign ethnographers had noticed this, and ascribed it to racial traits — racial traits at that time explained everything. With the freedom of the Republic associations of all kinds sprang up in every direction. A little city that had two or three societies will now count them by the score. Commercial companies rose from 4,338 in 1884 to 7,133 in 1910; trades-unions from 175 to 14,842; mu- tual-benefit societies from 7,743 to 21,079.^ Ac- cording to the Journal des Dehats^ co-operative » France, New York, 1898, vol. I, p. 44. * Annuaire statistique, 1913. This work, to which we refer so often, is prepared under the direction of most eminent and competent men such as F. R. Stourm, whom we would call the President of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences; C. Colson, member of this same body and professor of political economy at the Paris Law School; the well- known J. Bertillon; the courageous and liberal economist, Yves Guyot, and other reliable members of the Council of General Statistics of France, having under them well-trained scientific statisticians at the Ministry of Labour. » April 15, 1906. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 19 societies have increased in membership thirty- six times from 1870 to 1899. This union and sociaHsation of efforts has shown itself in a multitude of religious works, of philosophical, scientific, philanthropic, and artistic associations. As soon as Frenchmen were able they took advantage of their free- dom to organise associations so essential to progress. This associational movement is not without its dangers. The rise of great organisations will doubtless create frequent conflicts with the State, but national security will be found in the principles of political equality, which are sink- ing profoundly inta the national consciousness. Be that as it may, it is strange to find that, at the beginning of this twentieth century, the old Napoleonic law of 1810, that no more than twenty persons could meet together without the permission of the government, was still on the statute book. This legal landmark of former despotism had been subjected to the at- tacks of liberals from the days of Louis-Philippe to our own. In 1901, Waldeck-Rousseau put an end to that anachronism. Freedom of as- sociation was fully granted to all groups of citizens, but not to unauthorised religious orders which, with the various monastic associations. 20 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC had been so constant in their opposition to popular Hberty. It is probable that at no distant period even these restraints upon the orders will be removed. By the separation of Church and State, the country has also been freed from one of the most despotic political rules to which the clergy of the land was ever subjected, the Concordat. Whatever one may think of the manner in which it was abrogated, there can be no doubt as to the tyrannical character of that celebrated document, and of the Organic Articles that went with it, both of which were long and fully ac- cepted by the Church.^ Now Catholic priests, as far as the government is concerned, are hberated from all the restraints of bygone days. Religious bodies, persecuted under the Empire, now enjoy the greatest liberty. Baptists, Meth- odists, Theosophists, Buddhists, and Comtists have the right to preach and practise their peculiar tenets like Catholics, under the droit commun. Moslems are now building a mosque in Paris. The development of the press, more than any- thing else, perhaps, enables us to gauge the extension of liberty. The harassed journalism of the Second Empire, daily exposed to ruinous 1 See Chapters. XV and XVI. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 21 fines, to the incarceration of the editor, seems to belong to another age than ours. Ranc was con- demned to four months' imprisonment for an article not half so violent as those of the opposi- tion to-day.^ The manager or the printer of a paper could be arrested with the editor. The paper might be suppressed, thereby bringing about the bankruptcy of the owner. An internal- revenue tax was collected upon each number of any paper issued. All this has been replaced by a thoroughly independent and often ex- tremely reckless press. Through the sudden extension of liberty, whereby those who accuse the Republic of tyranny can assail it cease- lessly in their papers, the expansion of journal- ism has been rapid, not to say extraordinary. At the close of the Second Empire Paris had only twenty dailies, and their circulation was small. Even the Petit Journal had an issue of not more than sixty thousand. In 1898 the Parisian dailies had risen in number to one hun- dred and ten. The circulation of the Petit Journal has long ago passed the million mark, while some of its contemporaries have attained a corresponding increase.- This development 1 Adam, Mme. Ed., No3 amities politiques, p. 8. " From 1880 to 1908 the number of dailies rose from 48 to 380 and the newspapers and periodicals from 2,980 to 9,877. (Annuaire de la presse frajigalse. 1909.) 22 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC of the press has told potently upon the indi- vidual, has often kept him at home, and helped the growth of personality. The same freedom has been extended to lit- erature. The Republic, for good or evil, has abolished the censure of literary and especially of dramatic works, assuming that the best cen- sor, in this domain, is public opinion. The im- perial laws, preventing the unfettered peddling of books, of pamphlets, of papers and pictures, were repealed; and the new statutes, as far as this domain is concerned, apply only to porno- graphic works. The same generalising of freedom has been applied to the opening of saloons, and that with unfortunate results. A great change has also taken place in reference to travel and residence. Formerly there was a real inquisitorial system. Travellers were subjected to numerous formal- ities more or less vexatious, and even to the sur- veillance of spies in hotels. Anj^ citizen travel- ling at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles from home was expected to carry papers, a labourer to have his livref} The poor workingman was often prohibited from going to Paris or to other large centres to earn his livelihood, but now all ' Book of identity ddivered by the authorities to the workingman, without which he could oot secure auy labour. The Republic has doue tiway with it. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 23 may go with the utmost freedom, and without annoyance, wherever they wish. Travel and transportation have been released from the ir- ritating control of papers and passports. The new spirit has broken through the national ex- clusiveness, and foreigners may be naturahsed more readily than before. Nothing can give a better idea of the work of the Republic than the general trend of legisla- tion. Something has been done — much more remains to be done — to free the child from ab- solute paternal authority which is still the sur- vival of Roman law. The former power of parents to prevent the marriage of their children has been greatly restricted, and that with good results. The French code now allows the judi- ciary to take away children from the care of vicious parents. The legal status of woman has been raised. Women at the head of com- mercial houses, or of large industrial pursuits, have the right to vote at elections for judges of the tribunal of commerce; they may be wit- nesses in matters of deeds or other legal docu- ments; they may study and practise law, or devote themselves to any science or art. The legal and social progress has been such that a woman, Mme. Curie, has become a professor of science at the Sorbonne and occupies one of 24 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC the foremost chairs of French higher education. A law was passed in 1891 securing to the wife a more equitable share in the property of her deceased husband. Another law has been passed that secures to a married woman her wages, which previously could be collected by her husband, even when he had deserted his home. In the case of intolerable marriage situations the law has provided the solution of divorce. The statute book now contains provisions for the greater protection of the accused before French courts. They are no longer considered guilty until they have proven their innocence. They may have legal counsel immediately after their arrest; and even in civil cases, if one of the parties is too poor, the State comes to his rescue and furnishes a competent lawyer. The accused in a criminal case is no longer obliged to stay in prison awaiting the good pleasure of the judge; but if his case is not ready, he may have conditional freedom. A new law, now before the Senate, guarantees the inviolability of the home and of the correspondence of the accused. The Parliament is now endeavouring to transfer to the civil courts, in time of peace, the military cases which hitherto have been de- cided by martial courts. The tendency has been to bring all misde- POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 25 meanours exclusively before the judiciary, and to assert the absolute independence of the bench from the executive. The Dreyfus case, when France was divided into two camps, each having upon its flag. Fiat justitia, whatever else it showed, showed also how, in different ways and at any cost, both wanted justice, both were ready to sacrifice for justice even national peace. Laws also have simplified the revision of crimi- nal cases, rendering it both easier and quicker. The fundamental principle of law-making has been reversed. Thus, in attempting to solve problems, and especially labour problems, Na- poleon III proceeded by notions of abstract justice, rather than by rules of equity growing out of concrete cases. The laws of the Re- public have been empirical, ever endeavouring to eliminate wrongs in conditions. The aim has been not so much to punish as to prevent wrong; it has been not individualism but sol- idarity. While a great ethical purpose runs through the new legislation, the influence of remarkable legal studies, the prominent part played by great jurists, their numerous reviews and rich publications have given strength and direction to the movement.^ The national juris- * The study of the activities of French jurists would be a revelation to most readers. See La Science frangaise, 1915, vol. II, p. 317. 26 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC prudence has been liberalised and humanised. The celebrated Berenger Law is a law of probation, which interests a culprit in his own moral regeneration. Incarceration before a trial must now be reckoned as a part of the total penalty. Imprisonment for debt has been abolished. The Republic has not only made a great advance in the nobler and more dignified administration of justice, but in seeking for absolute justice itself. Thus the man who has atoned for his guilt cannot be punished further by being called an "ex-convict." In the scales of French justice those who have endured the penalty of the law cannot be pursued further through life by a relentless social Nemesis. Na- ture is merciless, but justice, which rises above nature, must be a barrier against social ven- geance. If we turn from the consideration of the fea- tures of a great internal change to that of the adaptation of the Republic to her international environments, we shall be impressed by the progress made. In the last days of the Second Empire, France had been isolated by the med- dlesome and tactless policy of the emperor. He gained nothing from England by his partici- pation in the Crimean War, while he irritated Russia for years to come. He aroused the feel- POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 27 ings of the American people by the campaign of Mexico, as well as by his open sympath}^ for the South during the Rebellion. He excited the resentment of Austrians by the War of Italy, without winning the gratitude of Italians; for while he helped them to secure their unity, he constituted himself the custodian of the last remnant of the temporal power of the Pope. Had the son of Hortense been willing to have French soldiers leave Rome, on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War, Austria and Italy would have joined France against Germany in 1870. In the great conflict France was thoroughly isolated, and the moral sentiment of the whole world was against her in just condemnation of the war, now known to have been brought about by Bismarck, whose supreme art was to provoke it and cause Napoleon to appear as the ag- gressor.^ This war was virtually continued by the Iron Chancellor, who organised the Triple Alliance to isolate France, while another triple alliance had been made between England, Italy, and Spain to check French action in the Mediter- ranean.^ The attitude of Bismarck, alarmed at the rapid recuperation of the country, came near * See Bismarck's confession, Vienna Free Press, Nov. 20, 1892, or Le Temps, Nov. 23; Busch, M., Bismarck, Some Secret Pages of His His- tory, 1898, vol. II, p. 174; and Bismarck's Autobiography, p. 101. * Berard, V.. La France et Guillaume II. 1907, p. 22. 28 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC bringing about a new conflict, which was averted, thanks to the good offices of St. Petersburg and of London. The place which France had lost in interna- tional life has been more than regained. The labours of M. Delcasse were of signal value in the improvement of French external relations. He was a leader in the peace policy of Europe. He did not wait until all the powers were com- pelled to move by the irresistible behests of the conscience of the civilised world. At the time of Fashoda, he urged arbitration upon the points at issue; and even when this was refused by England, he still showed the most conciliatory attitude. From this policy he never deviated. He was foremost in signing treaties of arbitration, and in putting an end to Anglo-French contro- versies. The settlement of the Newfoundland difficulty was due, in a very large measure, to his far-sighted and conciliatory spirit. He brought Great Britain to make the neutrality of the Suez Canal real, while the Egyptian question ceased to be a constant cause of Anglo-French friction. The Republic had already brought about the Russian Alliance, but he created the Anglo-French entente, followed by the Franco- Italian and the Franco-Spanish agreements. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION 29 equally commendable. An enumeration of his successful diplomatic acts with almost all the other powers would be as flattering to the great minister as it would be fatiguing to the reader. He did not plan the isolation of Germany in Europe; "he worked against no one." He pre- pared the pacific solution of the Moroccan prob- lem, which cost him his portfolio, as the Rouvier Cabinet sacrificed him to placate Germany. If the Kaiser endeavoured to prevent the carry- ing out of the Delcassean plans, the powers, at Algeciras, gave a virtual sanction to them. In any case, there could not have been a more flattering manifestation of the good-will of all but two of the powers than that which was given at that conference. They were all aware that there is a radical difference between the ideals of humanitarian solidarity of the Republic and the racial exclusivism of the German Em- pire. Since that time M. Pichon has only continued the policy of M. Delcasse. He has brought about a Russo-Japanese reconciliation, reached a new understanding with Spain in reference to the Mediterranean and North Africa, made an agreement with Japan shielding French Asiatic possessions, contributed to the better relations of Russia and England, and, on Feb- 30 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC ruary 9, 1909, signed an important agreement in reference to INIorocco with Germany. In dealing with world-problems, France took a most active part at the Conference of Brussels, in 1874, at that of Berlin in 1885, and at those of The Hague in 1899 and in 1907. She in- augurated the era of international congresses, as essential parts of expositions, at her World's Fair in 1889, and has been largely represented in those which have taken place on such oc- casions elsewhere. International congresses, upon all great issues of our times, have not only been instruments of international friendliness and peace, but they have been a great educa- tive force, bringing into French life the experi- ence of man from all parts of the world. The influence of these gatherings has been intensi- fied by the many international societies^ which the larger life of the Republic has fostered. Never have French diplomatic relations been more satisfactory or French life more in touch with all great human interests beyond national borders than during the last forty-six years. ' Fifteen of them have their headquarters in France. CHAPTER II THE TRANSFORMATION AND EXPAN- SION OF FRANCE REPUBLICAN France has also made great sacrifices to improve her capacity for resistance and her power of expansion. The army, which was disorganised, not to say demoralised, by the misfortunes of the Franco- Prussian War, has been remodelled. Whatever may be the present limitations of French of- ficers, there is an essential difference between them and those of the Empire. An officer of the staff of General Felix Douai asked at Mul- hausen, in 1870, if the Hartz was broad and had a bridge over it, taking that forest for a river; and General Michel telegraphed the Min- ister of War to ascertain where his own troops were.^ The officers of to-day have worked much, and from a technical point of view are superior to all their predecessors. Taken all and all, the same thing must be said of their manliness and devotion to their country. The campaign in Morocco and the present war have * Scheurer-Kestner, Souvenirs de jeunease, p. 160. 31 32 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC abundantly demonstrated their heroic spirit. The corruption revealed at the time of the Dreyfus case was connected with the Bureau of Military Information, in which a man to ex- cel is tempted to trample under foot the moral principles everywhere upheld by true men. The army is now like the nation. It is no longer made up of the poor, the ignorant, or paid sub- stitutes. The marchands d'hommes, who made it their business to provide some one to take the place of the rich, disappeared with the Empire. The son of a peasant and the son of a duke now stand side by side in the ranks. There wealth and birth no longer create much inequality, though the officers come mostly from aristocratic families; but the middle class is more and more taking an important place among them. The term of military service has been reduced from seven years to two years. ^ The peace footing of the army has risen from 400,000 to 571,000, and the war contingent from 540,000 to 4,350,000,^ but France never led, she only followed, Germany in her increase of men and of armament. As Captain Lebaud has said: "The conception of the army has changed. It is no longer intended for the purpose of con- ' It was restored to three years in 191'1. ' Rambaud, op. cit., p. 669. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 33 quering new territories, but to safeguard the national honour. The soldier to-day is a free and conscious citizen who is entitled to some consideration."^ The army is fast becoming something more than a fighting machine. The officer is more than a commander, he is rapidly becoming an educator. In many places he has opened schools which have been quite success- ful. In the opinion of Captain Lebaud, the residence in barracks should build up manhood rather than mere technical ability. Good ap- pearance should be an index of self-control and self-restraint. Hazing has almost disappeared. The attacks of French pacificists upon the army have contributed much to its transformation. There can be no question that it brings French- men of difl^erent provinces together, introduces a common national spirit among men who have never been assimilated,- leads them to speak the national vernacular of which they have been ignorant, while it imparts to them a discipline which, later on, may be obtained outside of the army. In Madagascar it has become a great force of colonial pioneering and of instruction in the arts of peace. The soldiers have been made overseers, gardeners, farmers, road build- ' L' Education darts Varmee d'une dimocratie, p. 55. * This is the case with the Basques, the Bretons, and the Flemish. 34 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC ers, engineers, etc.^ The same thing was true of the recent campaign in Morocco. They built roads, constructed bridges, opened mar- kets, estabhshed a postal and telegraph service, dispensaries, etc.'^ Many of the leaders became explorers, such as Gallieni, Gentil, Mizon, Binger, Toutee, and Lamy. One cannot but gratefully record what French troops have done under the Republic to deliver Africa from the black Caligulas, Samory, Behanzin, and Rabat, whose records of cruelty surpass the darkest deeds which the most sanguinary imagination could picture. It would be an act of signal in- justice not to mention the great services ren- dered everywhere to science by French officers. The na\'^% in 1870, stood second only to that of Great Britain; now it ranks fourth or fifth. This shows the non-belligerent intentions of the country whose finances would have enabled her to build many more naval units if she had wished. However, the quality of her seamen has been vastly improved. That the British should have an admirable navy is quite natural. The whole British people have an irresistible love of the sea and of ocean travel. They are the nomads of the deep. The French are much more attached to the soil. With the exception ' GallieDi, La pacification de Madagascar, 1900. « Le Sik-le. Jan. 2S, 1909. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 35 of those living along the coasts, they have none of the instincts of a maritime people. To de- velop qualities of seamanship the government has given extensive bounties to fishermen, most of whom, in time of war, would be available for service in the navy. The existence of a large fleet cultivates the habit of life on the ocean which not infrequently becomes love of the sea. In this respect there has been a change in the feehngs of Frenchmen. Nothing is more inter- esting than the poetic effusions of Richepin, a man who had stood before the mast, upon the beauties of the ocean and the glories of the deep. This modification of the French attitude to- ward seafaring life is a factor of no little mo- ment in reckoning the naval strength of France. We might apply to the navy the remarks made about the army, that, apart from the sense of security which it gives to the nation, it exerts considerable influence upon the populations coming into touch with it, and remains a neces- sity so long as the French flag floats over so many lands and all the great nations keep up their burdensome naval armaments. The colonies and protectorates of France, leaving out Morocco, have increased eight times in extent. During the Republic has come the idea of a greater France through her union with her most important colonies. Like Russia she 36 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC has her most promising colonies at her door. One by one African possessions have been added by arrangements with the powers until the French flag flies over territories extending from the British Channel across the Mediterranean to the Congo River. These acquisitions and groupings have been carried on with a continu- ity of purpose which is truly admirable. There is a scheme to unite more efficiently these pos- sessions by a railroad extending from Algiers to Lake Tchad. Railroads have been built in Dahomey, Senegal, Algeria, and Tunis. Though this last province has been less than thirty years under French rule, it possesses as many kilo- metres of railroad in proportion to its popula- tion as France itself. The projected railroads, those in process of construction and those in running order, for the province are 1,265 miles long.^ The Trans-Soudanais, uniting Senegal and the Niger Valley, will, when completed, have a length of 1,674 miles; an important part of it is already finished and prosperous.^ The Guinea Railroad was finished to the 248th mile, August 30, 1909.^ The great and most difficult railroad from the eastern coast of Ma- dagascar to the heights of Antananarivo is com- pleted from the ocean to the former capital of ' L Illustration, April 16, 1910. » Le Temps, Sept. 3, 1909. » Ibid., Sept. 21, 1909. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 37 the island. Timbuctoo, the city which had remained so long an agglomeration of men the farthest removed from all possible western in- fluence, is a well-governed French possession. Caravans now go from there without difficulty to the most northerly points of Africa. A great work of the French has been the digging of thousands of artesian wells which bring fertihty as soon as they are dug, while much has been done otherwise for irrigation. The capital invested in French colonies is not far from one billion dollars, while the colonial trade has developed rapidly. This is not the case with such colonies as St. Pierre and Mique- lon, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Reunion, but with those which came under the French flag during the second half of the nineteenth century which are quite prosperous.^ Furthermore, the I COMPARATIVE TRADE OF THESE COLONIES 1894 1911 Algeria Tunis $109,770,000 15,771,000 9,030,800 2,028,000 1,538,800 4,149.200 2,119,600 2,133,800 34.197.600 3.017,000 $232,026,000 53,068,800 25.625,200 7,589,600 7,762,000 8,326,400 9,407,800 18,459,800 98,857,800 5,650,800 Senecal Guinea Ivory Coast Dahomey Congo Madagascar Indo-China New Caledonia Annuaire statistique, 1913. 38 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC colonial finances have been so administered that many of them have a surplus in their budgets. To defend these possessions a colonial army has been created. Many natives have been in- corporated in it, and their education has not been neglected. In Algeria were created Me- dersas, or training schools for the Islamitic clergy who thereby became more intelligent and more liberal. Schools were opened also by Jules Ferry with the thought of educating the natives to render them capable of fully enjoying the rights of citizenship. If these people at times have been molested, as a rule the govern- ment has protected them against the greed of European settlers — French as well as others. M. Etienne said in Parliament, some years ago, that in Algeria, after so many years of French occupation, the natives still held twelve-thir- teenths of the land, which they are fast improv- ing. Following the methods of their conquerors, their farming has been modified so that where they reaped only four bushels of wheat, now the yield is nine.^ Agriculture has become diversified. Large vineyards have been estab- lished, olive-tree plantations have been made on a large scale, the gathering of cork has as- sumed some importance, and truck farms send ' Le Temps, June 1. 1909. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 39 their early vegetables to Europe. The exports from Algeria and Tunis to France amounted to $76,491,400 in 1911. All the great instruments of civilisation have been introduced. Mr. James F. J. Archibald, the war correspondent, speaks of "the truly marvellous work the French government has done in Algeria in the past sixty years, and in Tunis during the last twenty years. "^ Those who are acquainted with the colonial history of the world and of black France will be pleased to hear the same gentleman say: "Not until I visited the French colonies of northern Africa did I find what I considered a most perfect form of colonisation, and I now firmly believe that the French peo- ple and the French government are to-day the most practical colonisers of the civilised world.'* The experiences in the colonies have reacted upon the education of the mother country. The general abstract conception of man has been modified by coming in contact with other races. A colonial literature has come into existence de- scribing the homes of Frenchmen beyond the sea, or the tragedies springing from the contact of the colonists with the natives. In 1909 was founded La Societe coloniale des artistes frangaisy devoting itself to colonial themes, showing the • The National Geographical Magazine, March, 1909. 40 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC artistic possibilities of new lands under new conditions. Legislators have provided abundant colonial laws and distinguished legists have co- ordinated them. It is not without significance that there is alreadv a codification of the laws in force in Morocco.^ Colonial schools, colonial gardens, and colonial experimental stations have exerted considerable influence. Le Jardin colo- nial has studied the best species of cacao-trees, of sugar-canes, of gutta-percha and rubber plants for colonies. It has made special studies of all forms of colonial produce, thereby in- cidentallv renderincf services to botanv. An institute of colonial medicine studies all the dis- eases of foreign possessions. There is scarcely a science that has not had new possibilities opened with the creation of new colonies and that has not rendered services to them. Socie- ties, such as the Union coloniale, La Colonisa- tion frangaise, La Mutualite coloniale, and the Protestant society of colonisation further the colonial cause. An important French associa- tion uses every means in its power to promote the culture of cotton in Africa. The results have been encouraging. The total production, which was practically nil a few years ago, reached the figures of 360,800 pounds in 1907, ' La Science frangaise, 1915, vol. II, p. 329. TRANSFOILAIATIOX OF FRANCE 41 376,200 pounds in 1908, and 523,000 pounds in 1909.^ National industries have adapted them- selves to colonial needs and have shown great ingenuity in meeting new conditions. Impor- tant iron works, bridges, and piers have been made for the colonies. There have been con- structed machinery for colonial agriculture, special means of transportation, contrivances for colonial comfort, transportable houses, colonial furniture for special districts and climates, new adaptations of rubber, gauzes, and clothes for use in distant lands. No people has made an earlier or better use of automobiles in the colo- nies than the French. As they had been great road builders, when the day of automobiles came these machines had before them uncom- mon possibihties. Colonial expansion has led intelHgent French- men to see that the old militars^ methods of de- fending national territories, by covering them with fortresses, was an anachronism and that France could not provide the twelve or fifteen thousand miles of frontiers of her vast empire with fortifications and men. The conclusions concerning the colonies have, right or wrong, atfected the solutions of problems at home. The railroads have also made a great advance. » Le Temps. March, 29, 1910. 42 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC The old car, separated into inconveniently narrow compartments, is being replaced by the long car of comfortable dimensions, and on im- portant lines one may see vestibule trains. They have nearly trebled the extent of their lines, their net income has more than doubled, the number of travellers quintupled, and the tons of merchandise transported have risen fourfold. For every mile of national highways there are now nearly two, while there have been great improvements in the quality of the roads. In less than half a century the tonnage of French ports has quadrupled.^ The telegraph service leaped to figures ten times greater than those at the beginning of the Republic, with a total in- come four times larger. The same story could be told of the telephone of the post-offices, whether we refer to their service or to their income. Notwithstanding the almost irresistible com- petition of wheat-growing countries, having the advantage of a virgin soil, France still raises almost enough wheat for her consumption. Her yield is greater year by year. Where she formerly reaped 25 bushels, now she has 40. Rye and barley are extensively raised. Oats have increased 27 per cent. The production of fodder has been doubled in twenty years. ' Thery, Ed., Lea progres economiques de la France, 1909, p. 450, TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 43 In different parts of the country has come the culture of small fruits, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, plums, which are not only distributed to the French market but are sent in enormous quantities to Great Britain. The larger fruits have come to be cultivated more extensively, whether used for the table or to make cider and poire. Grape culture has made progress. The phylloxera, which years ago destroyed the greater part of the vineyards of France and inflicted a loss estimated at two billion dollars,^ has been practically stamped out. French wine- growers have shown great moral strength in fighting the evil and replacing the plants de- stroyed. The acreage and total product are larger than in 1870. The variety of agricul- tural and horticultural produce has also in- creased. The floral culture of the Riviera has led to large exportations of flowers, even to America, while great quantities are used for the making of perfumes. Some parts of south- ern France and Algeria have become the gardens of large French centres and of England. French- men have never before drawn so much from their soil, or made more advantageous uses of its produce. ' Hanotaux, G., La France, est-elle en dicadencef Th^ry, Ed., op. Git., p. 135. 44 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC The former superstitions of cattle-raisers, who made religious pilgrimages for the cure of their herds, ^ or got priests to bless their flocks before starting for distant pastures,^ is slowly, but surely, disappearing, giving place to the skill of the veterinary surgeon. The farmer no longer asks processions like that so beautifully pictured by Jules Breton, nor does he go to church to have the priest bless the seeds before they are intrusted to the ground, but goes rather to the agricultural chemist, buys proper fertilisers, seeks new markets, studies new demands, and strives to supply them. He employs machinery upon an unprecedented scale. Not to speak of those made at home, almost all forms of Amer- ican agricultural implements have been quickly introduced. During the summer of 1908, the writer, in the valley of the Loire, saw three reaping machines following each other in the same field; and U Illustration y soon after, showed a procession of five in the same field of wheat. Under the Empire all this work was done by hand. This great change has come from a better education and greater agricultural intelligence. ' See V Illustration, July 6, 1907, In which there is a picture of Breton peasants carrying tlie tails of their sick cows and placing them upon the altar to secure the recovery of those animals. » Ibid.. Jan. 8. 19U7. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 45 Since Gambetta founded the Ministry of Agri- culture, an important part of its functions has been agricultural education. This is given in its highest form by the National Agronomic In- stitute of Paris, by three veterinary schools with twenty-seven professors, and by the National School of Forestry of Nancy. Then there are three secondary schools of agriculture which study the peculiar problems of the regions in which they are situated, having a stajff of twenty- six professors and twenty-nine lecturers. For this secondary grade of work there are also the School of Agricultural Industries of Douai and the National School of Horticulture of Ver- sailles. In the lower grade of instruction come thirty-four practical elementary schools of agri- culture, viticulture, and horticulture; twelve schools of irrigation, of draining, of the care and uses of milk, of cheese-making, and of the care of poultry ; nine schools of arboriculture and the care of fruit; torty-two fromageries-ecoleSi at once cheese factories and schools for instruction in cheese-making. Every one of the eighty-six de- partments into which the country is divided has an experimental station. There are forty- two agronomic stations and laboratories for analyses, six stations of oenology, not to speak of the thirteen stations of zoology, of entomol- 46 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC ogy, of sericulture, of experiments with seeds, of vegetal physiology, of vegetal pathology, of animal physiology and cattle-feeding, of veg- etal physics, of fermentation, and of testing machinery. There are also three schools for the training of girls for the duties which may devolve upon them in farming.^ This agricultural transformation has also been accelerated by the improvement of roads,^ by the greater facilities offered by railroads, by the reduction of farmers' taxes,^ and by the en- couragements given to agricultural societies. The sum placed by the government at the dis- posal of 1,500 mutual loan banks^ is now $16,- 000,000.^ At the Congress of Angers, July, 1907, M. de Rocquigny showed that agricul- tural associations, though of recent date, had reached the number of 3,553. In 1912 Charles Gide sets them at about 30,000.'' Against cattle mortality there w^ere 7,000 local mutual insur- * Annuaire statistique, 1913; Annuaire de la jeunesse, 1907. ' On April 10, 1879, there were voted at one meeting of the Parlia- ment $40,000,000 for the roads of the country. (Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 184.) ' In 1879, 1890, 1898, and 1905, important reductions of taxes were made. In the budget for 1898, they amounted to $5,200,000. (Ram- baud, Histoire de la civilisation contemporaine en France, p. 749.) * Meline, J., The Return to the Land, New York, 1907. p. 94. * Compte-rendu du sixihme congres national dcs syndicats agricoles. {Foi et vie, Dec. 1, 1907.) ' Economie sociale, p. 538. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 47 ance societies with 355,000 members, as well as 1,000 mutual insurance societies against fire. Co-operative associations have rejuvenated the farming of some districts by introducing new forms of produce for the Paris markets, by developing the export of horticultural crops, and by using refrigerator cars to facilitate the transportation of perishables, meats and vege- tables alike. These organisations have also paid some attention to the well-being of the rural population, the improvement of dwelling-houses for farmers, and to old-age pensions for aged toilers.^ Such have been the improvements of farming life that an ever larger class turns to agriculture, and the number of small land-owners is increas- ing. According to M. Ruau, Minister of Agri- culture, there have been, during the last twenty years, only two out of eighty-six departments in which concentration of property has taken place. The new education and the new life have taken traditional French agriculture out of the old ruts, and showed it a world of new possibilities which have been realised. It might be added that the government has recognised agriculture by a special decoration known as the merite agricoley although this may possibly be 1 Comfte-rendu du aixieme congria national dea ayndicata agncolea. 48 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC brought into disrepute by being distributed too freely. The industries of the country have been quickened by science. Thus, the abiHty to trans- mit electric energy to great distances has almost created a revolution. There has been a great rush in seizing and utilising all the waterfalls. The west side of the Alps alone can furnish 4,000,000 horse-power, and the Pyrenees, the Vosges, the Cevennes, and the central moun- tains may yield 5,000,000 more. This new power,^ now called houille blanchey "white coal," is more and more constituting a natural equiv- alent for the cheap coal which English com- petitors enjoy. Again, the country, as compared with others, has a peculiar distribution of industrial inter- ests. The salaried workmen are only 5 per cent more numerous than the employers or those who work on their own account. The 19,652,000 persons connected with French in- dustries, in the largest sense of the term, are divided into two almost equal parts. 8,996,000 are either employers or those who work on their own account, while the employees number ' To produce this power by a triple-expaa'^ion engine It would take 30,000,000 tons a year of the best anthracite coal and with a double- expansion engine 39,000,000 tons. (President C. W. Chamberlain.) TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 49 10,655,000.^ In spite of opposite tendencies elsewhere, in France this economic individual- ism is growing.^ The advantage of such a con- dition is that it is a spur to individual ambition, that it is more favourable to the all-round de- velopment of the labourer, that it secures a wider distribution of profits, and that it makes for greater social and political stability. The disadvantages are that French manufacturers find it hard to compete with the colossal or- ganisations of the United States, of England, of Germany, and that accordingly progress is not so striking; yet it has been important.^ It is diflScult for foreigners to reahse the part which machinery has come to play in France. Many who in former days spent much time in devising new toys, now toil to invent new ma- chines adapted to national needs. Visiting the mechanical part of the Paris Exposition of 1900 ' Guyot, Yves, " Le collectivisme futur et le socialisme present," Jour- nal dea Economisies, July, 1906, p. 8. 'There were 592,600 industrial establishments in 1896 and 616,100 in 1906, a gain of 23,500 in ten years. (Guyot, Yves, ibid.) * One of the great auxiliaries of manufacturing, coal, was extracted to the amount of 13,000,000 tons in 1870 and 38,500,000 in 1911. In the meantime the production of pig-iron increased 147 per cent, iron and steel 130 per cent, and the mining of iron-ore 517 per cent. The number of steam-engines rose from 27,088, with 336,000 horse-power, to 81,620, with 3,141,000 horse-power; a gain of 201 per cent for the en- gines and of 834 per cent for their potential capacity. From 1878 to 1911 the number of horse-power used in metallurgic industries rose from 102,000 to 559,000, and in textile manufacturing from 91,000 to 544,000. {Annuaire statistique, 1913.) 50 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC with Americans, the writer heard them again and again express their astonishment at the advance of the French in mechanical art. The greater activity of inventors is seen in the great increase of patents, trade marks, and de- posited designs and models.^ Though the prin- ciple of industrial agglomeration is not so widely spread as in the United States, France has her Fall River in Roubaix, her Pittsburg at Le Creusot, and numerous other centres where ma- chinery is made and used upon a large scale. Some of the great metallurgic firms export ma- chinery to every part of the world. One of them makes sixty tons of pig-iron in an hour, Provence has the largest and the best deposits in the world of bauxite" — so essential in the making of aluminum. The ability to erect vast iron structures is not the sole possession of Germans, Englishmen, and Americans. The Eiffel Tower, the Suspension Bridge Gisclard in the Pyrenees orientales, the Viaduct of Gabarit in the department of Cantal, 1 1870 1911 Patents 3,029 1,175 21,632 13,971 16,805 53,854 Trade marks Designs and models deposited Annuaire statistique, 1913. * Mineral for the making of aluminum. TRANSFORiAIATION OF FRANCE 51 Eiffel's superb iron bridge over the Douro River in Portugal, the iron bridge over the Red River in Indo-China, immense iron docks in the colonies, and the enormous guns made at Le Creusot — guns which became so renowned dur- ing the two Balkan Wars as well as in the pres- ent one — show that French metallurgic works are capable of great things undreamed of four decades ago. Frenchmen were among the first to use electric locomotives on their railroads. They have done works of engineering on their roads and their canals which amaze foreigners by their boldness of conception, their beauty of design, or their admirable execution. One of the colleagues of the writer, looking at photo- graphs of the masonry of the new railroad in Madagascar, said: "We Americans have never done such superb work on a new railroad.'* Moreover, France was first in making subma- rine boats. Her place in aeronautics is such that inventors of dirigible balloons and of aero- planes have gone to her for experiments and recognition. Her supremacy in the making of automobiles certainly lasted until the war. A Paris house furnished all the apparatus for the great light-house of Bombay. England bu3's annually from France over 10,000,000 dol- lars' worth of finely wrought metallic works. 52 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC chiefly copper.^ It is quite significant that French firms were asked to provide electric fighting for the London Exhibition of 1908.^ From 1891 to 1906 the country exported ma- chines, metaUic objects, tools, small sea craft, automobiles, etc., so that the excess of exporta- tions over importations increased from $23,400,- 000 to $94,600,000.3 French jewelry wrought with great artistic perfection is more and more appreciated in all the great centres of the civil- ised world. Works in gold, hall-marked by the government, increased 51 per cent from 1894 to 1906, those in silver 24 per cent. The ex- ports of these increased 80 per cent for gold and 186 per cent for silver.^ M. d'Avenel speaks of a French manufacturer who makes more than one hundred and fifty tons of paper in a day. Textile industries have undergone transfor- mations of great importance. The hand-weav- ing of the Empire has largely been replaced by the power-loom. The hand-loom is used only for the weaving of samples or for very small orders which are more easily worked that way. In some places the power-loom, worked by elec- tricity, is in the home of the weaver. The » Berard, op. cit., p. 58. » Le Steele, Nov. 19, 1907. * Thery, op. cit., p. 2S. * Annuairc slatisligue. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 53 cheap distribution of electric energy is now keeping the workmen at home. In small cities, and often in small villages, the baker makes his bread with electric kneading machines. The transformation of weaving by machine has not lowered the quality of the output; in fact the finest textile fabrics are so exquisite as to come nearer the decorative arts than to simple tex- ture. France takes an ever larger part in the cutting of diamonds. The jewellers of Birming- ham buy them in large quantities, and then sell them to the Anglo-Saxons all over the world. ^ The crystals of Baccarat, the beautiful plates of Saint Gobain, and the china of Limoges have never enjoyed a greater popularity at home and abroad. The article du Jura and the article de Paris are ever in greater demand. The artistic traditions and environments, high ideals of professional workmanship, and the specific educational efforts of the Republic have kept up the old superiority. The few technical schools existing under the Empire have been remodelled and many new ones have been founded. The Conservatoire national des arts et metiers (National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts), at once a laboratory of mechanical, physical, and chemical experiments, a patent * B^rard, V., La France tt Guillaume II, p. 42. 54 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC office with a vast collection of models of in- ventors, and a museum of devices to prevent industrial accidents and improve industrial hygiene, has been made a great school of tech- nology. In 1912 it had 2,205 students.^ There is also the Ecole centrale des arts et manufac- tures (Central School of Arts and Manufactures), preparing engineers for all forms of industry as well as for public works, with 727 students.^ Then come five national schools of arts and crafts, at Aix, Angers, Chalons, Cluny, and Lille, with 1,535 students."' A school of this kind was also opened in Paris. The purpose of these institutions is to train and improve overseers and manufacturers, keep- ing in view the character of the manufactures peculiar to the part of the country in which the school is situated. Thus the institution in Lille has a section devoted to spinning and weaving, while that of Paris has one giving special at- tention to electricity, industrial chemistry, and automobilism. There is the institution already referred to, the *' National Practical School of Workmen and Overseers" of Chauny, and the schools of clock and watch making (Jiorlogerie) in the eastern part of France to improve the fer- * Annuaire statistique, 1913. • Ibid, 1913. » Ibid, 1913. TRANSFORMATION OF FRANCE 55 sonnel in this branch of industry. In Armen- tieres, Nantes, Vierzon and Voiron the national professional schools train workingmen for the position of overseers and managers in large es- tabhshments. Other industrial schools give various forms of industrial education. One of them, the Ecole du livre, teaches its students the best way to print a book, to illustrate it, and to bind it. This institution will bring the French book to a still higher place in the world. Seventy schools, fifty -seven for young men and thirteen for young women, are at once giving an industrial education, and teaching the best methods for disposing of the fruits of industry; they are called "Schools of Commerce and In- dustry." In 1912 they had 13,954 students.^ The several great exhibitions in Paris, as well as those in the provinces, have also been efficient agents of industrial progress. This has been increased by the many-sided development of energy in other realms of the nation's life, as well as by a wider culture and a keener intelli- gence. Frenchmen are now conscious of their peculiar place in the economic life of the world. They recognise that their products are not so much for the masses as for the classes, though they work for both. They realise that their ' Annuaire statisfique, 1913, 56 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC well-being in a large measure depends upon the prosperity and richness of mankind which are developed by peace. Hence industrial and com- mercial considerations, independently of many others, make Frenchmen opposed to war. CHAPTER III THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE AND WEALTH FRENCH commerce has above all become better organised. Under the Empire, the chambers of commerce were merely con- sultative, local advisory boards, hampered at every point by the government; but now they are unhindered and, what is more, they have become extremely numerous. Many have been founded in foreign countries, where they serve French interests. The government now co- operates with them, and has enlarged the State machinery to further the development of trade.. In 1882 was established the Superior Council of Commerce, a board of commercial advisers with a large experience to help the same cause. In 1897 was organised in the Ministry of Commerce the National Foreign Trade Office, the design of which is to furnish merchants with all the data which they wish in regard to the opportunities of trade in any foreign country. Its work is 57 58 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC done by interviews, or by means of the Moniteur qfficiel du commerce. In 1898 was instituted the organisation of Counsellors of Foreign Trade, which numbers now 1,400. These counsellors are Frenchmen estabhshed in other lands, who send valuable information to the home office. They also find positions for young Frenchmen in those coun- tries, with the view of acquainting them with commercial conditions and methods. There were likewise created foreign commercial schol- arships, devoted entirely to students preparing for industrial or commercial pursuits. The gov- ernment has gone even further in creating the institution of attaches commerciaux in connection with embassies and legations. These attaches may prove a sign of the times, giving more place to trade questions than to military ones. Socie- ties of commercial geography were organised in Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Lyons, Lille, and Nancy. ^ Commercial schools have been multiplied, rendered more practical and less academic. Superior schools of commerce were developed or established in twelve of the most important cities of the country outside of the capital. The Commercial Institute of Paris, founded in 1884, ' Ratnband, Hisloire DUcouTt et confirencet, 1887, p. ii9. 75 76 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC 3, 1880, after extensive study of the question, the Parliament voted that twenty-seven lycees be built, ^ In important centres fine edifices have been constructed for higher education. Twenty-five thousand school-houses have been built or rebuilt, to which were devoted no less than $160,000,000.2 From 1875 to 1905 the number of primary schools increased from 71,- 000 to 82,488, the number of teachers from 110,- 000 to 157,000, and the pupils from 4,716,000 to 5,654,794.'