The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-06
VII.

In q chapter on Fraternity the author re-
minds US that this word was not made an into
grail part of the device of the First Republic un.
til the year OF the Terror. Prince Metternich,
who was reaching manhood at the time when the
guillotine was erected as the symbol of brotherly
love. remarked: Fraternity. as 1t is practicod in
France. has led me to the conclusion that IL had
a brother 1 would call him my cousin The sar-
casm requires qualification, because. in their
private and domestic capacity, there are no
people in the world so devoted and considerate
to one another as are the French. In oil the re-
lations of the human race which concern the
home and the family. except possibly the con-
jugal relation, they set an example. They are
also capable of making sentimental sacrifices
for the benefit Of oppressed nationalities. New
ertheless. Mr.. Bodley deems it pertinent to ask
which is the nationality the members of which
and he answers that it is neither the German,
the English. nor the Italian. 1t is to the French
1nss ff ineessane. a, and m nor@0 inea mPss iSst thsn
to people of any other race. We have
Inst he'd 9 me%oFable proof of this in
trial. The peculiar harshness of Frenchmen to
Frenchmen in their political capacity dates
cipline Of war saved that movement from dc.
generating into IN orsie of primitive barbarism.
W. will make q cemetery Of France" said
our own fashion. The bitterness eylnced under
traced to the i period when the principle Of fra.
ternity was, officially enunciated and when
French people acquired the habit. never since
desperate struggle between irreconcilable ele-
ments. in which every lethal weapon may law
he ignored. Ever since Napoleon ceased to direct
French ardor against the foreign foe the century
the subject of which is the staying Of French.
men by FrenGhmen, The so-oalled White Ter.
provinces. AZ regards the ruth1ea6 destruction nf
French lives. the executions in the capital Of
Testdpasi OF the nn s%p' Which hhf ff GGyfrn peeple Of m tas
thus put to death. came itself to a violent end
in the three days of July. 1880. and 2 lofty
sale by French hands on that occasion. When
of him with less bloodshed than attended his
recession; stu a score or two Of French corpses
nasty. Four months later new proof was given
that. for the mutual slaughter of the people of
Era nee. no regime was more favorabIe than g
After that the cannons and tho rifles with which
sympathetic fellow citizens in December. 1881.
may be deemed to have merely fred tho Gus.
government are announced in Francs. OF
course. warfare. even In Its CIVILIZED guise.
ture. but most modern, people reserve the
latent savsgery within them for tho chastise-
ment Of their, enemies abroad, whereas the
VIZ Aoo iiAA hhiuh IA IL
ricidal strife. In time of war the French show
generosity to foreign foes. but. when Gaul meets
Gaul. quarter is neither given nor expected.
Thus the. conflict between France and Prussia
in 1870. desperate as it was, was not stained by
deeds of turbulence, but. when tho Germans
wero resting after their victory on the heights
around, Paris. Parisians, to show them that n
triumphant invader did not stand deepest in
their hate. made a bonfire Of the noblest monu-
ments OF their capital, as n spectacle for the con-
! queror, and. amid itsfumes. massacred venerable
and peaceful citizens OF France. Mr.. Bodley
regards the insurrection of the Commune as one
of the blacklist crimes known to history; he con-
siders that 1t meritcd the sternest retribution;
at the same time he thinks that its wickedness
would have heen q more saiutary lesson for
future generations had it been punished with
less retaliatory ferocity. Tho soberest narrative
Of the suppression of the rebellion convinces
that Frenchmen melted out to Frenchmen such
ruthless. eSnbcrant and indiscriminato penal.
tics as other Europeans in modern warfare infict
only on barbaric races. Tho cruelty Of the Com.
munals 10 their fellow. citizens may have been
British. at .Cawnpore. but the punishment in.
hicted by tho Versailles troops on the PnrisIans
during the Semaine do Mai was as merciless as
that with which tho English IN India had to
stamp out tho mutiny. In q word, there is less
of the spirit OF fraternity In Frcnchmen than in
any other nation of modern times. and we have
already seen to what extent liberty and equality
can be said to flourish in France. NJ, W. II.