The Dreyfus case had ita heroes as well as its
villains and its victim, and of the heroes General Picquart, who died on Monday, was the greatest, because the most self-eacrifieing. lie was the youngest Colonel in the French Army when, as head of the Intelligence Department, be discovered the author- ship of the borclereau, and staked his whole career on the determination to have justice done to a man for whom he had neither affection nor liking. He triumphed in the long run, but his decision coat him twelve months' imprisonment, expulsion from the Army, and long years of ignominy. Perhaps the most thrilling moment in the whole Dreyfus drama was when Colonel Picquart, as he then was, warned his military Judges before he woe committed to the Cherohc. Midi Prison that if he were found dead in his cell it would be a case, not of suicide, but of assassination. "A man like me," he went on, "cannot for an instant think of suicide." One recalls Crabbe's lines
When all the blandishments of life ace gone The coward slinks to death, the brave lives on."
His appointment to be War Minister by M. Glen-mama in 1908 was the most romantic piece of poetic justice of our time, but he failed to make any special mark as an administrator. He had none of the arts of popularity, always kept out of the limelight of publicity, and was pursued to the end of his life by the rancour of the Nationalists. The Ohinilier: of . Deputies Toted General Picquart s State funeral
by a large majority, many of the Right dissenting, but the family declined the honour as contrary to General Picquart's last wishes.