^ In thirty-three years the illiterate have fallen from 18.03 per cent to 4.26 per cent. Apart from this there is a vast effort made to keep pupils in touch with the schools after they leave them. The associations which are formed, called petites A., number 6,476. The school pa- tro7iages, looking also after former pupils, num- ber 2,255. During the year 1908-1909 the num- ber of evening schools was 31,637, while 74,869 persons gave their labours mostly without com- pensation.'* The day of dirty school-houses and of giving children different instruction accord- ing to their poverty or wealth is gone.^ There is no longer the banc des pauvres and the banc des riches, as they existed in some towns. At- * Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 166. * Delpech and Lamy, op. ciL, p. 21. ' Annuaire atatistique, 1913. * Petit, Edouard, Rapport sur Veducatiarn populaire en 1908-1909. * Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 144. EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 77 tendance at school has been made compulsory and tuition free. The Repubhc recognises the birthright of every child to a common education, and every- thing is done to help him secure it. If he is pre- vented from attending school because he is shoeless or because he has inadequate food, the town is bound to provide the imperative needs. The State more and more compels parents to send their children to school, and society to pro- vide for their most essential wants. As a good many children remained outside of this educa- tion because of their mental deficiencies, the government provided for the special instruction of abnormal and backward pupils. The teaching itself, but imperfectly accessible to the masses under the Empire, has been raised from scant ability to read and write, a little arithmetic, history, and the catechism to a standard equal to the best in any country. The branches taught are morals and civics, reading and writing French, elements of French liter- ature, geography, history, elementary principles of law and of pohtical economy, drawing, model- ling, music. ^ An important innovation is that of Vart a Vecole,^ or art teaching in common ' Vuibert, Annuaire de la jeunesse. • An interesting society, Socicle nationale de Vart d, Vecole, is doing much for this valuable training. Its programme is: "L'ecole saine. 78 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC schools, whereby is cultivated the love of beauty so especially needed by the masses. The moral teaching, which we discuss at length elsewhere,* exerts a strong influence upon the population. The schools have been made non-sectarian, but not godless, as affirmed in the denunciatory reports of the clergy, for whom a godless school is one in which they do not rule. This education also has been so decidedly differentiated as to adapt it better to the prac- tical e very-day life of French youth. There have been opened schools of apprenticeship, normal schools of cutting and fitting for girls, and important professional schools.^ There have been founded or transformed more than three hundred schools of design and decorative art. In Paris these schools contribute greatly to the superiority of taste and form visible in most of the fine goods made in that city. In many places the technical character of the schools is de- termined by local industries. In Roubaix the institution is correlated with weaving, in Aubus- son (Creuse) with tapestry, in Limoges with ceramics, in Nice with domestic decorations, in airee, rationcllcment construile et meuhlee, attrayante et ornSe. For- mafion dn goAt par le decor; inifation de l' enfant d. la beaute des lignes, des cotdeurs, des formes, dcs mouvements, el des sons." ' See Chap. XI. ^ Ramband, Jules Ferry, p. 160. See also New England Magazine, July, 1900, p. 588, "What France does for Education." EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 79 Rennes with sculpture, and in Calais with lace. More than 100,000 pupils attend these schools.^ The secondary schools have not undergone such a profound transformation as the others, but, as a whole, they have never been better or more numerous. The pupils have increased from 129,000 to 195,000.^ The mihtary and the monastic spirit, so prominent in them under the Empire, has lost much of its power. Twenty years ago the proviseur of one of the finest lycees in Paris told the writer that he, the proviseur, was in his institution like a colonel at the head of his regiment. No Paris lycee director would use such language now. The monachal ten- dency to isolate the pupil from home and soci- ety is growing less. The former antithesis be- tween school and life is melting away before pedagogic intelligence, and the school tends to become life. The best school is not only the one in which the students stand high at exami- nations, but the one in which they lead the best life. One may say that in a certain way France is fast realising the educational ideal of Victor Hugo, more than half a century ago. "Primary school imposed upon all and the secondary * Trouillot, Pour I' idle lalque, p. 25S. * Annuaire itatistique, 1913. 80 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC school offered to all." ^ This purpose of the nation and of educators to bring education closer to life has led them to recast their methods, with results disappointing to many, but above all to reformers. As most of them were State professors, it followed that they were the severest censors of their own work. The representatives of sectarian institutions* find their own schools perfect, but this only shows the greater independence and the higher pedagogical ideals of the secular masters. The curricula, without breaking all connection with Latin and Greek, have been thoroughly mod- ernised, and German, as well as English, has now an important place. Recognising the dis- ciplinary and cultural value of the ancient classical languages, educators have made it possible for students prepared in modern lan- guages to acquire the others in the latter part of their course. Above all, the national vernacular must be taught first, and every other form of training must help to improve it and to keep it first. Scijences have a place that is growing more and more absorbing. Philosophy, which was scarcely taught at all during the Empire, is required for all complete secondary studies. * Les MisSrables, vol. VII, p. 30. » See Du Lac, R. P.. Jisuitea, p. 227. EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 81 While much has been done for young men in this particular field, a new era has also been opened for young women. Some noble attempts to provide higher education for them by Min- ister Duruy had relatively failed, because of the opposition of the bishops. Jules Ferry placed the whole matter upon a broad educational basis. ^ This movement has now acquired con- siderable momentum. The reasonableness of the higher education of women is so thoroughly accepted that no one discusses it now, and its former opponents impart it in their own insti- tutions. In 1881 there were but few secondary schools for women; in 1906 there were 41 lycees and 68 other institutions giving to women a par- tial secondary education. The attendance has increased frbm 4,500 to 32,500. In 1909 3,500 young wonien had matriculated in the universi- ties of the land.^ Meanwhile it was recognised that women would be efficient for the moral teaching of boys.^ Numerous schools for women were created to prepare an efficient corps of primary teachers, and one was established at > When the question was debated in Parliament amidst the unreason- able opposition of conservatives, Ferry spoke of women who asked him the questions: "But what is the use of all this learning? What is it for? . . ." He continued: "I could answer, 'To raise your chil- dren,' and it would be a good answer, though trivial, but I prefer to say, 'To raise your husbands.' " (Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 135.) » Le Siecle. March 30, 1909. * L'iducation morale dans I'universite, 1901, p. 78. 82 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Sevres to give the professors of secondary insti- tutions for girls the high training which they need. In speaking of this institution we must put away from our thought the peculiar educa- tion associated with normal schools in this country. Sevres lacks only the classics to make its work the best given to women anywhere. Only candidates of great ability, recruited from all parts of France, may be admitted into the institution after the severest tests. It is not a common distinction to be a Sevrienne. We must, perhaps, look to the realm of su- perior education for the most marked advance. Freed from clerical interference, which was formerly a disturbing force at every point, it is conducted by a large body of men who have won a conspicuous place in the scientific world. The progress may be inferred from the com- parative numbers of chairs, of students, and of degrees.^ The two beautiful volumes published 1 SUPERIOR EDUCATION 1871 1876 1889 1905 1906 Chairs in universities Students in medicine Students in science Students iu philosophy and literature 625 3,868 121 138 6,000 1,211 6,455 1.355 2,358 11,900 1,101 500 35,670 Total number of students .... Degrees granted in medicine 8,936 308 73 iu letters, science, and law. JULES FEKKY EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 83 by the French government on the occasion of the San Francisco Exposition, La science fran- gaise, will be an astounding revelation to most readers of what France has done for scientific progress. The thirty-four papers by thirty-four distinguished scientists, dealing with French contributions to science, the associations that further it, and the scientific books and peri- odicals, of which there is a large number, have a greater significance when one remembers that the foremost contributors to this advance are university professors. These men have created an atmosphere of scientific enthusiasm and of scientific endeavour which has drawn from the institutions their best men as earnest searchers. The municipalities and the nation have nobly contributed to this work. In 1907 the municipal council of Paris voted to support nine chairs of higher learning in the city, to say nothing of other encouragements given to different forms of scientific work. Other cities have voted im- portant sums to encourage local universities. Individuals have come forward with generous gifts, w^hile the Parliament has been most con- stant in its liberal support. The old institutions have been renovated and as a rule improved, though, by exception, we deplore the transforma- tion, nay, the destruction, of the celebrated 84 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Ecole normale supcrieure, the Alma mater of so many famous men, like Jules Simon, Gaston Boissier, Taine, and Gabriel Monod. How- ever, every other institution took on a new life. That was particularly the case with the Sorbonne, foremost among the greatest uni- versities of the world. The Museum began to increase the service of its chairs and vast col- lections for the study of the natural sciences. The College de France, the vanguard of French science, has evolved and perfected the scope of its great work. It has become "a laboratory ceaselessly in a state of evolution," ^dealing with the newer aspects of sciences. Lately the pur- pose of its chairs was no longer bound to one subject, but the chair is named and devoted to the subject in which some great investigator has attained conspicuous scientific results. The aim is not so much the man for the chair as the chair that will permit the great scientist to find the highest use of his attainments. New institutions have been created, some of which constitute absolutely new departures, such as the Practical School of High Studies of the Sorbonne, the Sevres School for Women, the School of High Social Studies, the College of Social Sciences, the School of the Louvre, the » Babelon, E., La Revue, July 29, 1911, p. 578. EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE S.> Thiers Foundation, the National Agronomic Institute, the Colonial School, the School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry, the Pasteur Institute of Paris, the Pasteur Institute of Lille, the Free School of Political Sciences, the Social Museum, the Pedagogical Museum, the School of Anthropology, the School of High Commercial Studies, etc. There is being organised an in- stitute for the study of radium and various radiations which, on the physical side, will be affiliated with the Faculty of Sciences and on the biological side with the Pasteur Institute. Even in Algiers institutions have been founded with the view of making there, sooner or later, a great African university and a great African academy. A law was passed during the last days of 1889 to create this university. By the side of the celebrated French art schools of Rome and of Athens, there were established schools of history and of archaeology, not to speak of kindred institutions at Cairo, in Indo- China, or in Tunis. One of the most fruitful steps for the advance of higher learning has been the enlargement of the National Library with greatly increased facil- ities for research. The museums of Paris and, to some extent, of the provinces, have been in- creased and multiplied. The Louvre has been /< 86 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC enriched by grants from the government, by the co-operation of the Societe des amis du Louvre, and by large gifts of individuals. The legacy of M. Chauchard will attain a value of at least $8,000,000. Individuals have created the establishments known as the Cernushi, Guimet, de Caen, Galliera, and Gustave Moreau museums. Recently was founded the Museum of Decorative Arts. Dutuit gave a collection worth many millions which, elsewhere than in Paris, would be called a museum. Broca left materials for the Museum of Anthropology, and Count de Chambrun made possible the accumu- lation of data bearing upon the social question at the Social Museum. Equally important is the Pedagogic Museum, where are centred all data needed by teachers. To the number of these institutions should be added the Museum of Comparative Sculpture, the Museum of Ethnog- raphy, the Carnavalet Museum, the Colonial Museum, the Artillery Museum, the Museum of the Palace of Justice, etc. All these, in their own way, are potent agencies of national edu- cation. Paris has not been alone in this direction, for museums have sprung up everywhere in large centres. The Guimet Museum, a museum of the religions of the Far East, was started in Lyons, EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 87 though later on transported to Paris. The Due d'Aumale gave his property of Chantilly to the French Institute so that there his rich collec- tions may be admired in the Musee Conde. In Aries, the poet Mistral founded the Arlesian Museum, devoted to relics and mementos of Provengal life. A local society interested in its provincial past founded the admirable museum, the Vieux-Honfleur,^ in Honfleur. In Bayonne was inaugurated the Musee Bonnat. M. Hector- Depasse organised the Societe du musee cantonal de Fresnay-sur-Sarthe. M. Jules Lambart insti- tuted also a museum in Doullens (Somme). It would be tedious to mention all that has been done, both by individuals and by the govern- ment, in creating these foundations, instructive by what they contain as well as by the educa- tional work done in them. Among the most important agencies have been those of laboratories, to which we refer more fully later on, of scientific missions, of explora- tions in connection with the Ministry of Pubhc Instruction. An achievement second to none has been the revival of old universities, and the creation of new ones. This is bound to raise the general level of life all over the country. It is also a step forward in the direction of educa- » La Revue, Sept. 25. 1909. 88 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC tional decentralisation so much needed, a step in keeping with the new spirit of the teachers. No one can now question the moral superior- ity of these men. In his book, Le malaise de la democratie, so severe against contemporary France, M. Gaston Deschamps says: *' Recent statistics place the teaching body in the first rank of public morality."^ The same thing might be said of their open-mindedness. They seem ultra modernists to the conservatives, and conservatives to the ultra radicals ; but the truth is that they are live, progressive men who, as a whole, would do great credit to any professional class in the country. One striking change in the situation is the greater freedom of the educator. He is no longer an adjunct of the priest, though now by an unfortunate, yet natural, reaction he has be- come too often his antagonist. Under the Em- pire the priest represented the greatest directing force in the lives of individuals; now it is the teacher. It is to be deprecated that both stand for different ideals which in their own eyes are mutually exclusive. In the conflict, the teachers are no longer isolated among themselves. To the united front of the clergy they oppose the body of teachers. One of their organisations, » P. 256. EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 89 the Federation des amicales d'lndituteurs, has 96,000 members.' Another is the Ligue de Ven- seignement. This agency, though founded in the last days of the Empire, attained no great de- velopment until the Republic. It has federated some 4,000 independent societies, with 600,000 members, the purpose of which is to advance and defend, if need be, free popular republican education. The more intense the attacks of the Clericals, the greater the sense of solidarity which binds the teachers. They meet on the occasion of the conferences pedagogiques, when they compare experiences.^ There have been also instituted the National Pedagogic Con- gresses, in which are discussed all the problems of education by those who know its conditions and difficulties. French teachers, though poorly prepared for this by the Empire, have learned to conduct these meetings with ability, and gen- erally with becoming dignity. Time will show whether or no they will avoid an alliance with socialism, which, in our opinion, would be bane- ful. The organised educators of a countr^^ should not formally or otherwise identify themselves with any one party. The aspirations of some of them to form trades-unions, and identify themselves with the militant labour organisa- > Le Sibcle. April 19, 1909. *Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 160. 90 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC tions of the country, would be deplorable for the best interests of schools. The administration of education also has been transformed. The reign of educational arbi- trariness, though not ended, has been singularly hmited. The teachers are no longer the mutes who, under the Empire, accepted superior de- cisions concerning them with silence and awe. They cannot be dismissed without a hearing from the conseils academiques^ the members of which, instead of being appointed by the min- ister, are now elected by their colleagues. The Superior Council of the Ministry of Pubhc In- struction has been reformed and also made elective. Its members are not raised to this high position because they are bishops or pastors, but because they are foremost among the educators of the country. The whole force of education is no longer the machine which led a minister of Napoleon III to say that by looking at his watch he could know what was taught, at that very moment, in any school of the countr3\ It has become an organism in touch with the needs of Frenchmen. In it we see traces of the influence of such well-known educators as Gre- ard, Liard, Breal, Croiset, Lavisse, Pecaut, and others who had a keen understanding of the stupendous task before them. EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 91 In appreciating the educational record of the Repubhc one should remember that results have been accomplished notwithstanding an opposi- tion which was constant. So conscious were the legislators of the great needs in this realm that they consented to large requests for funds made by the friends of learning. Already in 1888 M. R. Fernandez, Mexican ambassador in Paris, said that the budget of education was twelve times that of the reign of Louis-Philippe, and five times that of the Empire.^ It was $4,800,- 000 in 1870 and $59,336,000 in 1911.^ These figures do not include local appropriations, the sacrifices made for new buildings, nor the ex- tensive gifts of Catholics to sustain their uni- versities in Paris, Lille, Angers, and Lyons, the expenses of their boarding {colleges) and paro- chial schools. We difiFer absolutely from Catholics in their ideals of teaching as well as in their perpetual aim to control the national education; but we cannot fail to recognise the importance of their colossal work, or that of Protestants. Both have tended to check a certain uniformity in the State educational machinery. Among the best allied forces of education is the work of the Societe pour V instruction elementaire, of the As- > La France actuelle. 1888, p. 405. » Le Temps, Nov. iS, 1909. 92 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC sodation poly technique^ and of the Association philotechnique. In 1875 was organised the Union frangaise de la jeunesse to combine ele- mentary education and professional training. The Alliance francaise helps and sustains schools in every part of the world, and gives, in vari- ous parts of France — and largely in Paris — in- struction in the French language to foreigners. The Societe d' enseignement moderne^ also founded under the Republic, has many courses of com- mercial, industrial, literary, and artistic educa- tion. There are other associations with the same end in view. Some French periodicals, apart from their direct influence by their reading matter, have done and are doing educational work. The Revue generale des Sciences organises annual scientific cruises ; La Revue hebdomadaire, Les Annales politiques et litteraires, and Foi et vie have courses of lectures of great value. Lectures for the masses with various purposes, but of some educational value, are given everywhere. With all this, we must not forget a large body of pedagogic literature which embraces almost every aspect of this great work of national training and bears in mind the experience of other nations performing a similar task. Phi- losophers, sociologists, physiologists, and, above all, psychologists have brought their contribu- EDUCATION IN THE NEW LIFE 93 tions to this work. The books on pedagogics have been enriched and deepened thereby. Six important periodical pubhcations, among others, are real educational levers, the Revue pedagogique, now in its thirty-eighth year; the Revue inter- nationale de Venseignement, in its thirty-fifth year; the Revue universitaire, now in its twenty- fourth year; the Bulletin de la Societe libre pour r etude psychologique de V enfant; U Education, and VAnnee pedagogique — all were founded under the Republic.^ What has been changed more than all else is the spirit of this education. It is no longer the storing of the mind with abstract formulae and traditional ideas, the continuance of the old neo-monastic ideal, the a priori distrust of the child, the gloomy theory of a penitential education. It is the free, cheerful development of the child along the line of experience and reason, respecting and trusting his undeveloped powers. Proceeding from the concrete to the abstract, and from examples to generalisations, it embodies all the best suggestions of psycholo- gists, like Ribot and Binet, as well as those of the great contemporary educators. Its aim is no longer knowledge but the possession of what Fouillee calls idees-forces, which translate them- * La Science fran^aise, vol. I, p. 76. 94 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC selves into lives and characters. We do not ignore the fact that much of the old form of teaching is yet only too common, but it becomes more and more dispelled by the new ideals. When we survey the work done in this field we find ourselves confronted with one of the great- est enterprises of education in our time. If we look for one of the great determinants of prog- ress in any domain — agriculture, industry, commerce, art, science, philosophy, philan- thropy, and even religion — we find it every- where in the school. CHAPTER V CHANGES IN LITERATURE, ART, AND PHILOSOPHY THERE has always been a closer relation between education and letters in France than in other countries, and hence from the achievements already noted in one realm we may expect similar progress in the other. The literary history of the country during the last thirty years would compare favourably with the most famous period of the same duration in the past. The characteristic traits of this literature have been more truth, more ideas, a closer touch with life, fewer abstractions, more facts, a less sonorous, but more real, love of humanity. It has stood less for the classes and more for the masses. It has become more democratic, even in the hands of aristocratic writers. The pessi- mistic strain in much of it is a transient literary fashion rather than the embodiment of national views of life. The departments of literature have been so differentiated as to produce a greater variety than ever before, and their rep- 95 96 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC resentatives have been superior as real men and women. Criticism, without being less aesthetic, has be- come more potent by being more sociological and more philosophical. It has become rich in men of merit and of originality. Scherer belongs to the Republic as much as, if not even more than, to the Empire which was dis- tinguished by that "prince of critics," Sainte- Beuve. Brunetiere, Lemaitre, Sarcey, Bourget, Faguet, Anatole France, Pellissier, Larroumet, Rod, and de VogUe constitute a group of crit- ical intelligence exerting its many-sided influ- ence over a much wider range and superior to any which could have been dreamed of under Napoleon III. Instead of the literary formal aesthetic judgment of a previous period, it has tended more and more to be the criticism of life, of the forces that make for life and their expression in literature. Sardou, de Bornier, Coppee, and Rostand have given a new splendour to the historical drama. Dumas fils, de Curel, Paul Hervieu, Brieux, Lavedan, and Bernstein have plays of unusual power, with moral lessons which lift them above the realm of amusement and make them potent social forces. These men have written plays of singular originality, strong psychological and LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 97 moral analysis, with an ethical purpose which is new. The lighter forms of the drama were not richer in grace, in fancy, in wit, or in uncon- scious immorality during the Second Empire. The lyric muse has more than held her own; in fact one may say that there has been a revival of poetry in the country. Victor Hugo gave his last songs under the Republic. Then there are the works of de Heredia, Coppee, Dorchain, and, above all, those of Sully Prudhomme, one of the greatest poets of France. It is not insignificant that he was the first man of letters to receive the Nobel prize. Even the other poets, Verlaine, Jean Labor, de Regnier, and many others, be- sides doing much creditable work, have added new stops to the organ of French poetry. The French Academy has never crowned so many poets as under the Republic. An anthology of contemporary French poetry,^ published in 1906, gives extracts from 240 poets. It is true that all did not live during the Republic and all are not French citizens, but there are in this work omis- sions enough, if given, to sustain the opinion that at least 240 French poets have, of recent years, written poetry deemed worthy, by a lead- ing Paris professor, to be represented in extracts intended for schools. It is a significant fact * Walch, G., Anthologie des poeies conUmporaina, 1906. 98 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC that in June, 1909, there was given in Paris a pubHc poetical competition of the best poems of the year. The organisation of this festival of the muses was very deficient, but the event in itself is an index of genuine interest in poetry. In fiction, Daudet, Loti, Rod, Bourget, Ana- tole France, Maupassant, Theuriet, Bordeaux, Barres, Bazin, Zola, Huysmans, de VogUe, and Jules Verne would, as a band, compare favour- ably with any other group of French novelists at any period in the history of their country. Under them, the French novel has evolved in almost every direction, becoming at once more idealistic in Spirit and more realistic in sub- stance. While as a whole untrue to French life, it has come nearer to it; and it is, to-day, a great agent for the distribution of all forms of knowledge to the masses, a vehicle for the discussion of all possible questions, and a great sociological force. During the Empire, with notable exceptions, it was an admirable toy; now it has become a potent social tool. Political oratory, as brilliant as, and more solid than during the preceding reign, may point with pride to Gambetta, Leon Say, Challemel- Lacour, de Mun, Jaures, Deschanel, and Briand. While these men are still largely inspired by the great French traditional oratory, one that lays L:pON GAMBETTA LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 99 especial stress upon the aesthetic side of pubhc speaking and delights in Ciceronian periods, a new form of public eloquence has appeared which is the simple, straightforward voice of the masses of the nation. Judicial eloquence has been signally represented by Rousse, Waldeck- Rousseau, Betolaud, and Labori. Academic eloquence, either in the universities or at the French Institute, has rivalled its best days by the elevated discourses of Lavisse, of Brunetiere, of Gaston Boissier, of Renan, and of several others. The Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish pulpits have never attained such a high level; great orators are not common, but they have never been so. Simple, popular public speaking, found now in every quarter of French society, and voicing every popular interest, is a child of the Republic. A whole literature, able and wholesome, has been devoted to the artistic and picturesque his- tory of the country. Essays are very numerous. The literary productions of reviews have be- come absorbing in France as in other countries. Corporate institutions give increasing encour- agement to literature. The prizes of the French Academy have increased to such a degree that not infrequently the "Immortals" have found themselves embarrassed to dispose of them. 100 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Last year these prizes were distributed to the famiHes of the many writers who fell at the front in defending their country. There has also been founded the De Goncourt Academy, with the same end in view, though with different methods from those of the illustrious company of the Palais Mazarin. A society of eminent French women gives an annual prize to a woman wTiter. It would be impossible to enumerate the new encouragements given by different societies to various litterateurs, not to speak of the Prix litteraire de Rome, founded nine years ago by the government to enable annually a young writer to travel. Among other incentives to writers is the prestige which they enjoy. As soon as they have won distinction they become the lions of French Salons. They have become the truly privileged men of French society. In the domain of fine arts the success of the great exhibitions and the Salons have been elo- quent refutations of former aristocratic taunts that a democracy is doomed to an inferior art. Here again the Republic introduced the principle of liberty by allowing artists to organise their Salon themselves. When a second one was founded, the same policy was followed. The government has done nobly. In every direction it has sustained efforts to lift and popularise LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 101 art. The budget of Fine Arts lias increased 133 per cent. In 1874 was organised in the Ministry of PubHc Instruction the Commission de Vin- ventaire general des richesses d'art de la France,^ whose work is still going on. Apparently few artistic and historical mementos of the past have escaped its researches. Never before was so much done anywhere to restore and save old monuments, — the Mont St. Michel, the Roman arenas of the south, Roman gates, mediaeval and Renaissance castles, like those of Pierrefonds and Azay-le-Rideau, historic town halls, old mu- seums, cathedrals all over the country, churches, and chapels. It would take a volume to set forth the work done to bring out the real beauty of the old ec- clesiastical monuments, or at times to protect them from a clergy having no sense of their aesthetic worth. The renowned chateaux have been made repositories of great art treasures, where they now may be admired by every one. The Due d'Aumale made the French Academy trustee for the nation of the Chateau of Chan- tilly. M. Jacques Siegfried gave the Chateau de Langeais, while the Minister of Fine Arts * Committee for the general inventory of the artistic richness of France. It seeks to preserve any building or object having historical artistic interest. (Lasteyrie, Bibliographie des travaux historiques et archiolo- giquea, vol. I, p. 167.) 102 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC did his utmost to make every fine structure of artistic or historic worth the property of the nation. The Hotel de Ville of Paris, the new Sorbonne, the Trocadero, the Gare d'Orleans, the Alexan- der ni Bridge, the Petit Palais, and the Grand Palais are among the most superb erections of our time. One can hardly praise too highly the grace and elegance of the new hotels, such as the Palace Hotel on the Champs-Elysees. The city of Paris gives prizes to those who erect the finest houses, to those who, with flowers, decorate most felicitously the fronts of their homes,^ and even to those who revive in the most picturesque man- ner the old-fashioned commercial signs. Who could be so blinded by prejudice as to fail to see the aesthetic progress of Paris ? Do not the parks and squares show innumerable evidences of improvement .f^ Are not the streets of Paris, so admired by Philip Gilbert Hamerton^ a quarter of a century ago, much more attractive now ? There is certainly no possible comparison between the plain, monotonous, geometrical architecture of the city during the Second Em- pire, and the beautiful, graceful, varied, and dignified character of recent Parisian structures. The same thing might be said of a goodly » L' Illustration, Jan. 9, 1904. » Paris in Old and Present Times, 1885, p. 219. LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 103 number of cities, like Tours and Orleans, while in the rural districts better architectural ideas are making way. Even the viaducts of rail- roads constructed in recent years indicate ad- vance. The mud houses and the thatched roofs of a former generation are replaced by some- thing vulgar enough at times but yet better. When did French sculpture, as a whole, exhibit more vitality and more power than during the period of Carpeaux, Fremiet, Dubois, Chapu, Barrias, Guillaume, Falguiere, Idrac, Aime Mil- let, Mercie, Bartholome, Dalou, Rodin, and Bar- tholdi? When were such medals produced as those of Chapelain, of Chapu, of Dupuis, or the inimitable work of Roty.'' What can the Napoleonic regime oppose to the engravings of Leopold Flameng ?^ What period of French his- tory of equal duration could present an array of names like Paul Baudry, Meissonier, Cabanel, Chartran, Carolus-Duran, Benjamin-Constant, Jules Breton, Rosa Bonheur, Puvis de Chavan- nes, Frangois Flameng, Bastieii-Lepage, Jean- Paul Laurens, Emile Levy, Mme. Edmont- Breton, Protais, Moreau, Bonnat, Ribot, Manet, and Monet — to mention only a few names ? Nothing shows the power of contemporary ^ Notwithstanding the assertions of critics who wished to make Flameng a Belgian, we fearlessly assert that, though born in Brussels, he was of French origin, removed early to Paris, and was a thorough French artist. 104 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC French art more than its radiation all over the civilised world. Never more tlian now have foreigners resorted to French art schools or sub- jected themselves to the teaching of French masters. In all the museums one is struck by the prominence of artistic works produced by France during the last four decades. Rodin has some of his statuary in every centre of artistic culture. Eminent architects turn to Gallic ar- tists for important mural paintings, whether it be the symbolistic canvas of Puvis de Chavan- nes for the. Public Library of Boston, or *'The Surrender of Yorktown," by Jean-Paul Laurens, for the Court House of Baltimore. French ar- tistic inspiration shows itself in the works of great American artists whether they build Trinity Church of Boston or the Public Library of the same city. French architects have carried the day in almost all great international competitions. Benard designed the plans for the University of California; Rey, the Government Palace of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Cordonnicr, the Peace Palace of The Hague; Bouvard, the Pantheon of Brussels to the memory of illustrious Bel- gians; Robert and Ilamcau, the Government Palace of Lima, Pern; Flamant and Toussainl, the Parliament Building of Montevideo; Cret, LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 105 the home of South American repubhcs in Washington. One can hardly enumerate the most important commercial, philanthropic, and residential structures erected by French archi- tects in other lands. Few are the great cities which have not some monuments by French artists. Landowski and Bouchard have been se- lected to erect the Calvin monument in Geneva; and when it was decided to have a monument symbolising the union of the world by the Postal Union, Paul de Saint-Marceau created his superb work which is now one of the finest ornaments of Berne. At home applied arts are doing wonders for the beautifying of French homes as well as of public buildings. Mural paintings, elegant wall- paper, artistic furniture, exquisite cut glass, beautiful ceramics, those of Sevres from the government manufacture, and those from indi- vidual works in Limoges and elsewhere, the su- perb tapestries of the Gobelins and of Beauvais, not to speak of those of independent manufac- ture, ornamental leather, and choice bookbind- ings show the progress of the decorative arts. In music the work of Gounod, Massenet, Saint-Saens, Guilmant, Widor, men appreciated as much in foreign countries as at home, pre- pared the way for an especially French school 106 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC that has become one of the most significant factors in modern musical art. "Cesar Franck, d'Indy, Gabriel Faure, Chausson, Augusta Holmes, Charpentier, and many others drew the attention of the musical world to the serious purpose of the French composer as well as to his sensitive feeling for musical colour. It re- mained for Debussey to become pre-eminently its champion and to stand forth as the founder of a new type of composition that has influenced musicians everywhere. His opera, Pelleas et Melisande, is epoch-making, and his orchestral and chamber music, his songs and his piano pieces have contributed a distinctly new treat- ment of musical material. Dukas, Ravel, and others who are working in the same vein give assurance that this is likely to be a permanent and valuable contribution."^ The Opera, by reason of the variety of its repertoire and its interpretation of the greatest French masterpieces, has never been such a power for high musical culture as now. Serious music has never been more popular. The concerts organised by Colonne in 1873, by Lamoureux in 1882, and the Chanteurs de Saint-Gervais, later on transformed into the Schola cantorum, have done much to popularise 'George Coleman Gow, Mus.D, LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 107 good music. There are ten concerts worthy of the name for one under the Second Empire. Musical organisations, bands, and choral so- cieties are everywhere. Theatrical art has representatives of whom any country might be proud. Mounet-Sully, Sarah Bernhardt, Coquehn, and Lebargy have attained a great eminence in their interpretation of the French drama. Not only has the dramatic repertoire become richer than before, but it has also been rendered more cosmopolitan by the addition of the masterpieces of Greece, of Rome, of Scandinavia, of Germany, and by the repre- sentation of Shakespeare, at times with incom- parable splendour. The Comite Shakespearien is doing much to deepen interest in the great English dramatist. Contemporary British and American playwrights have also had their pieces presented. A noteworthy trait of this artistic progress is that in all its phases it tends more and more to reach the masses and to help them. With that end in view, the government has forwarded this movement by as many measures as possible. The actors and actresses of the Theatre Fran^ais have been allowed to play in various parts of the country. Adequate support has been given to the Bihliotheque de V enseignement des Beaux- 108 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Arts, which has endeavoured to popularise every known form of art, while the Louvre continues its superb work of reproducing its art treasures, either by casts, by engravings or by photographs, which are sold at an insignificant price. Private enterprise has issued works of artistic popular- isation in which one knows not what to admire most, the exceptional character of the works or the prices at which they are put into the hands of readers. Art, which under the Empire was the privilege of the few, has come to be the common heritage of the many. If this popu- larisation has been attended with debasing uses of a noble power, it is true of almost all the arts of peace, and in all countries. As to philosophy, until the foundation of the Republic it had been discouraged by the Church, and consequently by the government, as danger- ous. It had never enjoyed freedom. It is a sad fact to repeat that French philosophy never was free. In order to exist, it had been com- pelled to be extremely considerate of theology and the clergy who, at any time, could have se- cured its exclusion from the schools. Another misfortune of French philosophy was that it had to be extremely literary to secure readers, as a philosophical reading public had yet to be con- stituted. The finest works on the subject were LITERATURE, ART, PHlLOSOrilY 109 literary philosophical discussions, without any fundamental })rinciples, rather than philosophy itself. At best it was the eclecticism of Cousin corrected by his disciples. Even in this form it was unpopular among conservatives. In fact, after the cowp d'Etat Napoleon, seeking the sup- port of the clergy, forbade the teaching of any philosophy at all, though an exception was made for formal logic. ^ The emperor relented later on, but instruction in this field was always more or less under suspicion. Under the Republic philosophical studies have been stimulated. Professors of philosophy have become numerous. The Faculty of Letters of Paris has nine, the College de France has three, the Catholic Institute has five, not to speak of other institutions for secondary education. Every lycee and college is provided with at least one professor of philosophy. Let one read the fol- lowing text-books: Boirac, A.-E., Cours elemen- taire de philosophie;^ F. J., Cours de philosophie;^ Janet, P., Elements de philosophie scientifique et de philosophie morale;^ Penjon, A., Precis de phi- losophie;^ Malapert, P., Legons de philosophie^ — five manuals of philosophy among those that ' Janet, P., La Philosophie fraiiQaise contemporaine, 1879, p. 50; H. Taine, sa vie et sa correspondatice, vol. I, p. 187; Lavisse, E., Souvenirs, p. 210. » 1902. » Tours. 1896. * 1890. » 1897. « 1907. 110 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC are used — and one cannot avoid the conclusion that pedagogic philosophy is presented wisely and efficient^ to French students. Further, there is a common agreement among those who have been sympathetic observers of French secondary schools that philosophy is the sub- ject best taught, and one taught by the ablest men among educators.^ Formerly the subject-matter of this study was given in a very definite programme from which the professor was not free to depart, either in the scope of his course or in the official doctrine. Now the State philosophy, like the State Church, is disappearing.^ Philosophical teachers are no longer a timid little group of thinkers, but a distinguished class of earnest, truth-loving, sincere men, who mark a signal advance upon their predecessors. They are not the narrow sectarian rationalists repre- sented by the clericals, but men who, as a rule, believe in genuine freedom of thought. At first, students were led by the desire to find in philosophy weapons against what they called "ecclesiastical despotism" rather than by the love of truth, but now the polemical stage is ' Pour et contre V enseignement pkilosophique, 1894. See letters by M. M. Boutroux, Janet, and Fouillee. ' Binet, A., "L'Evolution de renseigncment philosophique," in L' Annie psychologique, 1908, p. 163. LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 111 passed. The former tendency to delight in the display of argumentative skill, in philosophical skirmishing, has been gradually replaced by en- deavours to give a larger place to reality, to develop a greater capacity for reasoning from facts, and to cultivate philosophy for its own worth. The system propounded in the student world has been the eclectic theism of Cousin, now more and more superseded by neo-Kantism,* though the professors have had their ideas some- what coloured by the evolutionism of Spencer and tinged with Bergsonism. It may be added that this teaching has no longer the unity of former days, but the genuine philosophical stu- dent cannot deplore it. So great has been the interest aroused that even the Catholic Church, in her institutions, is forced to give a place, and an important one, to philosophical studies which formerly were avoided. Some of her pro- fessors are men of mark. There has been a re- newal of philosophical life in her work of apolo- getics, for which she has never deserved more credit. Men of note, who were also men of character, have singularly helped this movement. Renou- 'See Brunschvicg, L'idialisme contemporain, 1905; Arreat, Dix aniUei de philosophie, 1901. 112 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC vier — who never held a single oflficial position in the university — who scarcely ever had any per- sonal contact with well-known metaphysicians, except to attack them, often with a violence hardly tempered with courtesy — who antago- nised all the moral foibles of his contemporaries, ever holding up the sacredness of *'the categor- ical imperative" — who consecrated his fortune and his life to his philosophical apostleship — wrought a profound change in French philoso- phy. No man did more than he to fight morbid scepticism and to place philosophical specula- tions upon an ethical basis. Lachelier differed from Renouvier in this, that he directly inspired a whole generation of stu- dents of the Superior Normal School of Paris who became uncommon teachers. Paul Janet was for a long time the defender of philosophy against narrow materialists as well as against narrower theologians. He was a brilliant ex- pounder and critic of the thought of others. No one was a more illuminating interpreter of Kant, and no one more luminously applied philosophy to the solution of the burning questions of his time. The indefatigable Fouillee stands high among philosophers. While he attracted much atten- tion by the discussion of his les Idees-forces, he LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 113 also published important works of historical phi- losophy. His two books, Xe mouvement positiviste^ and Le mouvement idealiste^'^ gave able discus- sions of the trend of contemporary French spec- ulation. Several of his works were masterful and timely. La psychologie du peuple frangais^ and La France an point de vue moral^ are the best books available for one who would penetrate into the deepest life of France and understand the French of to-day. Free from national van- ity, served by an immense and fresh erudition, inspired by the objective spirit, these volumes are the deepest analyses known to the writer of the ethnographical, the psychological, and eth- ical characteristics of the nation. His Es- quisse psychologique des peuples europeens,^ is a rare study of the traits of the leading peo- ples of Europe. Ten years before R. G. Usher published his Pan-Germanism, 1913, and J. A. Cram issued his Germany and England, 1914, purporting to reveal to us a new Germany, Fouillee had given us a much deeper and truer interpretation of German thought, feelings and ideals.^ Rising upon science to great speculative heights, Henri Poincare has rendered great ser- »1896. «1896. M898. * 1900. U903. * Eiquisse psychologique des peuples euTopiens, p. 245. 114 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC vices to philosophy by showing the limitations of the sciences and the legitimate philosophical conclusions that may be drawn from them. His books, La Science et Vhypothese and La Valeur de la science, are epoch-making. At this point his name is Indissolubly associated with that of Emile Boutroux, his brother-in-law. The two men, both disciples of Kant and upholders of the "practical reason," have Interpenetrated each other with their own spirit. Boutroux has done most of his best work as an Inspiring teacher. His life, like his philosophy. Is a life of action. He has been the strong and gracious personality that one always delights to see and hear at congresses where his co-opera- tion has always been prized. His signal work, De la Contingence des lois de la nature. Is, per- haps, the strongest refutation of determinism ever made, one commanding alike the admira- tion of scientists and philosophers. He op- posed materialism as energetically as Renou- vier, more efficiently perhaps, because more gently, showing its inability to explain and help life. Francois Plllon Is not far out of the way when he speaks of this philosophy as "a thinned, reformed, and perfected pragmatism."* Bergson, the eminent professor of the College 1 L' Annie philonophique, 1908, p. 174. LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 115 de France, stands out also conspicuously by his strength and originality. No one among con- temporary French philosophers is so familiar with the speculations of his own kind or so origi- nal in adding to them. His works are not many, but each one of them is exceptional, that is, masterly and creative. He has condensed the essence of his thought in his magnum opus, L' evolution creatrice} It is the ablest philosophy of evolutionism which has ever been penned by a Frenchman. Bergson claims to have placed "metaphysics upon the basis of experience and by appealing to science, consciousness, and in- tuition to have constituted a philosophy capa- ble of furnishing, not only general theories, but also concrete explanations of particular facts." ^ His system, however brilliantly sketched, has not fully passed out of the period of formation. His fundamental views of all, ideas, things, and men in a ceaseless and end- less movement impelled by the vital impulses, has been called "mobilism," while those who resent his disparagement of knowledge call it *'anti-intellectualism" and *'irrationalism."^ It decidedly seems inconsistent for us to have a philosophy at all if knowledge is so unreliable. ' 1908. ' La Science francaise, vol. I, p. 29. • Binet, L'Ann^e psyckologique, 1908, p. 199. 116 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC He uses the term "intuition" in all kinds of ways.^ His "vital impulse," his great hypo- thesis, may seem excessive when one takes a calm view of the universe. One fact is certain: he has enriched the French language by creat- ing much-needed literary forms and coining new expressions describing life. One of the greatest services that he has rendered is, per- haps, the great enthusiasm which he has called forth for philosophical questions. The men just mentioned are only a few in a noble company, among whom we find Levy- Bruhl, Dauriac, Seailles, Roberty, G. Lyon, who have done superb service. We should like also to mention Rauh, and above all Auguste Sabatier, who is so inspiring.