IN THE AISNE--_continued_
LAON
The lofty hill on which the Sires de Coucy planted their chief fortress
rises above the fields and forests of the Soissonnais as the Mont
St.-Michel rises above the waves and the sands of the Norman coast.
The narrow streets and quaint old houses of the little town of
Coucy-le-Château are huddled around the outworks of the colossal castle,
almost as closely as are the climbing streets and the terraced houses of
St.-Michel around the martial monastery; and each of these two places
is, in its own kind, unique.
I had been strongly recommended to pass the night when I visited the
château, not in the little city itself, though it boasts a 'Hôtel des
Ruines,' but at a little wayside inn, rather indeed a restaurant and a
baiting-place for travellers by the highway than an inn, which stands at
the foot of the hill of Coucy. I took the advice, and had no cause to
repent it. The walk up the hill, of some two miles, to the tower and the
castle was simply delightful on a fine afternoon in June. Opposite my
little inn is a small and rather dilapidated château of the eighteenth
century, which originally must have been a very pleasant residence; and
in the extensive meadows about it were grazing a number of fine cattle,
the property of M. de Vaublanche. 'He is the only man hereabouts who
takes any trouble with his beasts,' said my cheery, athletic young
host, and leading the way for me into the meadows, he pointed out the
princes of the herd, all of them really fine animals of the best French
breeds, with as much pride as if he had been the owner. 'It gives more
pleasure to see these--does it not, sir?--than to look at yonder dead
chimney,' he said, pointing to some extensive sugarworks, all closed and
deserted, on the other side of the road. The sugar crisis has been very
sharp here, as in other parts of France, and many smokeless chimneys are
to be seen here as in other departments.
An embattled gateway of the thirteenth century welcomes the traveller
now with its open arch as he approaches the town of Coucy, and the best
views of the château are to be got from the road as you climb up the
long ascent.
In the quaint little town the house is still carefully preserved, and
the chamber itself religiously kept in order, in which, on June 7, 1594,
Gabrielle d'Estrées gave birth to a son destined afterwards to make his
mark in the military annals of France as César, Duc de Vendôme. An
inscription on a tablet in the wall thus commemorates his advent into
the world: 'In this chamber was born, and in the chamber above was
baptized, the legitimised son of France, de Vendôme, a prince of very
good hopes, the child of the most Christian, most magnanimous, most
invincible, and most clement King of France and of Navarre, Henry IV.,
and of Gabrielle d'Estrées, Duchesse de Beaufort.'
Not far from this house is the ancient belfry of Coucy, wherein swings a
bell of dolorous prestige, the tradition of Coucy averring that,
whenever a citizen of Coucy is about to die, this bell tolls of itself,
and is heard by him alone.
Doubtless the communal schoolmaster will ere long drive this tradition
out of the mind of the rising generation in Coucy. If so I trust, though
I hardly expect, that he will drive out with it another and more
mischievous tradition, born within the precincts of the ancient castle.
Not once, but a dozen times, this year in different parts of France, I
have seen allusions made, in political journals, to the monstrous right
which the seigneurs of old possessed and exercised of hanging small boys
for snaring and killing rabbits within their parks and woods. The old
game laws of France, like the old game laws, and indeed like many other
old laws, of England and of other countries, were not over-mild. Was not
a woman first strangled and then burned in England for 'coining' in the
year 1789, while the States-General were performing at Paris their
fantastic overture to the ghastly drama of the Terror? Yet England in
1789 knew a great deal more of personal liberty than France knows now in
1889. The tradition of the seignorial right of hanging boys for killing
rabbits originated, it is probable, with Enguerrand IV., Sire de Coucy,
of whom it is told that, exasperated by three young lads, scholars of
the monastic school of Saint-Nicolas-aux-Bois, whom he found shooting at
rabbits and hares in his woods with bows and arrows, he had the lads
seized and hanged. So far from doing this within his seignorial rights,
however, was the Sire de Coucy, that the monks proceeded against him
vigorously, and Saint-Louis had him arrested for it, and was with much
difficulty restrained by the barons of the realm from hanging him in his
turn. He was only pardoned on very severe conditions, one of which was
that he should do penance for a number of years in his own castle of
Coucy, where, the chroniclers tell us, he died 'in shame and
repentance.' His successor, Enguerrand V., took the matter so much to
heart that he led the life of an anchorite at Coucy, and had himself
buried in the Abbey of Prémontré near the doorway; like Alonzo de Ojeda
the Conquistador, the slab upon whose grave I saw some years ago at the
entrance of the ruined church of San Francisco in Santo Domingo, with an
inscription reciting that he was there laid to rest, by his own request,
as a great sinner, upon whose ashes all who passed should tread.
Tortuous little streets lead through the town of Coucy into a great
green space which commands the castle. It is approached from the new and
rather pretentious lodge in which the keeper of the castle now resides,
through one of the finest and loftiest avenues in France. But the
tallest trees are dwarfed by the gigantic donjon tower. This rises to a
height still of at least 180 feet. It is 150 feet in circumference at
the base, and slopes very gradually to the summit. The hall on the
ground floor measures more than forty feet in diameter, the walls being
of enormous thickness. Over one of the doorways is a defaced bas-relief
representing a lion attacked and slain by Enguerrand I. de Coucy. The
chimney-place in the ground floor hall would make a very respectable
modern house, and there is a well within the hall said to be of unknown
depth. The donjon consists of three storeys above the ground floor, the
main hall on the first floor being particularly remarkable for its
height. The vaulted ceiling of this hall must have been very fine, and
throughout it is apparent that the builders of the Château de Coucy had
the comfort of the inmates and a certain stately elegance of effect much
more in mind than was common with the builders of castles in the
thirteenth century. The walls at the summit are more than nine feet
thick, and they were doubtless surmounted originally with a great
circular gallery of wood covered in with a roof. The Sires de Coucy,
like other crusaders, doubtless brought back all manner of rich carpets
and stuffs from the East, and with these and the wonderful carved chests
and massive woodwork of the time the Château de Coucy may well have been
a much more agreeable place of abode than, from our modern acquaintance
with their winding stone stairways and denuded walls, we are apt to
imagine these great feudal fortresses to have been.
