The French Persecution

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 35, 27 August 1903, Page 1

The French Persecution

' Tyranny,' says Byron, ' is the worst of treasons.' The ruler who ' Neglects or violates his trust is more A bugand than the robber-chief.' These descriptions are a skin-fit for the regime of tyranny and rampant illegality which Premier Combes has for some time been carrying on in lodge-ridden France. During the past few weeks the dwarf French. politician who struts upon the stage in Bismarckian busKins, has made a halt in his campaign of persecution. He has been attacked in the Senate by— of all men under the sun— M Waldeck-Rousseau, the father of the Associations Bill. M. Waldeck-Rousseau's words fell upon Combes like the blows of the official flagellator. 'He pointed out,' says a report before us, 'that Combes has dispersed Congregations which were really authorised to remain, had refused, en bloc and without examination, applications for authorisation, had closed chapels and schools without reason, and driven the Sisters of Charity from theic homes as though they were criminals, and generally had toused the utmost indignation, not merely among Catholics', but among all Frenchmen who are lovers of liberty.' The onslaught on Combes' illegal and ' cruel wantonness of power ' created a profound impression at the time. It gave him pause for the moment. His own Commission, appointed to consider the secularisation of a great number of the female leaching Orders, had just given him a quiet check Some of his followers have been getting limp and wobbly in their support of his war against religion , and the further campaign against the Orders has been postponed till after the recess For a few weeks the* bloodhounds will be off the track of monk and nun. And then the hunt and the view-hallo will probably go on once more.