The record-union., 1899-09-03
FRENCH JUSTICE AND PATRIOT
ISM

It may be scarcely fair to judge
French justice by the exhibitions be-
fore the court at Rennes hearing the
Dreyfus case. That is a military court
and in such the ordinary rules and
maxims of law do not obtain. The
sacred law Of evidence is practically
unknown before such courts. There is
no limitation upon direct questioning
or upon suggestion to a witness, no
restraint but the arbitrary will of the
court upon the expression of opinion
by witnesses; no check upon their pre-
judices, no guide to the truth through
the channels of right examination.
In short, the court-martial of France
is the very opposite in it's methods and
forms Of civil court. That this fact,
however, excuses the farcial perform
ance at Rennes is not true. It makes
it's injustice, its inquisitorial and cruel
methods all the more abhorrent.
Those of us whose ideas of justice
are born Of knowledge of and expert
fashioned and adapted according to the
ideas Of human right as we have them,
are shocked at the procedure at
Rennes. We cannot think it possible
that an accused person in an enlight-
ened community can be either convicted
or acquitted upon the beliefs, opinions
and demands, the suspicious, vague
guesses and explosive utterance of i'm
pressions on the part of witnesses.
Yet that is precisely what is taking
place in enlightened, refined, cultured,
artistic France-and that France a So
called republic. With US the Govern
ment before the courts stands upon no
higher, nor on any lower level than
the humblest citizen suitor. But in
France apparently the people accept
the doctrine that certain branches of
the Government are independent of and
superior to the courts, and that what
their administrators deem wise to be
withheld from tribunals of justice, and
that which they hold should be forced
upon them, must determine the rule Of
action for the bench.
We have but one class Of laws and
codes; in France there are at least
two, since in the Dreyfus case it is
clear that what is law for the Govern
ment is not law for the army: that
what is law for the army is not law for
the citizen; and that what is obliga-
tory upon the latter the former may
treat as they please with impunity.
With us all issues regardless of the
contestants come before the ordinary
courts of the land, and to all litigants
the same rules apply in ascertainiug
truth and applying justice. But in
France where questions of public policy
come in any form before any courts.
it would seem that there may
intervene an arm superior to
the courts and forbid their inquiry.
1t may check them at any point of re-
search for the truth, when it crosses
the line of Government privilege.
The changes of Government
through which the nation has been
dragged have effected no material
change in the legal system. 1t appears
to survive as vitality under republican
forms as under monarchy and a die
tatorship.
But the acceptance of such system,
and apparent content of the people
under it, are accompanied by the most
dramatic performances and denlonstra-
tions on their part of what passes for
patriotism. One must think if he
judges by the explosions of the French
tongue and the theatric poses of the
French population, that they are the
most intensely patriotic people of The
earth. But that is because we measure
patriotism in France by our own rule
and square. Patriotism there is better
defined as intense love of country. be-
cause of intense hatred of the country's
foes. There is less consideration of the
individual and his right, and more of
the State, its integrity and strength