The views from the summit now are simply superb. The vast forests over
which Enguerrand, the builder, gazed, seeking out the sites on which he
planted so many strongholds--(it is known that besides Coucy he erected
at least eight other castles, from Folembray to Saint-Lambert)--have
been replaced in great part by fertile fields and smiling towns. But the
land is still richly wooded. Far down, in a little wilderness beneath
us, the guardian pointed out to me an odd edifice looking like a
combination of a modern Gothic church with a seaside villa. This, he
told me, was the residence of a distinguished artist of Paris, who
passes a part of every year in this region, making studies of forest
scenery. Beyond this, in a large park, is a château of the Marquis de la
Châtaigneraie, once a part of the domain of Coucy.
The enceinte of the château is of enormous extent. The solidity of the
walls and the towers resisted so successfully the mines and pickaxes of
Richelieu that the great outlines of the immense building are still
easily definable, with fine traces of the architecture of the great
chapel. That St.-Louis and Henry IV. visited Coucy we know, and the
guardian was good enough to give me very minute and particular
information as to the chambers which they occupied.
He was a curious fellow, this guardian, an Alsatian immigrant, he
informed me. The people here, he thought, were not so much pleased as
they ought to be that the Government had given him the place, which
brings him in 400 francs a year, with the lodge I have mentioned for a
residence, and the right to all the crops of any kind he can raise on
the land attached to the château. He was then cutting the grass, which
grew very well within the precincts of the château. But he took great
pains to impress upon me that he was doing this, not so much for the
sake of the hay he expected to make as for the accommodation of visitors
like myself, 'to make the ground pleasanter to walk upon.'
This was an attention which no right-minded person could fail to
recognise with a _pour-boire_, particularly as the worthy guardian
complained of the extremely poor quality of the wine grown about Coucy.
I told him I had always heard that King Francis I. insisted on having
his wine sent to him from this place. 'Ah!' he replied, 'in those days
what did they know about good wine?'
The rooks in countless numbers were flying and cawing all over the
beautiful old place. 'I have tried to kill these birds,' said the
guardian wearily. 'They destroy my peas. But the cartridges cost too
much, and I have had to give it up.' He had been in his place four
months. I might think it very pleasant seeing it in June. But if I could
see it in February, with the wind howling 'through the tall trees and
around the huge tower!'
On my return to my neat little hostelry my host came out to meet me. 'He
had just heard that four councillors-general, on their way home from a
meeting, would like to dine at his house. Would I object to their dining
with me--there was no other good room?' Naturally I was only too glad to
share the room and the dinner with them. A very good dinner it was too.
'Men learn to cook, but are born to roast.' My host's cook was born to
roast both fat chickens and a capital leg of mutton. One of the
councillors-general, when they drove up, went out into the kitchen to
examine and report upon the outlook. He came back presently rubbing his
hands together with glee. 'Admirable!' he exclaimed; 'it will be a
Belshazzar's feast--a superb leg of mutton, truly superb!'
'The first green peas of the season here!' said our host, coming in with
them. 'You will see if they are good. They come late here, the green
peas, but you see what they are when they do come.'
The four councillors-general were all Republicans. One of them, a
country banker, as I learned, was a trifle sarcastic about the prospects
of the party. 'They are too soft,' he said, 'at Paris. They lack wrist.
They do not hit hard enough. What we want is a man; where are we to find
him?' Another, a tall grey-bearded man, an attorney, agreed with the
banker as to the 'softness' of the authorities. 'I am a Republican of
yesterday,' he said. 'I remember, under the Empire, how, when I spoke at
Chauny, I spoke with a gendarme at the table behind me, and a couple of
spies in the hall. That is what we should have now in these meetings
where they abuse the Republic.' I observed that while this councillor,
by the way, always spoke of 'the Republic,' the banker as invariably
spoke of 'the Republican party.' They both agreed, however, and their
companions agreed with them, that the real want was the 'want of a man.'
'The President is doing well though,' said the grey-bearded 'Republican
of yesterday.' 'He is beginning to stand out against the horizon, is he
not?' The others were not so sure of this, and then there arose a most
lively and singularly outspoken exchange of views as to the different
leaders of the Republican party. It would be hardly fair for me to cite
these; but one remark made by the banker, in regard to a very
conspicuous political personage, amused me. 'Yes,' he said in reply to
one of his companions: 'yes; ---- is skilful--very skilful--but he has no
foresight. Would you trust him with your pocket-book? No!' 'Oh certainly
not!'
It seemed they had been attending a conference about agriculture. They
were all agreed as to the existence of 'an agricultural crisis,' but
beyond that they seemed to be at sea. One councillor was quite sure that
the thing to be done was to get the farmers to use cattle instead of
horses in their work. The cattle cost less, worked as well, and they
could be killed for beef. They were also more valuable as fertilisers.
Upon this another councillor, apparently the only agriculturist of the
company, went into a disquisition on chemical fertilisers and the
scientific applications of them.
'I never believed in these chemicals,' he said, 'till last year. But
last year I was in my fields, talking with my neighbour So-and-so, who
has spent I know not how much on these chemicals. He went away with his
men after a while, and I saw they had been applying their chemicals to a
field sown like mine. An idea occurred to me. I went and brought a
basket. I stepped across into their field and took a certain quantity of
their chemicals. These I applied in a particular part of my field. Do
you know the plants came up there wonderfully--but really quite
wonderfully! There is no doubt there is a good deal in these chemicals!
But one should test them first!'