^ Among psy- chologists Ribot stands conspicuous by his per- sonal work of investigation. As a professor of experimental and of comparative psychology he has given a great impulse to such studies in France. Among those who have won great distinction in the same realm we must also mention Pierre Janet, of the College de France, and Georges Dumas at the Sorbonne. It may not be inappropriate to mention here the philo- ' Benda, J., Le Bergsonisme ou une philosophie de la nwbiliiS, 1912, p. 33, 40, 47, and 49. ' See the brilliant survey of French philosophy with a valuable bibli- ography by Henri Bergson, in La Science Jran^aise, vol. I, p. 15. LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 117 sophical interest centring upon the two French schools of mental healing; that of Nancy, laying stress upon the physiological side of hyp- notism, and that of the Salpetriere, which em- phasized the more profound aspects of sugges- tive therapeutics. Charcot and his pupil Fere have been conspicuous workers in this field. One may form an idea of the great number of these philosophers by examining the exten- sive and varied collections of philosophical works issued by the publisher, F. Alcan, to whom philosophy owes a debt of gratitude for his eminent services. The Bibliotheque de phi- losophie scientifique under M. Gustave Lebon would also offer important works for the same purpose. There are, besides, the philosophi- cal reviews: that of Renouvier and Pillon, La critique philosophique, founded in 1872, main- tained by the energetic spirit of these two men until 1889; the Revue philosophique of M. Ribot, started in 1876; the Revue de metaphy- sique et de morale of Xavier Leon, begun in 1893. In 1901 was founded the Inf^iiUd psy- chologique, in which present-day problems are studied by committees and lectures given by French and foreign professors. Reports of its work are given in its Bulletin. In 1901 was founded the Societe franqaise de philosophie. 118 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Other groupings for work have been organised. To this we must add the Annee philosophique, the Annee psychologique, and the Annee socio- logique, three pubhcations devoted to three per- fectly separate spheres, but all discussing, and discussing ably, some aspects of philosophical questions. All these indices of a vigorous philosophical life point to an activity, the extent of which can only be grasped when one remembers the able theses which have been published in the uni- versities, in the schools of theology, as well as the great bibliography of the philosophical works published during the last forty years. All these manifestations of philosophical energy testify to an intense mental labour, and to a deep trans- formation of the French mind. It may be fear- lessly stated that in these philosophical efforts hardly any part of the speculative domain has been left untouched. The problems of "the whence" and "the whither," of the origin of things, of the laws of human conduct, of the ultimate destiny of man, of the existence or non-existence of God, have been approached with an independence which does not shrink either from fearless affirmation or negation; let us say that negation is the exception rather than the rule. LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 119 The true and candid spirit of the leading representatives of the philosophical schools has brought them nearer one another, while among the greater number is seen a concern for moral issues impossible in the days of enthusiasm for the teachings of Taine. In fact, the schools have so interpenetrated one another as to have nearly disappeared. M. Gabriel Seailles says: "It is certain that there is at the present hour in France a philosophical movement, a very living thought, very active without our being able to mark the preponderance of any one system ex- cept in a general way. It is the reign of life and of liberty."^ This philosophical alertness tends to create a public of philosophical readers. In countries of Protestant culture such a public exists. The free philosophical discussion of all great problems, religious and other, develops an interest which finds expression in wider reading, not stopping at the frontier of the world of intellectual speculations. The new philosophical predilection has certainly deep- ened the thinking of Frenchmen, arrested the thoughts of many of them upon the great prob- lems of life, and given them a clearer moral con- sciousness. Philosophical intelligence not only radiates from the schools, from the writings of * Private letter to the writer. 120 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC independent thinkers, but even from much of French contemporary hterature and especially from poetry, the drama, and fiction. If now almost every citizen can read, it is a further fact that every public man who is at least a bachelor of letters, doctors, lawyers, pastors, most jour- nalists, and most novelists have more or less philosophy. One cannot rejoice too much over this grow- ing sway of philosophy; for with the wide and sudden spread of common-school education, the remarkable extension of the press, the unpre- cedented circulation of books, the increase of travel, the military service, and other factors, a whole flood of ill-digested, uncorrelated in- formation was suddenly scattered through the country. This would have brought about a mental chaos which might have been fatal, had not philosophy become a national force to bring about mental order, penetrating in differ- ent ways into the various social strata of French democracy. It has singularly modified and lessened the vulgar materialism which comes everywhere with wealth; it has exploded in- numerable bubbles of religious or irrehgious fanaticism, while it has given a higher rational end to education. No less significant is the development of LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY 121 sociological studies, carried on in many direc- tions. We see the influence of this activity in works of social reform, in politics, in the newer conceptions of history, of literature, and religion. One cannot overlook efforts like those of Ed- mond Demolins, the author of that well-meant but inadequate book, A quoi tient la superiorite des Anglo-Saxons ? and the disciples whom he has grouped around him to continue the work of Le Play for the betterment of society. Through the Societe d'economie sociale, founded after the Franco-Prussian War, they have done no little, in a conservative way, for social improvement, centring their efforts upon what is to them the great social unit, the family. The large number of monographs upon France which have been published by the members of this organisation must eventually tell. The best work of sociologists and economists is yet done by those connected with the institu- tions of learning. Much more than those just referred to they are animated with the scientific spirit. Abreast of the work of other countries, they all have striven to place sociology upon a firmer foundation. Some make it a part of philosophy, others a science; but whatever be their point of view, they propagate sounder con- ceptions of society and of the best way to im- 122 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC prove it. Tarde, who claimed to have found a scientific basis for sociology in the laws of imitation, made his countrymen do much think- ing. Durkheim has done brilliant work, and edited that rich and suggestive publication, the Annee sociologique. Gide, well known at home and abroad, is one of the ablest social investi- gators and social workers of Europe. Bougie combines the qualities of German scholarship with the best traits of French savants. He wrought clearly and profoundly upon the prob- lems of modern society. Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, the eminent professor at the College de France and editor of Veconomiste franqais, added to his claims as an eminent scientist a remarkable record of intelligence and courage, when his was the only journalistic voice in France pro- testing against the Panama iniquities. No man has been a more competent interpreter of the colonial work of France. Outside of the educational world, yet closely in touch with it, are able economists affecting the nation through journalism. Among them we should mention Yves Guyot, who has taken a noble stand in all questions, and ever been the friend of economic liberty; Alfred Neymarck, editor of Le Rentier, and Edmond Thery, editor of L'economi.sfe Europeoi, men whose point of LITERATURE, ART, PHILOSOPHY U3 view may not be ours, but whose vital influence cannot be overlooked. The leading character- istic of hterature, art, and philosophy during the last forty years has been the manifestation of astounding energy. CHAPTER VI THE NEW ACTIVITY IN HISTORY AND SCIENCE THE progress of the historical sciences has been epoch-making. The most impor- tant needs for progress in this realm are absolute freedom of inquiry, opportunities of research as well as of investigation, and free- dom of speech. The Republic has furnished them all. Investigators have been so free that many of them in official positions have not in- frequently expressed conclusions quite at vari- ance with those of their chiefs concerning his- torical points bearing upon the controversies between Church and State. During a stay of one year in Paris the writer saw, in the National Library, in the National Archives, and even in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the bitter opponents of the Republic treated in every way like other investigators. Under this regime, as under the preceding, historians have enjoyed much consideration, and several of them have been placed at the head of important ministries. In the Ministry of Public Instruc- 124 HISTORY AND SCIENCE 125 tion there has been a considerable enlargement of organisations to further the cause of history. The historical commission of that ministry con- tinues its rich collection of documents. The government helps particular historians, either by furnishing the assistance needed for special work, or by publishing their books through the National Printing Press, or in some other man- ner. Numerous historical chairs have been founded. At times cities have joined with the government in this work; the city of Paris has founded several chairs of history. Important fellowships in history have been established.^ There has never been such unanimity upon the importance of working from sources. A noble emulation has arisen in the publication of documents by the government, by the acade- mies, by cities, and by historical societies that are now to be counted by the hundred. For one of these that existed under the Empire there are now ten. They have accumulated material upon a colossal scale for the subjects to which they are devoted. French historians have never before been so extensively associated, either as corporate or as corresponding mem- bers, with foreign historical societies. Govern- ment help was never given more generously ' Bourses de licence d'hiitoire. 126 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC than now. The Parliament voted $100,000 for the excavations at Delphi, so admirably carried on by M. Homolle.^ In other parts of Greece, in Asia,^ and in North Africa ex- tensive works of a kindred nature have com- pelled unknown history to yield some of her secrets. Similarly in different parts of France, and under various auspices, traces have been sought of prehistoric life, and remains of the buried cities of Gaul have been uncovered. Cartailhac, de Mortillet, and S. Reinach have, by their labours, recast our ethnological con- ceptions of the French people and given a fur- ther and more real retrospect to French his- tory.^ Not only have mediaeval, modern, and con- temporary history been studied in all their phases, but French historians have shown great interest in Celtic, Egyptian,^ Assyrian, Baby- lonian, Persian, Arabic, and Indian studies,^ not to speak of others which show more and more that the field of history is the world. In addition to the historical schools of France in Rome,® in Athens, and in Cairo, as well as the ' Collignon, Max, in La Science frariQaise, vol. II, p. 48. *Ibid..p.il. 'Ibid., p. 65. • See admirable report of what France has done in Egyptology, by Professor G. Maspero. La Science fratigaise, vol. II, p. 5. • Sylvaln, Levy, "L'Indianisme," La Science frangaise, vol. II, p. 125. • Durand, Rend, "La philologie latine," ibid., p. 167. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 127 institutional efforts made in North Africa, a French School of the Far East has been started in Indo-China^ Wherever the French flag has been planted the claims of history have not been overlooked. A great movement of historical activity has been directed toward modern Italy, her art, her literature, and her history, which still have such a strange fascination for Frenchmen.^ Hispanic studies have also vastly increased.^ Great Britain, the country which has exerted the deepest possible influence upon French life from the first quarter of the eighteenth cen- tury to the present time, has never called forth more efforts on the part of students. There are the masterly works of J. Jusserand, whose superior grasp of English literature was recog- nised by Taine,'' the great book of Angelier on Robert Burns, Yves Guyot's studies of Eng- land, Bardoux's Rushin, and among works of great worth Legouis's Chaucer.^ It is only after reading Charles Andler's thorough analysis of Germanic studies that one can, at all, have a * Chavannes, Ed., "La Sinologie," ibid., p. 137. * Hauvette, Henri, Lea Etudes italiennes, in La Science Jranqaise, vol. II, p. 251. ' Martinenche, Ernest, Lea Etudes hispaniques, ibid., p. 261. * H. Taine, sa vie et sa correspondance, vol. IV, p. 310. ^ Legouis, Emile, Les Etudes anglaises. La Science franqaise, vol. II, p. 275, us FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC fair idea of the many-sided grasp of the thought, history, and life of Germany by Frenchmen.^ Never has the country been more fertile in historians of a high order. Renan, Taine, La- visse, Gabriel Monod, Sorel, Hanotaux, Ram- baud, and Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu are not only masters in various ways, but Lavisse and Monod remain great historical teachers. Ga- briel Monod not only founded the Revue his- torique and organised the Societe historique^ but trained a goodly number of distinguished pu- pils, like him inspired by the purest scientific spirit and a strict sense of loyalty to facts. Most of them follow at any cost the objective method. The chief end of history for reputable French historians is truth and truth only. Some of them seem indifferent to national prejudices, and have stated, with the resoluteness of proph- ets, facts which were offensive to national pride. Sorel- and Lavisse have been conspicuous in this respect. The thoroughness, the synthetic character, and the scientific objectivity of French history are more and more evident. One of the striking features of this French activity is the small army of searchers who are * Andler, Charles, Les Etudes germaniques, ibid., p. 285. 'See, for a signal example of this, Soiel, ZZw/oi>e de la guerre franco- aliemaiide, Paris, 1875. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 129 everywhere exploring the past of men and things with a common purpose of increasing human knowledge. The Republic has, witli freedom, furnished the tools for this great collective in- quiry, rewarded those who have sketched its results in the best manner, and helped not a little the popularisation of historical works. History has never before had such a large place in the primary and secondarj^ schools and in the universities. The manuals of historical teaching have been so improved that the text- books of the Empire and those used now do not seem to be by or for the same people. French libraries give proportionally a larger place to history than those of America, and the relative number of historical works read is also greater. Of course, there are still men who write history in the interest of peculiar cliques; but the genuine historical spirit has so pene- trated into the nation's life, that one finds its beneficent influence in ecclesiastical historiog- raphy and in hagiographic literature, domains where formerly it was signally wanting. Outside of the almost endless bibliography of historical works published under the Republic, one may have an idea of the place which history has taken in the national life from the fact that there are few reviews of a general character 130 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC which do not give to it an important place. The Revue des Deux Mondes has pubHshed in its pages many of the most important historical works which have appeared during the last half century. One may draw the same con- clusion from the new historical reviews — taking the term historical in the largest sense possible. Among others we have Romania, founded in 1871; Bulletin de la societe des anciens textes, in 1875; La Revue historique, 1876; Le Bulletin de correspondance hellenique. Revue de philologiey de litterature et dliistoire ancienne, 1877; Revue epigraphique, 1878; Revue de Vhistoire des re- ligions, 1880; Revue egyptologique. Revue des etudes juives. Revue de la Revolution frangaise, 1881; Repertoire des travaux historiques, Revue de la Revolution, 1883; Revue d' assyriologie et d'archeologie orientate, 1886; Revue des traditions populaires. Revue des etudes grecques, 1888; Revue historique et heraldique. Revue dliistoire diplo- matique, 1893; Revue d'histoire litter aire. Revue hispanique, 1894; Gazette numismatique fran- gaise, Revue de Fart ancien et moderne, 1897; Revue des etudes anciennes, Revue d'histoire mo- derne et contemporaine, Bulletin hispanique, 1899; Revue de Synthese historique, 1900; Revue germa- nique, 1905, and Revue du XV P siecle. Revue du XVIIP siecle, 1913. In this new vogue of his- HISTORY AND SCIENCE 131 tory, as in the other manifestations of the na- tional life which we have studied, the increased prestige and influence of science is seen. The pride of repubhcans soars high when they speak of the scientific achievements of Frenchmen. They cannot but draw a very striking contrast between the scientific equip- ment of France under the Empire and that of to-day. Pasteur speaks of the place where the great French physiologist, Claude Bernard, worked, as a laboratory "half cellar, half tomb,"^ the " hovel," ^ "a damp and low cellar."^ His own was for a long time but an attic, and one of scanty proportions, which would excite the con- tempt of teachers of chemistry in our humblest high school. Even later on, his laboratory in the Ecole normale supSrieure consisted of only two small rooms. This great scientist waxes eloquent when he sees the superb laboratories of the Sorbonne opened twenty-five years ago. In a moment of grateful enthusiasm he ex- claims: "Everything from the schools of the villages to the laboratories of advanced science has been either founded or renovated."'* The same movement has been continued since his death. Laboratories of all kinds have been 1 Vallery-Eadot, La vie de Pasteur, 1900, p. 216. » Ibid., p. 661. » Ibid., p. 667. « Ibid., p. 656. 132 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC established. The Faculty of Sciences has 20 at the Sorbonne, and 24 scattered in Paris, all devoted to teaching and to research.^ There are 10 in the Faculty of Medicine, 28 at the Practical School of High Studies,^ 20 at the College de France^ 7 at the National Agronomic Institute, not to speak of those located in differ- ent parts of the land. There are some also in the colonies. The Pasteur Institute is but an immense laboratory studying bacteriology, par- asitology, biological chemistry, physiology, and experimental medicine. There are those of zoology, with stations at Roscoff in Brittany, at Boulogne, Villefranche, Marseilles, and Cette. There are also those of vegetal biology at Fon- tainebleau, and of geology at Lille. It was of the creation of most of these laboratories that Pasteur spoke, when he referred to what had been "founded and renovated." We are far from the time when he laments the fact that Napoleon can find millions to build the Opera, but cannot find "between twelve and twenty thousand dollars" to equip a lab- oratory."^ There was not then in the budget of the Ministry of Pubhc Instruction one penny devoted to the physical sciences by means of > Livret de Vihtdiant, 1908-1900, p. 43. » Ihid., p. 79. • Vallery-Radot, op. cit., p. 215. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 133 laboratories.^ The la})oratory idea has also been extended to subjects which formerly seemed out of its scope, experimental psychology, for in- stance. Recently a congress of French teachers asked that these psychological laboratories be introduced into all the normal schools for the future teachers of common education. One may say that the laboratory method has been generahsed. Other instruments also of scientific progress have been created. Important astronomical observatories were erected at Algiers, Besangon, Bordeaux, Lyons, not to speak of those estab- lished at Mendon, upon Mont Blanc, at the Pic-du-Midi, on the Puy-de-D6me, and in Nice. Some of them have exceptional equipments. A separation took place between the astro- nomical and meteorological work, which has brought about the creation of the Bureau cen- tral de meteorologies a weather bureau that has rendered vast services. While working with unity of purpose at home, French astronomers, by various organisations and congresses, have sought to secure international efficiency. They held a great international congress in 1887 for the photography of the heavens. They had previously organised the International Com- 1 Ibid., p. 216. 134 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC mittee of Weights and Measures, which led to the estabHshment, at Sevres, of the Interna- tional Bureau of Weights and Measures. As the metric standard rests upon an astronomical basis, it was fitting that astronomers should endeavour to perfect the system and solve fur- ther problems. The International Conference of Time^ resulted also in the creation of the International Bureau of Time at the Paris Observatory. Until resources are provided by the countries interested, the Bureau, at the expense of the government, sends twice a day time signals from the Observatory to the Eiffel Tower, whence they radiate in every direc- tion. All the foreign members of the Interna- tional Conference intrusted France with the task of giving the time by wireless to the world.^ Her astronomers have been untiring in working for the progress of celestial mechanics, geodesy, astrophysics, and astrophotography. It is almost impossible to count their missions sent to all parts of the world for special inqui- ries, eclipses, the transit of Venus, or for the tremendous task of measuring the equatorial arc of Peru. Perhaps her best contributions have been her eminent astronomers, Le Verrier, * Con/Srence internaiionale de I'lleure. * La Science frajigaise, vol. I, p. 121. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 135 Tisserand, and Henri Poincare. The latter even dared to grapple with the problem of the sta- bility of our solar system in the vast universe, and to place upon a solid foundation what before him had been largely conjectural. Pro- fessor Louis T. Moore speaks of him as "the successor of Laplace," ^ Professor Rados, of Buda- pest, calls him "the most powerful investigator in the domain of mathematics and mathematical physics'* at that time.* Professor Royce, of Harvard, speaks of him as "a leader of his age."' "There is not a man living competent to ap- praise all his works," says Professor F. R. Moulton, of the University of Chicago.^ Again, speaking of Les methodes nouvelles^ he says: "I shall leave the discussion of the processes em- ployed by Poincare with the remark that in power and elegance they are as much beyond those of Laplace as his were beyond the geome- try of Newton."^ He probably would never have accomplished so much had it not been for the quickening which he received from the institu- tions with which he was connected and the scientific activity whereby he was surrounded. That is evident when one reads his addresses > The Nation, vol. 95, p. 242. ' Poincare, H., The Value of Science, American translation, p. 1. * Poincare, H., Science and Hypothesis, Introduction, p. xxxi. * Popular Astronomy, vol. XX, p. 624. » Ibid., p. 626. 136 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC in Savants et ecrivains. That book and Paul AppeU's survey of modern mathematics^ reveal to us a remarkable activity. Those who have considered mathematics as a closed science, something like the dead languages, will be struck with the amount of vital energy displayed in this domain. In the land of the great physicists, Pascal, Descartes, Laplace, Arago, Fresnel, and Ampere, physics have been pushed forward with great energy. Doubtless the increasingly utilitarian importance of this science has contributed to its progress. Its whole scope has been changed under the Republic. Formerly it was considered as absolutely separate from chemistry, but a group of French scientists have built an inde- structible bridge between them. Berthelot was a leader in this. His ambition was to create what he called chemical mechanics, a term which is the subject of one of his most important books. Apart from progressive work in thermody- namics and optics, prominence has been given to electricity and its applications, the new gases of the atmosphere, and the radioactive sub- stances. At the International Congress of Electricians in Paris, when names were given to electric units, it was decided that two of them * La Science frangaise, vol. I, p. 78. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 137 would be the names of Frenchmen who had rendered conspicuous services, Coulomb and Ampere. The three others, Volta, Faraday, and Ohm, represented Italy, England, and Germany. French electricians were foremost in defining and fixing electric standards. Marcel Deprez was first in transmitting electric energy over distances. Mme. Curie discovered polonium and then radium. She thereby wrought most profound changes in some of our fundamental conceptions of the physical sciences. She prac- tically opened the whole field of radiography, in which she now directs the researches of an elite of young scientists. Henri Becquerelle, the third scientist of the name, has also won great repute by his general work, but especially by his discovery of radioactivity in uranium. Lipp- mann, known by his colleagues for his studies of electrocapillarity, stands before the public as a great scientist who, by applying strictly his optical principles, succeeded in making real col- oured photographs. French physicists were kept in touch with one another by a large number of societies, but above all by the Societe frangaise de physique. Apart from many ties with foreign workers, they organised the International Scien- tific Congress of Physics w^hich met in Paris in 1900. This congress so impressed French physi- 138 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC cists that they have since endeavoured to con- tinue its work.^ Let Doctor Harvey M. Wiley, of the Depart- ment of Agriculture at Washington, give us his estimate of French work in a realm in which he has a recognised eminence. *' One naturally turns to Berthelot in speaking of French chemists of modern times. Since the death of Chevreul he has been facile priiiceps among French chemists. Berthelot's activity in all branches of chemical science distinguishes him among chemists, who usually are masters only in some one department of science. Berthelot was a master in all. . . . Almost as eminent as Berthelot was that great worker, Moissan, whose untimely death lost to French chemistry one of its most brilliant rep- resentatives. His work, of course, was chiefly inorganic chemistry, and his synthetic prepara- tion of the precious stones under the influence of the electric furnace is a distinct step forward in the progress of chemistry."^ "Before Moissan,'* says Doctor Edward Renouf, of Johns Hop- kins, "the study of chemical reactions had been confined to temperatures between 50 degrees below and 1,200 degrees above zero centigrade. Moissan invented the electric furnace ... in ' Bouty, E., La Science frangaise, vol. I, p. 131. ' Letter, Feb. 16, 1910. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 139 which 3,000 degrees centigrade are attainable, temperatures comparable with that of the sun. His studies of chemical reactions at high tem- peratures opened up a new field for chemical re- search, and are especially valuable to astronomy by indicating the probable chemical reactions and conditions of matter in the sun and in the stars, and to geology by showing the complex changes in the composition of matter which must have occurred in the gradual cooling of the earth. Moissan was also one of the first chem- ists to utilise liquid air as a refrigerant, in the study of chemical reactions at extremely low temperatures, and devised ingenious apparatus for his purpose."^ In the "brilHant array" of French chemists we must not fail to mention M. and Mme. Curie. "It is a rare combination," says again Doctor Wiley, "to see husband and wife equally eminent in the most difficult and recondite branches of chemical investigations. The world was shocked by the accidental death of M. Curie, but it has been no less surprised at the brilliant work of Mme. Curie since her hus- band's death. It is not because of a feeling of gallantry, but of real accomplishment, that the chemical world bows before Mme. Curie. . . . » Letter, Sept., 1909. 140 FRANCE UxNDER THE REPUBLIC The examples I have mentioned are only types of brilliant and magnificent work of French chemists during the past third of a century. The Republic, since its establishment on the fourth of September, 1870, may feel proud of what has been accomplished in chemical science, Adolph Wurtz, one of the most brilhant of French chemists of modern times, declared that chemistry is a French science, founded by Lavoissier, of immortal memory. The French chemists of the Republic have well illustrated the fact that chemistry is also a continuing French science."^ Pasteur did a large amount of work as a chemist for which he never received any credit; but he is accounted everywhere one of the greatest figures of the scientific w^orld. He effectively opened the new world of invisible life, opened the way for Lister's great antiseptic work, practically saved French sericulture, found a scientific way to exterminate anthrax, and finally made his last great discovery of anti- rabies vaccine. The frequency of hydrophobia in Europe gave a greater significance to his cure for one of the most dreaded of diseases. His contribution to science does not consist in this or that particular discovery, but in the ' Dr. H. M. Wiley, ibid. MARIE F. S. CARNOT HISTORY AND SCIENCE 141 fundamental new principles which he introduced into medicine, surgery, hygiene, and the sciences of Hfe. There is not a civihsed country where natural sciences have not been affected by the principles which he discovered. He gave France the example of an eminent scientist ready to fight courageously^ for the rights of science against theologians, while opposing scientists when the}^ exceeded the proper limits of their realm. He had the courage in the French Academv to assert that, beyond the visible, he had seen what to him was evidence of the supernatural, for which the world had found personal sym- bols, whether they were a Buddha or a Jesus. Several men were directly inspired by the teachings of Pasteur. There is Roux producing the anti-diphtheric vaccine, and Calmette his anti-venomous serum against the bite of veno- mous animals. We might add to these names those of Duclaux, Metchnikoff, Yersin, and others.^ It looks as if there was no phase of bacteriology upon which these savants had not thrown some light or increased our knowledge of it. Professor B. Renault observed in coal minute organisms belonging to the Bacteriaceae.^ Other scientists have discovered a number of ' Vallery-Radot, op. cii., pp. 673 et aeq. * Zeiller, R., La Science fran^aise, vol. I, p. 272. 142 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC bacteria and other agents of diseases.^ Professor A. Laveran was so fortunate as to isolate one of the organisms which produce malaria.^ Among zoologists J. H. Fabre has astonished the world by his remarkable studies of the habits of insects. Armand Sabatier, enlarging upon his conclusions as a naturalist, and lift- ing them up to a high philosophical plane, has discussed with great originahty some of the most fundamental problems of human exis- tence.^ The continuance of that existence is one of the great ends of scientific inquiries. We cannot, therefore, overlook the new way which a Frenchman, Doctor Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute, has opened for experimental physiol- ogy. His wonderful experiments with grafts of flesh, the survival of cells and the culture of tissues^ have awakened expectations of greater things. France, whose Bernard Palissy as early as the sixteenth century had already a fair apprehension of the formation of our globe, has kept an ex- traordinary interest in its problems. A large corps of geologists have thoroughly worked the home field, hand in hand with paleontologists > Roger, H., ibid., p. 363. ' Roger, H., ibid., p. 364. ' See Essai .vir la vie et la morf, 1892; Fvssai sur V immortalilc an point de vue du naturalisme evolutioniste, 1895; Philosopkie de Veffort, 1903. ♦Roger, H., La Science franQaise, vol. I, p. 344. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 143 and the geographers. As a whole, no country has been better searched by its geologists than France. They have also studied different parts of the world, America and Asia, but especially French colonies, North Africa, the Sahara, Dahomey, Madagascar, and Indo-China. In reading the records one is amazed that so much should alread}^ have been accomplished in diffi- cult circumstances. "Lapparent," wrote Doctor Rice, of Wesleyan University, a few years ago, ''stands in the first rank among all-round geolo- gists. The late German paleontologist, von Zittel, told him that Lapparent's Geologie was the best book on geology in existence." A more important work ^ is the Traite de Geologie of M. Emile Haug, professor at the Sorbonne. Fouque and Michel-Levy have taken foremost places in the comparatively new department of micro- scopic petrography. They have made a syn- thesis of almost all volcanic rocks. Some of their colleagues have endeavoured to make min- erals purer than those of nature so as to grasp more fully their chemical composition.^ Ver- neuil has rendered possible the industry of ar- tificial rubies, sapphires, and spinels.^ Often the geologists work with the paleontologists, and 1 De Margerie, E., La Science frangaise, vol. I, p. 246. ' Lacroix, A., La Science frangaise, vol. I, p. 178. » Lacroix. A., ibid., p. 177. 144 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC we have a man like Gaiidry whose philosophical culture enables him to draw valuable cosmo- logical deductions from his studies.^ Some one has called him "the founder of historical and philosophical paleontology."^ He unquestion- ably furnished sound philosophical conclusions from our contemporary knowledge of the testi- monies of the earth. Geological studies in France led to discov- eries of human paleontology, that is, of fossil man. In searching the caves and excavations in certain districts the most important speci- mens that we possess were found. The problems that these savants try to solve are so important that many men are now digging for new remains of the distant past. With these scientists one finds a legion of students of pre-history, studying the work of primitive man, and pre-historical archeology gives a learned setting to these re- mains of our distant ancestors.^ For these rea- sons anthropology and ethnology have come to take, in almost all studies, an importance which would have been impossible under Napoleon III. Broca did most of his work under the Re- > See Enchainemenis du monde animal dans les temps giologiquet, 1878-1883; Htsai de paleonfologie phi.losophique. ^ Boule, M., La Science franqaise, vol. I, p. 301. ' To have an idea of what is done in this domain, the number of in- vestigators ut work, and their success, see Max Colligaon's report io La Science franQaise, vol. 11, pp. 64-69. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 145 public. Then we have Topiiiard, de Qiiatre- fages, and Ham^', who have won laurels in this singularly interesting field in which we must place Fouillee, not as a specialist, but as one who has subjected the conclusions of anthropolo- gists and ethnologists to the severest philosoph- ical tests. Medicine and surgery in France, as compared with other countries, may not have the place of unique distinction which they had forty years ago; but competent Americans as- sert that these two sciences — in so far as they are sciences — have made enormous progress there. We have already referred to those new scien- tific societies and their varied annual publica- tions which are increasingly specialised with the tendency to turn results of science into practical channels. There has also been the issuing of those periodicals which give yearly surveys of the whole field of one or of several sciences, such as the Annee biologique, the Annee psycho- logique, the Annee sociologique, the Annuaire de la societe d'ethnographie, the Annuaire geologique universel, which are as invaluable for specialists as for the man of the world who wishes to be acquainted with the work done in these do- mains. There are important works, like Wurtz's Didionnaire de chimie, 11 volumes; Fremv's 146 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Encyclopedie chimique, 92 volumes ; Richet's Die- iionnaire de physiologie^ 9 volumes; the Die- tionnaire encyclopedique des sciences medicales, 100 volumes, and other great collective works, most useful tools for scientific students. Of 299 periodical publications devoted to the subject of health, that is, medicine, surgery, and hygiene, 225 were started under the Republic. Of the 25 publications on medical sciences mentioned by Dr. Henri Roger in his bibliography, 22 were first issued during the same period.^ Of the 19 papers on metallurgy, 10 are of recent creation, and of the 84 general scientific papers, 56 were launched during the last forty years.^ In every part of the country private individu- als have pursued scientific studies on their own account, while French travellers, missionaries, and officers in the colonies have rendered mani- fest services by their observations and discover- ies. There has been kindled a spirit of scientific apostleship, which has found expression in many ways, but especially in the organisation of socie- ties and clubs with scientific ends in view. Of the 64 learned societies in Paris mentioned by Minerva with the date of their foundation, 29 were started before the Republic and 35 after. * La Science frangaise, vol. I, p. 378. ' Annuaire de la yrease franQaise et (trangire, 1909. HISTORY AND SCIENCE 147 Of course, these are only a few out of the total number of such Parisian societies. The pro- portion of learned associations formed in other parts of the country is as encouraging, while the development of the scientific spirit has been constant. Any one who compares the pro- gramme of the Congres scientifique of Chartres, in September, 1869,^ with the last session of the Association franqaise pour V avancement des sci- ences will be struck by the change which has taken place. The topics of religious archeol- ogy, of ecclesiastical history, and of Church interests, which were formerly dominant, have yielded their places to the discussion of the vital problems of our age. This association has done much for **the progress and diffusion of the sciences." A State institution, the Caisse des recherches scientifiques, was founded by the Ministrj^ of Public Instruction in 1900 to accumulate funds to further scientific activity. This organisation is likely, in course of time, to have a large in- come at its disposal. The French Institute grants every three years the prize of $20,000, known as Prix Osiris^ to the Frenchman who has sig- nally contributed to the progress of science, or 1 Lasteyrie, Bibliographie des travaux historiquea et archSologigues, vol. I. 148 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC produced the most useful work, not to speak of Osiris's royal gift of $5,000,000 to the Pasteur Institute. M. Albert Kahn, a most generous benefactor of French education in the past, pledged $6,000 a year, for five years, to the purpose of inviting foreign scientists of note to go to Paris as lecturers, or for Frenchmen to go to other countries for the purpose of ex- pounding their own discoveries. Les Amis du Museum give their sympathy and support to that institution, as other friends do with scientific establishments in other parts of the country. The Academy of Sciences, that of Medicine, and that of Moral and PoHtical Sciences have numerous rewards in their keep- ing for scientific workers. Furthermore, these bodies enjoy, on the part of the most refined citizens and of those in power, a consideration which was singularly wanting under the last Empire. They have free speech now. All bod- ies representing science have contributed to promote more and more a sense of the kinship of all forms of knowledge, of the unity of all truths and of all sciences. The mathematical, the phj^sical, the historical, the sociological, and the psychological sciences are all intrinsic parts of the same great field of sc'ence and are all interdependent. Everywhere we find among HISTORY AND SCIENCE 149 scientific workers the idea that, whatever one's legitimate theories and hypotheses may be, these must ultimately rest upon observation and experiment. By the side of this empiricism there is also found an idealism which leads these workers to the conviction that, whatever be the utilitarian value of this great collective labour for mate- rial or for moral ends, science should be studied for its own sake. In forming a moral estimate of France one should not forget this scientific idealism, which is an important asset in ethical reckonings, nor the general faith in the benefi- cence of knowledge. Along with this has come a national feeling of gratitude to scientists of the past. BufFon, Laplace, Lavoisier, Cuvier, Claude Bernard, Bichat, Berthelot, Henri Poin- care are idealised and revered. Lamarck and other forgotten scientific workers, who toiled for truth without recognition in their day, have now their statues or other memorials. Laennec has his monument, a hospital bears his name, and Pasteur, cherished by the people, has be- come enshrined in his institute. France looks now at her illustrious scientists as once she viewed her saints; all have been forces of ethical uplift. It is greatly to the credit of French scientists 150 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC that they should have so intimately co-ordinated themselves with those of the whole world. For them science ignores frontiers, and the best attitude is that which is ever ready to assimilate new knowledge, whatever be its source. Foreign countries have honoured them. In 1890 Henri Poincare, at the Universal Congress of Mathe- matics in Stockholm, was awarded the Medal of Honour. M. and Mme. Curie, Henri Bec- querel, Moissan, Laveran, Lippmann, Richet, Carrel, and Metchnikoff — the latter a Russian who has become thoroughly French — have received Nobel prizes. At the seventh In- ternational Zoological Congress, in Boston, August, 1909, the Czar Nicholas Prize was awarded to Professor L. Cuenot of Paris for his work on heredity. Foreign governments and universities have given similar and flattering re- cognition. Highly cultivated at home, French science radiates abroad. It is no longer the tol- erated, neglected, and suspected study of four decades ago, coming in the scheme of education after the languages, with its spectacular experi- ments as mere shows for the students; science now is preponderant. It is fundamental in edu- cation and in other important realms of life. It is a power with which theologj^ and philos- ophy must reckon. It has come to be written HISTORY AND SCIENCE 151 with a large S. For many, science is now a kind of religion. It is the great, noisy idol of republicans with its enthusiastic devotees and even with its fanatics; a beneficent idol, how- ever, freeing the land from ignorance, from superstitions, from needless terrors, and putting new energy into every organ of the nation's life. CHAPTER VII SOCIAL REFORM AND PHILAN- THROPY IN the domain of social improvement and philanthropy the national energy has also displayed itself. The men in power have rendered their best services in this realm by showing an untiring solicitude for those who contribute so potently to the creation of wealth, the labouring classes. A very important de- parture, under the Republic, has been the creation of a Superior Council of Labour in connection with the Ministry of Commerce — a council which furnishes the Parliament with trustworthy data and reliable statistics on labour and on needed legislation. The establishment of a labour exchange in Paris, subsequently aided with a grant of $600,000, and the founda- tion of 144 other exchanges^ in large cities, indicate a real concern for the welfare of the masses. Clemenceau went further. He founded a Ministry of Labour, marking, thereby, a new era in the history of French institutions. ^Annvaire utaiistique, 1913. 153 SOCIAL REFORM 153 The government has favoured the formation of labour-unions of all kinds, and under conditions more beneficial for toilers. These have not in- frequently been abusive when in trades-unions, cruel in strikes, and criminal in the senseless de- struction of property; but as a whole the labour movement has meant greater independence, a clearer consciousness of the rights of the labourer and a certain education resulting from his desire to co-ordinate himself properly with his eco- nomic environment. His employers are no longer the baronial lords of the Second Empire, who acted as if they owned his soul. He is no more haunted by the fear of losing his position because of his vote or his Church. Now he has a larger wage, works fewer days and fewer hours. The character of his work is less unpleasant. Shops and factories have be- come cleaner, more cheerful, and pleasanter. What is true of the industrial world is true of commerce. In all stores women clerks are now provided with seats. In government work the State insists upon a minimum wage. All have more and purer food. They have summer vacations, and summer outings are coming gradually within their reach. Life for them has been greatly transformed in half a century. A fact which sliows the improvement in their 154 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC condition is that the legislation of the last forty years has been mostly in their favour. The Par- liament has passed laws on liability of employ- ers in case of accidents, laws providing reliable inspectors for the security of the labourer in mines, inspectors of labour in general, laws to free w^orkingmen from the livret, a book of identity placing the labourer at the mercy of his em- ployer, laws preventing a child from working in factories unless provided with a certificate from some doctor that the labour is not above his strength, laws instituting juvenile courts, laws limiting the time of women's and children's labour as well as of labour in general, laws pro- moting arbitration between employers and em- ployees, laws and appropriations to help the organisation of mutual-benefit societies, to fur- ther the State system of annuities to labourers by the payment of an annual fee, and laws pro- viding for old-age pensions. One of the laws which was most violently combated by the op- position is that which accords to every French labourer the inalienable right to have one day of rest every week, and that on Sunday wherever it is practicable. There is scarcely any limit to the legal efforts made in this direction. M. Paul Deschanel did not exaggerate when, at a banquet in Paris in SOCIAL REFORM 155 1909, he said: "The RepubHc has done more in thirty years for the workingman than the other regimes during several centuries.*'^ At the same time, changed conditions, as we show elsewhere,^ have brought an increase of wages and a lower cost of the necessities of life. One of the leading factors in this improvement has been the organisation of labour-unions, which had a precarious existence under the third Bona- parte, but in 1911 had 15,668 syndicats of dif- ferent kinds with at least 2,386,000 members.^ They exert an important moral and social in- fluence. In 1905, 961 of these unions had em- ployment bureaus; 1,059, libraries; 816, funds for mutual help; 690, funds for those without work, and 348 have professional schools or pro- fessional courses."^ The labourers of the country are put in touch with opportunities for work by means of numerous employment bureaus, by labour exchanges, by trades-unions, by municipal councils, by mutual-aid societies as well as by benevolent boards. The idea of profit-sharing is represented by such admirable institutions as that of Godin in Guise, and that of Boucicaut at the Bon- Marche in Paris; but while in 1870 there were » Le Temps, Nov. 26, 1909. « See Chap. X, p. 209. ' Anrniaire statistique, 1913. *L'Illuiitration. "Documents," Nov. 11, 1905. 156 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC only 16 institutions practising it, in 1900 there were 120.^ The distributive co-operative socie- ties, only 39 in 1870, had in 1911 reached the number of 2,811, with sales approximating $30,- 000,000.2 Tjjg savings-banks had issued 2,021,- 228 bank-books with $107,500,000 in 1871, but in 1911 there were 14,400,000 bank-books with deposits amounting to $1,122,000,000. The Republic founded postal savings-banks and school savings-banks, which have done much to foster thrifty habits. A frequent reward in the common schools is a bank-book. Besides those founded by the government there are municipal and private savings-banks with a limited num- ber of depositors. There are also associations like La Fourmi (The Ant), founded in 1879, in which depositors are pledged to pay so much per week or per month. At the end of a certain time a division is made. Before 1900 this soci- ety had collected $5,400,000. Organisations to provide against the contin- gencies of life meet more and more with popu- lar patronage. The Second Empire gave some encouragement to mutual-aid societies. In 1871 there were 5,787 of them with a membership of 683,974 and a capital of $7,500,000, while in * Catalogue officiel de V exposition universelle, 1900, vol. XVI. * Gide, Charles, up. cit.. p. iSi. SOCIAL REFORM 157 1910 there were 21,079 such societies, with a membership of 3,552,596 and a capital of $68,287,437.^ As these societies provide free medical service for their members, it was feared lest the law, which compels the town to give free medical care to the needy poor, would be fatal to mutual-aid societies; but these fears were groundless, and these organisations in- creased. As the number of patients helped by the towns was augmented, the members of the societies of mutual aid became more numerous. The town-helped patients, from 1895 to 1899, rose from 360,000 to 500,000, and the mem- bers of mutual-aid societies from 1,354,439 to 1,759,000.^ School mutual-aid societies are of recent formation. In 1894 there were three in Paris and one in the country; in 1909 they had so multiplied that their membership reached 800,000.^ M. Leopold Mabilleau, an enthusi- astic worker in this direction, sets at 21,000 all the mutual-aid societies and at about 5,000,000 the number of mutualists of France.* ' Annuaire staiislique, 1913. * Haussonville, Comte d", Rcrue des Deux Mondcs, vol. 162, p. 792. * Le Steele, Feb. 23, 1909. In these societies the pupils pay two cents a week. One is used to help sick members, and the other to provide an old-age pension in due time. The mutualites scolaires are followed by mutualites post-scolaires, which interest the pupil until he may join an adult society. « Le Siede, Feb. 1, 1909. 158 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC The idea of old-age pensions has been more and more put into practice. The number of beneficiaries from the State have increased from 130,103 in 1871 to 280,002 in 1911, and the sums paid, from $16,600,000 to $54,784,000.^ The government grants pensions to old soldiers, to aged public servants, to functionaries, and to teachers as well as to some seamen permanently liable to service in the navy. The State also compels miners to provide for old age by surren- dering 2 per cent of their wages. This is dupli- cated by the employer and also by the country. In 1907 the Chamber of Deputies voted an old- age pension for labourers, which has been lately ratified by the Senate. This law, largely in the hands of the municipal councils, provided for the pay in 1911 of a small pension of $36 a year to 577,816 individuals. In some cases a municipality may grant $0.20 a day, which in France means daily bread for a labourer.