er. But it
is infamous that in a land of equality one man should have the means to
give himself pleasures and execute achievements beyond his
fellow-citizens.' He told me that he lived in Alais, where he said the
Socialists of his type were much stronger than in Nimes. The Legislative
elections show that lie was right as to this. The Socialists carried the
first division of Alais, throwing 7,205 votes against 2,425 Radicals and
4,218 Government Republicans. For the Government Republicans my friend
of the Amphitheatre could find no words of contempt strong enough.
'They are all whitewashed Wilsons,' he said, and then he dilated with
much eloquence on the case of a certain M. Hude,'a great friend of
Rochefort' he scornfully exclaimed, 'who is a great friend of Boulanger.
_Ah! voila du propre!_ he is a wine-merchant, of course he is fond of
the _pots-de-vin'_(the French phrase for bribes taken to promote jobs),
'and thus, when the chemical officers go to verify the quality of his
wines, he calls in the Prefect of Police to prevent it, because he is a
deputy!' He was particularly bitter, too, on the conversion by the
Republicans of more than a thousand millions of francs lying in the
savings banks into 3 per cent. funds. 'What right had they to do this?'
he said indignantly. 'It was a trick to enslave the depositors!'

In the first division of Nimes the Socialists showed no great strength
at the elections of 1889. The Monarchists far outnumbered them, but they
threw votes enough to make the election very close, the Republicans
numbering 6,598, the Socialists 1,519, and the Monarchists 8,174, so
that the latter won the day by no more than fifty-seven votes. That they
won it is due to the cordial co-operation of the Protestants with the
Catholics on the question of Religious Liberty in support of a Catholic,
M. de Bernis, who had twice been condemned to imprisonment for
'assisting' Catholic teachers thrown on the world by the 'laicization'
of the schools of Nimes! This co-operation began in 1885. The
Protestants of the Gard have quite as much at stake in this conflict as
the Catholics. The Protestant Seminaries are cut down like the Catholic.
The appropriations formerly made in aid of new Protestant parishes are
made no longer. No sums are allowed for Protestant missionary work in
outlying districts. The Protestant Consistories have been deprived of
their right to nominate candidates for examination as teachers. The
Consistor