After dinner we sate out in front of the little inn for a time with our
coffee. There was a good deal of coming and going, a tremendous
clattering about of children in little wooden _sabots_, and much
good-natured 'chaff' between the people of the inn, who came out to
take the air after their day's work, and the passers-by. There seems to
be little in the peasants here of that positive _morgue_, not to say
arrogance, which marks the demeanour of their class in the western parts
of France. There are regions in Brittany where the carriage of the
peasants towards the 'bourgeois' gives reality and zest to the old story
of the _ci-devant_ noble who called a particularly insolent varlet to
order in the days of the first Revolution by saying to him: 'Nay,
friend, you will be good enough to remember that we are living in a
republic, and that I am your equal!'
There was the most perfect civility and amiableness even in the
interchange of not very delicate pleasantries between the people at
Coucy. 'Don't go too near the butcher's shop!' called out one of the
ostlers to a man with whom he had been talking as the latter drove off
in his cart. 'Ah! you won't eat me, if I do,' the other replied; 'it
would cost you too much!' An old farmer who sate sipping his _petit
verre_ near me, explained to me that the man was a resident of Barisis,
a little village not very far off, the dwellers in which from time
immemorial have been known as 'the pigs of Barisis.' 'Try and pick up a
husband on the way,' another of the stable lads called out after a
pretty girl who paused with a companion, as she went by the place, to
chat with him--'try and pick up a husband on the way and we'll keep the
wedding feast here!' 'Ah bah!' the damsel rejoined in a merry voice,
'more marryers come your way than ours. Tie up the first one that comes
and keep him for me!' This quickness to catch and return the ball
certainly shows a greater natural or acquired alertness of mind among
these Picard peasants than is commonly found in people of the same
condition in rural England.
The country all the way from Coucy to Laon is one continuous garden, and
Laon itself is pre-eminently a city set on a hill. The Château de Coucy
stands upon its pinnacle of rock, like a knight in armour, with folded
arms, looking loftily down upon the world, conscious of his strength,
and calmly awaiting attack. The fortress-city of Laon, a fortress from
the earliest Roman days, looks out from the promontory on which it
stands, over the wide expanse of plain beyond and around it, like an
advanced sentinel, watchful and alert.
You go up to it by long flights of steps, as in the case of so many
high-perched Italian towns, and the fine winding carriage-way which has
been constructed around the hill, commands, from beneath the beautiful
trees by which it is shaded, a series of the finest imaginable views. It
has suffered much, of course, from war, and not a little from the
revolutionists. But its magnificent cathedral and the ancient palace of
the bishop-dukes, now occupied by the courts of justice, have fared
better than many other monuments. For some time past, however, the
cathedral has been undergoing repairs, which is as much as to say that
the interior is practically hidden from the eye by a maze of scaffolds
and hoardings and ladders. Mr. Ruskin somewhere complains, not wholly
without reason, that 'the French are always doing something to their
cathedrals,' and the complaint is in order now both as to Laon and as to
Nantes. No one can tell when the fine recumbent statue of Raoul de
Coucy, who fell at Mansourah by the side of St.-Louis, will again be
visible at Laon, or the matchless tomb of the Duchesse Anne at Nantes.
Here, as in the region around Chauny and Coucy, I was struck with the
extreme good-nature and simplicity of the people. Through the narrow,
old-fashioned streets went the town-crier with his bell, calling
'Attention! attention! attention!' announcing an auction sale of
furniture after the old custom which existed in some old American towns
quite down to the middle of the present century.
The people were at their trades in the street, as in the Italian towns,
shoemakers hammering at their lasts, ironworkers banging and thumping
away. When I had found the house of a gentleman whom I wished to see, in
the beautiful old cathedral close, and had rung in vain a dozen times at
the bell, a courteous passer-by paused, and asked me if I wished to find
M.----. 'Eh!' he said, 'the house is shut up because he is in the
country for the day. I think he will be here to-morrow; but if you will
come with me I will show you a little inn not far from here where I know
you will find his coachman, who can tell you exactly when he will
return.'
How long would a stranger have to ring at the door of a house in an
English cathedral town before it would occur to anybody passing to stop
and thus enlighten him?
With all their kindness and good-nature, however, the people of Laon are
not lukewarm in politics. I found a hairdresser, the local Figaro, a
raging Boulangist. 'He had served in Tonkin; he had seen, with his own
eyes seen the soldiers robbed and starved and left to die. He had seen,
with his own eyes seen the Government people taking huge "wine-pots"
from the natives. It was _infecte_! And the governor Richaud, whom they
called back to France because he wished to expose the way in which his
predecessor had taken thousands of francs and a diamond belt from the
king of Cambodia, Norodom. I had surely heard of that?'
I certainly had heard of that, for all France rang with the exposure
made of it in the Chamber of Deputies--that is to say, all France rang
with it for a couple of days.
'Yes! that is true. Paris forgets everything in a day, and Monsieur is
speaking of Paris; but here in Laon we do not forget; Monsieur will see.
Was it natural, I ask, Monsieur, that of all the people on board of the
ship which was bringing back M. Richaud to France--he, only he, and his
valet, his Chinese valet--I ask was it natural only they two should on
the ocean have the cholera, and die? Was it natural? And if they died
was that a reason why all the effects, all the papers--note that,
Monsieur--all the papers of M. Richaud, the papers to prove that
corruption exists there in Tonkin, should be thrown overboard, all
thrown into the sea? Yes! and on what pretext? To save the rest of the
ship from the cholera! Is it transparent, that? No! we must have
Boulanger!'
'The light must be let in; we must have the light!'
'Were there many people of Figaro's mind in Laon and in the Department?'
'If there are many? You will see, Monsieur; here in the Aisne we shall
elect the greatest friend of General Boulanger. Monsieur does not know
him? M. Castelin--André Castelin. Ah! he is strong, Castelin! He was in
Africa with General Boulanger. He was there with the General when he put
his hand on that governor of Tunis, that Cambon, the brother, Monsieur
knows, of that Cambon who was a deputy? Castelin saw the General at work
in Tunis. He is with him, he will be with him in the new Chamber. We
shall elect Castelin, and then--you will see!'