^ Public opinion has moved so rapidly in this direction that many corporations of their own accord have put the principles of this law into practice and provided old-age pensions for 1,200,000 employees. The seven great railroad companies of France, in 1906, devoted $15,400,- 000 to old-age pensions for their 200,000 ser- > Annuaire tiatistique, 1913. * Gide, Charles, op. cit., p. 452. SOCIAL REFORM 159 vants.^ In 1906 these companies devoted to the social betterment of their employees sums equal to 21 per cent of their wages.^ The Bank of France not only provides pensions and en- courages the mutual-aid societies of its em- ployees, but in 1908 it founded a Societe de pre- voyance dotale, a society to provide the children of employees with a dowry at the time of their marriage.^ The sum devoted by this institution to improve the condition of its personnel is $5,000,000 a year.-* Furthermore, the State has an organisation whereby any individual may secure an old-age annuity by the payment of annual fees. The number of individuals who avail themselves of this institution is not large. In 1898 only 29,245 persons made payments for themselves, while the total number of beneficia- ries was 235,184; that is, the greater part is paid by employers. The annuities paid that year amounted to $6,891,700. Insurance companies reimbursed that year $15,000,000 in their annuity service. Insurance companies have greater success with individuals » Guyot, Yves, Le Slide, Dec. 15, 1908. ' Gide, Charles, op. cit., p. 153. » La Revue, Jan. 1, 1909, p. 126. * In addition to salaries of the labourers, the iron works of Le Creusot adds 12 per cent, the Mame Printing Works of Tours 15.25 per cent, the cut-glass works of Baccarat 8 per cent, the coal mines of Anzin 11 per cent. (Gide, op. cit., p. 154.) 160 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC who subscribe on their own account; for, from 1882 to 1898 their annuity service increased 300 per cent. Life insurance has had a prodigious development. From 1870 to 1898 the pohcies rose from 10,162^ to 522,066, and the amounts insured from $28,300,000 to $781,000,000.2 This reaches not only the rich and the well-to-do, but also people of limited means. Well-con- ducted life insurance appeals more and more to labourers, and the possibility of making small and frequent payments has contributed to the increase in the number of policies. Rent-paying people are not so numerous as in many countries, for a majority of Frenchmen own their own homes, yet in some centres a large part of the poor population live in wretched quarters. The providing of healthy homes, a work taken up with apostolic zeal by M. Jules Siegfried, and now pushed forward by many building associations,^ will save workingmen from living in hovels where health as well as decency is impossible. The Alliance d'hygiene sociale and the Societe frangaise des habitations a bon marche have inspired many a poor work- man to make efforts to have a house of his own, or to have a building association erect it. There * La Grande EncyclopSdie, vol. IV, " Assurance." * Catalogue officiel, ibid. * Ibid. SOCIAL REFORM 161 is also the work of Ihe Socicte anonyme de loge- ments economiques pour families nombreuses, pro- viding inexpensive apartments for families with numerous children.^ Along this line may be mentioned the work of the Mining and Railroad societies, which have built some 60,000 houses for their opera- tives. Some rent these homes at a very low rate. In Baccarat the labourers are housed gra- tuitously. In Le Creusot they paj^ from $1.60 to $0.25 per month. ^ There is the princely gift of $2,000,000 from the Rothschilds to build large, comfortable, and inexpensive blocks of houses for the better class of artisans and clerks; the Hotel meuhle^ constructed by the Societe pki- lanthropique for single women ;^ the Logement pour dames des posies, telegraphes et telephones, a home for the women employed in post-oflBces;* and La Parisienne, a large home founded by the Comte d'Haussonville, in which 150 young women may live for $5 per month. The general problem as well as the specific one, of housing has been taken up all over the country. By the side of the poor are people * No family of less than three children may be admitted. The society is pledged not to pay more than S per cent to its stockholders. Le Signal, Oct. 29, 1907. «Gide, op. cit., p. 247. * L' Illustration, June 7. 1902. ♦ Ibid.. July 22. 1905. 162 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC in humble circumstances, who are received in the maisons de retraite — a term which Miss Betham-Edwards has translated very appro- priately, "associated homes." There are homes in large seaports for sailors, so that, while ashore, they may be under good influence. We might speak of VAhri, "The Shelter," a society to help the worthy poor who through misfor- tune are unable to pay their rent. The object of this organisation is to stay eviction. Some 290 agencies put within the reach of 15,000 families small free gardens, where they may grow the vegetables they need.^ The matter of sanitation has been taken up with earnestness and determination. Strict laws have conferred adequate powers upon those who have special care of the hygiene of the country. Scientific methods of arresting contagious dis- eases are rapidly accepted by the masses. Cities have made great sacrifices to obtain pure water, and plenty of it. Narrow, unhealthy streets are replaced by improved ones. There has never been such a destruction of hovels as during the last forty years. Almost everywhere the ten- dency is to give more space to houses, some- times at the cost of fine, historic streets or of walls which are dismantled. The hygienist » Le Siicle. Nov. 9, 1909. SOCIAL REFORM 163 scarcely slops before important monumental landmarks. The work against tuberculosis has been cre- ated by the Republic. Not to speak of institu- tions inland, in 1901 there were 24 sanitariums on the coasts.^ That of Hendaye, in the Pyr- enees is a model institution. By the side of other agencies to fight this evil, in 1908, VCEuvre de la tuherculose humaine gave 400,000 free con- sultations to tuberculous patients.* Through the new education the people have come to be- lieve in the power of microbes, and also in that of science. Saint-Hubert, formerly the only hope of those bitten by mad dogs, has been re- placed by the Pasteur Institute. The 2,671 cases treated in 1886 had a death-rate of 0.94 per cent, while in 1900 the 1,420 cases were fatal only to the extent of 0.28 per cent.^ The awful disease anthrax, so fatal to beasts and often to men, is rapidly diminishing through the Pasteur vaccination of cattle. Innumerable efforts have been made to save human life, laying stress upon the harrowing problem of infantile mortality. The recent Fondation Pierre Budin is a practical school for the care and treatment of babies. There, apart > Conference of Charities. 1902, p. 228. » Le Sikle, Feb. 1. 1909. * U Illustration, "Documents," J\Ay IS, 1901. 164 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC from the teaching of the mothers and the advice given to them in individual cases, the httle ones are weighed, examined periodically, and their diet is superintended. It is a noble attempt to popularise our best knowledge among those who hitherto have been led only by impulse and often merely by instinct. Laws enacted under the Republic protect babies from those mon- strous provincial nurses,^ who had earned the only too appropriate name of faiseuses d'angeSy "angel-makers," because of the large death-rate of the infants committed to their charge. The Roussel Law prevents these women from going out until their own infants are at least seven months old. Dispensaries have become numer- ous, while relief at home has been greatly ex- tended. The total expense for hospitals, asylums, and homes for the aged has risen from $18,574,000 in 18712 to $48,233,400 in 1911.^ Aged people, the infirm, and the incurable are taken care of by the State. The Republic has co-ordinated the town, the department, and the State or- ganisations, and thereby has accelerated their action through the Assistance publique. The expenses of all local boards of charity, superin- ' Brieux, in his Les Remplagantes, has laid bare the evil of the system. * Fernandez, op. cit., p. 354. * The Statesman s Year Book, 1907. SOCIAL REFORM 165 tended by this national instrument, were $5,- 200,000 in 1871 and $9,200,000 in 1907. In the hospitals and hospices, old people's homes, the patients have increased from 48,159 in 1871 to 74,705 in 1911,^ and the expenses have risen from $16,400,000 to $33,600,000. The children in these institutions have increased from 95,444 to 228,699 in 1911, and the expenses from $2,000,000 to $8,348,000.* Abbe Gayraud sets at 100,000 the number of the sick, the infirm, and the aged, and at 60,000 the orphans in Roman Catholic institutions.^ There are small independent organisations for particular cases such as the Association generale des Alsaciens and the Societe de protection des Alsaciens, which have spent more than $600,000 each for this form of charity in twenty years.* There is La Maison Rossini for aged artists, and La Maison des comediens at Port-aux- Dames for aged actors. There are professional associations, providing orphanages for fatherless or motherless children of their organisations. There are institutions of this kind for artists' children, for the children of common-school teachers, for those of railroad employees, for those of Alsatians, for those of Freemasons, etc. * Annuaire statistique, 1913. * Ibid. * La Republique et la paix religieuse, p. 9S. * Scheurer-Kestner, op. cit., p. 873. 166 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Comte d'Haussonville sets at 1,400 the number of independent orphanages — the majority of them Cathohc — in the country.^ The increase in the number of institutions and the number of their inmates does not mean an increase of the needy, but that more of the needy are now helped who formerly were neg- lected. The Gavroche of Hugo would be a vir- tual impossibilit}^ now. Innumerable efforts are made to protect infants at home, such as in- stitutions that furnish pure milk and those which take them away from cruel parents. The creches are doing good work, but they labour against the popular feehng that what the chil- dren need is not more institutions, but more mothers restored to them by better social con- ditions. The same thing might be said about the garderies of children in the schools where the little ones are kept under proper super- vision until the mothers return home from their work. In many of the schools cantines scolaires provide lunch for all at cost, and free for poor, underfed children;^ and summer outings took, in 1910, 7!2,400 children to the country.^ AMien pos- sible the rule is to scatter them in homes rather * Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. CLXI, p. 787. » In 1904, the .schools of Paris served 10,600,000 meals. (Gorst, Sir John E., The Children of the Nation.) » Vllluatration. October 29, 1910. SOCIAL REFORM 167 than place them in large aggregations. The So- ciete pour la protection de Venfance abandonnee et coupable has extended its kind ministrations to more than 10,000 children,' while rehgious organ- isations deserve much credit for kindred work. Public opinion has moved in the direction of greater kindness toward illegitimate children, formerly treated like moral pariahs, as if they were responsible for the sins of their parents. Laws also have been voted to secure greater justice for them in the matter of inheritance. As we have already seen, under the Republic the nation has strongly modified its attitude toward woman. As a girl, she has more educa- tion in the schools, more protection in the mill and in the street. Her status is as yet far from ideal, but the progress has been great. There are now works like the (Euvre pour la repression de la traite des blanches to fight organised prosti- tution; works to help young girls arriving in Paris, giving temporary help and sound advice; institutions to shelter them overnight; others, where the fallen may reform. Numerous or- ganisations provide an inexpensive meal for shop girls; and one of the organisations, the Refectoire, recentty established, aims to furnish free meals to honest working girls without > la Revue, Jan. 1, 1909, p. 125. 168 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC work. There are homes on the seashore for worn-out mothers. The mutualites maternelles, the labour exchanges for mothers, the Asile Michelet, the Comite du refuge pour femmes en- ceintes, the purpose of which is to reheve from hard work those who are about to become mothers, to free them from too exacting cares, or to enable them to gain strength before child- birth. The thought here is as much for the well- being of the expected offspring as for that of the mother. There is the Asile George Sand where, after their confinement, the mothers may be re- ceived with their children, and the Asile Ledru- Rollin when they have one child only. If they cannot support their child, it is received tem- porarily at the Asile Leo-Delibes or permanently elsewhere. The Fondation Carnot distributes an- nually sums of $40.00 each to worthy widows with children. They had 99 beneficiaries in 1909. No less important than what is done for women is what women are now doing for all, through their innumerable societies for social service. The Socicte frangaise de secours mix blesses^ though founded under the Empire, has received a signal development under the Re- public. The new organisations, the Association des dames frangaises and the Union des femmes SOCIAL REFORM 169 de France^ had for their first work the care of the wounded, but they widened their aims to the rehef of suffering in every direction. Their services during the present war must excite the admiration of all. The advent of lay women workers, which has lately been so marked, is one of the most evident marks of philanthropic progress. One could never have dreamed four decades ago that there was so much latent altru- ism in the nation. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the extent and variety of works of relief, from the sanitarium for teachers to the bouchee de pain^ bread distribution to the hun- gry; relief by work; help to families of ship- wrecked seamen and to liberated prisoners. To elevate the masses much has been done outside of the new education, of the more popu- lar artistic culture, of the new legal and scien- tific environments. The Laboratoires Bourbouze are free laboratories placed at the disposal of workingmen for the study of physics, chemis- try, electricity, photography, and micrography.* The Universites popidaires, a species of working- men's colleges, furnish an admirable complex- men tary education for labourers, though it may be added that they have not been entirely suc- cessful. Libraries have become more numer- ^Livret de l'6tudiant. 1908-1909. p. 137, 170 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC ous, lectures more frequent,^ and they are al- most always illustrated. There are, moreover, the temperance societies, clubs of all kinds, from the Ultramontane clubs of M. de Mun'^ to those of extreme radicalism, the Young Men's Christian Associations,^ the work of Les amis des foyers de soldat, which is establishing popular clubs where soldiers, dur- ing their hours of leisure, may find a home, the societies of patronage for apprentices and for youth in general, gymnastic societies for na- tional physical culture, musical associations, both choral and instrumental, tending in a gen- eral way to social elevation. Many of these organisations are the work of the toilers them- selves. They have shown power of grouping, of social affinities and a spirit of social service, which has been a matter of astonishment for many. They have displayed a spirit of sol- idarity which, though not new, seems to have an unprecedented vitality. We have indicated, only in a general way, what is done. Frenchmen, so divided upon ' Under the Empire it was difiBcult to secure permission to give these lectures, and when they were given, a representative of the police was present, and that, as a rule, at the expense of those who wished the lecture. ' Mun, Comte A. de. Questions sociales, Discours politiques, Dis- cours et icrits divers. * These have been brought to their present state of eflBciency through the generosity and guidance of Mr. James Stokes, of New York. SOCIAL REFORM 171 many issues, have endeavoured to make real the third term of the Repubhcan motto: "Lib- erty, equahty, and fraternity." The reading of any directory of the social and charitable works of Catholics,^ the Agenda protestant, a list of Hebrew charities, the Catalogue general officiel of the Exposition of Paris, 1900,^^ the "Catalogue of French Exhibits of Social Econ- omy, of Hygiene and Charities" at the St. Louis Exposition, and the annual discourses of the French Academy sur les prix de vertu is a revelation not only of French altruism, but of its growing momentum. The spirit of the teachings of Christianity, of Saint-Simon, of Fourier, and of the later idealists has abundantly entered into this work of social elevation. Some have even exalted this spirit into a religion, the religion of kindness. There is no doubt but that the old school of pohtical economists called Vecole dure, "the hard school," by Jules Simon, — a school which would do away with all chari- table agencies on the ground that they prevent a healthy elimination, — has nearly disappeared.^ On the other hand, the former sentimental giv- ing of alms is less frequent, though still exten- sively practised. The word "charity," in the ' See for Paris, Abb6 Duplessy, Paris religieui, 1900. » Vol. XVI. * HaussoQville, Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. CLXI, p. 775. 172 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC sense of beneficence, has been filled with more genuine humanity and more intelligence. More heart controlled by more brain, is the dominant note of this progress in the social and philan- thropic movement in France. CHAPTER VIII SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT AND MORALITY IN all countries moral conditions present grave problems. France is no exception. Divorces have risen from 4,123 in 1885 to 14,261 in 1910, suicides from 5,276 in 1871 to 9,629 in 1911; alcoholism has so increased that the French people, once the most temperate of Europe, now stand in the forefront of alcohol consumers. In some of the large centres of the North and the North- West the evil has become appalhng. The inmates of hospitals for the insane have increased from 49,589 to 100,291.^ The cases of delinquencies brought before "cor- rectional tribunals" have risen from 172,388 in 1871 to 217,623 in 1911. By putting such figures together — and they are true figures — it is possible to make a most dismal picture; it is unfortunate that all the evidences of moral progress cannot also be put into mathematical formulae, and thereby be made to throw some light upon the dark shadows which are only too real. * Annuairs ttalistique, 191S. 173 174 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC The country has passed through a period of mental, moral, and religious transformation, during which much that was conventional and artificial in morals, superstitious in rehgion, has been swept away with much that was priceless. Thus, instead of the old scandal of husband and wife living apart, now there is divorce, and in a Catholic country divorce causes a more shocking impression than partially concealed concubinage. Yet in spite of the outcry of the systematic enemies of divorce, the statistics of marriage are, on the whole, very encouraging. Furthermore, marriages are increasing. From 1880 to 1911 they rose from 279,000 to 312,000.^ As to the birth-rate, whose low ebb has been frequently ascribed by the clergy to immorality and irreligion, it must be admitted that this phenomenon is general all over Europe. The argument that this brings France upon a footing of inferiority to Germany has value only for those who make military considerations para- mount. The real superiority does not lie in number, but in the moral earnestness of indi- viduals. From this point of view it may be honestly asked if the very high birth-rate of 36 per thousand for the French Canadians in the province of Quebec^ suggests higher ethical ' Annuaire atatislique, 1915. 'Siegfried, A., Le Canada, p. 290. SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 175 motives than that of 22 per thousand in France. This birth-rate is still higher than that of several American states, which are far from being the least moral ones of the Union. Frenchmen at large are much perplexed over this question, which has been discussed in every great French periodical.^ To grapple with it there was organ- ised the Alliance nationale pour V accroissement de la 'population frangaise. Were this society merely to collect reliable data upon the many sides of the problem, it would doubtless render great services. The increase of alcoholism is largely explained by the fact that France earns much of her daily bread through the culture of the vine — in some parts of the country it is the only possible cul- ture. Again, the republicans, in their great ex- tension of freedom, made no exception to the sale of alcohol, and consequently from 1881 to 1903 there were opened 110,000 new saloons.' So long as cabarets are so numerous the con- sumption of alcohol will remain extensive. Ac- cording to the last report of the Minister of Justice there is an intimate correlation between crime and alcoholism. The classes making the 'See a series of articles upon "French Depopulation" in La Revue hebdomadaire for 1909. Those by M. Charles Gide, and by the Dean of the Law School of Paris, M. Ch. Lyon-Caen, are masterly. * U Illustration, Dec. 17. 1904. 176 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC most extensive use of drinks — fishermen, min- ers, truckmen, and factory hands — have the largest number of criminals.^ The good sense, the intelhgence, and the conscience of the coun- try is arraying itself against intemperance. There is now an anti-alcoholic group in the Parliament, led by that distinguished and cou- rageous deputy, M. Joseph Reinach. The Min- ister of War has taken a decided stand upon the question. The officers of the army are ordered to give lectures to their soldiers upon this evil. The teachers do the same work in their schools. Nearly two thousand anti-alcoholic societies are waging war upon distilled — not upon fermented — drinks, and many organisations are even taking more radical positions. The Academy of Sciences have given their moral support to this cause. The attitude of the Parliament is such that one may expect two important reforms: one, the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of absinthe, and the other, the reduction of the number of saloons. The promoters of this movement are physicians, scientists, philan- thropists of large culture, who, like M. Reinach, would say: "We know that the struggle against alcoholism is for our country, for our race, a » Le Temps. Oct. 15, 1909. SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 177 question of life and death, of physical and in- tellectual health or of hopeless decadence." Never was a temperance crusade carried on more judiciously. As a result the Parliament has at last condemned absinthe and imposed important restrictions upon alcohol. Even be- fore the war, there was a decrease in its use. Now the example of Russia and of England has notably affected public opinion. The very intensity of modern civilisation has almost everywhere brought about an increase of mental diseases. However, one must not ex- aggerate this. The figures which we have given are not absolute indices of increase. Patients are now known and treated who formerly were al- most unnoticed. If they were harmless and poor they were allowed to go about, and when rich, they were kept at home, often in absolute seclu- sion; now they are almost always sent to insti- tutions. The mildest cases of those who are dependent upon the State have been scattered in families of rural districts with good results. Most of the hospitals for these patients have put into practice our greater knowledge of mental pathology and the idea of a greater kindness in dealing with these unfortunates. Suicides, bad in themselves, bad for society, bad every way, are not absolutely signs of moral retrogression. 178 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC With the paroxysms of activity, of competition, of well-being, of pleasures and their concomi- tants, these deeds of despair were to be expected. As to crime in its worst forms it is apparently decreasing, while in the cases of brawls and blows it is gaining.^ The overstated charge of the conservatives, that much crime is left unpunished contains much truth. It is a fact that, in the humanisa- tion of justice, juries and judges have been lenient with transgressors, not from indifference, corruption, or cowardice, but from a more philo- sophical and abstract conception of justice, or from the idea that delinquencies have in them a social element, for which the individual should not be punished. The humanistic movement has led republicans to apply too suddenly the ethics of the parable of the prodigal son to cul- prits. Formerly delinquents of almost every > CONTENTIONS, CRIMES. AND PRISONS 1871 1911 Cases for decision before justice of peace . 384.026 363,762 Cases for conciliation in court 57,341 12.365 Cases for conciliation out of court 2,250.523 1,203,999 Cases referred to correctional tribunals . . 172.388 217,623 Cases of conviction for violence or crime . 3,955 1,919 Prisoners in "houses of arrest," prisons. . 14,838 6,529 Convicts in local prisons 22,018 7.310 18.291 4,291 Convicts ill reform schools Annuaire atatiatique, 1913. SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 179 kind, called for military service, were incorpo- rated into African companies; but the Parlia- ment, thinking that the transgressions com- mitted did not deserve such hard treatment, and hoping that the good element of the army would exert a bettering influence, placed these repris de justice in the regular army. The result of this was an alarming increase of crime among soldiers. The principle of moral contagion, which applies to right as well as to wrong, is a sound one; but in this case the reform was not sufficiently gradual or hedged with sufficient legal guarantees. The outcome was not calmly studied, but the opposition used it for partisan ends. As to crime in general, were the nation to spend a few millions more for a larger police force, it is certain that there would be a striking improvement. A fair survey of French criminality shows that some forms of delinquencies have altogether disappeared, while the distressing feature of the present is the increase of juvenile crime. This, however, is no more exceptional in France than in Holland, Italy, and Germany.^ England is favoured in this respect, because its benevolent societies have exported to the colonies orphans largely recruited from classes likely to yield ' Fouillee, A., La France au point de rue moral, p. 158. 180 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC many young delinquents. Catholics ascribe this juvenile moral lapse in France to the absence of religious instruction in the schools. Unfor- tunately for their claims, it is well known that the greatest periods of increase were at a time when the Catholic catechism was everywhere taught in the schools, and these schools were under the control of the Church. During the period from 1841-1851 the delinquencies rose from 14,781 to 22,251, that is, 33 per cent; from 1851 to 1861 the rise was from 22,251 to 25,733, or 15 per cent; while from 1881 to 1891, under un- sectarian schools, there was an increase from 35,332 to 36,975, or a httle less than 5 per cent.^ Le Temps says, on the authority of Gabriel Tarde, that from 1830 to 1880, under the system of national Catholic schools and the absolute ascendency of the clergy, juvenile delinquency had quadrupled in France, at least for boys.^ Fair-minded men, like Fouillee and Tarde, have shown that the schools were not responsible for juvenile crime. Among the most potent causes pointed out are the phenomenal development of saloons, of the yellow press, of pornographic lit- erature. In many cases of juvenile delinquents it was found that, for the most part, they had managed to avoid schools of any kind, and that » Ibid. » March 20, 1897. SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 181 the crimes are performed between sixteen and twenty -one, when the average boy has been for some time out of school. In deahng with criminals, the Repubhc has been actuated less by social vengeance than by the purpose to save the culprit, less by the penitentiary idea than by the reformatory. Prisoners are sub- jected to a regime which will help them to earn their daily bread more easily when they leave prison, while the uneducated, under 35 years of age, are compelled to attend prison schools. The most encouraging feature in the present situation is that the growth of every evil has called forth moral agencies to oppose it, while new institutions and new moral conceptions were imparting strength to the national life. It may astonish many to learn that for several years Paris had a Superior School of Morals in which the leading spirits of France discussed all possible questions of practical ethics. That institution has since evolved into a more com- prehensive one, the School of High Social Studies, in which the foremost scholars and the foremost men of action throw all the light they can upon the great scientific, moral, and social issues of our time. More competence and good-will have never united in a more generous service. '*The Union of Free Thinkers and 182 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Free Believers," another organisation of ethical culture, discussed, on Sundaj^s during 1908-1909, "Social Problems and Personal Duties," rally- ing many earnest men of large calibre. There are between fifty and sixty societies banded together under the name of "Federation of Societies against Pornography" to oppose public licence. They all, often with great courage, fight the sale or exhibition of obscene engravings, obscene books, obscene and grossly immoral plays and kindred evils. Through these organisations, from 1891 to 1905, 915 cases of infamous immoral trade were referred to the courts, 1,846 individuals were accused, 761 were condemned to less than a year of imprisonment, and 16 to more.^ The Societe des droits de Vhomme is ready anywhere to take the defence of those whose rights are disregarded. It takes up every year seven or eight thousand cases before the French tribunals.^ It may be added here that the habit of litigation about trifles has lost much of its hold upon French peasants. The former attitude of Frenchmen toward * Berenger, R., Manuel pratique pour la lutte contre la pornographie, p. 152. This little volume is an admirable study of the stricter laws of moral repression enacted by the Republic, the methods to be used by societies of moral reform, and the notable cases brought before the courts. » Le Signal. Nov. 23. 1907. SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 183 animals has undergone a change. There has long been the efficient Socicte protectrice des animaux, and recently was founded La Ligue frangaise pour la protection du cheval. The movement of greater kindness toward animals, strong and healthy as it is, has gone to the ex- treme of having, at Reuil, near Paris, a Maison de sante pour les animaux} Besides all the agencies which make for morality there are those of the churches, which are quite potent. Religion is the greatest ally of morality. And, after all, is not this the point where the Christian and the Free Thinker may come to an understanding.'^ What one aims at in the name of God, the other demands in the name of reason. The great moral prin- ciples in which Christian and rationalistic ethics concur, the Parliament requires to be taught in all the primary schools of the country.^ That teaching not only clarifies moral consciousness, but also acts powerfully upon the pupils by moral suggestions which cannot but be efficient. The censors of the Republic cannot deny the fact that, judged by their legislation, their or- ganised efforts, and their education, Frenchmen have never displayed a deeper sense of responsi- > Le Siecle, Oct. 26, 1909. * See the chapter upon Moral Instruction. 184 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC bility and moral solidarity. Never have ethical problems been more prominent in the mind of the thinking elite. Never have moral consid- erations so determined French philosophical thought, and never were there so many books written on morals or on the moral aspects of education, of politics, philosophy, and sociology. The attitude of the best artists is no longer what it was under the Empire. The doctrine of art for art's sake has lost its former prominence, and some artists have substituted that of "art from life for life." The doctrine of the moral utility of art has never been preached to such an extent. Again, while literary men, like art- ists, are often unmoral and many immoral, there is now a moral purpose in much of contemporary literature which was absolutely wanting in by- gone days. This is especially true of the drama and of fiction. The leading writers themselves are better men than those of half a century ago. The national idea is now less chauvinistic than ever before. To love one's country is no longer to hate that of another. At the time of the Tonkin expedition the motto of the Radicals in Parliament was, "Tonkin for the Tonkin- ese !" There is now a large body of Frenchmen who, in reference to the complications in North Africa, say, "Morocco for the Moroccans !" In SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 185 no country of the world is there a greater readi- ness than in France to accept the international golden rule. The thought of war is more and more revolting to Frenchmen. Justice and equity loom larger in the popular mind than force. When in 1907 the Petit Parisien had a plebiscite which called forth 15,000,000 votes upon the greatest Frenchman, the highest place was not given to a warrior, but to a scientist who ever preached peace — Pasteur. The sec- ond was awarded to Victor Hugo — the poet who in his best days exalted peace — and Napo- leon came fourth. Another paper, by the same process, asked who are the great men, not yet in the Pantheon, who should be there. The men designated were Pasteur, Gambetta, Thiers, Parmentier, Curie, Denfert-Rochereau, Savor- gnan de Brazza, Alexandre Dumas, and Lamar- tine. The only soldier in this list, Denfert- Rochereau, the heroic defender of Belfort, came sixth. The economist Frederic Passy and Judge J.-L. Renault, the authority upon inter- national law, have received the Nobel prize for their peace work. This is in perfect keeping with the standards of moral value at the present time. It maj^ be fearlessly asserted that the fundamental con- ceptions of the basis of life have been renovated. 186 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC The idea of evolution and progress has replaced the old dogma of unchangeableness and of dead stability, which ignored the necessity for indi- viduals and societies constantly to readjust themselves to ever-changing conditions. The asceticism of former days is passing away. The body is no longer the organ that must be weak- ened in order to strengthen the soul, the proud human reason is no longer to be humbled before a great ecclesiastical authority; but body and mind must be developed for social service. The new conception of the body has led to great progress in sanitation, in hygiene and physical culture, while behef in the soundness of the light of reason has generated the move- ments of education and of scientific research which we have sketched. Labour, formerly viewed as Millet has represented it, a divine penance for man on account of sin, now seems more and more a factor of happiness. Nature no longer appears as a hard, harsh stepmother giving man a painfully earned morsel of bread; she is no longer, in French eyes, the divine scourge of a revengeful God, but the generous rewarder of intelligent and conscientious efforts. Matter, once associated in French public opinion with that which is gross, impure, and perish- able, has come to be viewed as a mode of ex- SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 187 plaining the universe quite as mysterious as the spirit itself. In recasting their own thought in reference to man's place in human society, or in the cosmos, Frenchmen have largely freed themselves from systems built upon material- istic doctrines. There is a noticeable tendency to rise above the ethnic fatalism of polygenists like Gobineau, or mechanistic determinists like Taine. There is also a visible inclination to discard the system of brutal ethics, built upon the doc- trine of evolution as formulated by its illustrious founder, Charles Darwin. The ethical doctrine resting upon the principle of the struggle for the "survival of the fittest" has always been obnox- ious to the Gallic admirers of the author of "The Origin of Species." They accepted his biological conclusions, but not the ethical infer- ences of his disciples. The principle of "co- operation" has gained ground over that of "struggle for existence." Renouvier claims that "man, rising above sheer biological evolution, has brought into human society the law of jus- tice, of charity, and sohdarity." M. Leon Bour- geois has changed the formula of Darwin by saying that life "is the struggle of each for the existence of all." Fouillee has made it "a •struggle for coexistence," and Deschanel makes 188 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC it "the union for life." Clemenceau, with an earnestness that no one can question, says, "SociaHsm is social goodness in action; it is the intervention of all for the sake of the victim of the fatal vitality of others. . . . Man hinders man, I have said. Man also helps man. The help for life in the struggle for life is the order of life, born of the supreme law of solidarity of all."^ Taken all in all, the trend of French ethics is not far from that of the Founder of Christian- ity. In the general life the word duty has come to take a larger place and to be more inclusive. Duty toward others has come to have the sense of duty toward ourselves. Morality is man's high- est adaptation to the needs of all. The sense of moral obligation springs from moral convictions rather than from religious beliefs. The suprem- acy of conscience is more and more asserted. When members of juries in the department of Yonne refuse to swear in the name of God,'^ if they are sincere, their act is ethically superior to the blind or mechanical conformity of former days. Intellectual honesty has never been more honoured, nor casuistry more unpopular. Love of truth, not of pure knowledge, but of that apprehension of reality which tells upon our » La MlUe aociale. pp. xiv and xv. » Le Temjta, Aug. 7, 1909. SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT 189 deepest life, is growing. A new conception of woman largely prevails, and that will have stu- pendous consequences. A greater respect for woman is growing. She often shows herself equal to her husband, when not superior, and young men have largely abandoned the former Roman idea of being husband-masters.^ Though appearances might lead some to infer the con- trary, French traditional virtues, such as family love, social cheerfulness, the prevalence of thrift, of economy, and the hatred of debts have never been more flourishing. As Comte d'Avenel says, "a thrifty people will never be a gambling peo- ple."^ In the French army an officer is sus- pended for debts. Former conventional habits without any ethical motives have been greatly disturbed either by moral revolts or by new views of man's biological, economic, and social relations; but France has never had a keener sense of moral rectitude, of solidarity and, with all the failings that her critics magnify, she leans strongly to the side of genuine moral life. ' Faguet, E., Propos littSraires, vol. V, p. 205. * Le Fran^ais de mon temps, p. 74. CHAPTER IX RELIGIOUS DOUBT AND RELIGION TO form a just estimate of the real religious situation, we must not assume that everything which is unsatisfactory now was ideal at the end of the Second Empire. The Atheisme et le peril social ^ of Bishop Dupanloup paints a dismal picture of the religious situation at that time. The sermons of Protestant preach- ers present no brighter outlook.^ That of Pere Didon, in 1867, is no more hopeful than that which a Dominican would draw now.^ X for- mer member of the same order, writing upon the Commune at its very close said: "What, then, is a people without a God .^ Philosophers had endeavoured to say, but facts have revealed it with a reality that deJSes words. The demon- stration of social atheism is finished. Provi- dence gave it for an hour the grandest of thea- tres, the freest of orgies and the most terrible of dramas. . . . There is the work of a people 1 1866. 'See Edmond de Pressense, Discours religieux; Eugene Bersier, Serrtwn3, vols. I, II, and III. • Raynaud (P^re StanislasJ, Le Pere Didon, p. 52. 190 DOUBT AND RELIGION 191 that has no longer any God."^ Voicing the bankruptcy of faith at the same period, Pere Didon says: "We have been defeated, we were to be. We know neither how to command nor how to obey. We have lost the faith. A people without faith is doomed to defeat." ^ In 1872 he speaks of irrehgion as national.^ At the Protestant National Sj^nod in the same year Guizot speaks of "a new explosion of anti-Christian ardour."* At the same session Pasteur Athanase Coquerel shows "atheism as- serting itself with an energy of negation without precedent," "the atheism of the street," "athe- ism penetrating into all ranks of society," "athe- ism in persons of all ages."^ Another delegate states that the scientific trend has become little by little "positivistic and materialistic."^ A little later, Pere Didon glorifies "heaven which seems empty to the eyes of our sceptical genera- tion."^ In his sermons in Marseilles, the an- tagonism of irreligion is the leitmotif of his preaching.^ "In our land of France," he says, "we are born Christians, we die Christians, but * Loyson, H., De la reforme catholique, p. 105. ' Didon, Pere J. H., Lettrea du Pere Didon a un ami, 1902, p. i. ' Raynaud, op. cit., p. 92. * Bersier, E., Histoire du Synode ginSral de I'Eglise rijormle, 1872, vol. I, p. 290. * Ibid., p. 153. « Ibid., p. 148. ' Didon, op. cit., p. 15. » Raynaud, op. cit., p. 105. 192 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC between the cradle and the grave passions speak like mistresses, scepticism invades our minds, material life with its vortices of business absorb our time, and we do not live like Christians. Faith is only at the two extremities of our life: the cradle which belongs to her, the grave which belongs to her also, and that is all." * When the faith of the "cradle" and the "faith of the grave" is all, one may say that the vital faith of the nation is gone; but that we will not say, either of the early days of the Republic or of the present. The actual religious losses were not so great as represented then or as lamented now. A fair correction of the religious parallax will place us face to face with a more hopeful state of things. The loss which many Catholics deplore is their former ability to im- pose their belief. Professor Fonsegrive says with regret that two victories have been won by society over "the doctrine of Catholic truth — the coexistence of several religions in countries equally civilised, and the proclamation of inde- pendence of philosophical thought. "^ There has ' Ibid., p. 125. Abbe Gayraud, a former Dominican, now priest and deputy, thirty years later speaks in a similar manner: "The mass of electors have scarcely anything more from Catholicism than baptism, first communion, the forms of marriage and some of the practices of church attendance dictated by habits and social conventions." {La Republique et la paix religieuse, p. 43.) " Pichenard. Mgr. P. L., Leu Lviten de VEgliae. p. 776. DOUBT AND RELIGION 193 been unquestionably a great nominal decline in formal membership. Abbe Cresty, in 1905, set at about eleven millions those in France who could properly be called Catholics.^ This does not necessarily mean a real decrease of spiritual power, but that the Church has been reheved of a dead weight that was its bane. Its grave error was to consider these accretions as ster- Ung religious values, and to speak of "Catholic France" in terms which were as gratifying to this body as they were misleading to all. The stern fact was that the nation was mov- ing away from its religious moorings. Now the priest has been deprived of his former non- religious power — the power which rendered him so unpopular under Napoleon and under Mac- Mahon. He has ceased to be the man through whom almost every one had to secure state- advancement in any career, or impunity from crime at the hand of the judge. No more is he the stepping-stone of the religious politician to office. He has no longer any Tartufe about him. No more can he molest the non-Catholic scholar or terrorise the luke-warm Catholic pro- fessor, or even the doubting one, by the pros- pect of dismissal. Even his pulpit is no longer a source of effectual religious threats. He must ^ L'Esjprit nouveau dam faction morale et religieuae, p. S6. 194 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC convince, not command, his hearers. His pa- rishioners expect from him more education and more culture — and he has it. Free-thinking opposition has called forth the latent intellectual energy of the priest, and anti-clericalism has really strengthened him in the conflict. However, the repeated political defeats of clerical candidates show that the clergy have lost their former hold, and that the causes which they endorse are decidedly unpopular. As Comte G. d'Avenel, a distinguished French CathoHc, puts it, Catholicism "has lost its material domination, the secular arm. It no longer leads the State and has no longer any place in the State. It has lost the masses; its temples, in a thousand places, are deserted."* Anti-clericalism is often synonymous with anti- religion. Socialism, long and bitterly antago- nised by the priests, has become a unit against them. Science, attacked by the clergy, and remembering the treatment of its most distin- guished spirits in former days, often counts every scientific advance as so much gained upon the spirit of obscurantism in the Church. Many Frenchmen have rejected conceptions of God unworthy of our age. The "revengeful God,'* the God defender of mechanical morality, the ' Let Franqaia de mon temps, p. 165. DOUBT AND RELIGION 195 "God gendarme on behalf of capitalists,'* are conceptions which retain their grasp upon the masses but are abandoned by thinkers. There are those — and they are not new — who hold sincerely that atheistical science unravels much better than anything else the enigma of the uni- verse. Blatant, arrogant, and militant atheists exist, but they are not as common as might be supposed.^ The churchless are far from indifferent to re- ligious problems, and any able religious speaker will find hearers outside of the churches more easily than in America. In the early part of 1907 the Mercure de France organised a vast inquiry, asking eminent men "whether we are witnessing a dissolution or an evolution of re- ligious thought.'^" The overwhelming majority of French contributors decided for the second alternative, that we are in the presence of a re- ligious evolution.^ The editor of that interest- ing symposium wisely says: "It is undeniable that religious studies have taken, of late years, an extraordinary development; never, perhaps, since the Reformation has there been such a display of curiosity for all that concerns religion, such labours of erudition, of criticism, and of * Sabatier, P., Lettre ouverle & S. E. le Cardinal Gibbons, 1907, p. 18. ' Mercure de France, 1907, Nos. 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, and 241. 196 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC propaganda. There is in all countries the pub- hcation of works of the highest order upon re- ligious questions; there is the creation or exten- sion of reviews devoted to religious philosophy, to the history of rehgions, to controversies; there is the ever-increasing number of lectures and regular courses in which the religious idea is studied in all its manifestations. We must also recall the work done in France at the Musee Guimet, at the Practical School of High Studies, at the College de France, at the School of Anthro- pology, at the College of Social Sciences, at the School of High Social Studies, in denominational schools, and particularly the recent creation, at the Sorbonne, of several chairs of religious his- tory, etc."^ Professor Th. Ruyssen speaks of " the in- numerable works which from year to year show the increasing prosperity of studies of objective religious philosophy. A special publication, a year book of religious philosophy, would not be too much to sum up the scientific researches en- couraged by the curiosity of the public better and better informed." ^ The Musee Guimet gives to those interested in the study of comparative religions materials nowhere else available in the world. The Col- > Ibid., 236, p. 577. ' L'Annee psyckologiquc, 1909, p. 357. DOUBT AND RELIGION 197 lege de France has had for many years an ad- mirable course of highly important scientific studies on religions. Professor Reville, long the incumbent of this chair, was a radical Unitarian, but a most candid and able scholar, ever insist- ing upon the transcendent importance of relig- ion. Professor Loisy, recently elected to the same chair, is animated with a kindred spirit. The Practical School of High Studies in the Sor- bonne has a score of courses by specialists de- voted to the religions of the great peoples of the world, while the Sorbonne itself has now three chairs studying different periods in the history of Christianity. The feeling grows that religion has been one of the fundamental determinants of the charac- ter of various civilisations. At the School of High Social Studies, where all the great ques- tions of our time have been ably and honestly discussed, religion has also its place. The pub- lished lectures for 1903-1904 reveal a deep con- cern for belief on the part of all lecturers, and a profound sense of the social utility of religion.^ The size of the audiences, along with their character, is also quite significant. There was never, during the preceding regime, such an intellectual zest for the problems of religion. ' Religions et sociites, 1905. 198 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC The philosophers have given — and are still giv- ing — a large place to this subject. They admit more and more the importance of religious feel- ings in the evolution of society and in com- parative psychology, as well as the bearing of those feelings upon the various aspects of Meta- physics. The majority of them are ready to concede the practical value of the idea of God in ethics, as well as the great action of rehgious forces upon sociological phenomena. A philos- ophy is to be tested by its moral results. This accounts, in part at least, for the popularity'' of the religious addresses of Boutroux, and the large number of young priests at Bergson's lectures. In the philosophical teaching of the secondary schools there is a general insistence upon the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Binet says that he met far more scepti- cism in society than in his classes of philosophy.^ The theological conceptions of the professors vary most widely, from the God of the theolo- gians of Latin Christianity to that of the pan- theists. They are no longer left to the neces- sity of accepting or rejecting a single definite conception of God as if it were the only one possible, but have other theistic alternatives. *' Atheism," says M. Georges Lyon, **is excep- * Enaeignement et religion, 1907, p. 81. DOUBT AND RELIGION 199 tional in the French philosophical world."* This opinion of the distinguished rector of the Academy of Lille has been again and again en- dorsed before the writer by other prominent speculative thinkers. The introduction of philosophy into the do- main of religion upon a new scale is visible in the works of the best Catholic and Protestant writers, in the theses of Protestant students and in the better class of sermons. While the cleavage which has taken place in the world of beliefs has arrayed, on the one side, many who have become unreligious and atheistic, a cor- responding movement has taken place, on the other, toward a more positive faith. Atheists have become deists, deists have accepted a broad theism, the philosophical theists became for a time neo-Christians, the neo-Christians liberal Catholics, and some liberal Catholics have become ultramontane. Among those who have gravitated toward belief there has been a ten- dency to give, at every angle of the religious prism, a larger place to the mystical spirit with- out surrendering their philosophical ideals. It is in part this tendency that has led toward the Catholic Church men like Brunetiere, de ' "L'Evolution de I'enseignement philosophique," in V Annie philoao- phique, 1908, p. 154. 