Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-07-13
THE TRAGEDY IN FRANCE.
From Harper's weekly.1

10y ups WIN vi edItn could have
Induced II reasonable being to take his
life? kind-hearted, JUST, gentle, modest
and of atlable manners, he was certainly
not the man to call forth violen: person-
al resentment. Nor was his public CA
reer such as to breed bitter political en-
mites. Although firm in. maintaining
his convictions, he never became oflens-
I've In the expression of them. He was
not a maj of very brilliant gifts nor of
dangerous ambitions. His role in pub
lie life was rather hat of a capable.
painstaking and conscientious man of
affairs. His education as an engineer
mad given his mind a practical turn. and
when he had become sufficiently conspic-
uous to be called into the government
the portfolio of public works and then
that of finance fell by natural selection
into his hands. He performed his duties
with ability and with eminent courage in
disclosing and correcting abuses. In IS
81 he was elected to the presidency nv
an overwhelming majority of the electo-
raj assembly of senators and deputies
over other candidates far more brilliant
than himself, because he was considered
the most unobiectionable and the safest
man. His conduct as president fully
justified the confidence of those who
elected him. He bore himself with emil
nent dignity. discretion and good iudp-
ment. Ills influence was constantly felt as
that of a moderator. The cause of orderly
freedom in France and of peace in Europe
owed much to the equipoise of his person.
atty. The manner in which he Informed
himself of the condition OF the people
and manifested his intelligent and active
interest in the general welt being on his
frequent journeys through the country.
steadily increased his popularity among
all classes of citizens. In a few months
his presidential term of seven years
would have expired, and it is more than
probable that, had he lived and declared
himself willing to remain at his post, he
would have been reelected with general
acclaim. The blamelessness of his char
acter and conduct will stand as a shining
example to his successors.
1t is needless to say that his assassin
belongs TO that class of people who can
not be classed among reasonable beings.
lie is a young anarchist with all the hes
tial impulses that the name implies. The
anarchist thinks it necessary-if we NAV
suppose him to think at all-from time
to time to kill somebody for what he
pretends to consider the good of human
lty. How that killing is to promote that
good it is not the business of the anar-
chist to inquire. He drops a dynamite
bomb in a theatre, or a church or a cafe
or a Legislative hall, and a number of
persons whom he did not know are put
to death or manned for life; and then he
pretends to feel that he has done a hero.
ic act for the salvation of mankind from
some underlined evil. This he calls the
propaganda of the deed. And when
a man who has dropped the bomb and
killed and manned a number of people is
arrested by the police and tried for a
capital crime and found guilty and exc
ecuted in the regular process of law, his
brother-anarchists call this an inhuman
judicial murder which must be avenged.
And they do avenge it by dropping more
bombs and killing more people, or by
sneaklng up 10 the chief of the govern
ment aud assassinating him, upon the
ground that he permitted the bomb
thrOwers to be executed. Thus Presi-
dent CaInOt was assassinated, it appears,
because he had failed to save, by his
pardon, the bOmb-thrOwers valiant and
Henry, from the course of the law. The
theory that the anarchist must be per-
mitted to serve the good of mankind by
throwing bombs and killing people, but
that the government must not be per-
mitted toIserye the good of mankind by
trying and furnishing the bomb-thrower
for murder, is hardly less insane than
the expectation entertained by the anar-
chists if they only throw enough bombs
and assassinate enough public officers.
by way of revenge, they will put human
society il to such "A state of fear that it
will p%resentlyI let the anarchists do as
they please with impunity, and even
permit them to rule us all. These crazy
savages do not see that if they really
succeed in putting society into a state of
genuine terror they Will at the same
time drive it to the extreme of self-help.
that is to say, to a state of mind in
which society will set aside the ordinary
course of law, and resort to the eXertion
of Irregular force to the end of Kidding
itself of the anarchists as a class, either
by a suspension of the legal process and
the employment of the estate of SIEGE
or in the II of the citizens of San
Francisco, who rid themselves of the
murderers and gamblers by means of the
vigilance committee in the old ''Argo-
naut" days.
Vital Tn MAuu0nn