My notes of Figaro's very clear and positive talk in the summer are not
without interest to me now when I revise them in the autumn. For Figaro
prophesied truly, and the Department of the Aisne certainly did elect
M. André Castelin to be one of its Deputies at Paris.
Another worthy citizen of Laon with whom I talked in his shop, a
shoemaker, while much less confident than Figaro as to the results of
the elections, was quite as positive in his hostility to the Government.
It is the tendency of shoemakers all over the world, within my
observations, to be extreme Radicals. The shoemakers of Lynn in
Massachusetts long ago were the advanced guard, I remember, of the
Abolitionists. They were the strength of the 'Old Org.--' the 'old
organisation'--enemies of slavery, as slavery, without compromise or
hesitation. Every man of them was as ready as the Simple Cobbler of
Agawam to tackle any problem, terrestrial or celestial, at a moment's
notice. It was idle to cite _ne sutor_ to them in matters of art or of
politics, of science or of theology. My shoemaker of Laon was less of a
fanatic, but not less of a philosopher, than his brethren of Lynn. He
was opposed to the Republic, but he was equally opposed to the monarchy.
He had his idea; it was that government must be abolished, and the
affairs of the country carried on by committees of experts. He liked the
law authorising professional syndicates; there he thought was the germ
of the true system. The professional syndicates should nominate the
experts, each syndicate the experts in its own business. These should
meet, settle the general necessary budget, recommend measures. Then the
people, in their communes, should act upon all this. It was his system.
It would be long to develop. He was not a man to write or to speak, but
he thought.
As to the present situation he bitterly condemned the Exposition. It was
a mistake, for it brought all the world to see the progress of France
and to steal the French ideas. It also took too many people to Paris;
that was good for the railways. But Proudhon long ago was right; the
railways were the new feudal system; they were the enemy more than
clericalism. Then see to what corruption this Exposition led. Had I not
seen the votes, the credits given to the Ministers for entertaining?
'Ah! it was monstrous!' With this he drew a paper out of his pocket; he
had it all there, with the dates and the figures. 'Observe, Monsieur,
here, on April 6, the Chamber votes one million of francs--yes, one
million of francs to be allowed for dinners, for balls, for punches, for
I know not what, to the Ministers--only to the Ministers! How many are
they? Ten! Yes! one hundred thousand francs to each of them for eating
and drinking during the famous Exposition! Only there are some who get
more, some who get less. That little watchmaker Tirard, they give him
250,000 francs! Did he ever earn 250,000 francs in his life? Never! and
will they spend all this money on dinners and punches? No, never in
life! It is just simply to pocket a million of the money of the people!'
That the political contest will be sharp in Laon I am assured by a
friend who is thoroughly familiar with the whole machinery of politics
in this department of the Aisne. Laon, it seems, is the true
headquarters of the freemasonry of this department, and in the Aisne, to
use his language, 'the freemasons are the Government.' 'I mean this,' he
said, 'in a more extensive sense than you may, perhaps, be disposed to
accept. You will find, I think, if the Government secures a majority in
the next Chamber, that the Aisne will have a good deal to say in the
organisation of the Chamber. Then, perhaps, you will understand the true
meaning of that letter of M. Allain-Targé, of which you heard at Chauny.
There is a pretty comedy under it, for M. Allain-Targé, remember, is a
freemason!
'It would be very amusing, but we taxpayers have to pay too much for the
play. What you were told at Chauny about the freemasons in the
department was quite true. Only you did not get the whole of the truth.
Look at the press of the department! You saw at Chauny the building of
the local journal there, _La Défense Nationale_'?
Certainly I had seen it, for it is the most conspicuous and the newest
edifice in the main street of Chauny, and so glorious with golden
letters that I took it for a great insurance office.
'Very well; that journal is under the control of a Brother of the Order,
a hatter at Chauny, M. Bugnicourt. Here, at Laon, the _Tribune_, the
chief Republican organ of the department, is entirely in the hands of
the Order. The chairman of the publishing company is Brother Dupuy. Go
on towards Hirson by the railway and you will come to the busy little
town of Vervins. Brother Dupuy sits in the Chamber of Deputies for
Vervins, and at Vervins Brother Dupuy owns and prints another journal,
_Le Libéral de Vervins_. The political director of the _Tribune_ here at
Laon is Brother Doumer. Brother Doumer, as you know, is also a Deputy!
And how did he become a Deputy? Let me tell you. It is an instructive
story, and you will find M. Allain-Targé at work in it--that excellent
man who will not make promises to the electors which he cannot keep.'
'In the winter of 1888, M. Ringuier, a Deputy from the second
circumscription of Laon, unexpectedly died. The Order at once determined
to capture his seat. With Brother Allain-Targé as Prefect, what could be
easier? M. Allain-Targé hastened the new election almost indecently.
Hardly a fortnight after the death of M. Ringuier, early in March 1888,
the Brethren came up from all quarters to Laon, and it was announced
that Brother Doumer had received the orthodox Republican nomination. Of
course, with the préfecture and the freemason press of Laon, Chauny,
Soissons, Château Thierry, Vervins, behind him, Doumer was elected. This
year he will find it harder work, for all the opposition will be
concentrated in support of Castelin, the friend of Boulanger. Brother
Allain-Targé is no longer prefect, but his secretary, another Brother,
Huc (no kinsman of the famous Abbé), is sub-prefect at Soissons, and the
Brethren all over the department help each other in every
circumscription. They are very strong among the Revenue officers, and
that, as you will easily understand, gives them and the Order generally
a very important invisible leverage! I could tell you now of a Brother
at Soissons whom they mean to put into the Chamber. They knew his money
value; they have got him into their shop. He is as stupid as he is
rich--just as fit to be a deputy as to command the garrison of Paris.
But they will get him nominated, and then the Government will get him
elected, and then he will do the bidding of Brother Doumer and the
others, to help them to put pressure on the ministers and on the
President, and be helped by them to recoup himself, in one way or
another, for all the cash advances he will make before he is elected.'
Laon sends two deputies to the Chamber. My friend's opinion in August
was that the Opposition now control the city, and that both of these
seats would be carried against the Government. The event proved that he
was right. He was right, too, as to the outlook at Château Thierry, the
charming birthplace of La Fontaine, on the road to Epernay. There he
expected to see the Republican candidate who sat in the late Chamber, M.
