The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-03-28

! Is a work full OF deep reflection and widt
upon that most wonderful political event
OF all time. the French Revolution, II Is
| deeply interesting. Taine's leading idea
Is 10 prove that the France OF to-day
is a nation in which the state Is every
thing. the individual nothing, and that
this Is the natural and direct result OF
the system OF polity deliberately adopt
ed by Napoleon. and OF which. durlns
his reign, he laid the foundations broad
and deep.
The whole OF Napoleon's education was
under military auspices. The first idea
| drilled into his mind was subordinatlon
| and obedience to a superior authority
| This Idea became the passion Of his me-
| and all his efforts. all his aims, were 10
bring all men under the rule and control
| Of one mind and one will. which mind ana
viii were to be his own. He was the
very incarnation OF the idea OF paternai
government. He believed that the indi-
vidual should repose upon his govern
ment and look to 1t for all good in lie,
instead of the government reposing on
its citizens and existing only as they
should frame Il and direct its workings.
Coming TO supreme control in France,
when society was dsorganized, when re-
ligion was under the ban of the law,
when every relation Of life must be re-
constituted and regulated anew, he re
organized society with this idea as It's
leading and controlling one. One Of his |
first acts after becoming Emperor was /
10 frame a catechism for the youth OF
France which the Church was TO com !
pei the youth to learn by heart. 1t made
the young man say, as a part Of his re-
ligion:
I'VE specially owe to our Emperor,
Napoleon the First. love, respect, obedl-
ence. fidelity, military service. ana
tributes ordained for the preservation OF
the Empire and his throne FOR /
God has raised him up for us in times or 1
peril that he might restore public wor-
snip and the holy religion Of our fathers !
as its protector.
This idea appears in every institution |
founded by Napoleon. The citizen is /
nothing, the State is all. NJ. Tame gives /
us the following Illustration Of the way {
in which this absorption Of everything
by the State operates upon education.
He says, page 26:
Naturally, under this prohbitve re-
gime, private establishments are born
with difficulty, and afterwards. absorb
cd, mutlated. and strangled, they lind
no less difficulty in keeping alive. and
thus degenerate, decline, and succumb one
5y on c. And yet in 1885, not counting the
Al small seminaries with their 5000 scho-
lars. there suIl remained l225 private
So lools, with $4,000 scholars. confronting
the SO lycees and 36S communal colleges,
which together had only 1900 scholars
of these 1.225 private schools there are
only 50 in 1854 622 in 1865. 494 in 1876, and,
finally. in 1887, 302 with 20,l74 scholars"
SO surely is Napoleon's original idea
Of making the State everything and the
individual nothing working out its pre-
destined result.
And in forcing all education to become
public instead Of private. this wonder
full man showed the immense grasp of
his mind. He knew that as the youth Of
the country was educated by the State
1t would come more and more to look
up to the State as the source and author
Of its being and hat thus as his system
grew in years. it would be constantly
growing in its hold upon the popular
mind.
Napoleon moulded the France of to-
lay and she is responding more and
more each year to the impulse that he
gave to her. What is to be the result?
Can we properly trace the extended
spread Of opinions favoring Anarchy in
france to lessons that mean Socialism
)ure and simple? 1t is true that Social
SIN aims at making the state everything,
whilst Anarchy would abolish all laws.
}ut on the principle, perhaps, that ex-
remes meet. wherever we find Socialists
We find men ready 10 take part in the
outbreaks of Anarchists, and wherever
here are Anarchists we find them at
ending the meetings of Socialists and
tudying Socialist literature.
The fundamental idea of government,
according to our Democratic standards. is
hat the government is the mere agent,
md its officers the mere servants of the
,eople; that the people are everything
and are the masters of the situation, and
hat they are best served by that govern
nent which least interferes with their
ives and business beyond the preserva-
ion of peace and protection of property.
Fhe great duty Of government is to pre- ,
erve absolute impartialty between cit-
ems. all of whom should have equal and
,xact justice
GOVERNOR JONES AND SENATOR