47' 



The Review of Reviews. 



juiif 1, 190':. 



lapse of Russia had, for the moment, left Germany 

 free from dread of France's ally on her Eastern fron- 

 tier. M. Delcasse endeavoured to improvise a sub- 

 stitute for the ally that was /lors de cotnbat, by vamp- 

 ing up the entente cordiale with England, so as to 

 make it appear a firm fighting alliance against Ger- 

 many. In this enterprise he was aided consciously 

 or unconsciouslv, bv high placed personages in Lon- 

 don, whose misguarded utterances filled Germany 

 with alarm lest Admiral Fisher might attempt to 

 break Nelson's record at Copenhagen by destroying 

 the German navy at Kiel. The Kaiser, believing 

 himself to be menaced, felt his way somewhat care- 

 fully, and then flung France his challenge in 

 Morocco. 



THE SECRET OF THE KAISERS ACTION. 



A great deal has been written about the Whys 

 and the Wherefores of the action of Germany, but 

 the whole matter lies in a nutshell. Our King and 

 the Kaiser were at that time by no means on the 

 best of terms, and they were both much given to 

 thinking the worst of each other. M. Delcasse was 

 intriguing to such an extent that at least one of the 

 new French Ministers firmly believed that he was 

 bent upon plunging France into war, and was fram- 

 ing his policy for that purpose. England had con- 

 cluded an agreement with France, in which, in re- 

 turn for the abandonment of French claims in Egypt, 

 she undertook to make no objection to France 

 doing as she pleased in Morocco. France subse- 

 quently supplemtnted her agreement with England 

 by a similar agreement with Spain. According to 

 the German point of view, these treaties ought in 

 common courtesv to have been officially notified with 

 all due punctilios to the other signatories of the 

 Madrid Convention which governs the international 

 relations of Morocco with Christendom. When this 

 was not done, the Kaiser fro\vned, but for the time 

 laid low and said nothing. But when he found that 

 France was beginning to act in Morocco as if her 

 agreements with England and Spain had given her 

 an international mandate to pacifically permeate and 

 virtually absorb Morocco, he cried a halt. The 

 fact that Russia had just lost the battle of Mukden 

 proclaimed the psychological moment. 



ITS IMMEDIATE SUCCESS. 



The Kaiser's action pricked the bubble which M. 

 Delcasse had been blowing so industriously. M. 

 Delcasse had to go. M. Rouvier became Foreign 

 Minister and preserved the peace. Lord Lansdowne 

 formally assured Prince Metternich that there was 

 no treaty of alliance, and that there had been no talk 

 of any treaty of alliance with France. But. he added 

 significantlv, " if France were to become the subject 

 of wanton and unjustifiable aggression, it would be 

 impossible for anv British Ministry to prevent this 

 country from making common cause with France. 

 '■ Good,'' wrote the Kaiser on the side of the de- 

 spatch. " We know nov.- where we stand." He had 



little difficulty in securing the consent of M. Rou- 

 vier to the conference at Algeciras. In return he 

 was believed by M. Rouvier to have anade promises 

 to recognise the predominant position of France in 

 Morocco, which his representatives at Algeciras have 

 been by no means very keen to fulfil. France, how- 

 ever, had in the meantime recovered from her scare. 

 She had no longer any fear that her armv would 

 not be able to arrest a rush on Paris. Her Rus- 

 sian ally was no longer in the coils of the Japanese 

 war. Moreover, the English entente was seen to have 

 been strengthened, rather than weakened, by the 

 substitution of Sir Edward Grey for Lord Lans- 

 downe. Hence there was no longer any need for 

 M. Rouvier. He had weathered the storm. Who- 

 ever succeeded him at the Foreign Office would 

 have nothing to do but to carry out his policy. 

 France, secure of the support of England and 

 Russia, could await the delivery of the goods pro- 

 mised as the condition of her assent to the Con- 

 ference. 



THE FRENCH PASSIVE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT. 



Attention being thus no longer concentrated on \ 

 foreign affairs, domestic questions began to come to 

 the front. The great legislative achievement of the 

 Bloc or the Radical-Socialist-Republican Union 

 under M. Combes, and later under M. Rouvier, was 

 the separation of Church and State. When the law 

 was still under discussion it was suggested more 

 in the interest of the Church than of the State, that 

 a careful inventorv should be made of all the sacred 

 vessels, ecclesiastical vestments, relics and other 

 valuables possessed bv the various churches, in order 

 that there might be no dispute as to their title. Un- 

 less an exact inventory is taken of the stock-in-trade 

 at a dissolution of partnership the door is open for 

 endless dispute. No question was raised as to the 

 ownership of the ecclesiastical goods and chattels 

 being legally vested in the Church. The inventory 

 was an informal method by which the State made 

 them over to the disestablished communion. The 

 clause providing for the inventory was passed with- 

 out protest, and when the Bill became law it was put 

 in operation in regular course. In Notre Dame and 

 other famous cathedrals where there was really a 

 great deal of ecclesiastical treasure to be inven- 

 toried, every facility was given to the State official 

 and the function passed off with mutual good wUl. 

 Far different was the case in one or two Paris 

 churches, where some militant laymen of the cleri- 

 callv-minded persuasion conceived the brilliant idea 

 of rallying the faithful to resist the taking of the in- 

 ventory as an art of sacrilege. 



ITS SUCCESS AND FAILURE. 



The Passive Resisters might have succeeded if 

 they could have remained passive. Unfortunately 

 they soon drifted into active measures of opposi- 

 tion. The gendarmes were attacked, the troops were 

 called out. There was a riot in the church, and a 