Lesguillier, hold his seat against the monarchical candidate, M. de
Mandat-Grancey, the author of a well-known and interesting book on
Ireland, _Chez Paddy_. M. de Mandat-Grancey is a landed proprietor who
has taken an active and successful part in promoting the improvement of
the breed of horses in this country. He is a man of liberal ideas as
well as a man of enterprise, and in the present agricultural 'crisis,'
of which one hears so much in France, such men would certainly be of use
in the Chamber. But at Château Thierry, according to my friend,
'everything is organised by the freemasons. They control a journal
there, the _Avenir de l'Aisne_. The mayor, M. Morlot, is a freemason.
Another freemason, an ex-deputy, M. Deville, wields great influence
there. You will see that the recent deputy, who is an insignificant
person, will be re-elected, and that M. de Mandat-Grancey, who would be
of use, will be beaten.'
'Perhaps because he is an avowed monarchist,' I replied, 'and the people
may be Republicans,'
My friend looked at me for a moment. 'Are you speaking seriously?'
Of course I was.
'Well, then, that astonishes me! Can you possibly suppose, after all you
have seen and known of France, that the people in a place like Château
Thierry are such simpletons as to believe that it makes the slightest
difference what name you give to a government? They leave that sort of
thing to the journalists and the village actors! They have long memories
in the provinces! And they judge governments, not at all by their names,
but by their men. They know the functionaries by heart. "Not much of a
government," they say to one another, "that sends us so and so!"
'In this region the Empire is still very popular, thanks mainly to this.
No! outside of the influence of the freemasons, which will be exerted
against him through the pressure put upon the friends and families of
the small army of government employés, and will therefore be formidable,
what M. de Mandat-Grancey will have most to fear will be not the
preference of the people for the Republic--for that, I tell you, does
not exist--but the indiscreet zeal of some of the clergy in his behalf.
'It is natural the clergy should wish to be rid of this persecuting gang
at Paris, and of these disgusting freemasons--quite natural. But they do
not always remember one peculiarity of our peasants. There is a great
love for the _culte_ here among our people--a very great love for it;
but they do not like to be meddled with in politics by the curés or the
priests. They will vote for the curé if the curé lets them alone. But if
he bothers them about it they are much more likely to vote against him.
'If Constans knows his business he will tell that freemason Thévenot,
the Keeper of the Seals, to let the curés and the clergy do all they
feel disposed to do in politics. Pardie, I am not sure he has not
already been suborning some of our curés to go into a conservative
propaganda!'
'This is my great fear,' he added presently, 'for Soissons in September.
We ought to carry that seat. The freemasons mean to make the Republicans
accept a most absurd candidate there, as I have told you, and if we can
only keep some of our clerical friends quiet, we shall beat him. But we
shall see! If the curés hurt us sometimes by their over-zeal, on the
other hand the Republican deputies and functionaries help us by making
the Republic disreputable in the eyes of serious people, and that in all
classes of society.
'Look at the working-men, for example, here in Laon. There are a good
many of them who know M. Doumer much better since he became a deputy
than they knew him when he was first a candidate!
'The question of the Sociétés Ouvrières is a question which means a good
deal for the working-men. M. Doumer would have been well advised had he
let it alone. But no! M. Doumer gets himself appointed to draw up a
Report of the Chamber of Deputies on this question, with a Project of a
Law to supersede, modify, extend the Law of 1867, under which
co-operative societies have so far grown up in France.
'The Report and the Project, as finally edited by the aspiring deputy
for Laon, a freemason as I have told you, are to be printed by another
freemason, the worthy hatter, M. Bugnicourt, at Chauny, who is the chief
personage of the _Défense Nationale_, and all the voters are to see how
Brother Doumer devotes himself to the interests of the working classes,
at Paris, while other deputies go about amusing themselves with the
_danseuses du ventre_, and the other marvels of the Exposition.
'This is all very well.
'But Brother Doumer, in his desire to pose before the voters of the
Aisne as the heaven-born deputy in whom the working-man may put his
trust, takes the trouble to make it quite clear that the Republic has
done absolutely nothing but appoint committees to sit upon "the great
question" of co-operation among the working classes!
'Brother Doumer, as I have told you, was made a deputy in 1888. After
taking his seat he was made a member of the Committee which has been
conducting an "extra-parliamentary enquiry" on the subject of
co-operative societies among working-men for work and for production,
and with the question of contracts between employers and working-men
for participation in the profits of industrial enterprises.
'This committee, he says in his Report, took the matter in hand in 1883,
and spent _five years_ over it, getting its project of a law on these
subjects into shape only in 1888, on the eve of the election of a new
Chamber of Deputies!
'During these five long years, according to Brother Doumer, the Republic
was content to let co-operation among working-men take its chances under
a law passed in 1867, under the Second Empire. And yet, according still
to Brother Doumer, the idea of co-operation among the working classes
was an exclusively French idea, and not only an exclusively French idea,
but an idea which came to birth only under the Republic of 1848 (he
glides silently over the famous experiment of the National workshops of
1848). Is it not really remarkable that the Republicans of 1879 should
have been willing to leave this "beautiful and generous" idea at the
mercy of a law passed by the Empire, and which--still according to
Brother Doumer--left the co-operative societies of working-men without
privileges, without favour, and with no particular facilities for
constituting themselves and for keeping themselves alive?
'I say the "Republicans of 1879" advisedly, for you will see, if you
look at page 5 of this delightful Report, that--still according to
Brother Doumer--we really had no republic, in fact, in France till 1879.
These are his own words; "the Republic, having been reconstituted,
(after the fall of the Empire) _first in name_, and afterwards in fact,
a new impulse was given to co-operation. The ill-will towards all
societies of working-men of the Governments of May 21 and of May 16,
retarded the movement. It was only in 1879 that, the wounds of the
country having been healed and liberty reconquered, we had leisure to
occupy ourselves with the question of the organisation of labour."
