Our Paris Letter.

Manawatu Herald, 12 May 1894, Page 3

Our Paris Letter.

(from our own correspondent.) \ 15th March, 1894. The declaration of M. Spuller, Minister of Public Instruction, during a recent debate in the Chamber of Deputies, that a new spirit must henceforth pervade the relations between Church and State, has excited ' a terrible radical storm. In the i Chamber of Deputies itself, an over- > whelming majority approved of the i Minister's advocacy of a policy of • conciliation, but the Radical Press ' still continues to launch its i thunders against perverted Republicans of the Spuller stamp. M. Clemenceau reminds M. Spuller that he voted for the famous Clause i. 7, expelliug unauthorised religious < associations from their monasteries • and convents in the time of Gam:- -: betta, and he asks, what would the • master think of the defection of his • pupil, were he now alive ? To this • question it may bo replied that, as i Gambetta was no fanatic but a ) practical Republican he would proJ bably recognize the altered state of • things now existing. Not only is t religious persecution out of date, but 1 the head of Catholicism, in repeated i encyolials, has ordered the Catholic • olergy to support the Republic. , The arrest of French Anarchists • continues, and scarcely a day passes • without numerous " perquisitions " i in the domiciles of Anarchists " who t are wanted." The results of these ■ arrests and perquisitions are very 1 properly kept secret. But there is - reason to believe that the police are J on the track of an organised con- - spiracy, in which are included, not L" only the Anarchists properly so i* called, but also all the partisans of a i social revolution. For these people 3 the present Republic is not good 1 enough—they want ft Convention

formed on the model of that of 1793. It is not likely, however, that they will attain the object of their wishes, and they will have to be content with the Parliamentary Republic for want of a better. There can be no doubt, that with steady perseverance the police will get the better of the Anarchists, just as the Russian Government succeeded in putting down Nihilism, which was a sort of Anarchy. The Ultra Radicals and Socialists, now forming one party, declare that Anarchism is a movement of opinion, but such is not the case.' No opinion can possibly be represented by bomb - throwing among harmless and inoffensive people at cafes and theatres,, ta say nothing of the Chamber of Deputies.