M. Jules Ferry made a speech at Gerardmer, in the
Vosges, on Sunday, in which he again sought to rally the Republicans by reminding them of their various hatreds. " What you would desire, I know," he said, " is a strong power, is govern- mental stability ; and you would not lend yourselves to the enterprises of adventurers. You are men of honour and loyalty. If, as is possible, the miserable adventure which has just triumphed in three departments, should be attempted in our country, if you should have the misfortune and the shame of seeing, under a flag that is called Republican, all the reactions grouped together, you would, with the energy of the men of the Vosges, go and tear their masks from them, saying,
You are Clericalism ; it was you who were forty years ago the snare and the Coup d'Etat. Twenty years ago you were the plebiscite, the invasion, rain, and dismemberment. Down with the masks, and vice is Republique !" We think the moderate Republicans might reply that it was M. Jules Ferry who some years ago split up the Republic by his attacks on religion, and by proclaiming that the Republic meant the persecution of faith. No State can live by its hatreds. If it is to live, it must live by the love it inspires, by the liberties it protects, and the hopes it engenders. General Boulanger does not inspire confidence, it is true ; but had M. Jules Ferry been a true statesman, General Boulanger's adventures would never have inspired the panic
-which they now spread.
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