'Is not this charming? Really, when one remembers what the "wounds of
the country" were in 1871, and how those "wounds" were got first through
the collapse of the wretched Government of the National Defence, and
then through the Commune of Paris, the Governments of May 21 and May 16
may be credited with having done a good piece of work by "healing those
wounds" and by "reconquering liberty." Is not this plain?
'But the "wounds having been healed," and "liberty having been
reconquered," the true Republic, still according to Brother Doumer, was
set free in 1879, to occupy itself with the question of the organisation
of labour. Very good.
'1879! that is ten years ago! And only in 1888 do we find the Republic
really occupying itself, in the person of Brother Doumer, with this
great question, this beautiful and generous idea! How very odd! And what
a strange coincidence that Brother Doumer, elected a deputy by the grace
of the freemasons in 1888, and wishing to be re-elected a deputy by
their grace in 1889, should be the man of destiny called upon to solve
this great question!
'He makes this perfectly plain!
'Two Ministers of Public Works, M. de Freycinet and M. Sadi Carnot,' he
blandly observes, 'studied measures which might be taken in view of
facilitating the concession to societies of working-men of certain
public works!
'Ah! This is hard upon M. de Freycinet and M. Sadi Carnot, now President
of the ideal Republic! They "studied," did they, "measures which might
be taken"! But they never took any such measures! Oh, no! not they!'
'So the first year of the "true Republic" went by, and still
co-operation languished under the Imperial law of 1867. Then in 1880
came M. de Lacretelle, who "presented to the Chambers a proposed law
tending" to the same end which M. de Freycinet and M. Sadi Carnot had so
unprofitably "studied"! Of course the Chamber eagerly adopted it? Not at
all! It was never discussed!
'Two years thrown away by the true Republic!
'Then in 1881 M. Floquet (now the favourite candidate of Brother Doumer
for the Presidency of the Chamber if the Republicans carry the elections
of 1889), being made Prefect of the Seine, had a great impulse! "He
wished to revive the decree of 1848 as to that department." Excellent
man! But he did not in fact revive it! He did what he could. He
"appointed a Committee to study the question!" And this studious
Committee eventually evolved--what? "A new schedule of prices for the
public works of the City of Paris, which favoured co-operative societies
and contractors whose workmen were to participate in their profits!"
'So the fourth year of the true Republic began, and found the "beautiful
and generous idea" still prostrate under the Imperial law of 1867!
'In 1882, still according to Brother Doumer, two deputies, M. Ballue
backed by several colleagues, and M. Laroche-Joubert heroically rushed
before the Chamber, each with a proposed law "tending" (how all these
laws "tend"!) to make it obligatory upon all contractors for public
works to give their workmen a share in their profits! But the Chamber
paid no heed, and the fourth year of the true Republic ended, leaving
the "beautiful and generous idea" still under the iron heel of the
Imperial law of 1867!
'Then came March 20, 1883, and the Minister of the Interior rose at last
to the height of his mission. He took it upon himself to issue a
decree--instituting what? An extra-parliamentary committee to "study"
the question of working-men's associations, and if, and how, they should
be admitted to take part in the public works of the State!'
'Bravo!'
'And the committee was appointed. It consisted' (it is still Brother
Doumer who speaks) "of directors and high functionaries of all the
ministerial departments." It went to work. It heard "a great number of
witnesses." It also showed conclusively "how complex was the question,
_and how urgent the necessity of a solution_."'
'What then happened?'
'The committee immediately went to sleep!
'"_After an interruption_ of more than a year" (it is still Brother
Doumer who speaks), "_the extra-parliamentary committee resumed its
sittings, on January_ 16, 1885!"
'Six years of the true Republic having now been spent in these desperate
efforts to deal with the "beautiful and generous idea," and the election
of a new Chamber being imminent for the autumn of 1885, M.
Waldeck-Rousseau, Minister of the Interior, proceeded to lay before the
re-awakened committee--what? A project of a law to relieve the
co-operative idea from the crushing weight of the Imperial law of 1867?
Not a bit of it!
'He proceeded (it is still Brother Doumer who speaks!) to lay before the
Committee "_a summary of the studies upon which it ought to enter_!"
'According to Brother Doumer this "summary" was truly grand and even
"vast." But alas! "the general elections," says Brother Doumer, sadly,
"and afterwards successive ministerial crises, _suspended the inquiry
during more than two years_! It was only in 1888 that the
extra-parliamentary committee resumed its labours!"
'The Universal Exposition of 1889 was then organising and
organising--let me ask you not for a moment to forget--with a specific
eye, not so much to the "principles of 1789," about which our worthy
ministers care as much as they do about the Edict of Nantes or the
philosophy of Pascal, as to the Legislative elections of 1889!
'So what did the extra-parliamentary committee do in this _ninth year_
of the one "true Republic" for the "beautiful and generous idea" of
co-operation?
'They adopted a decree--"a firm and practical decree"--promulgated June
6, 1888, "permitting several co-operative societies to contract for
public works, especially in connection with the Exposition"! and they
also adopted "two projects of laws"!
'"The first of these projects" (it is still Brother Doumer who speaks),
"aimed at the creation of a general provident fund, industrial,
commercial, and agricultural, to be managed by the 'Caisse des Dépôts et
Consignations.'"
'"This very interesting project," says Brother Doumer, "_has not yet
been submitted to the Chamber_. Sent up to be examined by the Ministry
of the Interior to the Ministry of Commerce, it is there undergoing _a
prolonged and inexplicable delay_!"
'No! no! Brother Doumer! "prolonged" if you like, but not
"inexplicable!"
'And so, after now _ten years_, we have the true Republic which got
complete possession in 1879 of all the machinery for giving force and
effect to the "beautiful and generous" idea of co-operation, and for
giving wings to that idea, leaving it still under the blighting curse of
the Imperial law of 1867.
