WHY FRANCE HATES THE PROTESTANTS.
(TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") •
Sin,—The writer of your article, "Why France Hates the Protestants," in the Spectator of April 8th, would have done well to begin by giving us some of his reasons for believing that she does hate them. I have spent nearly half of the past eighteen months in France working with and visiting amongst Protestants in various parts of the country, and have been greatly struck with the respect and esteem in which they are evidently held by their fellow-countrymen. I do not believe that "France "—by which I suppose is 'meant at least a majority of the French people—entertains any feeling approach- ing to "hatred" for Protestants. There is one solid fact in support of this view,—namely, that on all the popularly elected bodies in that country, from the Senate and House of Re- presentatives downwards, the proportion of Protestants elected by the confidence of their Catholic fellow-countrymen is far greater than that of the Protestant population. Your contributor appears to mistake the Nationalist party, so-called, for the French nation. Such .papers as the Libre Parole and the Petit Journal, such • writers as Henri Rochefort, who have for the last two or three years been playing upon the patriotic feelings of their readers, and seeking to persuade them that Jews and Protestants are the enemies of their country, and the instruments of England and Germany, do not represent the French nation. Por a time they had considerable success, but their influence is now on the wane. The circulation of the Petit Journal is said to have fallen off enormously ; and it is certain that the out- burst of petulance in which the Nationalists could not refrain from indulging, when they saw a thoroughly honest and up- right Republican elected by an overwhelming majority as President, has opened the eyes of many who till then had been blindly following their lead. These papers are now well understood to be the tools of the Clerical party, which has, no doubt, strong reasons for "hating Protestantism." it- has been roused to anger by the sight of priests and people, in districts hitherto purely Catholic, going over to evangelical Protestantism. M. Rochefort, whom you quote in support of the theory that the French Catholic naturally hates Protestants, was- at one time so far from entertaining this feeling that when he was sent to New Caledonia he left his son under the guardianship of a pastor, my friend the late M. Delbard, who was Protestant chaplain to the prison where M. Rochefort was confined before being transported. Under what influences I know not, M. Rochefort has now placed his pen at the service of his old enemies, the Clericals, and he accordingly attacks the Protestants ; but his former confidence in them shows that his present attitude is not based on reasons such as your article suggests. I believe that the " hatred" of Protestants in France is confined to three classes,—the more bigoted of the clergy, with the ignorant peasants of certain backward districts, who are still led by their priests ; the Monarchists of the faubourgs and chateaux..(though of these a certain number are themselves Proteetants) ; and, finally, the steadily diminishing number of "Nationalists "who follow the lead of Drumont and Rochefort. Add all three classes together, and they form but a small minority of the French people. To the great mass a. French- man is a Frenchman, entitled to his own convictions, be he Catholic,. Protestant, or Freethinker.—I am, Sir, &c., Tunbridge Wells, April 12th. JOSEPH G. ALEXANDER.
Previous page
