The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-07-14
RIGHT AND LAW,

Under the above title, Victor Hugo has pre-
fixed an introduction of about fifty pages t.
his newly published volume, "Avant lExil,
in which he has collected his parliamentar..
speeches in Louis Philippe's Chamber Of Peers
and in the Assemblies ofthe Republic Of 1S4S
together with various addresses delivered il
the French Academy, before the courts o
Justice, and at the funerals of distinguished
members of the Repu bliean party. In thi'
introduction we find the following eloquen
definition of the true theory of free govern
ment
All human eloquence with all nations and
in all times, is but the expression of the quar-
rel between Right and Law.
This confict-and it is the entire phenome
non of progress-tends more and more to de-
crease. On the day when it will be ended,
civilization will reach its highest point; the
| junction between what is and what should be,
will be effected; the political forum will be-
come scientific one; there will be an end OF
surprises, calamities and catastrophes; the
cape of tempests will have been passed; there
will then be no events properly speaking; So
ciety will develope itself majestically in &C
cordan ce with nature, and the quantity of
eternity attainable upon the earth shall be-
come mingled with human events in order to
pacify them.
No more fctions, no mora disputo,, no
more parasitisms; it will be the peaceful
| reign of the undeniable. Laws will no longer
| have to be made, but to be recognized; they
will be axioms. People are not called upon to
vote that two and two make four, and New
toms binomial theorem requires no majority.,
There is a social geometry, under which evil
dence will govern. The code shall be honest
direct and clear; it is not for nothing that viz
tue is called rectitude. This indexibilty be-
longs to liberty, and in no way does it e1-
clude inspiration; the wind and the sunbeam
move in straight lines. Humanity has two
poles, the True and the Beautiful; it will be
governed in the one by the exact, and in the
other by the ideal. Instruction being substi-
tuted for war, universal suffrage will become
sufficiently discerning to select the best minds,
and the coming Parliament will be the perma-
nent council of intelligence; the Institute
will be the Senate. When the convention
created the Institute, it had shadowy but
deep vision of the future.
This society of the future will be magnif-
cent and peaceful. Discoveries will take the
place of battles; the nations will no longer
strive to conquer, but to grow and to become
enlightened the worker will succeed to the
warrior; there will be finders, constructors,
inventors; determination will no longer be
looked upon as glorious thing; the pro.
ducers will take the place of the destroyers;
civilization, which is now all action, will be-
come all thought; public life will consist of
the study of the true and the creation of the
beautiful; masterpieces will be the incidents
of this new state of things, and an Iliad will
awake more interest than an Austerlitz.
Frontiers will disappear before the light of
intellect. Greece was too small-our PENN
sula of the Finister if laid over it, would
cover it entirely-yet Greece was immense
through Homer, Eschylus, Phidias and Socra-
tes. These four men are four worlds. Greece
had them, hence her greatness. The per-
iphery of people is measured by its radius.
Gigantic Siberia is dwarf colossal Africa
scarcely exists One city, Rome, was once
the equal of the universe; whoever spoke to
her spoke to the whole world: Urbi ct Orb.
This greatness France has and will continue
to have in an ever increasing ratio, for there
is this admirable gift in France, that if des-
tined to die, she will die like the gods, by
TRANSPORTING herself France will become
Europe. Some peoples end by sublimation,
like Hercules, or by ascension, like Jesus
Christ. 1t may be said that, at given mo-
ment, nation enters into the state of constel-
lation; other nations, stars of secondary great
ness, group themselves around it, and it is |
thus that Athens, Rome and Paris are plei-
ades Greece, TRANSPORTED, became the Pagan
world. Rome, TRANSPORTED, became the Chris
tian world. France will be TRANSPORTED, and |
will become the human world. The French |
revolution will be called the revolution of the |
nations.
Harmony is not yet established |
between those two powers Law and Right, |
one of which is immutable; the other vary
serene, the other troubled by passion.
The Law flows from the Right, as the river
issues from its source, receiving all the wind
Ings and impurities of its banks. Often
practice contradicts the rule, often the corol-
larry betrays the principle, often the effect
disobeys the cause-such is the fatal condition
Of humanity. The Right and the Law are
sver in conflict, and from this frequently
stormy debate we have alterations of light
and darkness The sacredness
If human life, liberty, peace; nothing that
cannot be abolished, revoked or repaired
his is the Right.
The scaffold, the sword, and the scepter,
var, every kind of yoke, from matrimony with
,ut divorce in the family to the state of siege
n the city--this is the Law.
The Right: to 60 and to come, to buy, to
ell to barter.
The Law: Custom-house, internal duties,
rontiers.
4uo hlSut. BIatuitOus anu CoHpuisory euu-
'ation, without encroaching upon the con-
cience of man, rudimentary in the child
hat is to say, unsectarian schools.
The Law: clerical instruction.
The Right: freedom of conscience.
The Law: State religions.
Universal suffrage, universal jury-this is
he Right; restricted suffrage, packed
ury--this is the Law.
The Law has the upheaval, the motion, the
and destructive power OF the
welled and turbid water; but the Right can
lot be submerged, and that all may be saved,
t is only necessary that the Right should sur
i've in conscience. All social agitation
rises from this single fact-the persistency
f the Right against the obstinacy of the
Law.
DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.