'And Doumer alone! Brother Doumer, whom Providence and the freemasons of
Laon sent to the Chamber in 1888, has met the questions which have been
"urgent" ever since 1848 with the grand practical solution of a "report"
fifteen pages long, and of a "project of law" consisting of six titles
and about a hundred clauses!
'Take this pamphlet with you,' said my friend, after going over it with
me; 'take it, look into it minutely, and tell me if anything you have
ever heard or read in the way of our Conservative attacks upon the
flatulence, the fatuity, and the hypocrisy of these pretended friends of
labour and of the working-man is to be compared, for cold-blooded
cruelty, with this exposition made by Brother Doumer of the methods of
his party.
'I don't know,' he added, 'what portfolio Brother Doumer expects to get
if the Government carry these elections of 1889. He has kicked M. de
Freycinet, as you see, into one corner, and President Carnot into
another, for the benefit of his friend and ally, M. Floquet, so I
suppose he expects to secure some commanding position, neither M. de
Freycinet nor President Carnot being strong enough to resent the
impertinences of an eminent freemason. But wherever they put him, this
wonderful Report of his ought to be printed and circulated freely all
over France by the Conservative committees. It is the most concise and
eloquent history, that I know, of ten years of the true Republic in its
relation to the working classes of France. You have seen at St.-Gobain
the results of a co-operative association of working-men organized under
statutes drawn up by a practical and liberal friend of labour, M.
Cochin, in 1866, a year before the Imperial law of 1867 was passed.
'Wherever elsewhere in France you find the principle of co-operation
adopted and bearing fruit for the benefit of working-men, pray remember
that the "true Republic" has for ten years persistently evaded and
dodged the problems with which the Empire grappled, and to which the
Emperor gave a practical answer nearly a quarter of a century ago!'
After following my friend carefully through his amusing and instructive
vivisection of the Report presented to the late Chamber by the masonic
member for Laon upon the project of law touching co-operation proposed
by M. Floquet, I was not surprised, of course, to learn that the
'project' still remains a 'project.' It was adopted in what is called a
'Friday session' by the Chamber, and then sent up to die a natural death
in the Senate--the Senate, be it remembered, being the absolute
stronghold of the existing Republican Government.
So that still, after ten years of power, the Republicans of M. Doumer's
'true Republic' leave the working-men of France, so far as co-operation
can affect their interests, under the control of a law passed under the
Empire more than twenty years ago.
Clearly one of two things must be true: either this law, passed under
the Empire more than twenty years ago, is a good and sufficient law,
assuring to the working-men of France all the advantages, and protecting
them against all the disadvantages, incident to the principle of
co-operation, so far as this influence and this protection can be given
by laws; or the Republicans of M. Doumer's 'true Republic' have been
humbugging and trifling with the working-men of France on the subject
ever since they contrived, ten years ago, to get the control of power at
Paris. Upon one horn or the other of this dilemma, the 'true
Republicans' clearly must elect to take their seats.
The voters of Laon would appear to be of the mind that the 'true
Republicans' of M. Doumer have been humbugging and trifling with them.
For at the election of this year, M. Doumer lost his seat, and the
candidate favoured by my Boulangist Figaro at Laon, M. Castelin, was
elected. What followed is worth noting, to complete this picture of the
working of representative institutions in one of the great French
provinces under the Third Republic.
M. Doumer, in his address to the electors of the Aisne, issued at Laon
on August 15, 1889, was at great pains to explain what his own relations
had been with Boulangism and with General Boulanger in 1888, before he
became a deputy from Laon in the place of M. Ringuier.
'I frankly admit,' he observes in this very curious document, 'that I
felt a lively sympathy with General Boulanger _while he was Minister of
War_!... In the journal which I conducted I insisted on his being put
back into the Cabinet, on the fall of the Goblet Ministry.'
When, by the death of M. Ringuier in the early spring of 1888, a seat
from the Aisne was suddenly vacated, the freemasons of Laon, as I have
stated, selected M. Doumer as the Republican candidate to fill it. M.
Doumer's friend, M. Floquet, was not then at the head of the Government,
and General Boulanger was still in command of his army-corps at
Clermont, coming up to Paris, as the Government affirmed, disguised and
wearing blue spectacles, to organise political mischief, and generally
making himself a terror and a trouble to the 'true Republicans,' who had
made a great man of him for their own purposes.
'Eight days before the election, which was fixed for March 25, 1888,'
says M. Doumer, in his address of this year to the voters, "I had no
competitor, and my election seemed to be certain."'
No doubt. The 'Brethren' had arranged everything.
But suddenly the skies darkened! The Government of M. Tirard plucked up
courage to make head against the 'brav' Général.' General Boulanger was
relieved of his command at Clermont.
Thereupon the Boulangists resolved to avail themselves of the
impending election at Laon as an opportunity of responding to the attack
of the Government by a demonstration of their strength in the provinces;
and M. Doumer was suddenly served with a notice that the seat of which
he had felt so sure would be wanted for General Boulanger!
It was a cruel and a critical moment. What was to be done? To withdraw
from the contest was to take sides virtually with General Boulanger
against the Tirard Government, and much as M. Floquet and the friends of
M. Doumer disliked M. Tirard, they were not ready to throw in their lot
at that moment against him. So the Brethren, as my friend believes, were
called upon to bring about an arrangement. What General Boulanger wanted
was not to fill the seat for Laon; it was only to be elected to fill the
seat for Laon. Plainly, therefore, the course of practical wisdom, for
M. Doumer was to come to an understanding with the friends of General
Boulanger. So this was done.
The Parisian Committee of the General came into the Aisne, and at a
conference, which M. Doumer admits that he held with them at Tergnier,
it was agreed that after the first balloting, on March 31, 'the voters
who then voted for General Boulanger as a protest, should vote for M.
Doumer at the second balloting, and so elect him.'
