The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-03-14

1 the uDDQT Oh lJt1 <LfAA
| Iong-surviving reverence OF the cas-
anfry for the ancient House OF
france" h he died childless a
! few years ago. ieaying the succession
10 the Orleans branch OF the FANNY.
the Orieanists' became legitImlsts ana
fell heir to all the backing n ior
| lowing that were behind the Bourbon
pretender. But after the absolute sep
aratfon of church and State, that was
brought about by the laws Of 1901 and
subsequent laws, the political lnfu-
ence of the Vatican has been steadily
diminishing all over France and the
diffusion of education through the me
dunn of public school under State
supervision has greatly modified the
political and economical opinions OF
the masses. of the people, including the
peasantry. While the government Is
still denounced as radical" n
'.atheisticaI'' by ultra-cOnservatiyes,
the republic has made rapid strides IN
the direction Of constructive democ-
racy and liberal constitutionalism. and
is regarded as conservative by those
who remember the radicallSm thaf
Theirs, Gambetta, FHayre, Simon and
constructive statesmen of the earlier
years Of the third republic had to con-
tend against. Consequently the sane
ton of the Vatican and the supper of
the royalist sentiment remaining In
France are not worth as much to the
Duk e Of Orleans as they We're to his
Bourbon cousin, to whose preteI1Sions
he succeeds. Both the Orleans and
the Bonapartist ~pretenders have theif.
avowed agents in France and their
open Organs among the newspapers,
but their ~pretensions are not consid-
cred seriously and the government
wisely practices the largest liberation.
This depression to show that. while
the Academy of conservative tenden-
cies was opposed to the republic and
favorable to a monarchy in the seven
ties and eighties of the last century,
the reverse is probably true now OF
the Academy. still Of conservative ten
denotes. The Academy loyalty TO pre-
cedent and tradition is the result Of a
conservatism differing from that Of the
Bourbons. Mho never forget and never
learn. The forty lmmOrtals may never
forget. but they are quite too intel
lectual not to learn. There is always
a great churchman, a high dignitary
Of the Roman Catholic Church Ia the
embership. and, last year, when a
successor to the late Cardinal Mothieu
was to be elected, there was quite a
concurrence" as the French say,
among the churchrnen Of high degree.
Monseigneur Duchesne, head of the
French School at Rome, was elected.
And some men Of very radical views
on some subjects-quite shocking
views to some people-are always
among the membership and when
their places become vacant hey are
succeeded by men equally obnoxious
to some people. They drew the
line on lola. who passed on without
ever arriving at this goal Of his am
bition. Once. at any rate, he came
near IN election, but always failed
Of a majority.
The Academy has Nc organ but
four-ffths of the literary output Of
the great Revue des Deux Mondes is
editor (director) is always one of the
forty. All Of the great literary jour-
nals-Figaro, GauIois. etc.-are ION
terms with the Academy, for much
Of their writing is done by immortals.
| and what is not done by them is done
by those who seek Immortality
There are but thirty-six immortaIs,
mortality having foreclosed upon four
Of their number-Marquis de Beaure-
gard, Viscomte de Vogue and Messieurs
Henri Barbour and Albert Vandal.
Maifre Barbour, who died last fall,
was at the head Of the Paris bar and
the most distinguished Of the four.
For two weeks the thirty-six surviving
immortals have been busy caucussing
and c~anyassing the merits of the va
rious "cOncurrentS" who aspire to fill
these four vacant fautenils.
It has been seriously proposed thai
Madame Curie, widow of and CO.
| worker with the great scientist who
in collaboration with her. made the
wonderful discoveries in connection
/ with radium, be made a member Of
the Academy Of Sciences. Upon the
death of her husband Madame Curie
continued his work and is now recog-
nized as the foremost authority in the
world upon the subject of the powers
and uses of radium.
Some of the scoffers. willing to
make trouble for the immortals with
the s~ufragettes (who have crossed
the Channe1), contend that a seal in
the Academy Of Sciences is not an
adequate recognition of the merits OF
CuGie, andinsist that she
be elected to a seat among the forty
imfnortals whether she has made the