200 FRAxXCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Vogiie, Bourget, Coppee, Huysinans, and others who were Free Thinkers.^ There is philosoph- ical toleration in the Church sufficient to keep in it such distinguished scholars as Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, Georges Picot, Thureau-Dan- gin, Georges Goyau; scientists hke Gaudry and Lapparent; philosophers like Boutroux and Olle-Laprune; critics like Brunetiere, Doumic, and lesser lights, who are not inclined to move backward. Whatever be the strenuous restric- tions imposed from Rome, there is a large body of religious literature breathing a new spirit of rational certainty, of strong philosophical grasp of the basic truths of theology. Even a mere perusal of such works as the following will con- vince one that reason and science have never been more honoured by the Catholic thinkers of France: Abbe de Broglie, Les conditions modernes de V accord entre la foi et la raison;- Fonsegrive, Le Catholicisme et la religion de Vesprit;^ Abbe Laberthonniere, Essais de pJiilosopkie religieuse;^ Abbe Klein, Le Fait religieux et la mani^re de Vohserver;^ Abbe Denis, Esquisse d'une apologie philosophique du christianisme ;^ Le P. La Barre, La Vie du dog me catJiolique,"^ Le P. G. de Pascal, ' Sargeret, 3., Les grands convertis; Abb6 Delfour, Les Contemporaijis, 1895. ' 1903. » 1899. * 1903. » 1903. • 1898. ' 1898. DOUBT AND RP:LIGI0N 201 Le Christianisme } Catholic writers have able works also on the religious life of England and America, which will generate in the Church dis- appointing hopes^ about the progress of Ca- tholicism in those countries; but these books, none the less, represent philosophical and his- torical progress. The same conclusions must be reached in reference to their reviews. They have, for ex- ample, Le Correspondant, the Annates de philoso- phie chretienne, the Revue des questions historiques, the Nouvelte revue theotogique, the Etudes, La Reforme sociale, the Revue biblique, La Democratie chretienne, the Revue dliistoire et de litterature religieuse, the Revue de Vinstitut catholique de Paris, etc., which are equally worthy with the publications of any other religious body of the world. They have largely developed, also, a popular press which we may call "yellow," a press which will do much harm to the Church by its extravagance and fanaticism, but the character of those above referred to deserves much praise. The publications founded long ago have come to a greater importance under • 1903. ' Thureau-Dangin, Le Catholicisme en Angleterre au XIX' siicle; La Renaissance catholique en Angleterre au XIX' siecle; Bremond, Henri, UlnquiHude religieuse, \^" serie, 1902, and i''"' sSrie, 1909. See also books and review articles by Abbe Klein. 202 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC the Republic, while the others suggest enormous progress. Thej^ have even won over La Revue des Deux Mondcs. At the same time, the spiritual autocracy of the Vatican is as absolute as ever; the Galilean liberties, episcopal dignity and the independence of theological research are things of the past. Some bishops — not those appointed since the Separation — have endeavoured to modernise the education of their clergy and have advo- cated the stud}" of science as a help to faith. In some ways the Catholic universities of Paris and of Lille have done nobly in introducing into their work modern critical and scientific meth- ods, but with only very moderate success. Those who are leaning toward obscurantism are far more numerous. In the seminary of Issy — not in a distant part of France, but in Paris — a theological student asked how Noah could have fed all the animals in the ark, having so little room for provisions. The professor an- swered: "One may consider as probable that all animals in the ark suffered from sea-sickness and therefore had no need of food."^ But whatever be the system of training, Catholic clergymen show a greater readiness to break away from the Church, and several hun- ' De Narfon, J., op. cit., p. 357. DOUBT AND RELIGION 203 dred priests have left it during the last third of a century. Through the increase of intel- lectual honesty, the influence of the military service and the loss of political power bj'^ the clerg;y% there has been a wholesome elimination of the former doubtful and mercenary elements of the priesthood. Never was there a more ac- tive and aggressive spirit among young priests and never have the French clergy allied to a greater degree culture with devotion, and life with doctrine. If the growth of the orders is, as the ultramontanes assert, an index of spiritual progress, then there has never been a greater advance than during recent years. In any case one may say of the clergy, both secular and regular, that they have grown in intensity and earnestness where they are dominant, in intelligence and moral power where they have been in touch with the philosophical and scien- tific life. Pohtically and socially they move in a narrower range; they no longer reflect State prestige, but their real, lasting spiritual influence is greater. When they do not waste their energy in condemning, for the thousandth time, the wickedness of anti-clericals, their spirit is that of a large evangelism permeated with earnest- ness and poetry. Some of them lay stress upon natural virtues as preferable to super- 204 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC natural and passive ones, though they beHeve in both. As in the past, they insist upon the im- mutabihty of their Church; but, strange as it may seem, they now speak also of her progress and of her wonderful adaptability to changed conditions. Apart from their innumerable ef- forts in France, they are leading in Catholic mis- sions. M. Eugene Lou vet states that they have in the mission field 8,500 French priests, 33,600 French nuns, and about 3,600 French friars.^ There has also been a great change in the laity. Hitherto the bishops used this element for agitation — they still do — but it has be- come more active in the Church. Laymen are no longer the indifferent, passive, voiceless peo- ple of four decades ago, whose religion was absolutely formal. Several laymen of emi- nence have written books which Catholic leaders should heed, such as that of Julien de Narfon's Vers VEglise lihre; L. Chaine's Les Catholiques frangais et leurs difficultes actuelles; Doctor Mar- cel Rifaux's Les Conditions de retour au catho- licisme; and Comte G. d'Avenel's Les Franqais de mon temps. The country never had more Catholics of an earnest, genuine faith, willing to stand as faithful witnesses to their principles, than now. ' Quoted by Abb6 Gayrsud, op. cit., p. 78. DOUBT AND RELIGION 205 But while that is the case, they never had a better opportunity to do rehgious work. The present war affected them profoundly and gave them a chance to display their best traits. Protestants have undergone losses and made gains also, but, as we show elsewhere,* they have never been more genuineh^ active or influential. Israelites lay now less stress upon their racial claims, and show signs not a few of a clearer religious consciousness and a growing altruism. It may be positively asserted that they have been foremost among religious bodies as gener- ous givers to objects of general interest. The French are far more religious than they seem. The condition which we have set forth in the foregoing pages shows a depth of serious thinking which expresses itself strongly at the hour of crisis. The conflict has revealed the force of these convictions by more outward manifestations, but thev were there. It has called forth the best spirit of Catholics, Protes- tants, Jews, and Free Thinkers alike. At the critical hour the differences that had separated them were bridged both in private life, and especially at the front. Religion, which is the conscious union of man with God, is also the greatest tie that binds man to man. The clergy » See Chap. XV. 206 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC of the several religious bodies have done splen- did service in a really catholic spirit. Often priests have offered the last comforts of religion to Protestants, pastors have invoked divine blessings upon Catholics and Hebrews at their last hour, and rabbis have forgotten the exclu- sive practices of former days to perform the last rites upon the bodies of their Catholic and Protestant comrades. Most Free Thinkers have found in their theistic convictions the strength to die like courageous patriots. All have had a common faith in a supreme justice and a supreme mercy to which they appealed in their supreme need. Almost all of them in dying would have voiced their faith in the phrase of the poet: *'Thou wilt not leave us in the dust." CHAPTER X THE CONTEMPORARY FRENCHMAN IN THE NEW LIFE THE consequences of the progress which we have sketched manifest themselves in many ways. The material environ- ments of the contemporary Frenchman have been strikingly improved. The writer has known a village for fifty years, during which the population has remained stationary, but the homes are much larger and nearly twice as nu- merous. From 1871 to 1907 there were built in France 1,300,000 more homes than were torn down. The huts with only one window are growing fewer, while the new erections have generally more than five windows.^ The mud houses with thatched roofs are now viewed by the people as the relics of bygone days. The peasant who under the Empire spent his eve- nings in the dark, or made a most moderate use of tallow candles, is now provided with 1 Annuaire atatutique, 1909. 207 208 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC abundant petroleum.^ The introduction and wide distribution of this oil among the masses has created a revolution in their habits. In- stead of spending their long winter evenings in relative darkness, now they have an inexpensive light which enables them to read or work. Paris, as well as other large centres, used spar- ingly wax candles and vegetal oil-lamps, with a little gas; now the city has the most modern means of lighting with artistic fixtures, the beauty of which remains unsurpassed any- where. The use of coal for all purposes has more than trebled.^ The adulteration of food is more clever and more frequent than before, though it is severely punished when detected;^ it may be doubted, however, if this fraud in the quality of food — when it exists — is more detrimental to health than the deterioration which formerly came from ignorance and lack of adequate means to preserve it. As a whole, food is far more abun- dant and much better than under the Empire. Even in the most backward villages the range of comestibles has been greatly widened. In 'The use of kerosene has passed from 1.89 lbs. per inhabitant in 1871, to 24.64 lbs. in 1911. The price of the oil has decreased from $0.0225 per pound to $0.01. » From 18,860,000 it has increased to 59,530,000 tons. » Laboratories are being established in most cities for its detection. THE NEW LIFE 209 rural districts, not to speak of cities, grocers have trebled and quadrupled the articles of food which they keep. Butchers are unanimous in maintaining that the inferior cuts of meat have not increased in price, but because so many people now desire the better pieces the price of these has gone up. There has been a large increase in the use of almost all articles of food. CONSUMPTION OF FOOD PER INHABITANT 1871 1911 Wheat Potatoes Sugar Wine Beer Tea Coffee Cacao 6.5 bushels 512 pounds 17.16 pounds 16.5 gallons 4.77 gallons 0.015 pound 2.42 pounds 0.48 pound 9.90 bushels 717 pounds 38.50 pounds 23 gallons 9 gallons 0.033 pound 6.17 pounds 1.49 pounds From 1895 to 1910 the use of the following foodstuffs per inhabitant, in Paris, has ascended 48.2 per cent for fish, 4.7 for meats, 3.3. for but- ter, 20.7 for cheese, 35.5 for eggs, 135 for cider, 27.9 for wines.* On all sides are evidences that Frenchmen at large are better fed and for less money. The following table is instructive: » Th6ry, oy. cit., y. 68. 210 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC COMPARATIVE PRICES OF COMESTIBLES 1871 1907 Wheat $2.00 per bus. $0.93 per bus. Rye 1.38 " " .97 " " Corn 1.37 " " .82 " " 97 " " .66 " " Barley Oats .61 " " .54 " " Flour .043 " lb. .018 " lb. Potatoes .55 " 100 lbs. 1.10 " 100 lbs. Rice .04 " lb. .025 " lb. Butter .32 " " .81 •' " Sugar .08 " " .08 " " Coffee .15 " " .10 " " .15 " " .17 " " Cheese .16 " " .12 " " .11 " " .07 " " .16 " " .075 " " Beef Mutton .08 " " .085 " " At the same time wages have risen. In 1872 farm-hands received $0.44 and other labourers $0.62 per day; in 1900 the average pay for non- trained workmen outside of Paris was about $0.84.^ The wages of artisans and trained work- men have risen from 1870 to 1900 in a propor- tion represented by 0.76 and 1.04, while the cost of food and lodging of the same persons has dropped from 1.05 to 1.00, and the buying power of wages, though these men work fewer hours, has increased from 0.72 in 1872 to 1.00 in 1900.2 A great change has also taken place in the » Catalogue officiel de V Exposition universelle de Paris, vol. XVI. ' Annuaire statiatique, 1909. THE NEW LIFE 211 matter of external well-being. In the use of clothing, it may be regretted that the dress of the people, especially in the provinces, has lost something of its quaintness and pictiiresque- ness; but this has been amply compensated by a better and larger provision of wearing ap- parel. The use of cotton per capita has in- creased from 5.94 pounds to 11.44 pounds; wool from 11.44 pounds to 12.76 pounds; silk has remained stationary. During the last fifteen years there has been an increase of 249,040,000 pounds of textile raw material, devoted either to clothe the people or to make fine fabrics for exportation.^ What has greatly contributed to a better national clothing is the lower price of raw textile material.^ This and the general economic progress have put within the reach of the masses many things once the preroga- tives only of the well-to-do. Where the chil- dren of the poor were shoeless under the Em- pire, now most of them have shoes, and wooden » Thery, op. cit., p. 176. ^COMPARATIVE PRICES OF TEXTILE MATERIAL PER POUND 1871 1907 'Woo! $0.25 .17 .10 .15 6..S6 $0.21 .16 .08 .09 4.41 Cotton Stripped hemp Stripped flax Silk 212 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC shoes are more and more discarded. Where watches were carried only by those in easy cir- cumstances, now not only operatives but even peasants have them. Bicycles have become very common. Motor-cycles and tricycles have also been popularised. Automobiles have been multiphed so that even people of moderate means own them. The Frenchman travels much more. While thirty-two years ago he averaged only 3.7 rides a year on the railroads, he now indulges in 6.7. Where he rode 81 miles, now he covers 133. Though railroad fares have been lowered, he spends now $1.88 a year instead of $1.36. The railroads now transport 7,701 pounds of mer- chandise for him instead of 3,680 pounds.^ Travel for pleasure and for education has been promoted by the greater comfort of the cars, by the rapidity of the trains, and by a fine literature which interests the Frenchman in the beauty and the historic associations of his own land. Over two hundred and fifty syndicats d' initiative in the provinces^ make great efiForts to encourage travel in their own parts of the country. The Cluh alpin frangais has called attention to the beauty of the mountainous districts and given a strong impetus to mountain- ' Thery, ibid., p. ii2. > Le SiicU. Oct. 28. 1909. THE NEW LIFE 213 climbing and sight-seeing. The Automobile Club has done a kindred work for the country at large. The Touring Club has inspired and facilitated travel, securing lower rates for its members, waging war upon poor hotels, and pointing out good ones, urging the authorities to improve roads, helping the State to build new ones, re-wooding denuded hills, and in many ways furthering the cause of inteUigent, educational, and profitable touring. M. Mille- rand, Minister of Public Works, founded in his department of the executive the Office du tou- rismey thereby bringing the State to co-operate with all agencies to further travel at home. As a result of this movement, the Frenchman has come to discover his own country, and to be struck not only with the attractiveness of France, which has so thoroughly welded peoples of different affinities, but by the infinite charm of the social condition thereby created, the monuments which recall these great changes, and the beautiful scenery which often crowns the whole. He wishes to protect all this from the vandalism of commerce or from the blind utilitarianism of some industries. To that end was founded the Societe pour la protection des paysages de France. This association has suc- ceeded in having the Parliament establish a 214 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC committee of artistic landscapes in every de- partment in order to preserve them. Further- more, the society makes a systematic opposi- tion to engineers who deface fine views or to vulgar advertisers who in every country spoil much of our pleasure. The Frenchman has broken through the bar- riers of a narrow nationalism. The tendencies of his mind have always been in the direction of an abstract universalism, but of late years he has manifested the most genuine interest in what other people do. Hence he has been open to foreign influences. Russia, Scandinavia, Ger- many, Great Britain, and the United States have touched his life most profoundly and in a multi- tude of directions. While this is true of high culture and of commerce, it is so to a remark- able extent with learned societies and other organisations which, whatever be their specific aims, create international good-will and amity. There are the Alliance franco-britanniqiie, the Societe franco-ecossaise, the Societe d' etudes ita- liennes, the Ligue franco-it alienne^ the Societe espagnole d^excursions, the Societe sinigo-japo- naise, and the Comite France-Amerique, and many others. There is quite a number of really international societies, such as the Societe d' etudes et de correspondance internationale, the THE NEW LIFE 215 Societe d'echange international des enjants et dcs jeunes gens, the Societe internationale des etudes de questions d'assistance, the Alliance universi- taire internationale , not to mention man}- others which constitute numerous personal and social ties between the Frenchman and representatives of other nationaHties. Home travel has led to more foreign travel. The Frenchman now visits other countries; he becomes now and then an explorer and even a globe-trotter. His pub- licists can speak more intelligently of world pohtics and of world interests. He has not only learned foreign languages, but he has been equally anxious to impart his own. If, by the side of the work done in the schools and lycees, he has the Societe four la 'propagation des langues etrangeres in France, and the Societe des etudes des langues etrangeres, he has also the Alliance franqaise, whose efforts are to spread the French language in every part of the world. Education has become the prerogative of nearly every one. In thirty-three years the pupils able to read and write have risen from 52,350 to 73,001; those having a better educa- tion from 176,388 to 208,012; those with a diploma of primary education from a small number^ to 6,226; bachelors of letters, of ' 947 in 1878. 216 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC science, or of any other secondary study from 1,507 to 6,988.^ Life itself has become more educational by travel, military service, widely read literature, and the periodical press. The progress of the latter gives us many indices of wider aims and of a larger culture. Of the 84 agricultural papers of to-day 5Q were founded under the Republic. Of the 22 pubHcations devoted to architecture 15 were started since 1870. Of the 62 papers devoted to associations 45 were created under Republican rule; of the 51 on fine arts 42; of the 54 on bibliography 38; of the 59 colonial papers 52; of the 61 on com- merce 39; of the 16 on cooking 14; of the 60 papers and reviews upon political, social, and domestic economy 49; of the 16 women's papers 13; of the 270 on finances 177; of the 76 on in- dustry 52; of the 96 on education 74; of the 32 devoted to literature 29; of the 299 for medi- cine, surgery, and hygiene 225; of the 19 on metallurgy 10; of the 41 on music 28; of the 130 Catholic papers 93; of the 203 reviews, literary, political, and of high culture, 134; and of the 84 scientific papers 56.^ The evidence of the prog- ress of widening and radiating interest may also ' Annuaire statintique, 1909. ' Annuaire de la pren.te franQai.ie et etrangere, 1909. These statistics are not absolutely accurate; but when there was any doubt, the benefit of it was given to the publications issued before the Republic. THE NEW LIFE 217 be seen in those annual publications devoted to a peculiar subject, as science, art, or life, like the Annee biologique, Annee psychologique, Annee politique, Annee cartographique, Annee indus- trielle, and scores of kindred publications, signifi- cant ahke for the activities which they record, and for the serious interests which they keep up in a multitude of readers. All these facts point to the growth of a larger culture and in- telligence on the part of the French people. Few are the democracies which have witnessed such a deepening of their mental life in such a short time. With the progress just referred to has come a more specific knowledge in every direction. This has told potently upon sanitary laws and better provisions for general health. The Re- public recognises the right of the helpless to receive medical aid from societv. The nursing of the poor, like that of the rich, is more and more done by trained persons. INIedical science and skill are more available. From 1881 to 1902 those professionally concerned with public health have increased from 25,914 to 40,(305.^ Medical and surgical societies contribute po- tently to the efficiency of this service. Pubhc health has become a matter of national concern. ' Annuaire statlstique, 1909. 218 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Physical culture has rapidly won its way all over the country, notwithstanding the ascetic spirit of the historic Church. Gymnastic and sporting societies of all kinds have been formed to develop the body. Even those who, upon religious grounds, objected to this have them- selves been compelled to organise athletic or- ganisations and schools of physical culture to keep their young people. In all educational in- stitutions this physical training has now some place. A national organisation. La ligue fran- Qaise de V education physique, advocates the gospel of a methodic and rational physical education. Some consequences were bound to follow. One of them is the larger size of Frenchmen. The study of the measurements of conscripts from 1872 to 1911 leaves no doubt as to this. PERCENTAGE OF THE RELATIVE CONSCRIPTS HEIGHT OF TO 1.62 1 m. 63 1 m. 64 1 m. 65 1.66 1.67 TO 1.69 1.70 TO 1.72 1.73 AND ABOVE 1872 1911 31.7 26.7 7.4 6.3 7.4 6..} 7.7 7.7 7.3 6.7 16.7 17 7 12.4 13 5 10.0 12.8 One sees that the decrease from 1 m. 54 to 1 m. 67 is constant and that there is a continuous gain from 1 m. 67 to the greatest height.* ' Annvaire statistique, 1913. In 1872, conscripts under 1 m. 54 were not included in statistics, so that the writer does not give them in the report for 1911, THE NEW LIFE 219 Another consequence of the new condition is a lower death-rate. This has been most visible in the diminution of infantile mortality. Doctor E. Earthier says that it was 42 per cent for the whole country from 1800 to 1874, and 18 per cent for legitimate and 24 per cent for illegiti- mate children from 1874 to 1900.^ Those dying under one year of age numbered 147 per thousand in 1872, and 116 in 1906.^ During the same period the death-rate for the nation decreased from 22.5 per thousand to 19.5. From 1872 to 1901 the population from 60 to 79 years of age rose from 3,910,000 to 4,418,000, and that above 80 years from 267,000 to 352,000; in other words, sexagenarians and septuage- narians increased from 10.83 per cent of the total population to 11.50, and octogenarians and non- agenarians from 0.74 to 1.05.^ The total num- ber of deaths averaged 848,111 during the period of 1884 to 1891, while from 1899 to 1906 the average was only 785,523 — a difiference of 62,588 a year." Social conditions have also undergone great changes. While the former classes, not to say castes, still exist, there has been a process of social interpenetration which has introduced ^ Pages libres, June 16, 1906. * Annuaire statistique, 1909. » Ibid. ♦ Th6ry, op. cit.. p. S26. 220 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Jewesses and Americans into the nobility, the sons of the people into the higher clergy, and new elements into the professional classes. Now the sons choose, more often than under the Empire, a profession other than that of their father; and when they have made a choice, they are not riveted to it for life. The school teach- ers and the professors, who previously seemed permanently chained to their calling until they were superannuated, now often become journal- ists, dramatic critics, lecturers, writers, or deputies. Philosophers find a field outside of the schools. Priests leave their church without calling forth the bitter and relentless persecu- tions of former days. Classes and professions do not, as in bygone days, hold a man forever; he may adjust himself to opportunities unknown to his predecessors. Though M. Bazin, in his La Terre qui meurt, deplores the fact that French peasants leave agricultural districts, they do so to improve their material, and often their moral, condition. The greater number of them are right in so doing. By his displace- ment the peasant learns something. If he re- turns to hi^ hamlet, as a rule he has received a valuable schooling. The labourer at large may, if he chooses, join the labour organisations which have become numerous and influential. THE NEW LIFE 221 Through them he may secure what formerly was out of his reach. The most prominent feature of French society during the last forty years has been the volun- tary socialisation of men in every realm, giving new hopes and new aspirations. This has been true of philosophers, psychologists, scientists, physicians, surgeons, educators, manufacturers, artists, writers, philanthropists, etc. These so- cieties constitute the most unmistakable evi- dences of the unparalleled efforts of Frenchmen and of their great united purpose in their sev- eral spheres. Everywhere work has become more co-operative and collective. Labour or- ganisations are only parts of this larger move- ment of co-ordinated action of groups of indi- viduals. Still the unions which band together masses of unreflective toilers, formerly accepting as a divine rule the mischievous iron hand that held them dow^n, are a new phenomenon in French society. Labourers, conscious of their power, have endeavoured to rise by association. They have experimented with that principle upon a colossal scale, often making mistakes; not in- frequently they have been the victims of their leaders, but in the experience they have risen. The rise of these large organisations was not without peril for the government and for indi- 222 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC vidual liberty. By the force of things these large bodies were bound to clash with the pow- ers that be. As was to be expected, there were contentions for proper adjustments which French journalists so easily call crises: the clerical crisis, the military crisis, the commer- cial crisis, the labour-union crisis, the vine- growers' crisis, the liquor-dealers' and saloon- keepers' crisis, and others. Great organisations in all countries have always, openly or secretly, aspired to lord it over political institutions. The clergy have been prominent in this respect. The army, or rather its chiefs, during the Drej- fus campaign, uttered threats not a few against the government; but they knew that soldiers were intensely patriotic as well as Republicans, so that these officers remained loyal. Commer- cial men have acted as if commercial interests should be paramount and trade considerations should override other national issues. Most of the great labour-unions have shown consider- able unrest, as if they were not satisfied with the purpose for which they were organised, and wished to lay their hands upon the political machinery for their advantage. Even State servants formed unions which did not shrink from striking, and thereby paralysing the na- tional life. THE NEW LIFE 223 Potent as the labour-unions are, they repre- sent only one-sixteenth of industrial labourers, and the Confederation generate du travail, the most militant body, constitutes only 5 per cent of the whole, and only a minority of the members of this organisation are revolutionary.^ At the same time it must be remembered that, if the nation approves trades-unions, it con- demns emphatically the dictatorial aspirations of some groups and the tyranny of others. Strong in their own sphere, they will arouse the whole nation against them as soon as they at- tempt to go beyond. Again, great organisa- tions will be a check upon one another, and will do for freedom what denominations have ac- complished in Protestant countries for religious liberty. With all the restrictions and tyranny which they have exercised, the individual toiler has a better chance in the struggle of life; and notwithstanding the despotism of numbers, in- dividuals have not been prevented from rising. Never had the countrv such a host of self-made men. They are to be seen in every walk of hfe, in the Church, the army, the universities, the studios of artists, the French Institute, and the most eminent positions of the land. It has been as easj" for poor young Brunetiere to be- » Le Siede, Oct. 13, 1908; Le Temps. June 29. 1909. 224 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC come the greatest critic of France as for the tanner boy, Felix Faure, to become its presi- dent. The road to distinction, through labour and personal worth, has never been wider, though in it, as before, are also the time-servers and politicians who find greater chances for the use of their peculiar talents. The fundamental working principle of politi- cal life has been also modified. Men do not look up as before to State officials, but State officials look up to them. The functionary is at every point concerned with the opinions of the masses, often more than with that of his chiefs. While in former days dealers went to great cen- tres to buy their goods and now drummers bring their wares to the merchant, at the present time government agents serve the citizen in his vil- lage or in his hamlet. The villager no longer goes to the county-seat to pay his taxes, but the tax-collector comes to him. Schools, post- offices, telegraphs and telephones, police head- quarters, justices of peace, hospitals, and kin- dred institutions are where men are. To the government of paternalism on behalf of the classes has succeeded a government of service for the masses. The privileges of the few with their attendant evils have become the boon of the many with similar evils indeed, but with the difference that now these evils can be at- THE NEW LIFE 225 tacked freely in Parliament, in the courts, or in the press. The high achievement of the Republic is that, in the great grinding political machinery of France, man counts for more than at any other period of her history. Life means more bread and more material well-being, more social, more political, more economic freedom, and, taken all in all, more ideal. Citizens have more moral buoyancy, larger intellectual compass, a deeper and a clearer consciousness of their own worth. The tendency may have been to do too much for the lower classes; but one must admit that aristocracy has never had freer opportunities to lead its own wasteful, indolent, and superficial life. Like the nation, it has grown richer and in some ways better. Marriages with rich heir- esses, Jewish or American, have brought new blood and new moral energy among them. They do not now have the contempt of former days for work. Some of them have become leaders in great industries, and not a few have won distinction in other realms. According to Comte G. d'Avenel there has been an uncon- scious democratisation of the nobility.^ There has been among them a considerable infiltration of the moral ideas which have so deeply affected Republicans. Similarly, it is an encouraging » " Ce qu'il reste d'ari'^tocratie." io Let Frangais de mon temps. 226 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC fact that nobles of genuine moral worth, like M. de Mim, for instance, have never been more respected. With all its falterlngs, the present govern- ment is the least objectionable and the longest which the country has had since Louis XV, and the most progressive which the French people have ever known. When one examines the in- numerable evidences of the progress of the nation, one grows indignant at the ignorance or bad faith of the reactionaries who speak of its "decadence." The writer has asked some of them what period of French history they would choose in preference to that of to-day — a period in which a man of large culture and generous impulse would rather live. The reign of Louis XIV ? or that of Louis XV ? The Revolution ? The First Empire with its wars and its despot- ism? The Restauration with its blind and re- vengeful reactions.'^ The grey, commonplace bourgeois reign of the Orleanists.^ The Second Empire, with the coup d'Etat, ending at Sedan with an interlude of eighteen years of an un- blushing absolutism and corruption ? No ! No ! In some way or other, they are all compelled to admit that Republican France of to-day stands upon a higher plane, is working out a better and a broader civilisation, notwithstanding all the THE NEW LIEE 227 evils that there, as elsewhere, are the shadows in a beautiful picture. To the impertinent question whieh no intelli- gent student should ask, "Is France declining?" Max Nordau answered wisely: "There are in France certain social groups and classes which are absolutely declining. But this is fortunate for the country. France itself is rapidly pro- gressing, and is at present passing through one of the most brilliant periods of its history. Morally and intellectually France stands in the forefront among civilised nations. Its science, its literature, and its art are superior to most of them and inferior to none. France occupies now a position to w^hich others will come later. The only dark point on its horizon might be the decrease of births. But here also France is a precursor. The same demographic phenom- ena follow inevitably the advance of civilisation. And when this is repeated elsewhere it ceases to be a source of anxiety. It is simply an expres- sion of the fact that the reason and foresight of the nation make themselves evident in a domain where a lower grade of civilisation permits blind instinct to decide. The Frenchman who is not proud of his nation must be a highly peculiar and ungrateful individual."^ ' Boston Transcript, May 9, 1904. 228 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC To the same question Edmund Gosse replied: *'My answer is decidedly and emphatically, ' No ! ' What does the word ' decline ' mean ? Is it not an expression which scared people often use to conceal their fear of everything that is new, bold, and progressive ? The only declin- ing peoples are those who do not dare to make a change, who are always afraid to encourage new movements. Strong, powerful nations are always making new experiments, which cause the timid to tremble and cry out. Wherever we look around us in the world we find no nation of which it can more unjustl}^ be said that it is in decline than France. In my opinion there is no country so full of intellectual buoyancy and hopefulness, no country which offers the ob- server so many sources of real life, and which so fascinates the thinker as France. Is France in decline ? If by decline you mean development, life's most painful metamorphosis — Yes ! But if by decline you mean ennui, impotence, decline in the moral and intellectual temperature — a thousand times No!"^ There could be no bet- ter answer. CHAPTER XI MORAL INSTRUCTION IN FRENCH SCHOOLS ' WE have already referred to the remark- able work of French education. "Thanks," says M. Fouillee, "to a noble and generous mouvenient. Republican France, at the end of the nineteenth century, has adorned herself with schools, as, after the terror of the year 1000, she adorned herself with churches." Faith in the power of the school has eclipsed, in many parts of the land, faith in the efficiency of the Church. The changes in the educational spirit are no less marked. The cen- tral aim of education, which was for so long the enlargement of the mind, has also become the direction of conduct and the development of character. It was said by the Conservatives that the freedom — which they call license — of the Re- public would be fatal to morality and religion. Whatever may have been the moral excesses of a period of transition, it is certain that there has * Reprinted from The Educational Review. April, \90i. 229 230 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC been awakened a sense of responsibility never before known in the history of France. One sees its expression in the multitude of organisa- tions having a philanthropic or a moral purpose; in the new tone in art; in polite literature; in the importance which moral and religious questions have come to assume. To this, more than to any other cause, must be ascribed the deepening religious seriousness visible in many parts of the country, and the great prominence of moral questions in the schools. Thirty -five years ago the Catholic Church had still virtual control of French education.^ Sym- bols of Catholic faith were found everywhere in school buildings. The catechism was on a par with arithmetic, and Roman Catholic prayers were recited several times a day, not- withstanding the presence of non-Catholics. So great was the power of the clergy that, in places not a few, the local priest became a real despot for the local teacher. This was an anachronism which could not last. In ISS'^ the Parliament — after long and stormy discussions — voted the secularisation of the common schools. Instead of the religious practices and the mechanical ' During the last days of the Empire the common-school teacher was trained, and compelled, to teach the Roman Catholic catechism, to learn to sing the plain chant, and to take organ lessons in view of the Catholic Church service. liAYMOND rOIXCAlUE MORAL INSTRUCTION 231 teaching of the catechism, the teaching of morals was introduced, and great efforts were made, in a new way, for the improvement of character. This was not simply the hberation of the schools from ecclesiastical dominion, but also the assertion that under that regime they had failed in their moral education. As ex- pected, the clergy carried on a most violent campaign against the Parliament and pushed forward the extension of a vast system of parochial schools in opposition to the "atheistic" and the "godless" schools of the Republic.^ Sacrifice on account of principles is always beautiful. To have, by their own gifts, in the face of State-paid institutions, maintained schools which educate one-third of the children of the primary, and nearly one-half of the sec- ondary schools is no small achievement per- formed by the Catholics. With them moral teaching is almost always confounded with religious instruction, and morality is the un- ' Until the war the Catholic Church has continued her antagonism to the common schools, to the moral teaching in them, and to the teachers in such a way as to create bitter feelings on both sides. The bishops condemned Lavisse's Histoire de France, an impartial little history written by a great historian who is the soul of impartiality. These same bishops condemned the text-books of morals because there is nothing in them upon the supernatural or about "the doctrine of the original sin." To please them the government should eliminate all the books they disapprove; in other words, the bishops should have the upper hand. This French democracy will not allow. 232 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC conditional surrender to the voice of the Church. As some one has said, this moral teaching can have serious and lasting value only for those who have faith and will keep it, but when confidence in the Church ceases the sense of moral imperativeness disappears. Fortunately, to supplement their schools, the Catholics have created many splendidly devised organisations to keep their young people in touch with them as they enter their apprenticeship or go to work. They are thus under a great moral and religious influence through the schools, even after they have left them. A Catholic writer ^ rightly regrets that these efforts have been "a work of preservation, rather than one of formation." This was to be expected. These schools con- tinue the old traditional education of the Church.'^ Still we must remember that, by a kind of intellectual and moral infiltration, much of the life of the present time penetrates into those institutions in which mediaeval ideals are still so greatly cherished. Nothing served the common schools after 1882 like the bitter attacks of the clergy. At first the people were anxious, but when the na- ture of the moral teaching was known they ' Tui mann, Max, A ii sortir de I'Scnle, p. 73. ' For the difference between tlie two methods, see Paul Lapie in La Science fran^aise, vol, I, p. 51. MOHVL INSTRUCTION 233 gradually approved it. The teachers, at the outset frightened by their new duties, hesitated, but when their fitness to teach morals was assailed — not entirely without cause — they showed a noble determination to do what they could. The government founded a special nor- mal school for men at St. Cloud and one for women at Fontenay-aux-roses, to provide suit- able teachers of morals for all the normal, and thereby for the common schools of the country. The lack of competent teachers for this work was then, and is still to some extent, one of the diflSculties in the way. Specific training in this matter is less important than character. As a whole, the body of French teachers has a high moral standing, because teaching is not for them a temporary makeshift, but a life. Were one to judge of their character by their small number of criminals the result would be most satisfactory, for the liberal professions reach an average of 6.35 per thousand where the teachers have only 1.58. As an evidence of their altruistic spirit, it is sufficient to say that no less than thirty-five thousand have, for several winters, taught without compensation in evening schools. The teachers showed their superiority by making a right use of the criticisms of I heir 234 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC opponents. They admitted that French com- mon schools were only too often soulless teach- ing machines; they recognised the necessity of making them living centres of moral power. The pupil must learn no less, but his learning must express itself in terms of moral life. He must, at all cost, be protected from the great evils without, and strengthened in his life within. For the work of external moral preservation there were gradually founded numerous organ- isations, the mutualites scolaires, a kind of mutual-help society; the amicales, the grouping of former pupils for social ends; the patronages, to look after former pupils during their appren- ticeship; the classes de garde, to keep until eve- ning the children whose parents are at work during the day; anti-alcohohc leagues, societies for the protection of useful animals; literary entertainments, and other means of keeping former pupils in a wholesome moral atmosphere. In accordance with the doctrine of evolution, they endeavoured to shelter the prolonged in- fancy of man, when home and Church are in- adequate, with the influences of the schools. The great thing, however, was to strengthen the inner child. Without surrendering any effort for the mental development of the pupils — while increasing every provision to secure greater in- MORAL LNSTRUCTION 235 tellectual efficiency — great stress was laid upon their moral development by the very means the results of which so far had been mere intellec- tuality. Languages, mathematics, literature, history, and other studies, aside from their spe- cific aim, must at the same time yield a certain training of the will. Every exercise of the school must secure results in which, when pos- sible, thought, feeling, volition, and action would be but four inseparable steps to charac- ter.^ The teacher must always keep this great end in mind. He must insist upon merit rather than upon rank. In cases of misdemeanour he must make the pupil his own judge; when pos- sible he must be made to see the relations of the penalty to the fault. He must place around his pupils a healthy, inspiring moral atmos- phere. He must become the auxiliary of morality, as formerly he was the auxiliar}^ of religion. It is clear that in thirty-five years a great change has taken place in French educa- tion in the direction of moral teaching. Tliis must not be confounded, however, with the teaching of morals. » In examining text-books used in classes of grammar the author found L. Dessaint and C. Jamart's book. La Langue franqaiae. It is impos- sible for the philosophically minded reader not to be struck with the moral aim in doing this work. On page 304 the 87 subjects of com- position that are given tend in a large way to turn the minds of the pupils toward moral questions. 236 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC When this branch of instruction was inaugu- rated in France, the country had the good for- tune to have the programme formulated by competent men in the Ministry of Education — men who thoroughly studied the difficult prob- lem. These, in turn, received the co-operation of some of the best minds of France in the preparation of text-books. Among these w riters we read the names of Paul Janet, A. Mezieres, Paul Bert, Abbe de Broglie, G. Compayre, Mme. Coignet, Henry Greville, Henry Marion, Ch. Renouvier, Jules Simon, Jules Steeg — men and women foremost in the literary and the philosophical w orld. They put into these books, each one in his own way, the fundamental prin- ciples of morality. They gave expression to the national conscience in a didactic form. Thus the Parliament decreed that the moral education of 6,000,000 French children should be at- tempted by 124,000 teachers;^ specialists for- mulated an ideal programme; the teachers did much to meet the demands of this new depar- ture, and conspicuous writers admirably stated in their books various ways to reach a common goal. Morals in the schools are not always taught from books, but sometimes by brief, earnest ' Izoulet, Jean, La citS moderne, p. 471. MORAL LNSTRUCTION 237 talks, prepared by the teacher from the books. They are imparted to children from five to seven in a mere oral form by the simplest way possible. Here the teaching does not go further than to say that this act is right and that is wrong. The great end is intensive moral culture by emotions. With the other classes the greater number of teachers use books. In the elemen- tary primary class, from seven to nine, instruc- tion is generally by means of narratives, illus- trations, and quotations bearing upon the immediate relations of the pupils among them- selves. The effort is not so much to enlighten the moral consciousness as to secure the imme- diate introduction of principles into life. This instruction must be in touch with events in the daily life^ of the pupils. The programme of Jules Ferry puts it as follows: The teacher must use concrete examples and appeals to the immediate experience of the children in order to de- velop in them moral emotions and inspire them with feel- ings of admiration for tlie universal order, — with religious feelings by calling their attention to scenery of great natural beauty, — with feelings of charity by pointing out to them sufferings to relieve, giving thereby some real act of charity to accomplish with discretion, — with feel- ings of gratitude and sympathy by the account of a courageous deed, or by a visit to a charitable institution, etc.^ ' Programmes officiels du 27 juillet, 1882. 238 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC In the middle primary class, from nine to eleven, the programme centres upon duties toward parents, servants, classmates, the father- land, and God. The method used with the preceding class is continued, but with more order and precision. Here again one is im- pressed with the same intense purpose of moral utility which we have already noticed. In the superior primary class — that is, from eleven to thirteen — the work includes the study of ele- mentary principles of morality, concluded with a special study of social morality. In the sec- ondary schools great stress is laid upon moral education,^ but the teaching of morals has also its place. Here the scope might be stated as follows : primary moral notions ; domestic, social, and personal duties. All this remains intensely practical and even dogmatic. In the last year of lycee and college work ethics constitutes an invaluable part of the course of philosophy. The text-books used in this work are intended for a certain stage of mental development, that is, for some definite classes. Some are also for candidates to normal schools,^ for teachers, for families,'^ and for general moral culture.^ In ' Croiset, Alfred, L" education morale dans Vuniversite, Paris, 1901. ' Abbe de Broglie, Dieu, la conscience, h devoir, Paris, 1889; A. Pierre and A. Martin, ('ours de morale theorique el pratique, Paris, 1901. * Maniifl, Cr., Xniirrnu lirrr de morale pratique, Paris, 1901. * Dugard, M., La culture morale. MORAL INSTRUCTION 239 many cases they combine morals and civics, and not infrequently the rudiments of connnon law. One of the text-books greatly used^ gives (1) moral precepts; (2) stories illustrating them; (3) a vocabulary of the most difficult words used; (4) questions to see whether the pupil has under- stood well, or to drive the precepts home; (5) compositions which, in their own way, serve a similar purpose. Another* proceeds in a similar manner, but its contents are so arranged as to be distributed through the months of the school year. October is devoted to the family, No- vember to the school, December and January to the fatherland, and so on to June, which deals with responsibility, habit, sanctions of the moral law, duties toward God, and the immor- tahty of the soul. The various text-books de- voted to higher forms of primary teaching of morals are much more substantial. In addition to clear expositions of the subject there are ref- erences to well-known passages of literature to illustrate a point. Thus in the chapter on con- science, several refer to Hugo's poem. La Con- science} Some are rich in brilliant quotations of thoughts and maxims from all literatures, * Laloi, Pierre, L'annee d' instruction morale et cinque. Paris, 1900. * Bailly and Dodey, Morale pratique de VecoUer, Paris. 1896. *Lapeyre, F., Leqons d' instruction morale. Paris, 1901; Pavette. 0., La morale raise d la poriie des enfants, Paris, 1901. 240 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC and others, like the little book of Paul Janet,^ have clear-cut definitions which greatly facili- tate the grasping of moral distinctions. The books for lycees and colleges are remarkable in this respect.