THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1905. THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2, 12 January 1905, Page 17

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1905. THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE.

fONE of the sayings attributed to Louis XIV. of France has enjoyed such a vogue as one whifch he is alleged to have uttered in 1655, when he was a haughty youth of seventeen. The President of his Parliament had been urging him to consider the interests of the State, and the impatient Louis (so the story runneth) closed the pleader's lips with the hasty interruption : • L'etat, c'est moi '— ' I am the State ! ' At a#y rate, Louis XIV., despite the theatrical gorgeousness of his reign, was at heart a tyrant, atad lived pretty well up to the level of his supposed motto. One of the worst tyrannies of his rule consisted in tine extended use of ' lettres de cachet,' or letters bearing the small royai seal (cachet) by which he set aside the law,, suspended forms of justice, clapped great numbers of persons into the dungeons of the Bastille, and left them there without accusation or trial during his high pleasure— often for life because such was the royal decree, or because the hapless prisoner was forgotten by| his gaolers and left to die and rot in durance vile. The ' lettres de cachet ' have lately been revived in the French army as part of the Radical-Socialist crusalde against God and religion in the Third Republic.

During his long reign of two-and-seventy years Louis XIV. issued some nine thousand of those red-sealed outrages upon the legal rights and natural liberties of his Subjects. In one short year alone the chiefs of the Grand Orient— tihe instruments chosen by the French War Office for 'this new torm of military espionage and tyranny— issued no fewer than twelve thousand ' lettrea de cachet.' The difference between the old style and the new is by no means 1 a radical one. Under the Freemason rqgiaie the ' lcttrcs dc cachet ' are intended to ' break ' and ostracise all officers of the army, n 0 matter what their qualifications may -be, if they or any of t/heir relatives or associates dare to commit the high crime of practising the religion of their fathers. All this is an outrage upon indefeasible personal right, amd an act of high treason against the best interests of the State, whose final resort arid last argument in the day of need is its army.

Underneath we give a few samples of the modern ' lettres de cachet ' which show how French Freemasjonry has been using the system of espionage to block the promotion of Catholic officers in the army. The following are a few of the ' fiches ' or secret reports sent, by special arrangement, by the Grand Orient to tJhe heads of the French War Office :— ' Virot, Captain 152 nd Regiment of Infantry. Nationalist, ultra-clerical. Belongs to all the Catholic religious works. Wife collects for the St. Joseph School. * Cornulier de Luciniere. General commanding the 11th Dmsion at Nancy. Has a son in a religious institution at Rlheims. Moreover, his daughter shortly goes Unto a convent. 1 Remy. Major artillery. Two daughters in a religildus institution. Wife busies herself with all the parish works of the Cure of St. Sebastien. 'De Balaimcourt. Captain 149 th Regiment of Infantry. Jesuit. Son at Jesuit College. Says' would prefer to be English, so ashamed oE events in France. Absolutely worthless." 1 Commandant Bonnan (at Bruyeres), J L.C. (Will cause himself to be recommended by General Bonnal.) Fanatically clerical. Started in at Bruyeres by going solemnly to church with all his family. Owing to his influence all the officers and non-coms, have started assiduously going to church. Wife teaches catechism at the sqhool maintained by the Sisters of Mercy.' Among the officers of the garrison of Auxcmne (Cote dOr), Colonel Delor is denounced for ' going very regularly to Mass ' and being ' a great friend of. the parish priest of Auxojtne ' ; Lieutenant-Colonel Parseval's 'fiche' accuses him, of having ' made himself ridiculous at the cantonment of Fauverney (Cote dOr) in 1839 by falling on his knees when a procession was passing ' ; Commandant de Crechu is reported adversely upon because he is ' a Bretofci and a strong Cathojic ; goeis often 1 ; to Mass, is a member ot the Society of St. Vincent de Paul ' ; Captain 'Bl,andm de Chalain is ' a former studehit-of the Jesuits at Dole ' ; Lieutenant-Colonel dc Malvoue ' goes to Mass ' ; Lieutenant-Colonel div Manoir de Juaye is ' President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at Auxonne ' ; Commandant Saverot ' goes to Mass.' General Mayiniel, of the garrison of Dole (Jura) is ' a practical Catholic ; goes - regularly to Mass.' Colonel Muiron, of St. Brieue, is thus described in the report of the Freemason spy : ' All his ohiklren at religitous schools ; himself never misses a Mass. l,n spite of lihis, shows himself paternal to his men. Sometimes severe, but always just. Not so easily led, and works very hard.' Colonel dv Cor de Duprat is denounced because it is alleged that his daughter will make a collection for the completion of a Carmelite chapel. And so on and on. All of the many thousands of officers affected by these and such-like secret and oftentimes malicious reports were marked for promotion ; but on receipt of the Freemason ' lettres de cachet ' by the War Office, they were at once, without trial, investigation, or further report, struck oft ; to the last man, from the list and superseded by younger and probably less able men.

Tihese facts are proved in the French Chamber of Deputies by an overwhelming mass of documentary evidence. They are open, notorious, undenied, and undeni-

able. They constitute One of the graved and' most farreaching military and administrative scandals of which history bears a record. Yet up to the present moment so far as we are aware, not a solitary secular newspaper m New Zealand has so much as hinted at this great Continental sensation. A few years ago they shrieked and ' tore around ' w.hen they thought, or professed to Unnk, that the heads of the French army were doing an injustice to Dreyfus because he was a Jew. Now they are ignobly silent in Uh e face of the vast ooriy oi admitted documentary proof that the French War Office has < broken ■ thousands of French officers merely because they or their relatives profess the Catholic faith Ihe Paris; -correspondent of the London • Daily Telegraph tells how, in a recent trial at the Palais de cISS Ce tn PatiS ' "' Gustave a Freemason, declined to swear • the whole trait*.' « The case you are now trying,' said he in explanation of his refusal, 'has already been tried before the Grand Orient. ; One of the principal persons iv the case has' been declared innocent before that Court, -and every brother has been enjoined unless I am released by this person' from my Masonic ?n £.i £ USt fc ° b , ey thiS ° rder - >l therefof e cannot swear to tell the whole truth.' The Masorfic dignitaries, to whom, he pealed, refused to release him frohrhis oath, and Ma.tre Labori, in the midst of an astonished court cxcl al med : 'So there is an occult jurisdiction abotve your jurisdiction, secret justice above your justice, oocult justice more powerful than legal justice. And we have come to this, that when witnesses appear be sworn, this jurisdiction weighs on their conscienies and presents their telling the truth. I confess that I am deeply moved, as the future of France will end by being anected, as all the honor of justice will be ruined. 1

The ' occult jurisdiction ' of the Grand 'Orient has introduced a penal code into the French army, kay we not assume that it is also responsible for the- ' cold charm of silence ' that has fallen Upon" New' Zealand secular journalism in regard to the great military scandal that has sihakon France from end to end ?