The first balloting came off in due course of time. Both M. Doumer, the
Republican candidate, and M. Jacquemont, the Conservative candidate,
were left in the rear by General Boulanger, who received some forty
thousand votes--the election being held in 1888 under the _scrutin de
liste_ adopted, before the elections of 1885, by the Republicans, in
order to remedy what they had denounced as the 'intolerable' evils of
the _scrutin d'arrondissement_. Under the stress of the Boulangist
panic, these same Republicans suddenly threw the _scrutin de liste_ over
again in 1889, to readopt and reimpose upon their beloved country the
'intolerable' evils of the _scrutin d'arrondissement_!
The second balloting was to take place on March 31. Suppose that General
Boulanger should take it into his head to force the fighting on that day
at Laon--worse still, try to make an 'arrangement' with the Conservative
candidate? What would then become of M. Doumer? So, on March 28, M.
Doumer tells us he went up to Paris, from Laon in company with the
chairman of one of the Republican committees, and there had an interview
with a leading member of the committee of General Boulanger, the result
of which was that the 'brav' Général' published a letter, in which he
announced to the electors of the Aisne that he could not accept a seat
which he could only occupy to the detriment of competitors 'beside whom,
and not against whom, he had allowed himself to be made a candidate.' He
wound up by requesting his friends in the Aisne 'to vote at the second
balloting for the candidate who would best support the honour of the
country and the interests of the Republic.'
Then came, at Laon, a meeting of the Republican Committee of the Aisne,
at which the chairman of the meeting, M. Lesguillier, was instructed to
do his best to 'dissipate the somewhat equivocal effect' of the
language used by General Boulanger in his letter, and to induce the
Boulangist committee to work, on the 31st, for the election of M.
Doumer. And so, on March 31, 1888, M. Doumer was finally put into the
seat, which enabled him to draw up his model report on the great
question of 'co-operation.' That the Boulangists of Laon are not wholly
delighted with the course of M. Doumer in the late Chamber, and that the
working-men of Laon are not deeply impressed by the value to them of his
model report on 'co-operation,' may be inferred from his defeat by the
Boulangist candidate M. Castelin under the _scrutin d'arrondissement_ in
September, 1889.
But M. Doumer is a typical French politician of the Third Republic, and
as his alliance with M. Floquet seems to be firmer than ever, my friend
in the Aisne is probably right in thinking that M. Doumer will still be
heard of perhaps as a prefect, perhaps as a deputy filling the seat of
some 'invalidated' deputy from Paris, perhaps as a Trésorier-Général,
occupying one of the large number (I think there are eighty in all) of
these lucrative posts, which it has been the custom of successive
administrations under the Third Republic to distribute among their
friends and supporters on retiring from power, as in England premiers,
in like circumstances, distribute peerages and baronetcies and accolades
of knighthood, one special difference between the two systems being that
the rewards of political service bestowed in England not only entail no
expense upon the taxpayers, but actually, I believe, bring a certain
amount in the way of fees into the Treasury, whereas in France such
rewards mean a steady increase of the public outlay.
As the late parliament on the very last day of its existence adopted a
plan proposed by M. Doumer himself for re-organising the system of
_Trésoriers-Généraux_, and making these officers regular members of the
staff of the Finance Ministry with fixed salaries, my friend in the
Aisne thinks it likely enough that one of these posts may fill the
eventual perspective of M. Doumer's political career.
Meanwhile the defeated candidate for Laon has been comfortably lodged,
at the public cost, in the Legislative Palace, as Secretary of the
President of the Chamber, M. Floquet being President, and receives a
salary of 15,000 francs, with perquisites and other advantages.
We do this sort of thing occasionally in the United States, for the
benefit of defeated political candidates. But in one important respect
the professional politician in France is better off than the
professional politician in America. Our pension list is by far the
largest in the world, but we do not offer any prospect of a pension to
civil servants.
Nor have we so many paid legislative berths in which to lodge our
professional politicians. The parliamentary business of the sixty
millions of people who now inhabit the United States is done by
eighty-four senators and 330 representatives, who receive something over
$2,000,000 a year. The parliamentary business of less than forty
millions of people inhabiting France is supposed to require the services
of 300 senators and 578 deputies, who receive for doing it 11,937,940
francs, or, in round numbers, about $2,587,560. Whether the 878 French
legislators really earn half a million of dollars more by their annual
labours than do the 414 American legislators is a question which I leave
my readers to settle after they shall have settled the previous
question, whether either of those considerable sums of money is really
earned by either body. But there can be no doubt, I think, that, under
the existing economical conditions of society in the two republics, the
aggregate number of professional politicians aiming at the 878 prizes of
the profession in France is likely to be considerably in excess of the
aggregate number of professional politicians aiming at the 414 prizes of
the profession in the United States. Of course, too, this increase in
the aggregate number of the competitors must necessarily be attended by
a decline in the average standard of character and capacity among them:
and as it is the settled policy of the French Republicans of the 'true
Republic,' who have been in power for the past decade, to exclude all
persons not of their party from any share in the general administration
of the Republic, it is obvious that this lowering of the level of
character and of capacity must be most marked among the professional
politicians of the Republican party. This is a matter of scientific
necessity, and not at all of sentiment; and it suffices to account for
the unquestionable average inferiority of the Government members of the
Senate and the Chamber to the Opposition members in point both of
character and of capacity.
The intense centralisation of power in France is another and a very
important force working in the same direction. Outside of the Federal
field of political ambition in the United States we have the State
governments. But there can be no more than forty-two State governors in
the United States, whereas in France there are eighty-six prefects, and
three in Algiers, without counting the administrative authorities in the
Regency of Tunis and in the French colonies. The governorships of the
American States are elective offices, to be won only by local services
and local combinations. But the administrative prizes of French politics
can only be secured through the central administration at Paris, under
pressure from the all-powerful cliques and combinations in the National
Legislature. Briefly, therefore, it seems to me quite clear that under
the Third Republic in France the profession of politics is rapidly
becoming, if it has not already become, much more easy of access, and,
in proportion to the capital of character and of ability required for
entering upon it, much more remunerative, than it has ever yet been in
the United States, unless perhaps during the domination of Mr. Tweed and
the Tammany Ring over the taxpayers of New York.