The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-06-07
Dreyfus's Deliverance.

We cannot for a moment doubt that the
decision rendered on Saturday by the
Court Of Cessation will lead quickly to the
aqUittal OF ALFRED DREYFUs of the charge
of treason and To his reinstatement in
the military rank Of which he has been
deprived. It is true that the supreme
tribunal RENTS the accused to a new trial
by court-martial, but that this second
trial will be q mere formality may be
inferred from the precision with which the
question OF fact to be investigated Is de-
fined, and from the distinctness with which
the necessity OF returning a negative an
swor is suggested. Indicative also OF de-
termination to avert n second miscarriage
Of justice are the designation OF Rennes.
in Brittany, as the place Of trial, and the
requirement that the officers composing
the new court-martial shall be chosen by
the Council Of Ministers, who will thus
incur a collective responsibility in the eyes
OF France and OF the world
We assume, then, that the fullest posi-
bic reparation will be made presently to
DREYFUs for the frightful degradation to
which he was subjected four and half
years ago and for the subsequent imprison-
ment, whose horrors must have broken
any heart unfortiflcd by the consciousness
OF innocence and by an unquenchable
faith in the ultimate triumph of Justice
Unfortunately human Justice moves with
II lame foot, and too often, before repair
ing its mistakes, waits until the victim OF
wrong is dead. Such was the sad expert
ence OF CALAIS, and up to less than year
ago 1t looked as II the utmost that DREY-
Fus could hope for would be posthumous
rehabilitation. Arrayed against him was a
combination, apparently irresistible, made
up Of the General Staff and nine -tenths OF
the officers Of the French Army OF Presi-
dent FAURE and four-ffths Of the conspicu-
Gus politicians; a majority Of the Senate
three-fourths OF the Chamber OF Deputies,
and almost the whole OF tho Partisan press.
Behind these opponents were not only the
influences OF public opinion and anti-Semitic
sentiment, but an even more formidable
force, the national sense OF self-preserya-
ton, which deemed 1t incomparably better
that single Frcnchman should perish I'M
justly than that France should lose her de-
fensive power through loss OF trust in her
military chiefs.
How was tho appeal, necessarily and
more or less adroitly made to the sense OF
self-preservatiOn, to be met and put aside
Obviously, In one way only: by an appeal
to the nations conscience. 1t is to the
eternal honor of France that even in a
critical conjuncture, when. but for one
lukewarm and uncertain ally. she stood
isolated in Europe. there were found
Fronchmen who Indignantly declined to do
a,
fused to let an honest man be crucihed
upon the speclous plea that exposure Of
CHASTITY wrong would shake the cuuntrys
faith in its defenders.
In the front rank of the few Frcnchmcn
who had the courage to arouse the nations
conscience must be placed the novelist,
EMILE lola, who cheerfully encountered
pecuniary loss and exile, and Col. PICQUART,
who in the interest Of truth, riskcd the
promise OF n brilliant career, and who has
been obliged to bear rancorous persecution
and prolonged imprisonment. Not un.
mentioned, either, in the short list OF the
champions of equity should be GEORGES
CLEMENCEAU, the editor OF L'AurOre; the
Protestant Senator, NJ. SCHEURER- X ESTHER,
and ex-Premier BRISsOS, but for whom a
revision OF the court-martlal's sentence
would never have taken place.
While, however II is scarcely possible To
ovcrcStimatO the credit due to the high
hearted Frenchmen who came forward on
DREYFuss behalf, it is doubtful whether
revision OF the sentence pronounced upon
that officer would have been witnessed in
the present generation but for the ear
ncstnrss with which the demand for new
trial was supported by the other civilized
nations, whose respect and admiration
France has b1n accustomed to command,