THE FRENCH IDEA OF " RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION." T HE standing problem
of French politics is the con- tradiction between the action of the Chamber and the supposed wishes of the people. Before the last elections, a great deal was said about the universal desire for a comprehensive and tolerant Republic. Had this been only the talk of the Conservatives, it might not have meant much. Minorities are apt to believe that the country is rallying to their side. But it was equally the talk of the Government and of the whole Republican Party, except, of course, the Extreme Left. In the speeches of Ministers and the addresses of candidates, the same phrases recurred again and again. The Commune of Vicq has lately furnished an instance of the interpretation which the Government place upon the term " religious pacification." In this village there is a girls' school which has hitherto been managed by nuns. A short time since, the Superior died, and it became a question whether the nuns should be suffered to go on teaching, or make way for a lay mistress. The commune wished the Sisters to remain, partly because the school, so long as it is taught by religious, enjoys a legacy of two houses and 50,000 fr., and the Municipal Council, by a unanimous vote, asked that it might not be laicised. The Prefect took no notice of this request, and on the 12th of this month an Inspector came to Vicq to install a lay teacher. Finding the school- building closed, the Inspector did nothing till the next morning. By that time, however, a large and hostile crowd had assembled, and the Inspector decided to wait till the afternoon. Then, with the aid of a force of gen- darmes, he effected an entrance and took possession of the school. These facts were brought before the Chamber on Monday. M. Constans did not dispute the substance of them; on the contrary, he took credit to himself for carrying out the law, and maintained that the policy of pacification of which he had spoken before the elections, could only be carried out so far as the law permitted. This declaration was received with enthusiasm by the Extreme Left, and an order of the day approving the conduct of the Government, and expressing confidence in its wisdom and firmness as regards the application of the Education Law, was carried by 300 votes against 157. A more suggestive division, however, was taken on the order of the day pure and simple, which was opposed by the Government, and rejected by 311 votes against 208. We call this more suggestive, because the minority included not only 153 Members of the Right, 27 Boulangists, and 10 Socialists, but also 18 Moderate Republicans, among whom were M. Leon Say, M. Henri Germain, and M. Francis Charmes. Small as the number is, it marks a schism between the Moderate Republicans and the Cabinet, which may have important results in the future.
It is the first time that this section of opinion has had the courage to separate itself from the Republican Government and the Republican majority. Whether this fact will avail to neutralise the natural consequences of M. Constans' lan- guage. is a point of much interest and much uncertainty. What these consequences will be is easily seen. The victory of the Republicans last October went some way towards breaking up that identification of Conservatives with Royalists which has so long been a conspicuous feature in French politics. A section of the Right has realised that some good things may conceivably come out of a Republic, and that an Opposition which ignores this, and insists on treating every Republican as a Jacobin, puts itself out of court. The known moderation of M. Bouvier, the apparent conversion of M. Constans, and, above all, the accession to the Cabinet of M. Ribot, helped to strengthen this view. A moderate Republic was not only possible in theory, it almost seemed as though it might be on the eve of being realised in practice. The progress of this enlightenment in the Moderate Right will, to say the• least, be greatly interfered with by the debate of Monday._ It will be pressed upon them by their more extreme colleagues that, when it comes to deeds, one Republican Cabinet is exactly like another ; that, whatever Ministers may say about toleration, comprehensiveness, and religious peace while they are stumping the country, their acts give the lie to their words ; and that the policy which aims at upsetting the Republic by any means that present themselves, is the one which all Conservatives ought to make their own. The Ministerial plea that the laws must be obeyed, and that gentleness in their execution must not be pushed to the point of making them useless, will only strengthen the argument of the Extreme Right. It is the laws, they wills say, that determine the character of the Republic, and so. long as these laws remain in force, it is impossible that the Republic shall be moderate. That they will remain in- force so long as the Republic exists, is quite certain, for the• simple reason that no Republican Government will dare to' propose their repeal, and the example of Vicq proves con- clusively that while they remain in force, they will be rigidly applied. In this way, the Extreme Right will prove to their own satisfaction, and, as they hope, to the satisfaction of Conservatives generally, that the overthrow of the Republic is a necessary preliminary to the good government of France.
Undoubtedly such an incident as that at Vicq, and such a speech as that of M. Constans, do give great force to this reasoning. Religious pacification is only a phrase, if a highly combative law against religion is to be strictly put in force. The Education Law is the French Kultur- kampf, and if its mischievous effects are to be minimised without going the length of actual repeal, there must be a good deal of inconsistency in its administration.. The authorities must act in the spirit of the proposal which the Bishop of Angers made on Monday, and make the laicisation of a school depend on the consent of the Municipal Council. That the Chamber should formally adopt such a modification of the law, is not to be expected at present; but the first duty of a Moderate Republican Government would be to let the law remain unexecuted in cases where it is repugnant to local feeling. This is clearly not a duty which the present Cabinet will under- take, and in so far as they shrink from it, they have no title to be regarded as moderate.
Will the secession of these eighteen Moderate Re- publicans do anything to modify the force which the contention of the Extreme Right derives from Monday's debate ? That is a point on which it is not yet possible to have an opinion. Will the Moderate Right, the men who with a little encouragement, such encouragement as the present Cabinet might easily have given, would become Conservative Republicans, be most impressed by the subserviency of the Centre which supported the Government against their own convictions, or by the independence of M. Lon Say and his allies ? We should be inclined to say that the answer to this question depends in some considerable measure on the amount of boldness which this little band of Republicans. displays. If they form themselves into a group and exercise a constant and watchful criticism upon the acts of the Republican Government, they are very likely to draw recruits from the Centre. The great want of French poli- ticians is courage ; they do not like to stand alone. But when once the nucleus of a new group has been formed, the phantom of political solitude is exorcised, and timid men may begin to feel the courage that numbers give. If the eighteen were to be doubled or trebled, they would occa- sionally be able, in the present division of parties, to exert a very real influence on the course of Parliamentary events, and in that case the Moderate Right might feel its attraction towards the Republic revived and strengthened.,
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