Persecution does not Pay

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 28, 9 July 1903, Page 2

Persecution does not Pay

One of the chatacters in Disraeli's ' Vi\ ian Giey ' briefly describes the cod douche that cools the warfever in the Aeins of the Biitish public. 'There is

nothing,' said he, ' like a fall in consols to bring the blood of our good people of England into cool order.' France Is just now painfully learning the same lesson. The war of the enemies of all religion against the Catholic Church in that most misgoverned country has hit the French National Securities hard, and there are signs that the no-Popery fever in the blood of its rulers is losing the worst of its raging heat. The * Boston Herald,' the New York ' Herald ' (European edition), the London ' Statist,' and many other papers have all shown how sharply and persistently the French funds have fallen ' as the direct result of M. Combes' interpretation of the Associations Law.' 'It would be impossible,' says the New York ' Herald,' ' to demonstrate more cruelly that the country has lost all confidence, if it ever had any, in the Combes Ministry.' M. Dolifus, one of the foremost French financiers, spoke- as follows on the subject to a ' Herald ' representative : ' In proceeding to expel the Congregations in France, M. Combes lias proceeded to expel French capital. The exodus of Fiench capital to foreign countries is on a very large scale. . . If, perhaps, iniquitous and unjust measures taken in regard to religious communities have found Paris indifferent, they have, on the other hand, profoundly troubled the provinces, where the religious .spirit reigns much more than in the capital. Having no longer any confidence in a Government capable of committing such acts, all those who have religious faith have transferred to foreign countries their French investments. This is what the Congregations did in the first instance. The result has been a fall of French icntes and a rise of Italian, Spanish, Brazilian, Argentine, and other securities.'

' The policy pursued by the present Ministry,' M. Dolifus added, ' has done incalculable injury to the tangible interests of the country. The law should and must be enforced, I admit, but as M. Lavedan says, " II y a maniere. " M. Combes' manner in applying the law is the worst that could be devised. It has shocked jurists by its illegality and has outraged the religious sentiments of the people by its brutality and arbitrariness.' The ' Hera.d ' (European edition) concludes its article on the French crisis by stating that the. withdrawal of M. Combes into pri\ate life ' has become a pressing necessity.'