^ One of the best books in this collection gives,^ after each chapter, a resume in brief, related propositions which make the book luminous. Another** has many tabular views exhibiting, side by side, the rights as well as the duties of the child, and three synoptical views of those duties, so arranged as to be easily remembered in their interrelations. Still an- other^ closes each chapter with resolutions. The manuals devoted to ethics have a more speculative character, but the books just re- ferred to are devoted to morality as an art and not as a science. It is not to be understood that these books are all equally satisfactory; some are childish, superficial, or are badly printed and illustrated; others, very few indeed, are anti-religious, but, as a whole, they represent a fine body of pedagogic literature. The impres- sion left by the series is their concrete character, their variety, their simplicity, and the moral earnestness of the writers. ' Petits ^lement.i de morale, Paris, 1884. " Pontse\Tez, Cours de morale pratiqne, Paris, 1896; Adam, Ch., Coura de morale pratiqne, Paris, 1893. * Gerard, J., Morale, Delagrave, Paris. * Cure and Hovizelle, Leqona de morale, Paris, 1900. * Pavette, O., op. cit. MORAL INSTRUCTION 241 It is impossible that such books, from so many sources and such varied inspiration, should have that unity of moral conception which would satisfy those who place all ethical considerations above that of individual or social utility. The great diversity, however, is more often one of verbal expression than of real practical differ- ence. Not infrequently the strong political or religious bias of a writer gives a slightly one-sided colouring to his statements. Some are greatly concerned about certain national tendencies. One, alarmed by the internationalism of Social- ists, lays great emphasis upon the duties of pa- triotism; another has at heart the overthrow of traditional superstitions. One is impressed with the urgent necessity of opposing alcoholism with new vigour; and another, having seen the evil of religious bigotry, insists upon the duty of toler- ation. Almost all have laid special stress upon particular points, and only a few have neglected important ones. The remarkable fact is the quasi-unanimity as to what acts are moral and what are not. While the morals taught are often placed upon empirical grounds, and should be, the programme demands that the teachers should assert in the classroom "the imperative and disinterested character of duty." ^ This provision — if we are to judge from the text- » Programmes officieU du 27 juillet. 1882. 242 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC books — is not always carried out, but when the imperativeness of this or that particular act is concerned, there is absolute unanimity. It cannot be doubted that these text-books have a clearer ring of the categorical imperative than those taught in the parochial schools. In Janu- ary (1901), Deputy Trouillot, in the French Parliament, called attention to cases of scanda- lous casuistry in a Latin manual used in sixty- seven Catholic seminaries of France. A Roman Catholic priest, member of the Parliament, Abbe Gayraud, dared to defend publicly mental reservations and the subterfuges of casuistry. He made the statement that falsehoods are allowable, provided they hurt no one. In the text-books of secular education which the writer has seen there is a positiveness in reference to right and wrong acts — no middle ground — which is a contrast to the equivocations in the work assailed by Deputy Trouillot. As a whole, were the ideals of moral life imparted by these text-books compared with those set forth by the Founder of Christianity, one could not escape the conclusion that they are very much alike, not to say identical.^ 'Jules Ferry was in favour of having taught in the schools "Our Duties toward God," and as a matter of fact that subject was taught; but he was unwilling to have this inserted into the law of 1882, lest tlie bishops sh(juld take advantage of it for llie purpose of interfering with the schools. (Luuesson, J.-L. de, Le Sikle, 1909.) MORAL INSTRUCTION 243 This brings us to the religious aspect of this teaching of morals. Indeed, "religious instruc- tion" so-called is forbidden by law, but ob- viously the French legislators gave to the word "religious" a peculiar sense. By it, they cer- tainly meant to do away with clerical interfer- ence, with the teaching of a truncated religious history, with a denominational catechism, the Roman CathoHc prayers, and other religious features associated with Catholicism. Some of the legislators wished, even, to eliminate the word "God" from all text-books, but the}'' failed. That the measure was not anti-religious is evident from the fact that the law distinctly states that the schools shall be closed Sundays and Thursdays so that the children may, if their parents wish, receive religious instruction in the churches.^ Another proof is the oflScial doctrine of the State, which reads as follows: The teacher is not to give a course of instruction ex projesso upon the nature and attributes of God. His les- sons for all must be confined to two points: First, he teaches his pupils not to pronounce Hghtly the name of God; he associates closely in their mind the idea of a First Cause and a Perfect Being with feelings of respect and ' All the children of the parochial schools and a large part of those from the common schools attend the Catholic Sunday and Thursday schools, where, at least for a part of the year, they study the cate- chism. The Protestants have about seventy thousand children in their Sunday and Thiu-sday schools. 244 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC veneration; he accustoms each of them to give to this notion of God the same respect, even though that should be different from the teacher's own convictions. Sec- ondly, and independently from the special instructions of difiPerent denominations, the teacher will endeavour to have the child understand and feel that the first homage which he owes to God is obedience to his laws, such as they are revealed to him by his conscience and his reason.^ After this one is not astonished to hear Pro- fessor Buisson, of the University of Paris, when taking up the gauntlet about the "godless schools," exclaim: "Our schools are schools without priests, but not schools without God." Certainly they are not without God, though the theistic position is not so absolute as it would seem. In twenty text-books of morals, chosen at random, sixteen teach the existence of God and duties toward Him. The four remaining ones might be viewed by some as a concession to radicalism, though more properly they should be considered as honourable attempts to place the teaching of morals upon a basis absolutely independent of religion, without any hostility toward it. One cannot say as much of the Christological attitude of all these writers. Ad- mitting that in such matters one is justified in »Comte G. d'Avenel, a distinguished Catholic, speaking of moral teachings in the schools, says: "There is no public school where is taught as to 'good' and 'evil' anything else than what is found in the catechism." {Lcs Frangais de mon temps, p. 212.) MORAL INSTRUCTION 245 taking a purely human view of the Christ, it seems absolutely unscientific for those who speak historically of morals to avoid all references to him. The men who quote profusely Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, La Fontaine, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Rabelais refrain even from the least allusion to Jesus, whom such radical think- ers as John Stuart Mill and Renan proclaimed the greatest moral teacher of all times. Most of them,^ however, strengthen their moral teach- ing with the theistic idea, and several text-books approve external worship and speak of prayer. This teaching derives additional importance from the fact that, in another way, it is also given in the classes of philosophy. The changes in this realm have been numerous, the old spi- ritualisme, which was taught often by material- ists, has been replaced by neo-Kantism taught by ideahsts. The statement in the official pro- gramme has been but slightly modified, but it is taught in a new spirit. Dut}', moral freedom, God, and immortality have remained central in the philosophical teaching of the secondary schools, and whatever the churches may wish to add to these cardinal facts, they are the corner- stones of religion. Are not the following ques- * These statements refer ouly to the tweoty text-books eiamiued by the ?ifTJter. 246 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC lions, which were given for admission to the Superior Normal. School of Sevres, religious? *' State the principal reasons which warrant us in hoping for another life." "Is God revealed to our reason, or apprehended by our feelings?" "Religious duties." "Providence." "The Ex- istence of God." "Relations of godliness to virtue." To teach the existence of a God who finds pleasure in seeing men obey the moral law, to cultivate respect and reverence for that God, is certainly religious in the largest sense of the term.^ Of course there are teachers who eschew this part of the work — and many of them; others do it poorly, but the majority do it. Almost all the teachers think that a mere in- tellectual training, without the moral, is in- adequate, and many hold that a moral educa- tion without a theistic foundation, or other religious concomitant, is weak and frail. This tendency has been so pronounced that already a reaction is in sight. Among other signs of it are the recent meeting of a teachers' ' When some time ago the writer read some extracts from French text-books of morals in Carnegie Hall in New York, several journalists stated that the citizens of the Empire State would not tolerate so much religious teaching in the public schools. Professor Barrett Wendell, after visiting the lycee of Lille, where he saw clergymen teaching re- ligion, said: " Even under this extremely anti-clerical government, it proved there was a degree of dogmatic teaching at the expense of the State, which would not be tolerated by the public opinion uf any city in America." (7'Ae France of To-day, p. 39.) MORAL INSTRUCTION 247 association in Bordeaux and one of the Llgue pour V enseignement in Caen, when resolutions were passed urging that that part of moral in- struction referring to God be dropped. There can be no better proof of the religious value of this education than the opposition of radicalism. A Catholic writer, not friendly toward these schools, referring to the place of God in this education, calls it "the share of the Divine."^ Another writer ascribes to this teaching that ideal justice which is the soul of religion.^ M. Paul Sabatier says: ''Thanks to the teaching of morals, there is being constituted, little by little, among us a kind of lay church. It is a reforma- tion, true, deep, noiseless, outside of the churches but not against them." It is difficult to gauge the results of a work like this. After centuries of experience, there are still those who question the moral influence of the Church, of science, and of art. There are those who view this experiment as a failure because they had expected sudden moral trans- formations, which are impossible. The Catho- lic clergy condemned the system before it had been tried in one single school. The Due de Broglie attacked it^ most violently, insisting * Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 juin, 1898. * Jacob, B., Pniir I'erole laiqite, p. 33. * Histoire ei politique, 18UT, p. 435. 248 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC that the "godless schools" were already showing their baneful fruition in the alarming increase in the number of youthful criminals. When it is said that the morals taught in the schools are powerless because they lack theoreti- cal unity and Church help, the answer might be that it is impossible to do more poorly than they with all their adjuncts. The writer does not underrate the advantages of teaching morals with the support of a historic religion, but that can no longer be done in France. Again, it seems to him that a system of morals resting upon the theistic idea is more efficient than the one which makes the theistic idea stand upon the categorical imperative, but even this view of morals can no longer be pressed in a country in which the philosophers stand by the Critique of the Practical Reason of Kant. They insist that morality does not depend upon the idea of God, but that the idea of God rests upon the sense of oughtness in us. This point of view cannot be taken by all, for many teach a utili- tarian morality. Obviously, it is impossible to secure theoretical unity, but a practical one is possible. Again, the teachers do not all show the same spirit and zeal, but, as a whole, the essential parts of the programmes are fairly carried out. MORAL INSTRUCTION 249 After making allowances for necessary im- perfections, some practical results must follow. The teachers dispel an enormous amount of moral ignorance, a result of no mean importance. They assert the merits and demerits of certain acts which, in the mind of the pupils, become forces of moral suggestion. With this conies either the quickening of sympathy for moral, or of aversion for unmoral and immoral, acts. This is embodied in life by the continued effort to transform all this- thinking and feeling into moral energy. There is, above all, the constant inspiration of higher ideals. Higher moral ideas and ideals must necessarily act as determinants of feelings and volitions for a higher life. It should be remembered that this teaching is correlated with a general ensemble of efforts and Hfe described at the outset of this chapter; an ensemble which intensifies the power of this teaching of morals. The writer has not the least hesitancy in admitting that the practical results have not come up to the original theoreti- cal expectations, but this is also the case with the parochial schools. Honest teachers on both sides have not failed to express their disappoint- ment at the results of their work. However, numerous investigations have shown tangible results. 250 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC In 1889 Dean Lichtenberger, of the Faculty of Protestant Theology of Paris, examined 558 reports from as many inspectors of schools from every part of the country. The variety of the reports and the discriminating sincerity of the inspectors, so severe toward their own work, lead one to see how Dean Lichtenberger could reach no other conclusion than that the work represented "a manifest progress." Numerous correspondents have spoken in a similar manner. One of them, inspector over two hundred schools, writes: "The teaching of morals gives results more and more satisfactory. It is not perfect as yet, but progress has been made which is an encouragement to persevere." Another, speak- ing of the fruits of this education, says: "I know men who have had no other training than that of the common schools, and yet men who, by their intelligence and their moral elevation, are certainly among the greatest personal forces of modern France." A distinguished writer says: *'We have alreadv some admirable results. I need not tell you that they are extremely varia- ble. . . . The reaction upon the teachers them- selves has been superb. They have, at least many among them, realised the part which they must play as educators." The full value of this new departure in French MORAL INSTRUCTION 251 schools cannot as yet be gauged by correspond- ing results. It is probable that its wisdom will not be absolutely demonstrated by adequate returns until the time when the pupils, trained in the schools, have homes of their own, and in the education of their children co-operate with the schools — until the time when the Church, ceasing her opposition, and supplementing the work of the schools, gives them an honest sup- port. Meanwhile, w^ith their manifest imper- fections, the schools have become institutions, not only to make the pupils think, but think right, then feel right, then will right, then do right, and finally be right, the permanence of which is character. The number of those who will go through all the stages of this ethical ascent may not be great at first, but multitudes will doubtless be lifted up, morally, a little higher. Later on, this great moral lever, work- ing wuth cumulative force, will direct the ener- gies which make for the better life of France. CHAPTER XII THE DISPERSION OF THE UNAUTHOR- ISED RELIGIOUS ORDERS WE have endeavoured to show that the Cathohe Church of France has never had more earnestness in its priesthood, more culture and humanitarianism in its hfe, than now.^ This can scarcely be said, however, of the regular clergy, i. e., the members of mo- nastic organisations whose action has constantly generated national storms. In 1900 there were, in France, 1,663 orders, of which 152 were for men and 1,511 for women. The total member- ship was 190,000,^ an increase of 130,000 since the time preceding the French Revolution, when already they were considered a national burden.^ An examination of the Concordat and of the Organic Articles leaves no doubt that the orders were altogether excluded.* * See Chap. IX. ' Waldeck-Rousseau, Associations et congregations, p. iii. ' See Talne, 11., Les origines de la France contemforaine, vol. I, p. 17 et seq. * Debidour, \., flistoire des rapports de I'Eglise et de I'Etat de 1789 i 1870, p. 220. P^re Du Lac- admits that neither Napoleon nor Pius VII referred to the orders, aud that to have allowed theiu to return would 252 RELIGIOUS ORDERS 253 They first managed, however, by personal patronage to secure authorisation for humble philanthropic work, and later on they slowly penetrated into the country which, as a whole, feared them. Their gradual return shows that it was not a part of the Concordat, whose pro- visions were enforced at once. As we have already said, were the growth of the regular clergy to be taken as an index of religious progress one could not deny that the Republic has been more favourable to religion than pre- ceding governments.^ All orders have ascetic rules of greater or less rigidity, but most of them make an absolute surrender of self to their superior. In a dis- course delivered in Paris, in 1868, upon "Monks and their Social Function," Pere Didon waxes eloquent as he speaks of what the monastic gives up. He says: "You protest, perhaps. I shudder, myself. Well, yes. Personality itself shall be taken from me, like the rest, with my liberty; and after having repudiated all my be- longings, having renounced chaste love, the vow of obedience which I take shall leave me have aroused the Republicans to revolt. There can be no better proofs than those stated by the celebrated Jesuit that the orders were not included in the Concordat. (See Pere Du Lac, Jesuites, p. 138 et seq.) * Pere Du Lac admits that the Jesuits were able to establish 13 colleges during the Second Republic, and 10 under the present one, while under the Empire they founded only 3. (Op. cit., p. 210.) 254 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC only slavery. The monk is a slave, indeed, and it is his last name. I mistake, there is one more beautiful: the monk is less than a slave ... he is a cadaver, perifide ac cadaver.''^ By the side of this renunciation of the monk there is the omnipotence of his superior. One trembles at the thought of an imperfect use of such power. In 1872 Pere Didon, without any warning or hearing, was ordered from Paris, where he was most popular, to Havre as a punishment.^ In 1880, at the height of his popularity, he was summoned to Rome by his superior; and there and then, without any explanation, or chance to defend himself, he — one of the ablest orators of Europe — was sent in disgrace to a poor con- vent of Corsica.^ When his mother died calling for him, and calling to the end, he was refused permission to go to her. At last the superior yielded, but it was too late; for the great orator reached the old home three days after her death.** As a rule orders are very zealous. One su- perb form of their service is that for the poor, the sick, the infirm, and the incurable. The *' Little Sisters of the Poor" and others engaged in this ministry enjoy great popular respect and ''P^re Raynaud, Le Pcrc Didon, p. 56. 2 75 ,7;^ p iqO. ^ Ibid., p. 204; Lcttrcs du Pere Didon a un ami, p. 28. * Didon, Lcltres, p. 43. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 255 love. In a general way the heroic note is domi- nant in their lives. Their missions, in zeal, in consecration, in the variety of efforts, in the number of their martyrs, are nothing short of remarkable. Their missionaries have rendered signal services to French expansion,^ but the government has more than liberally compen- sated them, and in some cases — in China, for instance — has sustained them in most unfair claims.^ For generations they have given it protection in all lands, not to speak of subsidies. The public, however, has come to recognise that the protectorate of Catholic missions is not in- frequently detrimental to the good name of the country. When this is brought to the attention of missionaries they answer that they are in the foreign field to advance, not the interest of France, but that of religion. That is true, but, such being the case, they should not ask funds for a work which they do not do. Many of the orders lay stress upon the work of education. Giving up that of charities, and in a measure that of missions, they have recog- nised that schools were the best avenues to the recovery of their former power. They opened ' Waldeck-Rousseau, ibid., p. 300 ; Bonet-Maury, G., Christianisme et civilisation, pp. 1-86. - Guyot, Y., Le bilan social et pnlititjue dc VEglise, p. 307; Laoes- son, J.-L. de, Les missions et leur prutectoral, pp. 23, i9, and 33. 256 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC schools of all kinds which, owing to their relig- ious, social, and political influences, had success, — success of numbers, and success in securing diplomas which are granted on examination by the government. Many of these institutions, however, have been hothouses for candidates for diplomas. They were carried on by the unauthorised orders, which, wherever they have established themselves, have done their utmost to wreck the common schools. They have al- ways caused Free-thinkers, Jews, and Protes- tants to appear as if they were traitors to the country, and guilty of heinous forms of evil. If the celebrated Dominican preacher, Pere Monsabre, eulogised the Inquisition at Notre Dame of Paris,^ in the schools they virtually approved the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day, the Inquisition, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes." In one of their text-books Protestants, and not Catholics, were represented as the cause of this revocation. The French Revolution is never placed before their pupils except upon its most horrible side. There has always been an element of unfairness in dealing historically with those who opposed them, or in their competition with the State. They stealth- * Loyson, H., Ni cUricaux, ni athies, p. 140. * Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 1 10. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 257 ily but surely laid their hands upon the teaching in forty-nine of the theological seminaries of the countr}\^ Thus, tolerated at first because of charitable work, they seized upon the educa- tion of laymen and finally upon that of the national clergy. This was a double violation of the Concordat, which contemplated no mo- nastics, Gallican professors, Gallican pupils, Galilean doctrine. They gradually extended their efforts in an- other direction. They consecrated a large part of their energy to revivalism; they held missions in the State churches, and succeeded in many instances in putting the secular, i. e., the parish, priest in the background. These men in open revolt against the laws of the country took pos- session of national pulpits and, besides, opened chapels competing with the churches, often win- ning the aristocratic and the rich.- In Paris, by the side of seventy parish churches, they had five hundred and eleven chapels and churches ;'' but few of these men were ready to go to help the poor, overburdened parish priests in desolate mountainous districts. When it comes to pure disinterested motives, the people at large have more confidence in the quiet and humble manner * Trouillot, Pour Videe lalque, p. 38. ^ Narfon, op. cit., p. 166; Waldeck-Rousseau, op. cit., pp. Sii and 3i3. * Trouillot, op. cit., p. 35. 258 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC of the parish priest than in the more spectacular acts of the monks. ^ The enterprises of the orders are quite va- rious, and some of them are far from rehgious. There are those which have rendered themselves conspicuous as distillers and merchants. Their well-known liquors — benedictine, chartreuse,^ redemptorine, and trappistine — do not suggest spiritual attainments. The Carthusians alone paid $400,000 a year as excise taxes. They have many pious goods, and some which are not pious, to which they affix religious names — patent-medicines, for instance. Some have not hesitated to make promises for these drugs which outshine all the claims of our secular patent-medicine venders. Among all the orders there was an evident attempt almost everywhere to acquire property by all means. They have left the impression of unusual skill, not to say unscrupulousness, in avoiding the payment of taxes. There were also circulated papers con- taining hints and methods to will property to monks and nuns in spite of the law.^ By the ' A poor priest, going on duty in a third-class car, is reported to have said to a monk starting with a Brst-class ticket for a rich watering- place: "It is you that have made the vow of poverty, but it is I that practise it." (Narfon, op. cit., p. 349.) ^ In 1901 the amount of chartreuse made is said to have been 400,000 gallons. (Baedeker, Sud-Est de la France, p. 168.) * Brisson, Discours. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 259 side of their most beautiful work one witnesses the most shocking acts. Thus, those who have seen the labours of the Assumptionists in St. Pierre and Miquelon, among deep-sea fisher- men, could never withhold admiration for their unlimited devotion to one of the most pitiable classes of Frenchmen, while not countenancing for an instant the narrowness and fanaticism of the Assumptionists of France.^ Their paper. La Croix, commenting upon three days of most disgraceful riots against the Jews in the capital of Algeria, said: "The Christ, indeed, reigned in Algiers during three days." Pere Bailly, their superior, after the second condemnation of Dreyfus at Rennes, wrote in the same paper that this second verdict must be ascribed to the miraculous intervention of the Virgin.^ As a rule the orders have not that philosophi- cal and scientific culture which confers upon self- surrender the highest value for social and re- ligious beneficence. The attempt of Pere Du Lac to show that the Jesuits have been, and are still, friendly to science leads one to question whether that gentleman, as well as his fellow monks, has an adequate sense of what that word has come to mean in the modern world.^ 1 Narfon, op. cit., p. 292. ' Guyot, Le bilan, etc., p. 165. ' Jesuites, p. 260. 260 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Neither do they conceal their unfriendhness to independent research, to free science, and to all the great sources of modern enlightenment, though they have among them erudite men, eminent scholars, and scientists of some repute. They cultivate mathematics and astronomy, safe sciences from their point of view; but they have no sympathy with the larger scientific ideal to understand all things and to probe all things. The statement of Pere Du Lac, that the rules of his order forbid its members political inter- ference,^ will convince no one. The monks have exercised such political action that Pere Maumus, of Paris, endeavoured to bring them back to their true ministry when he said: "Our mission is not to cause deputies to be elected; we have to save souls and to spread the kingdom of Jesus Christ." No one acquainted with hu- man nature could have expected to hear the praises of the Republic from their lips. Dis- paragement of the government was the most pronounced tendency of their life. It showed itself wherever we could see them, hear them, or read their utterances. Everything was out of joint in the French democracy, and, to please them, they should have been allowed to set it » Ihid., p. 212. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 261 right. They toil, they say, for a society founded not on the will of man, but of God, that is in reality upon the will of the Pope, though at times they do not hesitate to disobey him.^ Those men who claim to be Catholics, whose mission is to make the brotherhood of man a reality, are the narrowest of nationalists, and the most militant chauvinists. They are the mystic defenders of war and the greatest advo- cates of militarism. They were almost a unit against Dreyfus, and were largely responsible for the crusade of injustice against this unfor- tunate man. The part which they played in that lamen- table agitation revived the hatred for monastics, which had been more or less slumbering in the hearts of Anti-Clericals; and it gave to the people a new sense of national danger. In fact, monasticism and republicanism were bound to clash. The peaceful coexistence of two such powers in a democracy is a practical impossi- bility. In French eyes, monasticism is some- thing sinister, hidden behind high walls, and waiting for the opportunity^ to crush anything that is liberal. At best it appears as the trust of religion controlled by the Roman pontiff. Monastic ideals and methods are the negation » Narfon, ibid., p. 293. 262 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC of equal opportunity. The growing ascendency of the orders was viewed by almost all the re- spectable liberal political leaders — and they knew what they were about — as an imminent danger to freedom. A Catholic acquaintance of Professor Barrett Wendell said that "he had acquiesced with regret in the suppression of the teaching orders, for the reason that he could see no other means of saving France from the condition of Spain." ^ Some of the most de- vout Catholics, even priests, shared this view. It was well remembered by the thoughtful, and proclaimed everywhere by politicians, that mo- nasticism was the great rock in the way of cor- porate freedom. From the Franco-Prussian war to our own time, thirty-two bills had been presented to the French Parliament, and de- feated by the occult action of the orders. They did not wish to see non-Catholics enjoy the freedom which they themselves had. One fact which, more than any other, aroused public opinion against the unauthorised orders, was their disregard of law. Their presence in the country was illegal, their property was ille- gal; and, no matter how good they were in other respects, law-breakers could not be good elements of national life. This practice had 1 The France of To-day, p. 39. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 2G3 been constant, even under tlie most Catholic governments, since the Concordat. The Jesuits never asked authorisation from any regime.^ The pious Charles X compelled them to close their seven colleges. The king's order so to do was signed, not by a Free-thinker, but by the eloquent Bishop de Frayssinous.- In 1831 the Trappists were expelled by soldiers from their monastery of Melleray.^ In 1844 the Chamber of Deputies voted the expulsion of the Jesuits; but not one of them left France, even after the Holy See had advised the dissolution of the French Jesuitical communities.^ The orders would take advantage of the embarrassments of the government to penetrate everywhere into the country. It never was a *' square deal." Napoleon III closed the Jesuit college of Montaud in 1853, he opposed the opening of such institutions at Brest, and at Le Mans in 1860, and shut the doors of the in- stitutions of Capuchins of Hazbrouck, of the Redemptorists of Douai, Arras, and Boulogne in 1861.^ During the same year, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul preferred to disappear rather than to allow its organisation to be under ' Waldeck-Rousseau, ibid., p. 354. " Rambaud, Histoire de la cinlisation franqaise contemporaine, p. 354>. 3 Narfon. ibid., p. 211. * Ibid., p. 224. * Rambaud, ibid., p. 5.53. 264 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC government control.^ Under Jules Ferry de- crees were issued demanding the immediate dis- persion of the Jesuits, and the government approval of the unauthorised orders or their dis- persion. These lent a deaf ear to government injunctions. There were no valid reasons for refusing to comply with the government's behest, except that they considered themselves above the laws of the country. Driven by force from their convents, the monks would return quietly. The thirty-nine orders, which were dispersed in and about Paris, had reassembled by 1888.- They not only disregarded all civil authority, but were demoralising the authorised orders. From 1877 to 1900 the number of illegal nuns rose from 14,000 to 75,000, and the authorised decreased from 113,750 to 54,409.^ Popular anti-monasticism was intensiiSed by the illegal co-operation of the most unpopular — in fact of almost all — bishops with the orders. They had been one in persecuting the most distinguished members of the university, Gui- zot, Cousin, Michelet, Quinet, Challemel-Lacour, Jules Simon, Taine, Sarcey, Deschanel, and others; one in violating the Concordat which was a Galilean agreement; one in making ' Narfon, ibid., 241. » Waldeck-Rousseau, ibid., p. 45. ' Ibid., p. 104. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 265 abusive demands upon Napoleon III, and treating him shamefully when he did not do enough for the Vatican;* one in urging France to wage war upon Italy for the restoration of the temporal power; one in having MacMahon's men persecute non-Catholics; one in the Drey- fus crisis, during which they did not conceal their blind prejudice; one in their hostility to freedom of association. All this was only too well remembered, recited for the thousandth time by Anti-Clericals, who seemed to have been seized with monasticophobia. The most grotesque slander against a Jesuit or a Domini- can was never too irrational for their belief. Some of them who had lost all faith still ac- cepted the miracle of monastic perversity. The services rendered by the monks were forgot- ten, and all of them were swallowed up in one broad, sweeping condemnation. Their most violent critics were often their own former pu- pils.^ It was a member of their Church who said: *' Certain orders excel in making obtuse and inert Catholics, and active and intelli- gent Freemasons."^ Waldeck-Rousseau, when Prime Minister, was impelled by the force of 'Narfon, ibid., p. 231. ' Chaine, L., Les CathoUquen fraiiqais et leurs difficuMs aduelles, 1904, p. 195; Abbe Gayraud, La Repuhlique et la paix religieuse, p. 234. * Chaine, Menus propos, p. 57. 266 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC public opinion to refer the monastic question to Parliament. M. Georges Trouillot, a former Minister of the Colonies, and subsequently member of sev- eral cabinets, was made chairman of the par- liamentary commission which investigated the whole matter. His report, filled with facts of all kinds upon the orders, presented a trust- worthy and solid basis for action. The dis- courses of MM. Brisson, Bourgeois, and the Prime Minister added important data. Hith- erto the public had listened to much prejudiced gossip, vague rumours had been circulated, but now unquestionable evidence was at hand. It was shown that 5,613 monastic establishments paid patents on account of their industrial and commercial pursuits,^ 449 were devoted to ready-made clothing, 5 sold wine at wholesale, 6 liquor at wholesale, 4 at retail, 2 pure alcohol, 7 wxre makers of cordials, etc. In twenty years their property had risen from $120,000,000 to over $200,000,000.2 It was further demonstrated that they had been remarkably skilful in handling money, and in avoiding the payment of lawful taxes. M. Brisson read a judicial decision showing that a convent of Benedictines had declared to the ' Trouillot, op. fit., p. 97. ' Waldeck-Rousseau, op. cit., p. 40. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 2G7 revenue receiver that some buildings were worth $1,000, while they were actually insured for $110,200.^ The same gentleman stated that one convent had so framed its rules that after her expulsion, a nun, who had brought in $400,000, did not receive one farthing back.- He exposed the cruel treatment of girls at the institution of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Nancy, where poorly fed young women were subjected to painful labour; and this on the authority of a document written, not by Anti-Clericals, but by Bishop Turinaz of that city and endorsed by five archbishops and fifteen bishops.' It was also shown at length that the orders had made a constant use of dummies, of fictitious societies, of sham mortgages, of pseudo-leases of estates to conceal the ownership of impor- tant property.^ In a matter-of-fact way, the chairman of the commission focussed the rays of his impeachment upon the orders as enemies of liberty. Some of the noblest sons of the Church could scarcely believe their ears when he » Chamber of Deputies, Jan. 22, 1901. " Ibid. ' "After five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and even thirty years of that labour which enriches the nuns to such a point that they were able to spend in a few years more than $100,000 for buildings, a part of which were not really needed, these young girls, when they leave, receive neither money nor clothing — since I have complained, they receive insignifi- cant sums without relation to their work." (Statement of Bishop Turinaz quoted by M. Brisson, Jan. 22, 1901.) *Trouillot, op. cit., pp. 140, 155; Brisson, ibid. 268 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC read in Parliament from the TJieologia dogmatica et moralis, taught in sixty -seven theological sem- inaries, the following words: "The Church has received from God the power to force or repress those who wander from the truth, not only by spiritual penalties, but also by temporal ones. . . . These are prison, flagellation, torture, mutilation, death." ^ Not to speak of the general problem of the unauthorised orders, could the French people allow such teaching in the seminaries and in the pulpits of the National Church ? The Anti- Clericals, even the most moderate, were now of one mind. Their feelings were intensified when M. de Mun, with his usual eloquence and cour- age, opposed the Waldeck-Rousseau Bill, by virtue of "the sovereign right of the Church to reign over the State." He thinks that monks are the best representatives of the Church. Some of his friends pleaded in behalf of the un- authorised orders, because of their humanitarian service. A few claimed that the law, if passed, would be disastrous for French finances. We know what to think of that now. There were those who praised the Little Sisters of the Poor, whom every one admires, and the Sisters of St. * Pour I'idSe laique, p. 52. The last edition of the work from which the words were quoted was of 1899. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 269 Vincent de Paul, who are close to the heart of the masses, when the question at issue was the illegal status of the Jesuits, the Carthusians, the Assumptionists, and others. As a whole the Clericals made a poor defence of the unauthor- ised orders; they were prevented by their own precedents. The Republicans were doing what the Catholic governments had done all along, and were more liberal with the monks than Guizot, Villemain, the Due de Broglie, and Thiers had been.^ In this great parliamentary contention, so vital for Latin countries and so interesting for all, the point at issue was not religion. There is not one line in the discourses of M. Trouillot, or in those of the Prime Minister, which does not reflect the greatest respect for genuine re- ligion. There is, however, a continuous jet of generous contempt for those who seemed to plead for religion, when, after all, they were striving for something else. Waldeck-Rousseau applied to them the indignant words of Victor Hugo: "I do not confound you. Clerical party, with the Church, any more than I confound the mistletoe with the oak; you are the parasites of the Church and her disease. Cease, then, to mix the Church with your affairs, your cam- * Rambaud, Jules Ferry, p. 110. 270 FRANCE UNDP:R THE REPUBLIC paigns, your doctrines, and your ambitions. Do not call her your mother to make her your servant."^ The increase of mortmain property is dis- cussed, but not made central, in the debates. All along there stand out the numerous attempts of the orders to lay their hands upon the vital forces of the nation, and to place restraints upon modern freedom. It was clearly shown that the monastic conflict was a Kulturkampf for the triumph or defeat of modern civilisation, that all the most independent Catholic French kings had waged similar battles,^ and that all Catholic States — Italy, Bavaria, and even Spain — had been forced to vote restrictive measures for mo- nastic bodies. Some of their ablest defenders — M. Ribot, for instance — were quite opposed to monastic freedom. The bill became law. This law was one of the most remarkable landmarks of progressive French legislation. It granted a new liberty to all French citizens, and enabled them to band themselves together, or to form organisations for almost all possible pur- poses. The great movement of socialisation, which had given rise to a multitude of associa- tions, had anticipated legislation. The legion of societies, representing an amazing progress ' l.'i.fnn'ntinn'} ef cnnqre^niions, p. 327. ' Waldeck-Rousseau, ibid., pp. 89 and 218. RELIGIOUS ORDERS 271 in every direction, had been formed under a regime of toleration. Now the scientists, the artists, the merchants, the Free-thinkers, and the Protestants had a legal warrant for their corporate existence. Great organisations could now be formed which might, at times, counter- balance the great Catholic machinery. This is what the orders dreaded and the law sanctioned. It recognised absolute freedom to religious and secular associations, except, first, in the case of mixed organisations of French citizens and for- eigners; second, in cases where the headquarters were in foreign countries, and, third, in the case of organisations whose members live in com- mon. Even with this last class, the authorised orders were not to be disturbed in their chartered rights, though henceforth they will be kept close to them. They must confine themselves to the work for which they were approved. With them, as with the authorised monks, their religion remains untouched: they may continue to be priests, they may preach if they wish, they may teach if they have adequate diplomas, they may do religiously whatever they like, except to be members of an unauthorised order. The government did not expel, but it dispersed these societies illegally constituted. Again it was not a question of religion, but of pohtical prepon- 272 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC derance and supremacy. The Issue, indeed, was not religion, but " Who shall rule ? " Ultramon- tane Catholicism or Republican France ? Rome or Paris? The point upon which all liberals must be agreed is that by this law France made one of the greatest conquests in the history of her legislation. When one views an order as a regular society, the Association Law seems illiberal and unfair. A closer attention to the nature of an ordinary organisation and to that of a monastic institu- tion reveals how dissimilar they are, and conse- quently how differently they should be treated. One is for the benefit of each individual com- posing it, the other practically destroys the in- dividual. He ceases to exist as such, and there- by loses all affinities for fruitful associations profitable to all. If a member of a society becomes dissatisfied, he may withdraw and take his share of capital and profits. In an order he is retained by all possible means; and if he retires, the sums he brought in are not returned. In an ordinary society, capital is accumulated with the thought of future distribution to its members; in a monastic institution there is mortmain property which goes on accumulating more and more until it may, and in many cases it has, become a social danger. A member of a RELIGIOUS ORDERS 273 society remains a member of his family; in an order there is a complete severance of all family ties. The member of an ordinary organisation is a free, vital part of society, contributing to its reproduction; the member of an order, by his vows, is cut off from such functions. The 200,000 members of the orders — good men and good women — were a stupendous force of elimi- nation of the fittest and best elements of the population. The member of an ordinary society is a free citizen; but that of an order violates the most fundamental moral and political law, that no human being has a right to make an absolute surrender of himself or of his Hberty to one being, his monastic superior or any one else. In an ordinary society the member accepts the laws of the State; a member of an order is under the absolute sway of his superior, often a foreigner, and in any case he must be an obedient subject of a foreigner — the Pope. Ordinary societies co- ordinate themselves easily with the life and the laws of the State, while the orders develop a kind of State within the State. To allow the development of these unauthorised orders, for the present at least, would have been suicidal. At all events they were contrary to the stipula- tions of the Concordat and of the Organic Arti- cles still in force. 274 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Waldeck-Rousseau did not belong to the school of academic liberty which remains in the realm of abstractions; he had a clear sense of political necessities, but he endeavoured to be fair. In the settlement of the illegally ac- quired property of the unauthorised orders, he did not exaggerate when he said that he had chosen "the best, the justest, and the most hu- mane method."^ He might have acted upon the narrow, though strictly judicial principle, that all property which has no legal owner be- longs to the State.^ In so doing he would have followed the example of one of the popes,^ who confiscated all the belongings of the Jesuits. He might also have followed Louis XIV, who seized all property acquired contrary to his edicts.^ He chose a different course. The law allows the members of the dispersed orders to recover the property brought by them into the congregation to which they belonged. It per- mits donors and their heirs to claim gifts made to the monastic institutions. It decides that some of this property shall be used for the relief of the needy members,^ and requires that the » Ibid., p. 270. * Ibid., p. 273. » Trouillot, op. eiU, p. 67. * Ibid., p. 19. ' A decree signed by M. Briand provides a home for the aged dis- persed monks, in their own buildings if these have not been sold, or in some other place. (Le SiMe, July 12, 1909.) RELIGIOUS ORDERS 275 charities intended for the poor, the invalid, and the incurable shall be continued to them in legal institutions, preferably in those of the Church or in those of the State. ^ Not one penny of this property was confiscated on be- half of the Treasury. Militant Catholics in France — they repre- sent only a noisy minority — have always been the worst enemies of the Church. By their in- tolerance they have made the celebrity of their antagonists. Some men have secured renown by the halo of hatred which these Clericals have put round their heads. They did much for Renan and for Littre. Lately, in Paris, they brought into prominence a young professor of the name of Thalamas who was pursued by them for statements about Joan of Arc, which he never uttered. They so abused Waldeck- Rousseau that he withdrew from his leadership and was replaced by M. Combes. Brought up in the Church, later on a cleric, and subse- quently a professor of theology, the new leader had left the Church of his birth, and then be- came its violent antagonist. He had the Anti- Clericalism of Waldeck-Rousseau, but not his sense of measure and of fairness. Seeing the state of public opinion, he sided with the ultra- ' Lot relative au control d' association, titre III, art. 18. 276 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC radicals, the Socialists, and led the Parliament to pass a law preventing the orders from teach- ing — a law to be enforced gradually in the course of the next ten years. Certainly there was much to say, and much to do, when the question came up of not allowing the illegal orders, in revolt against the laws of the land, to educate the children; but that was not the case with the authorised orders, which, equally with the unauthorised, M. Combes's legislation prohibited from teaching. Furthermore, he pro- ceeded to enforce the Law of Association in a spirit different from that in which it was voted. The matter of property had been largely at- tended to by the monks and the nuns them- selves. What was left could not be bought by Catholics except under the penalty of excom- munication; hence, in Catholic districts, the inability of the government to get hold of the property, or sell it at its real value. The work of scattering the condemned organ- isations was done with tact and firmness. The officials were always considerate — the writer saw them more than once at work — but the law had to be enforced. In some of the most ignorant parts of the country, the Clericals so stirred up the masses, and misrepresented the law, that peasants assumed a very hostile atti- RELIGIOUS ORDERS 277 tude. Some of the leaders would not have shrunk from shedding blood. In some cases public officers, going to convents, were cruelly beaten or drenched with unnamable liquids. They were so grossly abused that national sym- pathies, regardless even of the merits of the case, were with the representatives of the law. After closing 500 monastic institutions and 12,000 schools, and scattering 40,000 monks, friars, and nuns, M. Combes secured a great electoral victory and approval. The national endorsement must not only be counted, but weighed. Had it been signed, we should have read not only, as a matter of course, the names of the professional agitators of Anti-Clericalism, who are like all professional agitators, but also the names of men friendly to modern science, to modern culture, to sound ideas of justice; and a multitude of these names w^ould have been those of earnest Catholics, and some of them, even, those of noble liberal Catholic priests. The Law of Association, as a legal recogni- tion of the rights of free citizens to combine, is so far a work above praise, but it is not a solu- tion of the monastic question. It is, at best, the elimination of the most turbulent orders. There are probably yet in France 150,000 monas- 278 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC tics who continue most of tlieir former work. In a large measure the future is in their hands. If they wish to continue the struggle, they will have great national corporations against them. Freemasons, the Federation of Labour, and other strong bodies will fight them. The time is no longer when the Church was the only great organisation by the side of the State. The orders must realise that, whatever be the violent elements antagonistic to them, the most intelli- gent and liberty-loving citizens dread them, and often hate them. The good monks, disliked even by many of their former pupils, must cease to pose as if they were hated because of their goodness. They must no longer represent their opponents as the embodiment of evil, for fair- minded men know that not to be true. Let the monastics lay aside calumny as a tool, put a little sweetness into their relations with their opponents, and accept principles of political equity without any mental reservation. Anti- Clericalism has had an easy victory, because it had a good case. France could not stand the Hispano-monastic regime, still flourishing be- yond the Pyrenees. The orders must modern- ise their ideals and do their work by the side of the sons of free thought, the sons of Israel, or of Protestant communions on the basis of RELIGIOUS ORDERS 279 common rights, of a common sincerity, of a common earnestness and solidarity. Then, and only then, will the monastic problem have re- ceived a practical and lasting solution. CHAPTER XIII THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE THE Anti-Clericals represent all those who have broken all bonds of external sym- pathy with the militant clergy. The majority of them are quiet, modest theists, largely driven out of the Church by the political interferences of the priests. Some have still the traits of the old Voltairians. Others resemble the materialists of the eighteenth century, though they give themselves out as Positivists. There are those of an extreme temperament who pose as the custodians of reason, the defenders of science, and the representatives of progress; but this means, in most cases, that they are religiously indifferent, irreligious, or agnostic. Some Freemasons among them are as intol- erant as the orders themselves. Scientists are mostly Anti-Clerical, though moderate as a rule. The teachers, a noble body of men and women, are the greatest force of resistance against the efforts of sacerdotalism. The unscrupulous at- tacks of the clergy against the machinery of 280 THE SEPARATION 281 State education have made them bitterly hostile and not infrequently irreligious. They describe the priests as "formidable and tenebrous," as "deceiving the masses," and in kindred terms. Were the manufacturers, the business men, and the farmers divided into two classes, the larger one would be found with the opponents of the clergy. The Socialists are a unit in their Anti- Clericalism. In the Chamber of Deputies, Buisson, de Pressense, Jaures, Bourgeois, Brisson, Doumer, Delcasse, Trouillot, Millerand, and Briand con- stitute an Anti-Clerical group which, in ability, statesmanship, and character cannot be equalled by the twenty' -five barons, dukes, and counts of the other side, even including worthy men like Count de Mun and Baron Denys Cochin. The same is true in the Senate. Anti-Clericals have with them the best educated and the most ad- vanced sections of the country. Abbe Gayraud admits that "Anti-Clerical ideas have invaded the electoral body and that they control it. How small indeed is the number of the citizens who, in their public life, in the exercise of popu- lar sovereignty, act like true Catholics, that is, care for the interests of religion and the needs of the Church ! The reason for this is that the mass of electors have of Catholicism only 282 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC baptism, the first communion, the formahties of marriage, and a few practices imposed by customs and by social conventions."