The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-25

ance of a private individuaA has att tracted so much attention as this of Pere Didon's and none is more charac- teristic.
 The speech was delivered at the an- nual prize distribution, which was pre- sided over by Gen. lamont, the man who, in case of war, would be the Com mander-in- Chief of the French army. He was accompanied by number of staff officers, and the Republican Guard band was present. Surrounded by these distinguished representatives of the army, Pere Didon delivered him self of such utterances as these:
 When I speak of the necessity for nation of being provided with force do not hesitate to define my idea and to say that I mean material force-that which does not reason, but which compels-that of which the army Is the most powerful expression-that, finally, Of which can be said what has been said of cannon, that it Is the supreme argument of rulers and nations. .. A country could get on better without literature and art, even without sci ence and philosophy, than without force. When persuasion has failed, when love has become powerless, 1t is necessary to have recourse to coercive force, to. brandish the sword, to terrorize, to cut off heads, to strike hard, to impose justice. The use of force In such circumstances is not only legitimate, but obligatory. And force thus employed is no longer a brutal power It represents bene- ficent and sacred energy. The supreme art of government is to know the exact moment when tolerance becomes com plicity Woe to those who screen their criminal weakness behind the insuffi- cient plea of legality, to those who let the sword lose it's edge, to those whose kindness tends to become week-kneed pliancy! The country in its anguish will reject them with anathema for not having known how, even at the price of blood, to defend and save it.''
 In another passage of his address he said: France thus preserves and cares for her army as a sacred treasure. Ter rible would be her wrath, sanguinary her reprisals against the sacrilegious men who should venture to attack it.. In spite of 'intellectualisnl,' which pro- fesses to disdain force, in spite of the pretensions of 'civilism'--if I may use so barbarous term-which wishes to subordinate to itself the military power, France wishes for a strong, invincible army, and places in it her dearest, her highest hopes"
 It Is not merely the Radicals who are scandalized by these utterances, not merely M. .Clemenceau. who calls them a challenge and evokes the mem- ory of Torquemada. The moderates are shocked, and such a paper as the Lib- erte says: These passages are not merely the qualification of the army and it's great national mission, they are the proclamation of the superiority of the military over the civil authority. The theory which they involve is false, based on @ false notion of the elemen- tary principles at the foundation of society, especially In a great democracy like France. The army has no author- ity, no privilege peculiar to it. It owes obedience solely to the law, which is the only organ of national sovereignty" And the Liberte calls upon Pere Didon to admit that his eloquence carried him away, and to try and undo the mis- chief which he has already done.-Paris Correspondence London Times.