The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-27
DREYFus AND PIcQrART.

| ! Y
 The public conscience has obtained a
 fresh satisfaction, and public opinion q
 fresh homage. The indictment chamber this afternoon decided on the liberation | of Lieutenant Colonel Picquart. It is 1 true that the release is only provisional, but the heroic champion of truth and 1 justice regains the personal liberty of which he has been so arbitrarily deprv- ed ever since July 13. M Cast, his | cousin, M. de Pressense, M. Laboris two secretaries-M. Labori himself being un-
 well--Dr. Herve and M. Quillard went to the Sante prison to greet him, and a
 motor car took him to M. Casts house
 at Vile d'Avray, beyond St. Cloud.
 Nothing perhaps that we have wit | messed during this prolonged and still
 unfinished drama has been more cruel, more audacious more defiant of equity
 and human dignity than this implacable | incarceration of a man who, above all
 others, has shown that civic heroism in
 France could vie with the finest exam- ples in history. Here is a soldier in-
 volved in the whirlwind of hatred which
 has seized or that bureau of the general
 staff in which all assisted in the ruin of
 man whose most signal crime consist
 ed in inspiring jealousy and animosity.
 For Dreyfus had entered the general
 staff, in spite of opposition, through
 powerful protectors, and had at once
 shown such self-assurance, indeed, such
 presumption, as to excite sullen con-
 spiracy, which was bound sooner or lat
 CT to have lamentable outbreak. AL
 ready at the war school the antipathy of his comrades had forced the hands of his chiefs preventing them from rem
 dering justice to his ability. His ambi-
 tion evidently debarred him from fore seeing the malignity to which he exposed himself in position which he hoped to make the basis of high destinies. It is certain that he wanted to know and un- derstand everything, and that he aston ished his chiefs by his capacity, while he exasperated his colleagues by a superi- ority which he paraded. Add to this that he was Jew, that his race was more disliked in the general staff than anywhere else, that he was regarded in the intelligence bureau as an intruder and the object of dlstrust, and we can easily understand how the slightest sus- picion was fastened upon.
 Now, Pcquart, like the others, had an antipathy for him. He had an al- most superstitious respect for the uni form and the military hierarchy. The youngest of lieutenant colonels, he had a passion for his profession and had the most brilliant prospects, That army to which he belonged body and soul prom ised to satisfy all the aspirations of a man already in high rank who felt him. self equal to a still higher position. He had watched the Dreyfus case without trying to pierce the mystery, Obedient to the orders of his chiefs, he suspected wrong and at heart was rather glad to see justice strike man for whom he had no good will.
 In these circumstances and while he was in this frame of. mind a ray of light fell on him, and the injustice of Drey- fus' condemnation flashed upon him. Thereupon the honest man sacrifices his and prospects, defies anger, calumny, exile, the loss of his rank, threats and imprisonment, the moose of Lemercier-P Picard and the razor of Hen ". He defies interruptions enemies who