^ Such being the case, it seemed unfair for Cathohcs to ask the nation to support their Church. Anti-Clericals were not slow in show- ing this incongruity and at the same time accused the State Church of being a source of constant perturbation — that with the best in- tentions in the world the government could not satisfy her. Thus, at the beginning of 1873, the Catholics were greatly incensed because the officers of a man-of-war stationed at Civita Vecchia made a call upon the King of Italy in Rome;- a month later, because M. Fournier, ambassador to the Quirinal, had spoken kindly of the King, and received openly well-known non-Catholic Frenchmen.^ To please the friends of the Vatican the government kept a man-of- war at the disposal of the Pope* — a fact which greatly irritated Italian patriots. This intensi- fied the restlessness, the impatience, and antag- onism of Anti-Clericals. It must be borne in mind that, when the Separation came, in 1905, a great change had taken place in French politics as compared with ' La RSpnblique ef la paix religieuae, p. 43. ' Revue des Deux Mondes, Jan. 1, 1873, p. 219. » Ibid., Feb. 1, 1873, * Ibid., Jan. 15, p. 463. THE SEPARATION 283 the early days of the RepubHc. The Anti- Clericals were then where the Clericals had been. These, as soon as thej^ could, under Mac-Mahon, placed bishops in the superior council of educa- tion; they put priests, ex-officio, on the boards of charities; they expropriated Parisian citizens to build that most unpopular church — the Sa- cred Heart of Montmartre; secured a very expensive system of chaplains for the army; ac- corded to Catholic higher institutions of learn- ing the privilege of granting degrees; authorised thirty-six religious orders; raised the Catholic budget of worship, which was $400,000 in 1801, to $10,000,000.^ At this time every public official from the President of the Republic to the least village constable was under their tutelage. They did their utmost to restore the old monarchical re- gime, to regain every privilege lost by, and since, the French Revolution. Every public official had to be as zealous in the cause advo- cated by the Church as possible. The bishops used all their influence with the Minister of Education against liberal professors, did their utmost to have them dismissed from their chairs, or attacked them, calhng them "public poisoners." In the common schools the Catho- 1 Narfon, op. cit., p. 270. 284 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC lie catechism was the prominent book, and woe to the teacher who did not display religious zeal ! Most severe measures were voted against any association which "would tend toward the abolition of religion," whereby was meant any opposition to Catholicism. Protestants, Jews, and Free-thinkers in the army, on some occasions, were compelled to attend the Catholic Church and to kneel before the altar at the command of their officers. Protestants, entitled by law to an honourable burial, were relegated to the corner of the ceme- tery reserved for those who had committed suicide. Protestant chapels were closed under the pretext that speakers had attacked the Catholic Church. The writer knew a Protes- tant missionary who was taken to the court of Draguignan, then to that of Aix, and finally to that of Nimes, by a Catholic attorney bent on his condemnation for holding Protestant ser- vices. The circulation of Protestant books was hindered in a most vexatious manner. The majority of the Parliament, which was Catholic, refused to vote a law of religious liberty for all. Bishop Dupanloup, who opposed it, said that such a law would be revolutionary. They were on the side of liberty on!}' when they opposed the bill on compulsory education. They acted THE SEPARATION 285 in perfect defiance of the national will. By their intolerance and grasping spirit they aroused the intelligence, the conscience, and the patriot- ism of the nation against them. At the follow- ing elections, February 22, 1876, popular in- dignation inflicted upon them a political defeat, from which they have not as yet recovered. The Republicans had hitherto taken merely a defensive stand; now they assumed the offensive. A most active campaign was opened against the orders and their friends. Gambetta voiced na- tional feelings when he exclaimed, ''Clericalism is the enemy," and demanded liberation. Re- taliation followed. Most of the privileges se- cured under Mac-Mahon were nullified. The State right to grant degrees, recently extended to Catholic institutions, was repealed.^ In 1880 the high clergy and magistrates were excluded from the superior council of public instruction. Jules Ferry took steps which eventually resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuits. The mortmain property of the orders, which, by its very nature, paid no inheritance tax, was forced by law to pay sufficiently to make taxation alike for prop- ' The degrees are not, as in America, granted by any one school, but by the government. They are not only the recognition of certain at- tainments, but also of a virtual claim by the holder to State positions. This privilege of granting degrees cannot be too strictly guarded against the encroachments of sects or parties. 286 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC erty held by a monk or a layman. The friars and nuns, who had hitherto been allowed to teach without diplomas while common school i teachers were not, were subjected to the same requirement. The teaching of the Roman Cath- olic cathechism in the common schools was re- placed by that of Morals. Non-Catholic pa- tients had been so treated by some of the nuns in the hospitals that nurses took their places. Six faculties of Catholic theology were closed. As a matter of fact, the bishops, and not the Anti-Clericals, gave the death-blow to these in- stitutions, but their extinction was considered another victory for Anti-Clericals. Catholic and Protestant theological students were drafted for military service, though for a shorter time than were other citizens. Religious processions in the streets were prohibited in communities where a large part of the public were opposed to them. Crucifixes over the entrance of ceme- teries, in the schools or in the court houses were ordered to be removed. There was hardly one of these reforms w^hich the American public would not have approved, because they were all in favour of impartial law; and yet all were resisted by the Clerical party as sacrilegious assaults upon Church rights. In- stead of disarming Republicans by reasonable THE SEPARATION 287 concessions, they aroused them still more. The harshness of the Clericals and the excitement of the clergy — only five priests formed an exception ^ — during the Dreyfus trial, and the violence of the monks called attention to the danger of monasticism.^ Waldeck-Rousseau, pressed by public opinion, secured the Law of Association from the Parliament. M. Combes, carried along by the same movement, incited the Parliament to vote the exclusion of the orders from teaching. The clergy of France had en- joyed for over one hundred years the lucrative monopoly of burials. They were virtual under- takers, and received sixty per cent of the profits, even when the funerals were those of Free- thinkers, not attended with religious rites or forms of any kind.^ This monopoly was taken from them in 1904. Though victorious all along the line in this battle of secularisation, Anti-Clericals were tired of this ever-renewed conflict. They were ready, like unflinching surgeons, to apply the knife to the bonds uniting Church and State. They had, in fact, already made some advance in that direction, when the Vatican offered them a sig- nal opportunity so to do. The Vatican had so signallv failed to meet the 1 Guyot, Le bilan, etc., p. 102. * Narfon, Vera I'Eglise libre, p. 292. * Narfon, ibid., p. 119. £88 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC obligations of the Concordat that any attempt to justify its course before intelHgent pubhc opinion would have been frail and vain. The Galilean provisions of that agreement, which limited to a large extent the authority of the Pope over the French Church, had been dis- regarded, and the Ultramontane regime, which makes the Pope supreme, had been gradually established. Catholics may discuss among themselves the relative merits of the two eccle- siastical systems, but the fact is indisputable that Gallicanism was contemplated in the Con- cordat. There had also been a peculiar un- scrupulousness in bringing about the transfor- mation. In the case of a vacant bishopric the French government had the right to nominate an incumbent, who then received a bull of in- vestiture from the Holy See. Without declar- ing the fact, the officials of the Vatican inserted in the bull of investiture the Latin word nobis, which changed the whole character of the Franco-Papal relations. By writing the bull as it had been for nearly a century, it was the President of the RepubHc that made the ap- pointment; with the insertion of nobis it was the Pope.^ When this clever ruse was discov- ered, the Quay d'Orsay declined to accept the 1 Narfon, ibid., p. 300; Debidour, Histoire des rapports de VEglise et de I'Etat en France de 1789 d 1890, vol. I, p. 83; vol. 11, pp. S6i, 389. THE SErARATION 289 papal letters. After long and painful discus- sions the Pope was forced to surrender his in- glorious nobis. This incident was no sooner settled than an- other came up. Among the recent events most popular in France was the reconciliation with Italy. The loud demonstrations of loyalty to- ward the Vatican on the part of Clericals were generally followed by louder expressions of sym- pathy with the Quirinal on the part of French Liberals. They rejoiced when the King of Italy visited Paris, and when, later, M. Loubet went to Rome. This was the time chosen by Pius X to send a letter of protest. The attitude of French Catholics had forced Italy into the Triple Alliance, to the detriment, many Italians believed, of their own country. Rome, the cause of most political storms of France at home, was also a force of disturbance abroad. Close upon this a new incident was to have more serious consequences. The hostility of the bishops against the government was not without exceptions. Several of the eighty-four prelates of the country, who had refused to join the others in their loud protests against the secularising tendencies of the government, created a great commotion. Their moderation seemed to cast reflection upon the course of their peers. This 290 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC rendered the former popular with the Repubh- cans, while it had the contrary effect upon the Clericals. The whole body of Ultramontanes was against them. In two dioceses a regular boycott was organised against the bishops. Their antagonists did not shrink from making, right or wrong, the most serious charges against them in Rome. They were summoned thither to justify themselves; but when they failed to go, threatening letters were sent and a virtual deposition of the bishops took place. ^ This step, no doubt permissible from the point of view of ecclesiastical discipline, was contrary to the terms of the Concordat; for if the Pope cannot nominate a bishop, he cannot depose one without prior understanding with the gov- ernment. M. Delcasse and his colleagues felt that the action of the Vatican had been deter- mined much more by the moderation and the liberalism of the bishops than by their moral or ecclesiastical deviations. When he failed to ob- tain immediate satisfaction from Cardinal Merry del Val, the strained relations were broken. The French embassy to the Vatican was closed, and the nuncio in Paris was informed that his diplo- matic functions had ceased. This was the end of the Napoleonic Concordat. '■ Narfon, ibid., p. 312. THE SEPARATION 291 The principle of separation of Church and State had been already defended by isolated Catholics. In 187^2 the majority of French Protestant consistories were in favour of it, and their National Synod gave it much attention.^ It had also been much discussed in Parliament. From 1877 onward the annual vote of ecclesias- tical appropriations was the occasion of yearly discussions. In 1881 a proposition was made to the Chamber of Deputies to abrogate the Concordat." In 1896 the proposal received 152 votes. In 1902 several proposals were made, sustained by 191 votes; and in 1904 the Sep- aratists mustered 232 votes. ^ Independently of the events in Rome, public opinion was moving rapidty; MM. de Pressense, Hubbard, Florens, Reveillaud, and Grosjean with Berthoulat had presented projects of separation before the Chamber of Deputies in 1903. Deputy Senac proposed a similar law in 1904, which was fol- lowed by the final bill of separation in 1905. The disruption was "inevitable," says M. Chaine.^ It was no new issue, though the acts of the Vatican has hastened its realisation. The Clericals resorted to all kinds of manoeuvres to secure its postponement, but even the overthrow ' Bersier, Hisfoire du synodc general, vol. II, pp. 3, 338, 339, and 341. ' Reveillaud, La Separation des eglises et de I'Stat, p. 134. ' Narfon, ibid., p. xxvii. * Chame, Menus propos, etc., p. 100. 292 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC of M. Combes did not help tlicm. Those who had considered the separation impossible^ now changed their minds. The debates reached a high degree of elevation. The bill was dis- cussed brilliantly and eloquently during forty- eight daily or nightly sessions. Both sides had a profound sense of the vastness of the issues of the law. Both displayed uncommon powers in the defence of their respective positions. Though feelings were intense, the discussions remained within the domain of parliamentary courtesy. On July 4, 1905, the bill was passed by 341 votes against 233, and when on Decem- ber 6, it was also voted by the Senate with a large majority it became law. We must ex- amine its tenor. The first article marks a new era in the his- tory of religious freedom. This law begins with the following words: "The Republic guarantees freedom of conscience." Then it asserts that the French government neither knows, salaries, nor subsidises any religious body, exception being made in the case of chaplains in the col- leges, hospitals, asylums, and prisons. The movable and immovable property of the State churches, the edifices excepted, are transferred to the religious associations who will have the 'Gayraud, op. cit., p. 71; Reveillaud, op. cit., pp. 186, 304. THE SEPARATION 293 care of the churches. Reasonable provisions are made for the present debts of some of the churches. All endowments for general charities go to the regular State charity organisations. In cases in which there are no religious associa- tions, the property is devoted to the charities of the district. In all the transfers of property the State will not levy the usual tax. Clergy- men over sixty years of age, and with over thirty years of ministry, receive three-quarters of their salary; those forty-five years old, with twenty years of service, are entitled to one-half. The clergymen in office, not belonging to either of the preceding classes, will receive full salary the first year, two-thirds of it during the sec- ond, one-half the third, and one-third the fourth year. In villages of less than 1,000 inhabitants all these periods are doubled. Professors in the Protestant schools of theology have considerate treatment. The cathedrals, churches, chapels^ Protestant houses of worship, and synagogues remain the property of the State, but they con- tinue to be used without compensation by the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish associations. The archbishops and bishops may continue to use the State palaces for two years. Tlie clergy mav continue to dwell in their manses; the theological seminaries and the Protestant fac- 294 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC ulties of theology may remain in their present buildings for five years. Provisions have been made for the preservation of objects and build- ings which present a peculiar historical or ar- tistic interest. The archives and libraries hav- ing documents and charters belonging to the State will surrender them to the institutions to which they properly belong. In the case of the sale of any object connected with religious build- ings the churches will have a right to pre-emp- tion. The religious associations must manage their affairs in a businesslike way. They must publish annual financial reports. The local religious associations may group themselves into unions. The church buildings remaining State property are free from taxes, the others are sub- ject to the general law. Any church of any denomination may be opened by a simple dec- laration to the authorities. It was to be expected that provisions would be made against possible abuses on the part of the Church. Political meetings in the churches are forbidden. Public processions and the ringing of the bells are left to the mayors. As nninicipal councils are elected by the people, and the mayors by the municipal council, the citizens will decide. Religious emblems are not allowed upon public monuments or public THE SEPARATION 295 squares, but may be placed upon religious build- ings, in cemeteries, in museums, and expositions. Religious instruction cannot be given to children of the common schools during school hours. Threats to cause a child to be discharged, or any other threat on account of religion, will be severely punished. A heavy penalty will be in- flicted upon those who may disturb or inter- rupt any religious service. Outrage or defama- tion of a public oflScial from the pulpit will be severely repressed. Encouragement to resist the law of the country or to excite citizens against each other, followed by effects, makes a preacher liable to two years' imprisonment. Theological students are required to do only one year of military service instead of two, like other citi- zens, and in case of war are to serve in the infirmary corps. The Concordat is abrogated.^ Protesting against the law, Pope Pius X, speaking as one "holding the place of Christ," says: "We condemn and reprove it as insulting to God, as contrary to the divine constitution of the Church, as favouring schisms, as hostile to our authority and to that of rightful pastors, as 'It should be remembered that the expression, "the Concordat," Is misleading. Other concordats had preceded it; that of 1472 between Sixtus IV and Louis XI, and that of 1516 between Leo X and Francis I. These concordats were not, any more than the Napoleonic one, abro- gated by common consent. 296 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC confiscating the property of the Church, as op- posed to common justice, as hostile to the Apostohc See and to ourselves," etc.^ Arch- bishop Sonnois of Cambray was even more violent. In a pastoral letter issued to his dio- cese, he placed large headings over paragraphs, pretending to give the purport of the law: "No More God," "No More Budget of Worship," No More Churches," "No More Crosses," No More Calvaries," "No More Images of the Holy Virgin Mary," "No More Religion," and concluded by appealing to the faithful in the same large type: "Catholics, is this what you wish?"^ Such utterances, intended to arouse the people, produced the contrary effect. What are the facts ? A distinguished Catho- lic, and an untiring opponent of the Radicals, M. J. de Narfon, stated that the law was more liberal than Catholics could have expected.^ A group of eminent Catholics, ironically called "Green Cardinals," because almost all belonged to one or another of the five great academies, whose ofl^cial color is green, sent a petition to the Pope begging him to accept the law. They spoke of its benefits as follows: "The most considerable of these advantages is assuredly ' Vekementer nos, etc. * VUnivers, Jan. 7, 1906. * Vert VEglise libre, p. xix. THE SEPARATION 297 the liberty of ecclesiastical nominations. But there are others: the free and indefinite surren- der of the places of worship, the temporary enjoyment — which may be extended — of the episcopal palaces, of the rectories, and of the seminaries, the privileges left to cultural asso- ciations to administer, under mere nominal con- trol, $40,000,000 worth of property^ which con- stitutes the present patrimony of the churches of France, and, finally, the pensions and grants which, though limited, assure for the immediate present the daily bread of our priests. Never will any one succeed in making the people be- lieve that a law which stipulates such advan- tages on behalf of the Church is a law absolutely hostile to religion."^ The honest purpose of the law was to put an end to an intolerable situation. This law can- not have been so deficient after all, inasmuch as fifty-six French prelates voted in favour of sub- mitting to it and only eighteen were against ' In the text, 200,000,000 francs. ^ Supplique (Vun groupe de catholiques frangais au Pape Pie X, p. 13. These Catholics were: Prince d'Aremberg, J. C. Ancoc, F. Bruneti^re, Comte de Caraman, L. de Castelnau, Denys Cochin, Leon Devin, A. Gigot, Georges Goyau, Comte d'Haussonville, H. de Lacombe, de Lap- parent, A. Leroy-Beaulieu, G. Picot, H. Lorin, Ed. Roiisse, Sabatier, R. Saleilles, Marquis de Segur, E. Senart. P. Thureau-Dangin, A. Van- dal, Marquis de Vogile. Montagnini, Les Fiches poiitifieule.i, p. 181. It would be difficult to find a nobler or more distinguished group of Catholics in any city of the world. 298 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC sucli a course.^ They even went so far as to formulate rules for the new order of things. Protestants and Hebrews accepted it with the sense that it was, as a whole, the best possible in the circumstances. The Catholics complained of the strict legislation against them, but it had been made necessary by their past as well as by their more recent history. Was there any- thing unreasonable in preventing the clergy from making the churches political centres ? In view of the violent attacks of the clergy against the men of the government, was it unwise to forbid pulpit abuse of public officials? In America clergymen may do as they like, because they are in their own buildings erected with their own funds; but in France churches — most of them at least — belong to the State. Was it unfair to prohibit threats against any one on account of his or her religion? Was it "tyran- nical" to forbid priests from inciting citizens against each other? In view of the fact that the management of the finances of the churches had been scandalously shocking and abusive in former days, was it unjust for the law to require regular accounting? Should a religious corpo- ration be allowed practices which we would not tolerate for an instant in an insurance society? ■ Chaine, Menus propos. p. 96. THE SEPARATION 299 If those concerning whom these laws were made do what they ought, the laws will not affect them; but if they wish to resist the national will, they will show the wisdom of this legis- lation. The strongest objection of the Vatican was made to that feature of the Law of Separation which organised church boards, associations cul- tuelles. In its provisions the government gave the fullest possible autonomy to Catholic bodies. They themselves were free to elect their trustees as they liked. They could make them of men, of women, even of clergymen, or of all com- bined. These trustees could not be good Cath- olics unless they were in proper relations to their bishops.^ As this election was absolutely in their hands, they could but be satisfactory. The doctrinal tests were entirely in their keep- ing. There the government could not interfere. Once elected, the trustees would have committed to them the buildings and the endowments, but nothing more. At this point the government claimed the right to see that the funds left were spent according to the purpose of the giver, and that the legacies for the training of men for the priesthood or for missions were used as originally intended. In that respect it required » Narfon, ibid., p. 330. 300 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC from lliem, without any humiliation or oppres- sion, what it requires from neutral societies, that is, nothing but a "square deal." The Pope objected that this was contrary "to the divine government of the Church." To this his op- ponents answered that the Parliament was not a theological organisation, that it was bound to ignore everything about the "divine govern- ment," and that parliamentary action was lim- ited to human relationship; that the proposed boards of trustees were far more liberal than similar Catholic organisations in Prussia, con- demned by the bishops of the country, but ac- cepted over their head by the Pope; that the Church which had acquiesced in the Concordat could accept anything, and that, finally, the great grievance of Pius X was that he could not control the ecclesiastical wealth of France, and thereby have a material hold over all the French clergy, and that for all time. The accusation that the Republic has vio- lated pledges made at the time of the Concor- dat, by which the State agreed to pay the salary of the clergy as a compensation for the loss of property at the time of the Revolution, is abso- lutely untenable. There is no reference to such an agreement in the Concordat or in the Organic Articles. Furthermore, there has never been THE SEPARATION 301 any record of such oi^ligalions in dealing with the national debt. Again, if there had been such a recognition, the amount of indemnity would have been fixed in a tangible manner. Such an indebtedness would have been deter- mined accurately, and its instalments paid regularly upon a definite basis; but we find the government paying $400,000 in 1801, and $10,800,000 under Mac-Mahon.^ Here is an in- crease of twenty-six fold. Such a huge incre- ment cannot be understood if the $10,800,000 paid the same debt in 1876 as the $400,000 paid at the time of the Concordat, while the in- crease is perfectly intelligible on the basis that clergymen were paid for public service. In Napoleon's eyes, they were State oflScials. The charges of confiscation of property, as a whole, are untrue. There never was a ''prop- erty of the Church" under the ancien regime , but properties of parishes, properties of con- vents, and properties of other institutions. Without discussing this point, it suffices to say that under a Catholic king, Louis XVI, the National Assembly, in which there were three hundred and eleven priests,^ made over to the State, in 1789, all ecclesiastical wealth, much of which had been the object of scandalous uses • Ibid., p. 270. * Moniteur universe!, 1789, p. £36. 302 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC by the higher members of the clergy. The churches were so completely considered State property that the government used them not infrequently for secular purposes. Napoleon transferred several of them to Protestants, whose own buildings had been given to the Church, confiscated, or destroyed during the seventeenth century. It is on that account that the Oratoire became the great centre of Protes- tant worship in Paris, and that the only Eglise Sainte Marie, in that city, is a Protestant church. The churches so obviously belonged to the State that when a Catholic parish became Protestant, the church was at once transferred by the authorities to Protestants for their wor- ship.^ At the death of Victor Hugo the Pan- theon was secularised by virtue of the same principle. All the property used by Catholics was kept up, sometimes enlarged and beautified, with taxes levied upon every one, Free-thinkers, Jews, and Protestants as well as Catholics, and that for over a century. There have been cases in which there was something bordering upon confiscation, but that was only exceptional. Several churches erected with Catholic funds should have been restored to them absolutely; but even here, if we take the case of the Church * Delapierre E., Napoleon Rouasel, p. 128. THE SEPARATION 303 of the Sacred Heart of Paris, though the money came from the faithful, the land was secured while the Clericals were in power by a wholesale expropriation at Montmartre. Comte d'Haus- sonville, a distinguished Catholic, has shown^ that upon this matter the law was liberal, that it was a virtual recognition of independent eccle- siastical propert}^ to be administered by trustees elected by Catholics in their own way. The honest purpose of the Parliament was that Catholics should have the undisputed use of this property so long as there are French Cath- olics. Another objection of the Church authorities was of a judicial nature. They raised the ques- tion: *'Who in the matter of contestations will decide upon conflicting claims.'^" Were two Catholic associations to petition for the posses- sion of the same property, who would judge in last resort ? The writer will go as far as he who goes the furthest in his admiration for clergy- men at large. He is ready to concede to French priests great merits of all kinds — zeal, earnest- ness, and unselfishness. France has never had a better clergy, better educated, better trained, and morally better than now, but it is a clergy incapable of impartial decisions. They wish to ' Aprh la Separation, p. 22. 304 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC be judges in questions in which they are one of the parties. Thus in Culey (Meuse) the bishop dismissed the Abbe Hutin, while his parishioners wished to keep him. As soon as the churches preparing for associations cultuelles began their work, one hundred and thirty members of the church were for the priest, and about fifteen — some even questionable members — were for the bishop. Now, had this been referred to an ecclesiastical tribunal, it would have been de- cided on behalf of the bishop, and yet morally the property belonged to that overwhelming majority whose fathers had built the church, and who had themselves kept it in repair.^ The Protestants raised no such objection. They had two associations claiming the same chapel, but in a few hours it was satisfactorily settled by arbitration. The French government made pro- visions to submit such cases to the Conseil d'Etat, which would decide in equity somewhat as the British Royal Commission has done with the wealth of the Free Church of Scotland. Again, the statement widely circulated that the courts of France were filled with the "creatures" of the government, as judges, counts for very lit- tle among those who have seen how frequently the French Bench has rendered — and still ' Lhermite and Maria Verone, La Sfparation et aes consequences, p. 85. THE SEPARATION 305 renders — verdicts against the men in power. Recent decisions in reference to ecclesiastical rights to the use of buildings for worship have almost all been favourable to the Church. The Separation and its legal provisions have been rejected by the Vatican. It claims that such a step should have been taken after the mutual consent of the signing parties, but such a course has never been pursued, and certainly all the concordats in France were abandoned without any such agreement. An understand- ing with Rome would have meant a national recognition that the Pope has a right to inter- fere in French secular matters, and this the people wished to avoid at any cost. The solu- tion which has prevailed, contrary to the wishes of most intelligent Catholics, leaves clergymen as free as possible, but without any regular judicial title to the buildings in which they worship. Much wealth and many privileges were the price paid by French Catholics for re- jecting a settlement which was honourable and fair. Rome had expected a terrible crisis and an uprising of the nation. The people fully realised on which side predominated the love of liberty and of fair play. The outcome of the crisis was most disappointing for the Vatican, as its representatives saw the perfect apathy of 306 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC the masses at the sight of ecclesiastical dis- establishment. The next chapter views the question as it forced itself upon the French mind in general in those days. CHAPTER XIV THE CRISIS OF THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE IN the conflict between the Church and the State, if the Hberty of CathoHcs had been threatened or destroyed, the writer would be the first to raise his voice in its behalf, for he believes in the political right of man to be or not to be religious, and, if he is, to be so in his own way. In the present crisis both sides claim that they are actuated by the spirit of loyalty to this principle. Each appeals to the non-partisan part of the nation in the name of freedom. There can be no better evidence of the national attitude toward liberty and fair play.^ Historically, it is easy to demonstrate that the Catholic Church has always been hos- tile to liberty of thought, liberty of speech, and liberty of the press, not to speak of its unsym- pathetic attitude toward the larger political * L'Abb^ Gayraud recognises that what the majority of French voters wish is "justice, equal for all, the equality of all before the law, religious toleration; that is, to use a popular expression, to leave people free, and that each may do as he pleases." (La RSpublique el la paix rcligieuse, p. 44.) 307 308 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC liberty as viewed by Americans. Any one reading the encyclical letter Quanta Curd and the Syllabus of Pius IX, in which liberty is called "dehrium," and "liberty of perdition,'* will be convinced upon this point. ^ Furthermore, wherever it can, the Church claims an exclusive position. This is evident from statements like the following, taught in the seminaries of France: "If in a country the unity of Catholic faith reigns, the State must not neglect anything to drive away novelties of doctrines and sophistries. In such a State, heresy is a public crime, because everything which is done against the divine religion touches all the members of society."^ Louis Veuillot, the ablest journalist that Catholics ever had in France, embodied the whole truth in this matter in one of those striking sentences of which he ' Abbe Gayraud gives a list of some of the papal documents in which liberty is condemned: Pius VI, a brief of March 10, 1791, and a letter to Cardinal Lomenie de Brienne; Gregory XVI, encyclical letter, Mirari ros, Aug. 17, \83i\ Pius IX, encyclical letter. Quanta Curd and Syllabus. Dec. 8, 1864; Leo XIII, encyclical letters. Quod apoatolici. Arcanum divincE sapientiw, Humanum genus, Immortale Dei, Libertas prcEstantis- sirmtm, Sapientice Christiance, etc. {La Republique et la paix religieuse, p. 17.) ' Trouillot, op. cit., pp. 51, 52. Lacordaire was unheeded when, long ago, he said: "Catholics, if you wish liberty for yourselves, you must wish it for all men under all skies. . . . Give it where you are masters, so that it may be given to you where you are slaves. (Quoted by Chaine, Menus propos d'un catholique liberal, p. 70.) M. J. de Narfon recognises that the Church has refused liberty to non-Catholics. {Vers VEglise libre, p. 254.) A zealous Parisian priest said to the writer: "We never spoke of liberty when we had the ascendancy." THE CRISIS 309 was a master: "When you, Republicans, are in power, we demand liberty — that is your principle; when we are, we refuse it to you — that is our principle." The Anti-Clericals are all Republicans bound by their past to principles of liberty. When they have been inconsistent, it has been while enforcing laws made by their opponents against Free-thinkers and Protestants. Republicans have not been unerring; they have still much of the spirit of the Church which taught them, but, as a rule, they have worked to make liberty more real and to enlarge its scope. There are men among them who with Paul Bert have ever been ready to say, "No tolerance for the in- tolerant"^ — men inclined to apply to Clericals the ethical rule of David Harum, "Do unto others what they would do unto you, only do it first"; but these men are only a noisy minority. As a rule. Republicans have worked and fought for the extension of impartial law. The question, however, which dominated every other during the recent crisis has been: "Cannot France settle her national affairs as England has done, or as the United States does ? Can she not decide, in her own way, what she will or will not do.^^" The Clericals said No! ' Rambaud, Jutes Ferry, p. 108. 310 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC France is bound to the Vatican by the Concor- dat, which was a "bilateral contract," "a pact," *'a compact," or something of the kind which could not be given up by one of the signers. Cardinal Gibbons made it a sort of matrimony between the Church and the State — a most unhappy reflection upon marriage, for the Con- cordat was the source of ceaseless wranglings, of ever-renewed controversies, of annoyances for the State, and humihations for the Church, so that it was the worst kind of discordat. The Concordat was not a contract, or a compact, but a truce between two irreconcilable belliger- ents, the binding character of which lasted as long as its terms were not disregarded. Now it is perfectly evident that the obligations of this agreement were trampled under foot by the Church as well as by Napoleon. There has seldom been a more arrogant mo- nopoly of religious liberty by one religious body. Excesses of all kinds against non-Catholics, and shocking partiality toward priests and monks, aroused the nation in such a way that the most truly religious men of the Church came to realise the religious estrangement which had taken place. Abbe Charles Perrault laments not only the reaction, but also the hatred, which had been called forth. "Gentlemen," said he THE CRISIS 311 with sadness and gentle irony, at the opening of a course of lectures in Paris in 1881, "I will be frank with you: at the sight of that tornado of wrath against us, I was seized with strange fears. The priest is the enemy of his country; the priest is the enemy of science, the enemy of progress, of liberty, of democracy."' In the eyes of Liberals the priest, indeed, appeared as an enemy. It was he who urged Frenchmen to wage war against Italy for the recovery. of the temporal power, a policy which could not be that of a friend of France.^ It was he who maintained that the Church was above the State or tried to make it so. It was he who ever opposed the free scientist, was the foe of progress, and the apostle of mediaeval ideals. Right or wrong, the intelligence of the country * Le Christianisme el le progres, p. 4. Twenty years later Abbe Gay- raud made a similar statement. {La Republigue et la paix religieuse, p. 272.) Comte d'Haussonville says: "What French democracy, right or wrong, reproaches the Church with is that she has an invincible regret for the time when the State considered itself ... as the sergeant of Christ, and was ready to put the secular arm at the service of the Spiritual Power — that she has not resigned herself to the neutrality of the Civil Power in dealing with different denominations and with the philosophical doctrines since the French Revolution — that she leans for the defence (of her claims) upon the support of the law; demands privileges, and does not accept frankly the new situation which has been created for her since Catholicism has ceased to be the State religion." (Apres la Separation, p. 63.) Mgr. Lacroix is even more emphatic: "The clergy of France are considered, in their own country, as a group of pariahs, as a separate caste, closed to all progress, to all light from the outside, hostile to all tlie aspirations of their contemporaries." (Chaine, Menus propos, p. 87.) * Seche, Jules Simon, p. 2;]1. 312 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC was arra^'ed against what was viewed as a yoke for the national mind. So strong was this con- viction, and so deep were the feehngs aroused by it, that the Clerical forces were defeated everywhere. When the victorious Republicans remembered what unwise use the clergy had recently made of their special privileges, they determined to wrest from them every preroga- tive and every advantage which they held over and above other bodies of citizens. They began by removing the bishops from the Superior Council of the Ministry of Public In- struction. The friars — not to mention the nuns — could teach in the public schools by virtue of a lettre d' obedience from their superior. The Parliament decided that these monastics would have to provide themselves with a diploma like secular teachers. Both the authorised and the unauthorised orders played a very impor- tant part under Mac-Mahon ; now the Jesuits were dispersed and the unauthorised orders were requested to apply for authorisation. But they did not; they defied the law as they had defied public sentiment. The nuns in the hos- pitals have often manifested no little intolerance in dealing with non-Catholic patients, and, to- gether with Catholic chaplains, had tried to bring into the Church patients in extremis. JEAN LEON JALRES THE CRISIS 313 Thej^ had not infrequently organised what their enemies called la chasse au cadavre — corpse hunting. An inquiry of the Parliament revealed facts of such a nature that it was voted to re- place the nuns by professional nurses. The orders, who with their mortmain property paid no inheritance tax, had to be brought down to a fairer basis, b}'' pajdng annually an additional sum to make rates equal for the monks and the common citizens. In all the public schools of France were taught Roman Catholic prayers and the Roman Catholic catechism, contrary to the wishes, and notwithstanding the protests, of non-Catholic parents. The Parliament decided that prayers must go, and that the teaching of catechism must cease. In the schools, the court houses, and over the entrance of cemeteries were crucifixes, madon- nas and other indices of Roman Catholic devo- tion, before which every one had to stand or to pass. Anti-Clericals objected to seeing these symbols of Roman Catholic power in places which were strictly public. By the recent action of the clergy these insignia, which in other times would have been unnoticed, became irritating. The Parliament voted that they should be removed. The clerics who, hitherto, had been excused from all military service, were 314 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC asked to spend one year in the barracks — in- stead of two, the normal time then for all — to make them acquainted with the movements and life of the army, in which, during the time of war, they were to serve with the ambulance corps. The unauthorised orders, which had re- fused to ask authorisation from the State twenty years before, were compelled, by the Law of Association, in 1901, to disband, though the authorised orders remained untouched. On July 7, 1904, at the instigation of M. Combes, a law was passed preventing the orders from teaching, though this change was to have ten years for its consummation. Every one of these measures, not uniformly wise or uniformly just, was represented by the Clericals as a war against the Church and against God. This threadbare accusation, repeated for a quarter of a century, has come to be regarded even by a large number of Catholics as an ecclesiastical cant phrase. The way in which the Clericals defended their cause won them but few friends. Their attitude strained the rela- tions on both sides. France became divided into two camps by a water-tight compartment of passion and hatred. It was then that the news of the protest of the Pope was spread. The national indignation knew no bounds; the THE CRISIS 315 French ambassador was recalled. Thereupon it was learned that the Pope had dismissed two French bishops. Immediately the Concordat relations were at an end. M. Combes was in some ways the man of the hour. His great talent had largely consisted in keeping together all the Anti-Clericals. To the Clerical Bloc, owing its former power to its union and discipline, he opposed the Radical Bloc; both have had despicable methods. Dur- ing the successive regimes of the nineteenth cen- tury, the Black Bloc always took advantage of the divisions of parties, or of the embarrass- ments of the government, to grasp some anti- Concordat privileges. Had this minister been longer in power and had not the incidents of Rome created a new situation, he would doubt- less have done much to bring the Vatican back to a more faithful observance of its historic pledges. He had not worked for the severance of Church relations; but when it came, he was far from displeased. He lacked, however, the spirit of objective equity capable of organising the regime of liberty, and of framing laws of a just nature acceptable to all. The draft of a Bill of Separation made under him was narrow, vexatious, and tyrannical. It was fortunate that at this juncture M. 316 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC Briand was made chairman of the parhamentary committee appointed to elaborate the bill for the Palais Bourbon. The Protestants had been quite distressed over the bill. He asked them what would make it satisfactory. When they pointed out its deficiencies, he recognised their justice, and convinced his colleagues that Protestant grievances were real; the bill was amended accordingly. The Israelites were asked the same question. When it was seen that thej^ impugned only the harsh features of the Combes Bill, there was no reason for not giving them satisfaction. Similarly, M. Briand consulted with his Catholic colleagues; and these, all the while, had frequent conferences with the bishops. As they all — and rightly too — reproved the Combes Bill, he urged them to state what would make it acceptable in their eyes. Their wishes were so far granted that the Catholic members considered it satisfactory. The Combes Bill was a war measure, that of Briand was one of conciliation, of equity and liberty. It showed such a fair spirit that the committee — with its Catholic majority — voted to present the bill to the House. It secured the approval of all the deputies except the extreme Reds and the extreme Blacks. M. Briand could have made his own the words of Huxley: "Fa- THE CRISIS 317 natics on both sides abuse me, so I think I must be right." ^ Tlie brilliant debates in the popular Chamber onl}^ showed how well the Briand committee had wrought. The bill was passed by 388 votes against 146. In the Senate it was sustained by 179 votes against 103. This was the legal con- summation of the Separation, after which the Parliament appealed to the country. Notwith- standing the campaign carried on by the Vati- can, by the clergy, by the Clericals, and by every shade of conservatives, the Separation Law received a national sanction never dreamed of by its promoters. This was not a catch vote, a tricky surprise of the French suffrage, but one in keeping with the Republican majorities which have been more or less constant, though largely increased, since the overthrow of Mac-Mahon. No one could have convinced the French people that the Law of Separation was hard or ungenerous. This was most eloquently asserted in a ''Supplication''^ to the Pope by the most dis- tinguished Catholics of France headed by the late Ferdinand Brunetiere. The law which on * Life and Letters, p. 389. Comte d'Haussonville praised M. Briand for his eloquence, his courage, his respect for liberty, and for religious beliefs. {Apres la Separation, p. 20.) M. Chaine, another Catholic, points out the conciliatory spirit of M. Briand, which met with no en- couragement on the part of Catholic deputies. {Menus propos, p. 149.) 318 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC its very threshold guarantees "freedom of con- science" to all French citizens regardless of creed, could not be viewed as a "law of despot- ism" — the law which allowed Catholics to use the State Church buildings free of charge — the law which accorded to Catholics the use of national episcopal palaces, national manses, the national seminaries for several vears without compensation — the law transmitting to them the endowments under proper guarantees — the law which granted pensions to the amount of $5,400,000 to 30,000 Catholic priests and bishops — the law continuing their salaries for four years in many places and for eight years in twenty thousand villages of less than one thou- sand inhabitants; the law whereby two priests, nominated to their parishes two days before its promulgation, were entitled to their honorarium during four years, because of forty-eight hours of service ^ — this law could never be viewed by thoughtful persons as "a law of persecution." The utterances of Catholic prelates of the world, including those of Cardinal Gibbons, seemed to Frenchmen a mark of unreasona- bleness typical of the Roman Catholic clergy. What was most unfair in their sweeping gen- eralisations against what they called the law of I Lhermite and Verone, op. cit., p. 98. THE CRISIS 319 despotism is that they gave people to under- stand that former conditions were more hberal, while in reality the Concordat, the Articles or- ganiques that go with it, and the Penal Code of the First Empire which supplemented both, con- stituted for the Church an oppressive situation without precedent in French history. The Concordat was not an agreement of prin- ciples, but the acceptance by Pope Pius VII of a situation. This acceptance was considered so humiliating and disgraceful for the Church that it gave rise to a schism known as la petite eglise} Joseph de Maistre, an extreme Ultra- montane, characterises this act of Pius VII as follows: "The crimes of Alexander Borgia are less revolting than this hideous apostas}^ of his weak successor." The persecutions of Na- poleon and those of Louis XVIII did not bring back all the malcontents, and la petite eglise has survived to this day. The Pope wrote to eighty-one bishops and, evincing little sense of humour, asked them to hand him their "spon- taneous resignations" and to accomplish the "free act" which he imposed upon them, but thirty-six refused.'^ In 1809, when Napoleon seized Rome, Pius VII, seeing how he was ' Le Temps, March 23, 1906; Narfon, op. cit., p. 78. * Narfon, iUd., p. 98, 320 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC treated by the Great Corslcan, called him "the new Ahab." In the most shameful manner Napoleon made him his prisoner, sent him as such to Savona, then to Fontainebleau where, for five years, he remained in captivity. The emperor endeavoured to turn the bishops against him, but in vain. He had some of them ar- rested, and, at his downfall, five hundred priests were in prison.^ This is the man whose regulations the Catho- lics have lately idealised. By the Concordat, and the Organic Articles added by Napoleon and, for the fear of something worse, accepted by Rome, the Pope had scarcely any rights in France. He could not appoint bishops, create new dioceses, correspond with the clergy, ex- cept through the government. Now he may nominate and institute whomsoever he pleases, of whatever age he likes, double or halve the number of dioceses, correspond directly by such means as suit his convenience. He has carte blanche with all representatives of French Ca- tholicism. According to the Concordat,^ the bishops could hold no national council, no pro- vincial synod, no deliberative assembly of any ' Reveillaud, ibid., p. 78. ^ Taine has made it evident that the Concordat was bad for religion, bad for the high as well as for the low clergy, and especially for the State. {Les Origines de la France contemporaine. Regime moderne, vol. II, pp. 60, 74. 