The New York herald., 1873-08-16

W1At
1t is only few days since we printed an &C
count Of the visit made by the Duke de Broglie
to Lyons and of the speech which he made on
the occasion, using words which will ring
over the world. He spoke Of radicalism and
modern society, of the aggressive and con-
seryative elements the one courting ORDER
and the other hungering for plunder; the one
respecting existing rights, and the other clamor-
ing for liberty, equality and fraternity; and ne
said that radicalism and society were engaged
in "death struggle" At the same time
Victor Hugo was announced as the apologist
of Henri Rochefort asking communication OF
sentence De Broglie, true conservative,
promptly answered that the intellectual
ability OF the offender only served to increase
his responsibility" No man having any re-
spect for the experience of the past can refuse
to admit that the Duke dc Broglie' by his
"death struggle" remark, has struck keynote
which will command attention and serious
thought oil over the civilized world.
This morning we print long letter from
o special correspondent, giving full and
graphic account of the French pilgrimages to
ancient shrines-plgrimages which, in regard
to numbers and intensity Of feeling, recall the
spirit of the Middle Ages. Our long letter OF
Sunday last and our letter of this morning
ought to convince our readers that while we
are most anxious to give news we are also
anxious to be absolutely impartial We ask
our readers, those Of them who have not read
and those of them who have read the article of
Sunday, to read the descriptive article Of this
morning, and, after they have read them both,
patiently to come to their own conclusions.
great daily paper should be daily mirror;
and the mirror should reflect the world-the
great facts and events of the day, as well as
the small, finding their proper place and their
proper prominence. It was wont to be said
that France was the pivotal country Of
Europe. The late war spirit somewhat spoiled
that theory. But France is, once again, al
most free, and all but unit, and the ancient
Gallo centre commands the attention Of the
nations. These pilgrimages, it must be ad-
mitted are most important facts OF the day,
which cannot and which must not be ignored.
In the HERALD of Sunday last we printed
grimages, in which the writer plainly
told us that he was engaged to give
an impartial while q full account of the
French religious pilgrimages. The letter of
Sunday and the letter of this morning
will, we think, justify that claim. The
letters speak for themselves, and ne
one can say that our correspondent does
more than reflect the situation. To-day, as
on Sunday last, the reader is permitted to be
one of the pilgrimage party; with thousands
of French people, of all ages and Of oil sexes,
of all ranks and of all classes, the rich and
the poor, the high-born and the low-born, he
moves from stage to stage, from holy place to
holy place, from shrine to shrine, and piety
in the old good sense is never violated. It
is a strange and wonderful picture. In Italy,
in Portugal in Spain, it would not have sur
prised us but in France-the France which
| must forever remain memorable In con-
nection with the Revolution of 1889,
and with the terrific events Of 1872;
the France of the Encyclopedias, Of
voltaire, of Rousseau, of Auguste Comte
and of Henri Rochefort-such pilgrim
ages must be pronounced worlds won
der. For years and years-since the begin
ming of this century, in fact-we had been
taught to believe that France was leading the
world into new pathways of thought, checked
in her desires and her purposes only by out
side interests and by inside prejudices; and
| yet to-day we find that same France, which has
gone through all that experience and learned
all those lessons, and cherished oil those
desires, and formed oil those purposes, delibe-
rately going back to the foundations of faith,
memorials inseparably associated with the
nations growth and the nations greatness
| Our correspondent tells us that the pilgrims,
whom from day to day he sees and with
whom he mingles, are not of the vul-
gar class. The thousands on their route
to the sacred places are, as we have said, of all
ranks and classes but they are, most of
them, if not oil Of them, in q position to pay
their own way. They are, though mixed, the
people of the better class. Among the crowd
there are representatives Of the ancient
noblesse, Orleanists, Bonapartists, and even
good republicans, statesmen, priests, jour-
nalists of the various regimes but all OF them
inspired with one thought-reverenc for the
past
| This reverence for the past is, so far as
France is concerned, o strangely mixed affair
It is q feature of the situation and well worthy
of study. In that crowd of which we have
said SO much are the representatives of all
ranks and of all classes of the French people.
There are legitimists, who believe in the
Count de Chambord; Orleanists, who believe
in the Count de Paris Bonapartists, who
believe in the Prince Imperial, and men of all
shades of belief, who, while they belong to no