, 1875-05-12

No private virtues or public services are a
safeguard against their calumnies. Yet, Of
course, the writer's of the ''religious'' newspa-
pers are not consciously unfair or mendaciouS,
They give but one side Of a question because
their journals exist for the very purpose Of
showing that there is but one side, and that
all who say there are two deserve to be pun
ished with hell-fre. Precisely the same
state of feeling will explain the peculiarities
of the Paris Press. France is heated by reli-
gious, political, and social passions, some of
which once stirred England to its depths,
and some of which may do so again, although
she lies at present in a happy state of halt.
careless, philosophical calm, free from all
overmastering passions except what Renan
calls the passion for comfort. In France, the
fires of the Revolution still burn fercely.
Voltaireanism and Ultramontanism still fight
fer the mastery. The Monarchy on the one
side and the Republic on the other are charged
with religious and political interests of over
W%helmlng magnitude. Our controversies are
so petty in comparison with the immense
issues for which Frenchmen are fighting, that
we can scarcely measure the intensity of the
enthusiasm with which they will risk every.
thing for the sake of Democracy as King.
We should have to go back to the time of
the Long Parliament or to the aggressions
Of the Fifth Monarchy Men to find an English
parallel. One consequence of such heat is
that there can be no compromise between
the rival parties, or rather the rival sects, and
the only means of reaching immediate unity
is force. Another consequence is that they
tend to split into smaller and smaller bodies,
like the sects which burn with the sevenfold-
heated fanaticism of Scotland. Carrying a
theological temper into politics, the Royalist
or the Republican tends to magnify every mere
nwnod;on% Snk0 -, rphop1in~ Nr1noinIo H.
will not tamper with one article Of his creed.
He will not be 50 false to his own opinions
as to unite for any purpose with men from
whom he essentially differs. The more he
nourshes SO Puritanic a rigour Of conscience,
the more difficult it is for him to agree even
with his own friends, and thus the National
Assembly tends to split up into a bewildering
number of divisions. Men of practical genius
like NJ. Theirs or NJ. Gambetta rise, of course,
above that foolish scrupulosity. So do men
who have had a long experience in the i'm
mensely difficult work of government. SO
also do philosophical thinkers like TocQusvile,
for they see that the great disturbing forces
of a nation are rival fanaticisms. The infu-
snce of such leaders, and the presence of
common danger in the form of Bonapartism,
bave induced both sides Of the Assembly to
sign a truce. They have done so almost for
the first time in the later history of France.
But we have yet to see whether the truce will
develop into a treaty of peace.
Out-OfdoorS there is not the same necessity
for unity of action, and hence the rival parties
give each other no quarter in the Press. Each
starts its own journal, and if ono-half of the
staff do not happen to agree with the other,
they start a rival print. Each section is so
absorbed in the affairs of France that it has
no time to look abroad, and hence it does not
care for the news which forms' The chief
attraction of our own journals. Each also
attributes overwhelming Importance to its own
special objects, and negleots the doings of
other parties except in so far as they furnish
it with the means of attack. AS each has
seeded from some other body on account Of
what it deems a vital principle, it is apt, in
theological fashion, to think that all who deny
that principle are wicked as we'll as foolish.
Attack begets attack, and heat generates heat,
until even able and fair-minded men forget the
elementary duties of justice and fair play.
When these men are taken apart and spoken
to calmly they sften display an English impair
tiality, but the sight of an enemy puts them
into a fury. On the other hand, many of the
writer's have been reared in so heated an
atmosphere that they have never even possess
ed the faculty of weighing evidence. Others
lend vile passions, a deliberate disdain for
truth, and hired convictions to the cause Of
party. Thus it comes to pass that there arc
a multitude of journals in Paris, that few of