Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-15
A Sermon by Pere Felix.

aged members, who are prudent, Dut by
their youngest members, who are governed,
not by their timidity, not by prudence,
but by passion, by the love of excitement,
by caprice, by envy. You have heard of
the entdnt terrible, the entant terrible is the
ganam de Paris. All our revolutions have
been made by children.
"Now, what Is the training which we
give to these children who are the masters
of our destinies Is it moral? Is it re-
igious? What is the creed 1t is this:
What is God
."God is nature; God is the highest
power in nature, the human mind. God is
in yourselves.
What is Satan?
"a scarecrow.
''What is duty?
The pursuit of happiness.
"What is happiness?
''The satisfaction of our desires.
"What is heaven?
"This world, if you are happy in it.
"What is hell?
"This world, if you are miserable in it.
"What is the object of government
Equality.
"What is equality?
"That no man have an undue share of
the means of happiness.
"What are the means of happiness
"Wealth.
How is equality to be produced?
by taking from the rich and giving to
the poor.
"Such, my brethren, is the catechism
which the unprotected child learns in the
dteiier. The object of our society is to
protect it from these malefcent influences;
to arm it with the knowledge, the feelings,
and the habits, which may enable it to de-
tect the sophistry, despise the folly and
abhor the wickedness of its misdirected
companions. If you wish to save society
from revolution more frightful that any
that has preceded it, if you wish to save
the happiness of the higher classes and the
souls of the lower, give your time and
your money to this holy work. And with
these words l put my sermon under the
protection of the Immaculate Mother of
Cod"
From st. Clotilde 1 went to breakfast
with Merimee. gave him sketch of the
sermon.
Merimee-There is much truth in Pere
Felix's remark that our revolutions are
caused by children. On the 23d of Feb
ruary, lS4S, l was in the Rue Richelieu. A
battalion was marching down the street.
Three boys stood across it; they cried out
that the troops should not pass without
killing them. The men hesitated, the Off
GERS were aeraid of responsibility, and, in
fact, the battalion halted for quarter of
an hour and then retired.
Senior-Were they National Guards
Merimee-No, troops of the line. The
qamins were armed and utterly Indifferent
to life whether their own or that of others.
They would have shot three men of the
first rank, and the soldiers, if they had
killed them, would have been execrated as
the butchers of the citizens.
Austrian and Russian Soldiers.
Thursday, April 25, 1861 General
Trochu* called on me. We talked of diff
ferent armies.
Trochu-In our own, the best troops are
plow They are SOBER docile, brave, proud
of their country and of their profession
and, though anxious to return to their
friends and to their little properties, per-
form zealously their duties.
Senior-We hear much more of the
Zouaves.
Trochu-The Zouaves have wonderful
elan they are useful portion of our army
but doubt whether they are worth what
they cost. They are i'll disciplined and
marauders, and so set bad example.
They are taken from different regiments,
which are thus deprived of their most ac-
tive and energetic soldiers.
Senior-What think you of the Pied
montese? Fenelon described them to me
as good third-rate.
Trochu-So should have called them,
from what saw of them in Italy. In the
Crimea they did nothing. But now,
swamped as it is by a rabble of Tuscans,
Romans and Neapoiitans, the Italian army
can be worth little-I had almost said
nothing. The best troops in the world
are the English, and the best portion are
the infantry and artillery. Never in the
history of war did only two guns do such
service as Major Dickson's did at mixer
man. Never did troops stand such an at
tack as your Guards did on that day.
Ours could not have done it. l saw the
field. There was an uninterrupted line of
dead Guardsmen-every man seemed to
have fallen at his post. 1t is fortunate
that your army is so small Ii it were as
large as ours is, it would conquer the
world
Senior-What are the Russians,
Trochu-Very good, indeed; but they
have no Generals. 1t seems an absurdlty
but one cause of their failure at Inkerman
was their superiority in number. Their
columns were so crowded that they inter-
fered with one another, had not room to
deploy, and were ravaged by our fire. The
Austrians, too, are very good. But, with
the exception of Benedek, who is excel
lent, they were miserably commanded.
Hesse was an excellent General in 1854,
but he has lost his decision and his presence
of mind He saved US at Magenta by
stopping the march of the Austrians
on the ID OF June. Giulay never had
any merit. Their commissariat was
worse managed than our own, which
was not brilliant. Both at Magenta
and at Solferino we made prisoners of regi-
ments who had not eaten during the day.
The first thing they did was to ask for
food. The Austrian soldiers began the war
under great disadvantages. They expected
to be beaten. They believed our troops to
be much more superior to theirs than they
really are. We equally exaggerated their
inferiority. Our confidence and their de-
spondence had great effect on the cam
paign. As for the two Empsrors, they
were about equally useless; but the Aus
trian, exposing himself to fire and interior
ing, did perhaps the most harm.
Senior-Did not Louis Napoleon expose
himself?
Trochu-Not in the least. In the morn
General Trochu was born in 1915, and educated
at st. Cyr. He became Captain in 1913, and
at ached to the army Of Marshal Bsgeaud Algiers
He Aid de Camp to st. Armand in the Crimea.
appointed Br1gadierG in November, 1854, and
commanded in that capacity to the end of the
He was General of Division in the Italian agn
IN 1859 In 1851, when he appointed Grand
Officer de Ia Legion dHvnneur, he counted twenty
five years active service and eighteen campaigns.
His work on the French army in 1867 went through
seven editions. He was appointed Governor Of
Paris in 1870, and during the siege be held the COM
mand and directed the operations OF all the troops
within the walls. In 1871 he elected member
of the National Assembly, and sat in the Right Gen.
! ter. He retired into privae life In 1872.