77, 13G.) THE CRISIS 321 kind; now they may have all possible national councils, hold any number of provincial synods or any other kind of representative gathering. In 1801 they could not leave their dioceses or omit to visit every one of their parishes every five years. They could not start a new parish. They were obliged to take the oath of allegiance , and to be ordained after the ways of the Gal- Hcan Church. They could have but one semi- nary per diocese, and have none but Gallican professors; they could not ordain students un- less they were twenty -five years of age and had an income of three hundred francs a year, and had secured the approval of the candidate by the government. They were not even free in the matter of their costume; they had to wear violet stockings. They were allowed but one liturgy and one catechism for the whole of France. By the Law of Separation not one, 7iot even a little one, of these restrictions survives. They are all swept away. By the Concordat situa- tion the priests were compelled to take the oath of allegiance, recite prayers for the government, reside in their respective parishes, remain in one diocese, have no new religious holiday, use a definite calendar, avoid processions in the streets if there were other denominations in the 322 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC town, avoid abusing other denominations in their preaching, omit all other exercises in their church except worship and preaching, perform religious marriages only after civil marriages had taken place, have a board of church-wardens, fabriques, for the preservation of church build- ings and the distribution of charities. The na- ture of their dress was also stated. Domestic chapels and private oratories were not allowed without the permission of the government. To crush la petite eglise and all Catholic dissent, no priest could exercise any function unless he belonged regularly to a diocese, that is, was regularly under a bishop. Furthermore, in the case of abuses, appeal was made, not to the Pope, but to the Council of State. The matter of marriages aside, all these Umitations have been removed, and the Pope is the final author- ity in all religious questions, and as unrestricted in the legal exercise of his functions as in the freest land in the world. Napoleon subjected the Catholic clergy not only to the Concordat and the Organic Articles that go with it, but also to the Penal Code, which punished clergy- men with a really Draconian severity, sending them to prison for criticism or censure of the government, of a law, of a decree, or of any other public act of the servants of the State. THE CRISIS 323 Nothing brings out the genuine Hberal charac- ter of the Law of Separation Hke a comparison with the tyrannical character of the regime in- augurated by the Concordat.^ In presence of such facts one cannot under- stand the protests of CathoHcs if they speak of the hberty they enjoyed under the Concordat. They did not fulfil its obhgations, but clung to its material benefits. At times under Catholic kings the authorities made upon the clergy de- mands as vexatious as ridiculous. Thus Min- ister Barthe sent a circular ordering the clergy to baptise with warm water in winter and with cold water in the summer. SimiJarly, under Louis-Philippe, the government watched the clergy to see if they sang Domine salviim fac regem followed by Ludovicum Phillippum.^ To- day they have not one of these annoyances. Furthermore, the action of Pius X went against the grain of French Catholic feelings. We have already stated that the Catholic mem- bers of the parliamentary committee were work- ing harmoniously with the bishops, and they thought that the Separation Law was acceptable and would be accepted — that the most distin- ' Strange to say, Caprara, the plenipotentiary of the Pope, speaks in his letters as if he had been more perplexed by matters of trivial importance than by this enslaving of the Church. (A. Debidour, Uisfoire des rapports de I'Eglise et de VEtat de 1789 d 1870, p. 223.) * iSarfoa, ibid., p. 210. 324 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC guished Catholics of France had pleaded with the Holy See to try it. The majority of the bishops had been in favour of a conciliatory attitude; but when the Pope rejected the law and commanded the Catholics to disobey the government of their Ibid., p. 78. ' Bersier, op, cit., p. 329. 346 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC men we can, at best, strike averages; the aver- age of intelligence, of earnestness and consecra- tion among French Protestants is high, although they have their unworthy members and their ecclesiastical parasites. They are generally es- teemed by their flocks for their sincerity and the absence of subtleties which are so common among theologians. They are respected inside and outside of their congregations. Owing to the lack of development of the lay element in the churches, the pastors might often say, UEglise, c'est moi. Under the system ended by the Separation, the Church, the real Church, counted for but little; the pastor was preacher and virtual administrator of his flock. This has now come to an end. In many ways French pastors have exerted much power by themselves, and often, also, by their sons and their daugh- ters. In general the sons of ministers are im- portant rising social factors. WTien one thinks of the untrained half-deistical pastors of a century ago and the thousand active and fairly progressive pastors of to-day, he is sensible of a marvellous change. Another manifestation of this Protestant life is the making of most important instruments for church work. In 1802 the sons of the Hugue- nots had not one page of printed matter which FRENCH PROTESTANTISM 347 they could use as their own, no religious litera- ture, and no Bibles. It took them twenty years to furnish themselves with copies of the Scrip- tures, and these were obtained only with excep- tional difficulty. Now they have Bible socie- ties, not to speak of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which works with them and em- ploys half a hundred colporteurs to spread the sacred volume throughout the land. Together these societies have distributed in France not far from 15,000,000 Bibles and New Testaments. It is difficult to exaggerate the good Work of their Tract Society, whose publications have generally maintained a high level. Years ago Saint-Marc-Girardin read one of these tracts before his hearers at the Sorbonne, illustrating a literary point which he was discussing.^ The Protestant Publication Society circulates good, healthy books which, though not very literary, meet a popular want. Never has a small religious body made a greater use of the press. Three of their reviews are really valuable — La Revue chretienne. La Revue de Theologie, and Foi et Vie, For over half a century they have had a historical society which has displayed great energy in collecting and publishing documents of a most valuable ' Saiat-Marc-Girardin, Cours de Utterature dramatique, vol. I, p. 74. 348 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC character upon the history of their fathers. In- deed, among French Protestants, reverence for ancestors takes the form of a cult. To honour them is in their mind an homage to the Great Power that made them great. Though thev have been inchned to translate the best works of foreigners and have assimi- lated much of the best foreign thought, Protes- tants have also produced a large number of books of considerable powder, many of which have had the honour of being translated beyond French frontiers. The great work of Edouard Reuss, La Bible, the Encyclopedie des sciences religieuses by the elite of French Protestant thinkers, the historical and philosophical works of de Pressense and of other theologians and literary men, reflect great credit upon their intellectuality. Their women writers, Arvede Barine, Madame Coignet, Madame de Pres- sense, Madame Bersier, and many others have produced works of high moral worth, as broad in their human sympathies as they are loyal to their religious ideals. Another manifestation of their life is philan- thropy. They have over forty orphanages and their homes for the aged are equally numerous. It is difficult to give an adequate idea of their charities. The theological students of Paris and FRENCH PROTESTANTISM 349 ]Montauban, aside from various other organisa- tions, have societies to visit and help the poor. The deaconesses have in their institution a pre- paratory department for training new sisters, a hospital, and a reform school for girls. There are several such schools for boys. The asylums of John Bost give shelter to the victims of the most harrowing forms of human malady — the incurable, the epileptic, and the insane. There are institutions for the deaf and the blind, homes for children whose mothers are in hospitals, chil- dren's summer outings, convalescent homes, homes near mineral springs like those of Vichy, or of Aix-les-Bains for special diseases, homes on the sea-shore for the tired and the sick, dis- pensaries, employment bureaus, loan associa- tions for the poor, societies of friends of appren- tices — these latter are very numerous, — a society of ladies visiting the sick in hospitals, societies of relief by labour, the Society of the Four mis (Ants), which has 7,000 or 8,000 young women sewing for the poor, the asjdum for young girls morally abandoned, the work for fallen women, the work among women in prison, a society to help liberated prisoners, an asylum for labourers without work, a society of colonisa- tion, a Christian home for servants, homes for working-women, and many other kindred organ- 350 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC isations. Most of this work might have for its motto the beautiful inscription which the Ber- nese poet, Haller, placed upon the hospital of his city, Christo in pauperibus. Whatever may be the imperfections and deficiencies of French Protestants, they neglect neither the sick nor the poor. The significant parting words of their pastors at the close of the service are: '*Go in peace and forget not the poor." Another manifestation of French Protestant life is their missions. Long hampered by a legislation which prevented them from holding meetings of more than twenty persons — unless they had a permit from the authorities, and it was almost always refused — they, none the less, have accomplished much. In 1833 they founded the Evangelical Society of France, which is undenominational, and, later on, the Central Society, which is the home missionary society of the Reformed Churches. For many years the Evangelical Society of Geneva has worked in France, and the Free Churches have also an organisation for special missionary work. Altogether they have from 700 to 800 mission stations. In this no mention is made of the work of the Methodists, who have 25 or 30 churches and an efficient corps of local preach- ers; that of the Baptists, with about a score of FRENCH PROTESTANTISM 351 earnest churches; the McAll Mission with its halls, its methods, and its aggressive spirit; the Evangelical Society of Brittany, among the sturdy, old-fashioned Bretons; the Mission in the High Alps among French Waldensians ; the missions among the soldiers; the work among priests; the summer organisation of ser- vices in watering-places, etc. Very important are the missionary ventures of foreigners in France, and 3^et the most important force of church ex- pansion is from the churches themselves. If from home we pass to foreign missions, we find many establishments in Algeria and Tunis, on the northern side of what is fast becoming "Black France." Protestants have missions in Senegal and the French Congo. The French missionaries have evangelised and civilised the Basutos in South Africa. This is one of the most perfect missionary triumphs in any part of the world. Then they have entered the Zambesi Valley, the most deadly field for mis- sionaries and one where numerous graves mark the end of the career of those heroic servants of God and humanity. During the last ten years French Protestants have centred their chief ef- forts in Madagascar where, with Norwegian and English missionaries, they are doing an admira- ble work through their hospitals for lepers, their 352 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC schools, and churches. Moving eastward, we find them in Indo-China, then in the Pacific Ocean. They do a most efficient work in New Caledonia and in the Society Islands, in Poly- nesia. Without making any depreciatory com- parisons with the missionaries of any other nationality or church, it may be fearlessly as- serted that French missionaries have cultivated the heroic spirit to an unusual degree. Were we to look for the best traits of the old Hugue- nots in their descendants, we should find them in the French Protestant missionaries more than anywhere else. Their missions are their most per- fect work and the most praiseworthy display of their energy. They have refrained from all non- religious entanglements, and refused to be po- litical instruments of any government. Their missions are purely educational and religious. Another great manifestation of life is to be found in the men whom Protestantism has pro- duced. Senator Lodge has ah\y recognised this in the case of the Huguenots. "The largest number of men who have attained distinction, in this country, in proportion to their immi- gration, is undoubtedly given by France." He had in mind French Protestant exiles. Madame de Stael, the author of Corinne and of De VAllemagne, belonged to the Reformed Church. FRENCH PROTESTANTISM 353 So also did Benjamin Constant, the political writer and orator; Cuvier, the founder of paleon- tology ; de Quatrefages, the distinguished anthro- pologist; Leon Say and Gide, political econo- mists; Guizot, de Pressense, Boutmy, Gabriel Monod, E. Doumergue, and Bonet-Maury,^ his- torians; Scherer, the great literary critic; Weiss, the brilliant dramatic critic, and Andre Michel, one of the foremost art critics of to-day; the two Stapfers, one a literary critic and the other a theologian ; the three Sabatiers, unrelated except religiously — Armand, the biologist; Paul, the biographer of St. Francis of Assisi, and Auguste, the philosopher and theologian ; Adolphe Monod, Bersier, and Wagner, great preachers and moral teachers; Delessert, who founded French savings banks; Henri Monod, who did more than any other man to organise national charities; Jules Siegfried, the pioneer in France of the national society of homes for workingmen; Admiral Jauregulberry, well known for his bravery dur- ing the Franco-Prussian War, and Colonel Den- fert-Rochereau, for his heroic defence of Belfort. Many more might be mentioned who have been distinguished servants of France and mankind. ' Prof. Bonet-Maury has been the most eflBcient interpreter of French Protestantism to the cnltivated English-speaking world. He has also done splendid service in Holland, Scandinavia, and Germany in the same direction, not to mention other work that he has done for France abroad. 354 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC The high scientific culture of the professors of Protestant theology has inspired such re- spect that their faculties were supported by the government, as branches of French univer- sities, after the Catholic faculties had been cut off. Their ablest men take a high place in the world of thought. They have their mem- bers in every academy of the French Institute. They have professors in the College de France, in the Sorbonne, in the School of High Graduate Studies, in the School of Oriental Languages, in the School of Law, and in many other institu- tions of learning. They are largely represented in the Senate, in the Chamber of Deputies, and in the diplomatic service. The governor who perished at Martinique was a Protestant, and his successor, Governor Lemaire, is one also. The government knows the worth of Protestant integrity. Protestants are conspic- uous in the industrial and in the banking world. Baron Mallet, who died recently, was long the president of the Bank of France. A gentleman of large experience made the statement in pres- ence of the writer that they are in great demand as treasurers of corporations. This is certainly a tribute to their character. One prominent feature of this Protestant life — as of all life — is its self-organising power. FRENCH PROTESTANTISM 355 Whenever a religious function of any kind seemed desirable an organ to carry it on was created. Hence the numerous and timely or- ganisations formed under the Republic. The old synods, interrupted by Louis XIV at Loudun in 1660, were resumed by permission of the gov- ernment in 1872.^ Synods were an essential part of the ecclesiastical life of French Protestants, for without them there was no possible doctrinal or spiritual discipline. For the better part of a century two conflicting tendencies were thereby strongly developed, which practically gave rise to two different bodies with one common church machinery. They were constantly in touch; they worshipped in the same temples, as they call their meeting-houses; they even had the same officers, and often the same pastors. When the churches were large they could have both a conservative and an advanced pastor; there would be a rationalistic sermon in the morning and an evangelical one in the afternoon, or vice versa. By a natural grouping, the pastor of each side had his own followers; but that ar- rangement generated no little friction, and, fur- thermore, the small churches were obliged to have an evangelical pastor when many were Unitarians, or a Unitarian pastor when a large ' Bersier, op. cU, 356 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC contingent was evangelical. This was an ab- normal situation, bound to last as long as Prot- estants held their State relations. In 1878 the Evangelicals organised what they called the Synode officieux, a working synod of their own forces, while they remained in the State ecclesiastical body. By so doing they could control all the works which they sustained so liberally. Within the State organisation they introduced a strictly Presbyterian one, looking after their religious interests. Thus, while their pastors were still paid by the State, and they continued to worship in buildings belonging to the State, in other respects they were free to direct and control every form of their Christian activities sustained by their own gifts. Simi- larly, the Liberals, among whom are some of the noblest spirits of the land, founded a kindred organisation which they called the Liberal Dele- gation. With all their culture and their claims that they alone can meet modern religious in- quiries, their endeavours to reach the people have been frail and spasmodic, and the results disappointing. Their efforts to reach the church- less have been few and have lacked the aggres- sive spirit of apostleship. In the supreme test of religious earnestness — giving — they are far from liberal. These two organisations were FRENCH PROTESTANTISM 357 tending to make the State ecclesiastical ma- chinery useless, when the Separation came to destroy it and left the two branches of French Protestantism virtually organised, and bound to steer by their respective charts. There are, therefore, now two — in fact three — organisa- tions of the Huguenot churches, the Evangelical, the Liberal, and a middle group of those op- posed to the ecclesiastical division, and who, endeavouring to prevent it, constitute a third group which is not likely to be long-hved. Steps have already been taken to federate all the eight hundred and fifty Protestant churches of the country, for the furtherance of their com- mon interests. The Reformes as a whole were not anxious to have the Separation, but now that it has come they have faced it courageously, not to say gladly. They have easily provided for their pastoral and church expenses, but it is to be hoped that their other works may not suffer during the period of transition. Hence- forth the relations between the pastors of the churches will be pleasanter, as they will be free from the old friction. Religion will be preached with more directness and more cumulative effect. There is work for both branches of the Hugue- not churches to do, and in doing it they should lay stress upon what Guizot called "the moral 358 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC unity of Protestantism." There is among their members great potential moral energy. Taken all in all, they have a high sense of Christian living, and this is true of almost all practising Protestants. Though deficient in aesthetics, if we judge aright their architecture, their music, and their worship, their character stands high. Their conception of moral obligation is not like that of Dumas's character who savs, "Dutv is what you expect others to do"; these Reformes are primarily strict with themselves. As a rule, they are not very cheerful — gay. Like the English of Froissart, "they take their pleasures sadly." They have a quasi- worship of ances- tors, but that does not express itself in mere retrospective admiration, but in inspiration to rise over present difficulties. They have a keen sense of fairness and courage to assert it. After the Separation did they not defend Cathohcs.^ For these sons of the Huguenots the problems of this event — great as they are — seem trivial when one remembers their present situation as compared with that of 1715, at the time of the efforts of Antoine Court to revive the churches, or even when Napoleon granted them his pro- tection. When one looks beneath the miseries of French Protestant life, one detects its great determinants not so much in well-defined theo- i FRENCH PROTESTANTISM 359 logical conceptions as a strong insistence upon thinking and also upon right thinking. Even the most conservative, who view the leading trend of modern thought with suspicion, are progressive and accept loyally all the advanced institutions of our day. As a whole, they affect those who have different doctrines and different ideals. Free-thinkers, like Renan and Taine, had their children taught by Protestant pastors. Renouvier became one of their best friends, if not one of their adherents. Some of the fore- most philosophers have come to sympathise with the liberalism of Protestants at large, while Taine requested that at his death the rites of religion should be performed by a Protestant pastor. On the other hand, Catholics of a lib- eral type have relaxed their former mistrust, read the best Protestant hterature, come in touch with Protestant life, so that conservative Cathohcs have called attention to "Protestant infiltrations" and sounded the alarm in presence of the "Protestant Peril." The truth is that Protestantism in France has been a mediating force between the extreme forces of Catholicism and Materialism, thereby bringing them nearer and inspiring them to some extent with its liberalism and its spiritual life. Its progress is a part of the general advance 360 FRANCE UNDER THE REPUBLIC of French democracy, a movement which we have endeavoured to appraise. The opponents of existing institutions, though faithfully doing their part in the present struggle, have so long and so unfairly attacked the Republic that many foreigners have been misled. In hitting the Republic they struck France. Therefore, we have been obliged to give the government full credit for its good work. In fact, it is a part of the nation's life, and more could have been said about its far-reaching action, but our purpose has been pre-eminently to bring out the expansion of French powers, their evolution, their mental, moral, and religious transforma- tion. The best evidence of the accuracy of our judgment is the remarkable stand of France at the present time, bravely and calmly doing her duty, fighting not only for her liberty but for that of the world, withal grappling humanely with all the problems which the French victims of the bloody conflict force upon her. INDEX < INDEX Administration, citizens not at the mercy of oflBcials as during the Empire, 15; ballot-box free, 16; taxes collected with less expense and by gentler methods, 71. Africa, North, gradual control of, 7; agreement with Spain con- cerning, 29; historical research in, 127. African university, 85. Agglomerations, rise of large, 50. Agricultural schools, 45. Agriculture, Ministry of, 45; causes of improvement in, 45; action of government, 45; mu- tual loan banks, 46; co-operative associations, 46. Alcoholism, taxes removed from hygienic drinks, 72; growth of, 173; causes of, 175; work against it, 176. Algeciras, the Powers at, 29. Algeria, land still largely in posses- sion of natives, 38. Alliance franqaise, 92. Analysis of Separation Law, 292; of Organic Articles, 320. Anti-Clericals, often anti-religious, 194; have the educated on their side, 281; viewed State Church as storm centre, 282; now where Clericals were 38 years ago, 283; victorious, 287. Archibald, James F. J., opinion of French colonies in Algeria and Tunis, 39. Army, ignorance of officers in 1870, 31; peace and war footing, 32; more democratic, 32; defensive purpose of, 33; huraanisation of service, 33; transforms men of ignorant districts, 33; services in Madagascar, 33; services in Morocco, 33; services rendered to science, 34, 40; colonial, 38; expenses for reorganisation, 69; budget for, 70. Art, new conception of, 184. AH a I'ecole (L'), 77. Arts, decorative, 105. Asceticism, passing away, 186. Assembly, National, 11. Association Law, 270, 272. Associations, agricultural, 46; dan- gers of, 18; associations cultu- elles, 299, 325. Assumptionists, 259. Asylums, 164. Atheism, before the present Re- public, 190; rejected unworthy conceptions of God, 194; not common, 195; exceptional in philosophical world, 198; some teachers wish to drop God from moral instruction, 248; chargea of atheism of schools, 231, 244. AudifFret-Pasquier, d', 9. Aumale, Due d', 11. Automobiles, use in colonies, 41; making and export, 51. Avenel, Comte Georges d', 5, 14, 52, 64, 66, 189. 194, 204, 225, 244. Ballot-box, freedom of, 17. Banc des pauvres, 76. Banc des riches, 76. Banks, agricultural mutual loan, 46; Bank of France, 60; paid- up capital of banks, 61; Bank of France and Bank of England, 62; savings-banks, 67. Becquerel, 137, 150. Berenger, senator, 9; Law, 26; Manuel pratique, etc., 182. Bergson, 114; mobilism, 115. Berthelot. 8, 138, 149. Birth-rate, 175; Alliance nationale pour r accroissement de la popula- tion frani^aise, 175. 363 364 INDEX Bishops, co-operation with orders, 264; Bishop Dupanloup opposed law of religious freedom for all, 284; Ultramontane opposed to Liberal, 290; protestation of Bishop of Cambray, 296; re- straints of the Concordat upon, 320; attacking schools, 327. Bismarck, provoked war, 27. Bodley, France well governed, 17. Bonds, rentes, increased value, 73. Boucicaut, profit-sharing, 155. Bourgeois, Leon, 187. Breton, Jules, 44, 103. Briand, orator, 99; chairman of parliamentary committee, 316, 317; praised by Comte d'Haus- sonville, 317; praised by M. Chaine, 317. Brieux, 92, 164. Broca, senator, 8; gift of anthro- pological collection, 86; anthro- pologist, 144. Brunetiere, critic, 96; orator, 99; self-made man, 223. Budget for 1910, 69. Buisson on religious character of schools, 244; Anti-Clerical, 281. Cabinet noir, 16. Carnot, 6. Cars, transformation of railroad, 42; greater comfort, 212. Casimir-Perier, 6. Catholic, education, 91, 232; In- stitute of Paris, 109; universi- ties, 202; periodicals, 201; the- ological literature, 200; teaching of philosophy. 111; charities, 165; criticism of "godless" schools, 231 ; criticism that com- mon schools would increase crime, 180; schools, sacrifices for, 231; education by the or- ders, 232, 256; budget under Mac-Mahon, 283; faculties of theology closed, 286; catechism taught in common schools, 313; catechism expelled from com- mon schools, 313; monopoly of liberty, 309. Catholics, speak of "Catholic France," 193; many nominal, 193; have converts from free- thought, 200; emancipation of some of their priests, 203; never had a better clergy, 203; im- portance of laymen, 204; con- trolled France under Mac- Mahon, 283; intolerance against non-Catholics, 284; opposed to reforms, 286; Uberty of, 307; using Law of Separation, 325; popular antagonism against, 312. Cereals, 42. Challemel-Lacour, 9. Chamber of commerce, better or- ganized, 57; founded in other countries, 57. Chambord, Comte de, 3. Chambrun, Comte de, 86. Charity, new meaning, 172. Chartreuse, distilling of, 258. Chateaux, protected, 101. Chauchard, gift of eight million dollars, 86. Chemistry, 138. Children, homes for, 165; garderiea of, 166. Christianity, in philanthropy, 171; at one with free thought, 183; French ethics friendly to, 188. Civil service, 2, 14, 71. Clemenceau, senator, 9; created Ministry of Labour, 152; formula of life, 188. Clergy. Priest emancipated from Concordat, 20; priest's place taken by teacher, 88 ; priest only a priest now, 193; priest has lost secular power, 193; political de- feats of, 194; best France ever had, 203; priests in the mission field, 204; popular antagonism to, 281; ever has grievances, 282; earnestness of priests, 252; monopoly of burials, 287 ; " priest enemy of his country," 311, 312; subjected by Concordat, 320. Coal, white, houille blanche, 48; ex- tracted, 49; used, 49. College de France, 84, 109. Colonial schools, 40; experimental stations, 40, INDEX 365 Colonies, increase of, 3.5; conti- nuity of purpose in colonial ex- pansion in Africa, 36; develop- ment of railroads in, 36; capital invested in, 37; increase of trade in, 37; Archibald, J. F. J., on French, 39; and military de- fences, 41; reacting upon France 39; organisations to help, 39. Combes, 9; anti-monastic work, 275. 276; Clericals not helped by overthrow of, 292; leader of the Bloc, 315. Commerce, development of, 57, 59; creation of Superior Council of, 57; creation of Ministry of, 57; organisation of Counsellors of Foreign Trade, 58; organisa- tion of attaches commerciaux, 58; organisation of societies of com- mercial geography, 58; founda- tion of Commercial Institute of Paris, 58; commercial journal- ism, 59; influence of economic studies, 59. Commission de V invent aire general des richesses d'art de la France, 101. Commune, 1, 2. Concordat, 20, 257, 263; disre- garded by Vatican, 288, 312; Galilean agreement, 264; other concordats, 295, 305 ; a discordat, 310; nature of, 320; annoyances to the clergy from the, 323; Napoleon not restorer of wor- ship, 337. Congresses, international, 30; Na- tional Pedagogic, 89; meetings of the Association franqaise pour Vavancemenl des sciences, 147. Couseils academiques, 90. Conservatives, inability to defend their cause, 14. Constitution, 5. Convicts, aims of laws toward, 25. Co-operative associations, agricul- tural, 47; societies, 155. Cotton culture in Africa, 40. Councils, general, 14. Crime, 173, 178; increase among soldiers, 179; increase of juve- nile, 180; juvenile crime under former regimes, 180; schools not responsible for, 180; agencies to oppose, 181. Criticism, 96. Culture, intellectual, 215; physical, 218. Curie, Mme., 23, 139, 150. Darwin, overthrow of the ethic."? of evolution, 187. Debt, excuse for national, 69, 70; increase of, 72; debt owned by Frenchmen, 74. Decentralisation, 14; educational, 88. Degrees, granting of, 283, 285. Delcasse, labours of, 28; policy continued by M. Pichon, 29; sacrificed to placate Germany, 29; Anti-Clerical, 281; lenient with liberal bishops, 290; closed embassy to the Vatican, 290. Delphi, 126. Demolins, A quoi ficnt la superiority des Anglo-Saxons?, 121. Denominations, freedom of, 20. Deputies, Chamber of, 10; causes of its character, 11; not hostile to religion, 13; Anti-Clerical group, 280. Deschamps, Gaston, 88. Deschanel, Emile, 8, 264. Deschanel, Paul, orator, 98; what Republic has done for working- man, 154; formula of life, 187. Didon, 190, 191, 192. Divorces, 156. Drama, 92; interpretation of, 107; philosophical intelligence in, 120. Dress, universally improved, 211; cheaper raw material, 211. Dreyfus case, 25, 32, 261. Du Lac, 80, 252, 253, 260. Dupanloup, Bishop, 8, 11; op- posed law of religious liberty for all, 284. Dutuit, artistic collection, 86. Economic individualism, 49; eco- nomic studies and commerce, 58. Economists, 122. 366 INDEX Education, budget for, 91; and agriculture. 1870 and 1910, 47;' new educational buildings, 75;' school and life, 76; co-operation of cities with the State, 83", new educational institutions, 84;. new museums as instruments of, 86 ;• high moral character of teachers," 88; unions of teachers, 89; fed- eration of educational societies, 89; Catholic, 91; criticisms oJ Catholics useful, 232; primary^ number of pupils, 76; number of teachers, 76; elements taught,', 77; more practical, 77; associa- tions of pupils, 76; teaching qf history in, 129; raised general education, 215; high morality of teachers, 233; secondary trans-* formation of, 79; number of" pupils, 79; teaching of phi-" losophy, 109; university work, 82; increase in number of chairs-, 82; increase in number of stu- dents, 82; increase in numbei' of doctor's degrees, 82; revival of old universities, 87. Educator, greater freedom, 88; union of teachers and educators, 89; conferences jpedagogiques, teachers' conventions, 89; judged by his peers, 90; prominent edu- cators, 90; voluntarism of teach- ers, 76. Electricity, transmission of energy, 48; lighting of London Exhibi- tion, 52; working power looms at home, 52. Empire, Second, abuse of power, 15; candidatures officieUes, 16; restraints upon the press, 21; restraints upon circulation of books, pamphlets, 22; restraints upon travel, 22; spying in hotels, 22; workingman prevented from going to Paris, 22; isolated France, 26; ignorance of some army oflBcers, 160. Engineering, great works of, 50; schools of, 54. England, French metallic works for, 51; and France, 28; entente, 28. Equality. No distinction between rich and poor in schools, 76. Estournelles de Constant, d', 8. Ethnographers, errors of, 18. Exhibitions, in Paris, 30; agents of industrial progress, 56. Fallieres, 6. Farming implements, 44. Faure, 6; self-made man, 224. Federation of Societies against Por- nography, 182. Federation dcs amicales d'institu- teurs, 89. Ferry, Jules, 7. 38, 81, 237, 264. Fiction, 98; more philosophical in- telligence in, 120. Finances. Reports of Bank of France, 61; annual income from securities, 62; foreign invest- ments, 63; French foreign in- vestments under the Empire, 63; French annual receipts from other countries, 63; stock of gold, 64; advance of railroad securities, 65; expenses for armj' 70; expenses for former arma- ments, 70. Finances of the Republic, criti- cisms of reactionaries, 68; in- crease of national debt, 72; de- crease of rates of interest, 73; reasons for national credit, 74. Fine Arts, 100; art in schools, 77; care of artistic monuments, 101 ; sculpture, 103; French art in other countries, 104; decorative arts, 105; popularisation of, 108. Food, more varied, 209; abundant, 209; cheaper, 210. Forests, 60. Fouillee, 112, 145. 179, 187. France, Greater, 35. France. International relations, 26; conciliatory policy, 28; treaties of arbitration, 28; and Russia, 28; at the Conference of Brussels, 30; at the Conference of Berlin, 30. Franco-Prussian War, and educa- tion, 75; caused large expenses, 70. INDEX 867 Freedom of meetings, law, 17; of press law, 17; of trades-union laws, 17; of association law, 17; of literature, 22; increased for Catholics, 20; increased for edu- cators, 202; increased for phi- losophers, 110; increased for historians, 124; increased for scientists, 148. Freemasons. 265, 280. Free-thinkers. 183, 271. 280. French Academy, 97. 99, 171. French architects, work in Paris, 102; work abroad, 102. 104. French artists, 103; abroad, 104. French Revolution, horrors of, 4; political liberalism of, 13; cler- ical privileges lost since, 283; orders before the, 252; unfair- ness of orders for, 256. Frenchmen, offer of eight billion dollars, 2; growing love of sea, 35; conscious of their economic posi- tion in the world, 56; have not economic advantages of Ameri- cans, 59; mostly owners of na- tional debt, 73; philosophy deepening thinking of, 119; travel more, 212; discovery of their own country, 213; nation- ally broader, 213; influenced by other nations, 214; travel abroad, 215; knowledge of foreign lan- guages, 215; better educated. 216; better read, 217; larger culture, 217; larger size, 218; greater longevity, 219; have faith in power of schools, 229; their su.npicion of monasticism, 261. Freycinet, de, 9. Functionaries, increase in number, 71 ; justification of that increase, 71. CalHcan, theological professors contemplated in Concordat, 257, 262; liberties gone, 202. (iallieni, as explorer, 34. Gambetta, 9, 11, 98; voiced na- tional feelings, 285. Gardens, colonial, 40. Gayraud, Abbe, Catholic charities, 165; weakness of the faith of Catholics, 191; Anti-Clericalism of pupils of the orders, 265; de- fended casuistry in Parliament, 242; electoral body Anti-Clerical, 281; majority of voters want justice and equality, 307; liberty condemned by popes, 307. Germans. 1. Germany, war indemnity to, 2; and France. 27; and Morocco, 30; Delcasse did not isolate, SO; Delcass6 sacrificed to placate, 29. Gibbons, Cardinal, makes Con- cordat a matrimony between Church and State. 310, 318. Gide. 122, 158, 159, 161, 232, 357. Gifts, large, Chauchard, 86; Du- tuit. 86; Broca, 86; Count de Chambrun, 86; Guimet, 86; Aumale, Due d', Chantilly, 101; Siegfried, Langeais, 101; Prix Osiris, 147; Osiris's to Pasteur Institute, 148; Kahn, Albert, 148. Gobineau, ethnology of, 187. God, existence or non-existence, 118; conceptions of, 194; re- fusal to oath in name of, 188; practical value in ethics, 198; attempts to eliminate word from text-books, 243; in Ferry's pro- gramme of instruction, 242; most text-books teach existence of, 244, 245; duties toward, 246; Godin, profit-sharing, 155. Gosse, Edmund, France not de- clining, 228. Grevy, 6. Guimet Museum of religions, 86, 196. Guyot, Yves, 18, 49, 63. 66, 122, 255. 259, 287. Hamerton, P. J.. 102. Hanotaux, 2, 3, 43, 128. Haussonville pere, 9. Health, sanitation, 162; those pro- fessionally looking after, 217; physical culture, 218. 368 INDEX Hebrews, 206; their pulpits, 99; marriages with the nobility, 225; compelled to attend church, 284. History, freedom of investigators, 124; helps to historians, 125; accumulation of materials, 125; excavations, 126; schools of, in other countries, 127; objectivity of, 128; historical reviews, 130. Homes for labourers, 160; associ- ated homes, 162; for the aged, 164; more and larger, 207; light- ing and warming, 208. Houitle blanche. 42. Housing the people, 160. Hydrophobia, 140. Illiterate. 76. Immortality, 239, 246. Imperialists, prospects in 1871, 3. Industrial schools, 54. Industries, uses of water-power, 48; number of persons connected with, 48; comparative progress, 49; number of patents, 50; in- dustrial agglomerations, 50; metallurgic works, 50; textile, 50; technical schools, 54; exhi- bitions, 55. Infants, protection of, 164; dimi- nution of deaths of, 219. Insane, 173, 177. Insurance, life, 159. Interest, rates since 1870, 61; in- terest on national debt paid to Frenchmen, 74. Inventors, more numerous, 50; in- crease in the number of patents, 50. Iron, comparative production, 49; large structures, 50, 51. Janet, Paul, 109, 112. Jaureguiberry, 9. Jaures, 98. Jesuits, 259, 263, 265, 269; ex- pulsion of, 263, 264, 285, 312. Jesus, influence of his teachings, 171; and French ethics, 188; name avoided by some writers of moral text-books, 245; " King- dom of," 260. Jewelry, export of, 52. Judiciary, greater independence of, 24; leniency, 178; juvenile courts, 154; courts fair with Catholics, 305. Laboratories for agriculture, 45; education, 87; in Paris and prov- inces, 132: for workingmen, 169. Laboulaye, 9. Labour, new conception of, 186; creation of Ministry of, 152. Labour-unions and suffrage, 16; organisation of unions, 155, 221; exchanges, 152; legislation, 153; employment bureaus, 155; profit- sharing, 155; old-age pensions, 158; new conception of, 158; food of labourer, 208; wages of, 210. Lamarck, 149. Lamazelle, de, 9. Land. More fertile, 42; in the south winter garden of France and England, 43; better dis- tributed, 47. Lapparent, 143. Lavisse, orator, 99; historian, 128, 231. Laws. Deputies take initiative of new, 10; of freedom to hold meetings, 17; of freedom of the press, 17; of freedom of trades- unions, 17; of freedom of asso- ciation, 17; of freedom to cir- culate books, pamphlets, 22; of freedom to open saloons, 22; limiting absolute parental au- thority, 23; limiting parental authority over the marriages of their children, 23; taking away children from vicious parents, 23; protecting women, allowing women to be witnesses, 23; al- lowing divorce, 24; giving a better chance to the accused, 24 ; granting counsel to the poor in civil cases, 24; easier revision of criminal cases, 24; principles of these, 25; of the Republic em- pirical, 25; Berenger Law of probation, 26; of liability of INDEX 369 employers, 154; providing in- spectors of mines, 1.54; freeing workmen from the livref, 154; regulating rhild labour in facto- ries, 154; of arbitration between employers and employees, 154; of Sunday rest, 154; of associa- tion, 270; preventing orders from teaching, 276; of separa- tion. 292. Lectures, popular, 92; under the Empire, 170. Legacies, 65. Legislation, social, 23; liberalising of, 23; changes in principles of, 25. Legitimists, prospects in 1871, 3. Lemattre, 96. Leroy-Beaulieu, Paul, 122. Leroy-Beaulieu, Pierre, statement concerning wide distribution of stocks of Bank of France, 68. Liberty, for all, 17; for all religious bodies, 20; of Catholics, 307; Catholic monopoly of, 310. Libraries. Large place to history, 129; of labour-uniong, 155. Life, new, 207. Ligue de I'education physique, 218. Ligue de V enseignement, 89. Lippmann, 137, 150. Literary criticism, 96. Literature, freedom of, 22; changes in, 95. Littre, 8. Livret, note, 22, 154. Lot de surete generate, 15. Loubet, 6; \nsit to Rome, 289. Lycees, 79; new spirit in, 79; new curricula, 80. Lyon, G., 116, 198. Mac-Mahon, under, 283, 285; Presi- dent, 6; and persecution oi non- Catholics, 265. Madagascar, soldiers teaching arts of peace, 33. Meetings, freedom to hold, 17. Meline, 9. Mercere, de, 9. Mines, 60. Ministries, enlargements of, 6; con- tinuity of purpose of, 7; greater steadiness of, 7; creation of a Ministry of Agriculture, 45 ; crea- tion of a Ministry of Commerce, 57; creation of a Ministry of Labour, 152. Missions, priests in the field, 204; protectorate of, 255 ; Protestant, 350; rendered services to science, 146. Mistral, founder of Arlesian Mu- seum, 87. Moissan, 138, 150. Monod, Gabriel, 128, 353. Monuments, restoration of, 101. Moral education, 235. Moral instruction, in schools, 78; planned by competent men, 236; helped by well-kncmi writers, 236; method of, 237; Jules Ferry programme, 237; text- books, 238; character of, 241; religious aspect of, 243, 244 ; re- sults, 250; catechism taught, 313; in Catholic schools, 326. Morals, moral purpose in the drama, 96; growth of altruism, 171; Superior School of, 181; Societies against Pornography, 182; Societe des droits Vkomme, 182; protection of animals, 183; growing sense of the importance of, 183; less chauvinistic, 184; idea of moral progress, 186; away from Darwinian ethics, 187; larger sense of the word duty, 188. Morocco, Germany and, 29; sol- diers pioneers in, 31, 34; for the Moroccans, 184. Mun, de, political orator, 98; Catholic clubs, 170; noble man- hood of, 226; defence of orders, 268; Catholic deputy, 281. Museums, new, 86. Music, 105. Mutual-aid societies, 157. Napoleon IH, candidatures offi- cielles, 16; schools under, 90; forbade teaching of philosophy, 109; found money for opera but 370 INDEX not for laboratories, 132; closed institutions of unauthorised or- ders, 263; abused by clerg>-, 264. Navy, 34. Newfoundland, 28. Neymarck, 70, 73; estimates of investments abroad, 63; esti- mates of ownership by the peo- ple of stocks and bonds, 67. Nobel prizes, for scientists, 150; for peace workers, 185; for liter- ary man. Sully Prudhomme, 97. Nobility, no longer so much con- tempt for work, 225. Nordau, Max, France not declin- ing, 227. Orders, dispersion of, 252, 277; Concordat did not contemplate their presence, 252; monks make surrender of self, 254; zeal of, 255; and education, 256; char- acter of their education, 256; seizing theological teaching, 257; becoming revivalists, 257; be- coming distillers, 258, 266; be- coming patent-medicine makers, 258; unfriendly to government, 260; a unit against Dreyfus, 261; Frenchmen suspicious of, 261; disregard of law, 262; own pupils often worst opponents, 265; skil- ful in handling money, 267; used dummies, 267; Catholic French kings opposed them, 270; sig- nificance of Association Law, 271; settlement of property, 274; prevented from teaching, 276; monastic problem not set- tled, 278; teaching monastics compelled like common-school teachers to have diplomas, 286, 316; compelled to pay inheri- tance tax, 286, 316. Organic Articles, 20, 252. Organisations, few under Empire, 18; increase of number, 19. Orleanists, prospects in 1871, 3. Palais xcolaires, 75. Paris, Comte de, character of, 3. Paris, peculiar municipal govern- ment, 15; exhibitions in,''55; new museums, 86; new edifices, 102; prizes to those erecting finest houses, 102; under the Empire and now, 102. Parliament and education, 76; al- coholism, 175. Pasteur and laboratories, 131; ad- miration for what had been done, 132; laments Napoleon's indif- ference for laboratories, 132; his work, 140. Patents, increase in number, 50. Pensions, old-age, 158; given by government, 158; given by em- ployers, 159. Petite Sglise, its rise, 326. Petroleum, 208. Philanthropy, 152; La Fourmi, 156; homes for workingmen, 160; homes for single women, 161; work against tuberculosis, 163; Pasteur Institute, 163; work for babies, 163; work for old people and helpless, 165; work of Catholics, 165; orphan- ages, 165; creches, 166; garderies of children, 166; cantines sco- laires, 166; abandoned children, 166; white slaves, 167; women without work, 168; for mothers, 168; for wounded soldiers, 169; evidence of, 169; spirit of, 171. Philosophy, freedom of, 108; teach- ing of, 109; greater freedom of teacher of, 110; in the Catholic schools. 111, 119; representa- tives of, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116; periodicals devoted to, 117; schools of. 111; influence upon literature, 120; force of order, 120; new view of matter, 186; prominence of religious prob- lems in, 199. Poetry, 97; philosophical intelli- gence in, 120. Poincare, Henri, 113, 135, 149, 150. Pope, temporal power of, 27; and Separation, 296; petition of French Catholics to, 297; re- jecting Separation Law, 307, 327; INDEX S71 and the visit to Rome of Presi- dent Loubet, iSy; power in France limited by Concordat, 82U; not limited now, 3*1; de- fiant of Republic. 323. Postal service, increase of, 42; de- crease of rates, 72. Prefects, 14. Presidents, 5; under clergy, 283. Press, liberty of, 18; restraints un- der Empire, 21 ; development of, 21; educational work of some reviews, 92. Pressense, Edmond de, 8. Prix littSraire de Rome, 100. Prizes, literary, 99; Paris prizes to those erecting finest houses, 102; science, 148; prix de vertu, 171. Proces des Treize, 16. Profit-sharing, 155. Protestant pictures of religious conditions, 190; national synod, 191. Protestantism, French, its rela- tions to Catholicism, 329. Puvis de Chavannes, 104. Quatrefages, de, 145, 353. Railroads in the colonies, 86; in France, 42; increase, 42; ad- vance of railroad securities, 65; earnings, 65; to become prop- erty of the State, 74; greater travel on, 212; increased trans- portation of freight, 212. Rambaud, A., 7, 15. 16, 58, 76, 78, 89. Ranc, senator, 9; condemned im- der the Empire, 21. Reactionaries, 68, 229. Reinach, Joseph. 176. Religion, union of Free-thinkers and Free-believers. 182; under the Empire, 190; at beginning of the Republic, 191 ; intellectual interest in, 194; religious in- quiry in institutions, 195. Religious faith, decline under the Empire, 190; loss of faith, 191; real losses, 193; respect of Trouillot for, 260; estrangement of masses. 312. Renan. 1. 75, 99, 245, 275. Renouvier, 111. 187. Republic, foundation of, 1; early prospects of, 5; its credit, 72; stability of this credit. 73; recog- nises birthright of child to edu- cation, 77; man counts for more in. 223. Republican rule a necessity, 5. Republicans, outlook after Franco- Prussian War. 4; secured maxi- mum of liberty for all. 17. Reveillaud. E.. 13, 291, 320. Ribot, Alexandre, senator, 9, 270. Ribot, Theodule. psychologist, 116. Richepin idealising seafaring life, 35. Roads and highways, 42; helps to agriculture, 46. Rod, 96, 98. Rodin. 103. Rostand. 96. Rouxier. 9. Russia, 26; French investments in, 63; alliance, 28; better rela- tions between England and, 28; French colonies like those of, 35. Sabatier, Armand, 142. Sabatier, Auguste, 116, 85S. Sabatier, Paul, IS, 853. Sainte-Beuve, 96. > Salons, 100. Saloons. 22. Sanitation, 162. Sardou. 96. Savings-banks, 67, 156; educate the people, 67. Say, 59. Scherer, 8. 96. School mutual-aid societies, 157. Schools, colonial 40; agricultural, 45; industrial, 53, 54; commer- cial, 59; number of primary, 76; of design and decorative arts, 78; unsectarian. not godless, 77, 246; for women, 81; not respon- sible for increase of juvenile crime, 179. 372 INDEX Science, laboratories, 45, 87, 132, . 169;. observatories, 133; periodi- cals, 146; societies, 146; gifts for advancement of, 147; idealism of F., 149; prominence of, 150. Scientists, honours to, 150; mod- erate Anti-Clericals, 280. Sculpture, 103. Securities, advance in the securi- . ties of French railroads, 65. Sedan, 4, 75. Seignobos, 8. Senate, its distinguished members, 8, 9; its character, 9; senators former deputies, 10. Separation, Law of, 13; principles discussed in early days of the Republic, 291; Bill of, 292; dis- . cussed in Parliament, 292; voted, 292; analysis of the Law of, 293; . protest of the Pope, 295; Law more liberal than could be ex- pected, 296; Protestants and Hebrews accepted it, 298; rea- sonableness of the Law of, 299; church boards, 300 ; more liberal than that of Prussia, 300; salary of clergy, 300; confiscation of property, 303; Catholic judicial .objections, 304. Sevres, superior normal school for women, 82. Shakespeare, 107. Siegfried, Jacques, 101. Siegfried, Jules, 9, 160. Simon, Jules. 8, 11, 264. Social reform, 152; improvement, 170; the hard school, 171; deal- ing with convicts, 26; School ..of. High Social Studies, 181; changed conditions, 219. Socialists and teachers, 89; inter- nationalism of, 241. Society historique, 128. Soeiete pour la protection dea pay- sages de France, 213. Societies, colonial, 40; commercial geography, 55; educational, 89, 92; scientific, 146; co-operative, 156; mutual-aid, 157; le^onsof, 270; to encoiu-age travel, 212; medical and surgical, 221 ; social- isation in every realm, 221 ; la- bour-unions, 221; danger from large associations, 222; labour- unions not revolutionary, 223. Sociologists, 121, Spencer, 111. Steam-engines, comparative num- bers and power of, 49. Suicides, 173, 177. Superior Council of Public Instruc- tion, 90 ; bishops dismissed from, 285. Taine, 1, 73, 109, 127, 128, 187, 252, 264, 320. Tarde, 122, 180. Taxes, 72; to make up for servnces formerly paid but now free, 72; distributed more equitably, 72; increased proportionally to wealth, 72. Telegraph, 42. Telephone, 42. Textile fabrics, more artistic, 53. Thery, Edmond, estimates of finan- cial transactions, 62; French in- vestments abroad, 63; legacies, 66. Thiers, 6, 11, 185. Timbuctoo, 37. Towns, increased freedom of, 15. Trade, in the colonies, 37 ; Foreign Trade Office, 57; Counsellors of, 58. Trades-unions, freedom of, 17; favoured by government, 153; organisation of, 155; parts of a larger movement, 221; unrest of, 222; not revolutionary, 223. Travel, freedom of, 22; increase of, 212; helped by organisations, 212; revealed attractiveness of France, 213. Trouillot, Georges, senator, 9; chairman of parliamentary com- mission on Law of Association, 266; quoting from Theologica dogmatica ei moralis, 268; re- spect for religion, 269. Ultramontane, rule, 272; regime gradually introduced, 288; INDEX 373 against liberal bishops, 290; Concordat not, S20. Vatican, and the Concordat, 288; spiritual autocracy of, H)i; and the nobis controversy, 289; and the Loubet visit to Rome, 290; closing embassy to, 291 ; Separa- tion hastened by acts of, 292; protestation against Law of Sep- aration, 295; objects to church boards, 300. Veuillot, Louis, formula of Cath- olic action in reference to liberty, 309. Vineyards, 43. Wages, increased, 210; buying power of, 210. Waldeck- Rousseau, 19; quoting Hugo, 269; property of orders, 274; anti-clericalism of, 275; re- spect for religion, 269. War opposed, 185. Washburne, E. B., 2. Water-powers, discovery of, 42. Wealth, nation's, 63, 64; earnings of railroads, 65; increase of lega- cies, 65; gauged by assessor's lists, 65; gauged by increased Iegaci«3, 66; better distribution of, 66; shown also by savings- banks, 67; owning of railroad security by the people, 62. Weaving, electric, 52. Wendell, Barrett, on religioo io iyceea, 246; friend's opinion of orders, 262. Women, laws concerning them, 23; voting in some cases, 23; able now to be witnesses, 23; highest positions accessible to them, 23; right to more equitable share of husband's estate, 24; right to her own wages, 24; may have divorce, 24; secondary schools for, 81; attendance of these schools, 81; protection of girls and mothers, 167; work of, 168. Workmen, and Napoleon III, 8; proportion of connected with industries, 48; greater freedom, 153; helped by legislation, 153; by labour-unions, 153; profit- sharing, 156; mutual-aid soci- eties, 157; old-age pensions, 158; annuities, 159. Wurtz, 8. Zola, 98. ^ 7 9 2 3 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 3 1158 00948 1457 \LIFORNIft ^S ANGELES LIBRARY 1'T'r™-" ;."""■ ''"^'.'J^" Ml J; ', • ••'rrrry rriiiiiiil^H.. H.1TOWJ.