New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-24
1ICK or CIVIC COURAGE.

A LACK OF CIVIC COURAGE.
The signs of glddiness and timidity in
France imply a lack Of public faith In the
permanence of existing institutions. Why
should Prince Napoleon's manifesto have been
taken so seriouslyP He was an unpopular
leader. who could not have succeeded in COM
handing tho undivided support of the Bona
partlsts. He was contemplate adversary,
whose proclamation to his band OF tatterde-
nations and Adventures did not merit any
thing but rdicule /; yet he has been arrested,
his expulsion from French territory has be-
come question of State policy. and the pun
isbment of his offence is made tho subject OF
Ministerial councils and protracted debates in
both Chambers The Bourbon pretender and
the Orleans princes are too timOrOus and easy
going in nature and disposition to lead a re-
volt against the Republic, yet they are
vaguely suspected OF cOnspiring against the
public welfare and will be deprived of their
military rank and political rights, even If they
are allowed to remain in France. why
should the grandsons of Charles and Louis
Philippe, and the four Orleans princes, who
were children when the "Three Glorious
Days of July placed their father on the
throne half a century ago, be dreaded now
They are destitute of political authority;
their followers have deserted their standards;
thew have neither the courage the will nor
the resources to restore the monarchy; yet they
are hunted down in their ancestral seats
in Auvcrgne and the forests of Brittany like
foxes out of their holes. Why is it that the
Republican leaders are continually welding
the forces of repression against adversaries
who have ceased to be formldablel
An illustration of the same eneryating timd-
ity is also found IN the opposite quarter OF
the social system. The slXty-two workmen
who have been tried at Lyons for circulating
Socialist manifostoes and writings might safely
have been allowed the ordinary privileges OF
criminal practice in civilized countries They
were not tried by a jury, but 10y three judges
empowered to receive as much or as little
evidence as they liked, to condemn or to ac-
quit, and 20 pronounce sentence under an old
law of the Empire, by which membership of
the Internationale was made a crime punish
able with two or five years imprisonment.
Their leader, if they can be said TO have had
one, was Prince Krapotkine, whose contributions
to The Nineteenth Century have created in
England and America a TevulsiOn of feeling
against Russian methods OF administration.
The charge against him Of having instigated
the Socialist outbreak at Montceau seems
to have been dropped, and he was
virtually convicted and sentenced to five
years imprisonment for being n member of a
foreign society and advocating anarchical
ideas Not only was ho condemned by judicial
methods as arbitrary as any that are known in
Russia, but he was systematically prosecuted
IL A. Il al 20 al
with his wife except in the presence Of two
gendarmes; she was forbidden to send his
meals to his cell, although the prison fare was
declared by her to be so detestable that only
men Of the strongest constitutions could eat
it and live and in various ways he was sub
jected to discipline that was unnecessarily
rigorous and arbitrary. The wOrkmen who
were tried with him were given meagre facili-
ties for defending themselves were closely
confined and conducted to and from the court
room by dctachments of police and regiment
of the line. Obviously there was reason for
these arbitrary proceedings, for this atf'cta
ton Of zeal and vigor in REFRESHING Socialist
excesses for this Ostentatious display of
methods of repression. The Ministry had re-
course to the terrors of the law because they
were anxious to reassure the French peasantry.
Here was a form of the social question which
might not be serious when considered by unpre-
JUDGED classes, yet might brighten the couser-
vative elements Of society. II was accordingly
disposed of with Roman sternness and Russian
vigor.
This readiness On the part of Deputies and
Ministers to reassure now one class and now
another by despotic methods of repression in
administration is a most disheartenng symp-
tom of public life in France. The Republic
cannot be strong If the energies of the Gov
eminent and the legislators are constantly
employed in convincing the people by unneces-
sary displays of force and persecution that
there is no ground for alarm. If tho
Republican leaders would inspire public conf
dence in the permanence of the institutions
which have been founded, they must cast
away their own fears. They must show their
own confidence in the stability Of the new
system by despising the pretensions of the
Bourbon and Orleans princes and the vagaries
of the Bonapartes, and by cOncealing their
own uneasiness when any form of the social
question is discussed by the artisans. If the
French people are suspicious that tho present
order of government cannot last, ill-reguated
displays of rigor, despotism and intolerance
will only add to their fears Civic courage
cannot be developed in that way.
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