There is a slight modification to be made in this
statement. When the Bureaux of the two Chambers are invited either by
the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, or the
President of the Chamber, no distinction is made in regard to
politics, and on these occasions the members of the Right condescend
to break bread with the republicans. I should explain that the Bureaux
are composed of a president, four vice-presidents, and eight
secretaries, chosen each session by the senators and deputies. Two of
the secretaryships are given by courtesy to the Right.
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When, during the Seize Mai crisis, MacMahon’s message
adjourning the sittings for a month was read to the Chamber, the
republicans protested with repeated cries of “Vive la République!” to
which the Right responded with “Vive la France!” A month later, when
the decree dissolving the Chamber was laid before the Chamber, the
republicans shouted: “Vive la République! Vive la Paix!” and the Right
answered with “Vive la France! Vive le Maréchal!” When it was
announced in full Congress that M. Grévy had been elected President,
and again when M. Carnot’s name was proclaimed in the same way, the
republicans once more hurrahed for a form of government, while their
opponents posed as the defenders of the country and the nation.
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Although this interview is here printed for the first
time, I mentioned it to some of Madame Blavatsky’s friends so that she
might have an opportunity of giving her version. I am told that she
said she gave me an answer as directed by her Guru. I must conclude
therefore that unless the Gurus are all glamour, they must be raised
by their superhuman merits above the obligations of truth.
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Commissioner Grant was awakened by a telegram and
requested to look for a cigarette in a certain part of the Prince of
Wales’ statue, in Bombay; he went and found nothing. Mrs. Coulomb now
says she was Madame B——‘s confederate, and that she was afraid of
being taken up as a lunatic if she climbed to the unicorn’s horn where
the cigarette was to be placed. So she said the rain must have washed
it away. Madame Blavatsky showed mental weakness in not considering
the difficulties, and her fondness for cigarettes made her set them
too high in dignity as well as position
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Among the few papers which have denounced this judicial
crime are the New York Commercial Advertiser and the St. Louis
Republic. The former journal observes: “It seems that the glorious
clause of the Constitution can give no protection to men who
conscientiously believe they should literally observe the Fourth
Commandment…. It seems that when a State seeks to enforce religious
duty all consciences must bow before it. That is to say, if, for
example, the Catholics of Louisiana were to pass a law that no man
should taste meat on Friday, the act would be no infringement of
religious liberty.
There can be but one opinion upon this decision among all
liberal-minded men. It is odious sophistry, unworthy of the age in
which we live. And under it an American citizen has been condemned to
spend the rest of his days in a dungeon unless he shall stoop to deny
the dictates of his own conscience and dishonor his own manhood.
The Republic in an editorial of August second says: “Not being able
to leave his crops unworked for two days in the week, Mr. King
ploughed them on Sunday, after having kept the Sabbath the day before.
He was arrested under the Sunday law, and in order to make it
effective against him it was alleged that his work on his own farm on
Sunday created a public nuisance. On this entirely untenable ground he
has been harassed from court to court. He was a poor man, but he has
been supported by the friends of religious liberty. Mr. King has been
greatly wronged, but his only remedy at law is under the law and
Constitution of Tennessee. It appears that for the present his remedy
is denied him, and this being the case he has no better recourse than
to submit to the oppression and go to prison—to the convict camp, if
it suits the convenience of his persecutors to send him there.”
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