FRANCE. 



Anti-Jewish riots in Nantes and other French towns 

 and more serious ones in Algeria. When the Ca- 

 vaignac resolution was discussed insults and blows 

 were exchanged between Clericals and Socialists. 

 M. .Mr-line acknowledged the existence of a docu- 

 ment containing a confession of Dreyfus, but re- 

 fused to produce it lest it should be discussed and 

 the chose jugee called in question. The judgment 

 was the legal truth, which he appealed to all good 

 Frenchmen to accept in deference to the authority 

 of justice. lie gave warning that the coming Zola 

 trial would not be transformed into a revision of 

 the Dreyfus affair, endangering the domestic peace, 

 the military power, and the good repute of France 

 abroad ; the jury would simply have in charge the 

 defense of justice and of the army. The Chamber 

 sustained the Government in upholding the invio- 

 lability of the chose jugee by the great majority of 

 876 to 133. The prosecution of M. Zola and the 

 " Aurore " for defamation was based on the follow- 

 ing passages in his letter, a single item in his long 

 and detailed arraignment : 



"A court-martial has, in obedience to orders re- 

 wived, dared to acquit M. Esterhazy a supreme 

 rebuff dealt at all truth and justice. It is over. 

 France bears on her cheek this stain. History will 

 write that it was under your presidency that such a 

 social crime was possible. 



"They have brought in an iniquitous verdict 

 which will forever weigh upon our courts-martial, 

 which will sully with suspicion all their decisions. 

 The first court-martial may have been unintelligent ; 

 the second is necessarily criminal. 



" I accuse the second court-martial of having 

 screened this illegality by order, by committing, in 

 its turn, the judicial crime of knowingly acquitting 

 a culprit." 



M. Zola summoned over a hundred witnesses, in- 

 cluding the members of the Government and the 

 military authorities who were in office during the 

 trial of" Dreyfus. M. Delegorgue, the president of 

 the court, would not allow any questions to be put 

 regarding the prosecution of Dreyfus. Women 

 who had trafficked in the secrets of the War Office 

 remained away on the plea of illness. The generals, 

 in full uniform, were allowed to impress the jury 

 with the necessity of a conviction to save the dig- 

 nity of the army. Gen. de Pellieux said that if 

 they deprived the soldiers of their confidence in 

 their chiefs they would be sending their sons to a 

 butchery in the day of danger, which was nearer, 

 perhaps, than tln-y supposed. M. Labori, counsel 

 for the defense, protested that there was no ques- 

 tion of attacking the army or the courage of its 

 officers. Gen. De Pellieux quoted the letter sup- 

 posed to have been found in 1896 in the waste-paper 

 basket of a military affaclie, in which the latter 

 mentioned Dreyfus by name, and cautioned his col- 

 league never to speak of the relations they had had 

 with that Jew. (ion. (ionse said that there were 

 Other document! too delicate to be brought there. 

 Gen. de Boisdeffre warned the jury, as representing 

 the nation, thai if the nation had not confidence in 

 the chiefs at the head of tho army, who organize 

 the national defense, those chiefs were ready to leave 

 the t.-isk to other men. 



Tins threat of tho resignation of the general staff 

 had a profound effect on the jury, and not less so 

 the rulings of the judge, who refused the counsel 

 the right to interrogate the generals, refused Lieut.- 

 Col. Picquart the right to summon oilier distin- 

 guished generals to clear his character from the as- 

 persions of his superiors. The jury found the 

 defendants guilty, ami the court imposed the maxi- 

 mum penalty, a year's imprisonment and :{.<)00 

 francs fine on Zola, and the same fine and three 

 months' imprisonment on M. Perreaux, the publisher 



of his letter. The verdict, which was delivered on 

 Feb. 23, the trial having taken fifteen days, was re- 

 ceived with frantic exultation by the public in the 

 courtroom, who had freely carried on hostile dem- 

 onstrations against the chief defendant during the 

 proceedings, and they dispersed in tumult, acclaim- 

 ing Esterhazy. who had refused to answer M. La- 

 bori, as a hero, and while shouting for the army and 

 the generals, mishandling the few who cried "Vive 

 la Republique." On an interpellation of M. Hub- 

 bard, Radical, regarding the attitude of the subor- 

 dinates of the Government during the trial, the 

 Government was sustained by a vote of 416 to 41, 

 M. Meline having declared the army to be the re- 

 spectful servant of the nation and the law. M. Zola 

 appealed from the judgment on the ground of the 

 irregularity of its proceedings, and on the technical 

 ground that the Council of War, not the minister, 

 should have lodged the complaint. The Court of 

 Cassation quashed the judgment on this latter 

 ground, holding that a military court is a perma- 

 nent tribunal, and the sole judge of its own honor. 

 A new indictment was framed so as to exclude all 

 reference to the Dreyfus case or the secret docu- 

 ments, being based on one clause only of Zola's let- 

 ter, the following words : 



''A court-martial, acting under orders, has dared 

 to acquit an Esterhazy, a blow at justice and 

 truth/ 



The venue was changed to Versailles, and the 

 date of trial was postponed till after the elections. 

 The case was called on May 23, but M. Zola de- 

 manded to be tried before a Paris jury. The Court 

 of Cassation denied the appeal, and the trial was 

 opened on July 15. M. Perivier, the presiding judge, 

 ruled so stringently against enlarging the scope of 

 the inquiry that M. Zola and his counsel declined 

 to proceed, and allowed judgment to go by default. 

 The defendants were again condemned to undergo 

 the maximum punishment. Lieut.-Col. Picquart. 

 who meanwhile had fought a duel with Lieut.-Col. 

 Henry and wounded his antagonist, was tried by 

 court-martial and retired from the army, in which 

 he was the youngest officer of his grade. Major 

 Esterhazy challenged him, too, but with the man 

 whom he believed to be a traitor he would not fight. 

 Lieut.-Col. Picquart was not tried for forgery, and 

 all the other charges fell through, except that of 

 communicating to his lawyer his correspondence 

 with Gen. Gonse relative to the Esterhazy affair, 

 which was adjudged a breach of discipline. 



The military authorities were finally led to take 

 cognizance of the rumors of treasonable relations 

 that Major Esterhazy had entertained with Col. 

 Schwarzkoppen, the former German atfache, and he. 

 to escape arrest, fled the country, after having 

 been dismissed from the army with Col. du Paty 

 de Clam, who was supposed to have concocted with 

 him the plot against Col. Picquart and sent the sus- 

 picious telegrams. 



When M. Cavaignac's speech reciting the docu- 

 ments that gave absolute proof of the guilt of Drey- 

 fus was placarded in all the communes of France. 

 Col. Picquart wrote a letter to the Minister of Wai- 

 undertaking to prove that the first two documents 

 had nothing to do with Dreyfus, and that the third 

 was a forgery. About the same time a careful ex- 

 amination of this last document was instituted at 

 the War Office, and it was discovered that the blut 

 paper on which it was written was different froii: 

 that used by Col. von Schwarzkoppen. The d\- 

 ery of one forgery threw doubt upon other papi'i> 

 which had carried conviction to the heads of tin 

 Government and of the army, but which never had 

 been made public. In the pigeonholes of the Min- 

 istry of War were said to be some letters signed by 

 the name of the German Emperor, mentioning tlu 



