ÉMILE ZOLA (1840-) MILE ZOLA, after making an international reputation by his novels, forced himself to the front of French politics in 1898 by becoming the champion of Captain Dreyfus against the administration which, after a mere form of trial, had convicted him of selling French military secrets to a foreign power. On January 10th, 1898, Major Walsin-Esterhazy was acquitted after a secret trial by court-martial on charges preferred by the brother of Captain Dreyfus that he was the real author of the memorandum or bordereau which Captain Dreyfus was accused of having prepared for the German Government. Three days after the acquittal of Walsin-Esterhazy, Zola published the celebrated "I Accuse» letter to President Faure which resulted as he had expected in his own arrest. His trial for libel, which was really the first public hearing of the Dreyfus case, began February 2d, 1898, and on February 22d, he delivered his celebrated appeal to the jury,- an appeal intended to force a new trial for Dreyfus rather than to secure an acquittal for himself. Convicted of libel as it was generally expected he would be, Zola absented himself from Paris without ceasing, however, to promote the agitation which finally forced the rehearing of the Dreyfus case and the "pardon" of that victim of French militarism. Zola's address to the jury is one of the most important documents in the political history of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The text here given is from the London Times of February 23d, 1898, compared with the text given in Mr. Benjamin R. Tucker's report of the Zola trial. (New York, 1898.) IN HIS APPEAL FOR DREYFUS (Delivered in Paris, February 22d, 1898, at the Zola Trial for Libel) IN THE Chamber at the sitting of January 22d, M. Méline, the Prime Minister declared, amid the frantic applause of his complaisant majority, that he had confidence in the twelve citizens to whose hands he intrusted the defense of the army. It was of you, gentlemen, that he spoke. And just as General Billot dictated its decision to the court-martial intrusted with the acquittal of Major Esterhazy, by appealing from the tribune for respect for the chose jugée, so likewise M. Méline wished to give you the order to condemn me "out of respect for the army," which he accuses me of having insulted! I denounce to the conscience of honest men this pressure brought to bear by the constituted authorities upon the justice of the country. These are abominable political practices which dishonor a free nation. We shall see, gentlemen, whether you will obey. But it is not true that I am here in your presence by the will of M. Méline. He yielded to the necessity of prosecuting me only in great trouble, in terror of the new step which the advancing truth was about to take. This everybody knew. If I am before you, it is because I wished it. I alone decided that this obscure, this abominable affair, should be brought before your jurisdiction, and it is I alone of my free will who chose you, you, the loftiest, the most direct emanation of French justice, in order that France, at last, may know all, and give her decision. My act had no other object, and my person is of no account. I have sacrificed it in order to place in your hands, not only the honor of the army, but the imperiled honor of the nation. It appears that I was cherishing a dream in wishing to offer you all the proofs, considering you to be the sole worthy, the sole competent judge. They have begun by depriving you with the left hand of what they seemed to give you with the right. They pretended, indeed, to accept your jurisdiction, but if they had confidence in you to avenge the members of the courtmartial, there were still other officers who remained superior even to your jurisdiction. Let who can understand. It is absurdity doubled with hypocrisy, and it shows clearly that they dreaded your good sense,- that they dared not run the risk of letting us tell all and of letting you judge the whole matter. They pretend that they wished to limit the scandal. What do you think of this scandal,-of my act which consisted in bringing the matter before you,-in wishing the people, incarnate in you, to be the judge? They pretend also that they could not accept a revision in disguise, thus confessing that in reality they have but one fear, that of your sovereign control. The law has in you its complete representation, and it is this chosen law of the people that I have wished for,- this law which, as a good citizen, I 3933 hold in profound respect, and not the suspicious procedure by which they hoped to make you a laughingstock. A bat- I am thus excused, gentlemen, for having brought you here from your private affairs without being able to inundate you with the full flood of light of which I dreamed. The light, the whole light,- this was my sole, my passionate desire! And this trial has just proved it. We have had to fight step by step against an extraordinarily obstinate desire for darkness. tle has been necessary to obtain every atom of truth. thing has been refused us. Our witnesses have been terrorized in the hope of preventing us from proving our case. And it is on your behalf alone that we have fought, that this proof might be put before you in its entirety, so that you might give your opinion on your consciences without remorse. I am certain, therefore, that you will give us credit for our efforts, and that, I feel sure too that sufficient light has been thrown upon the affair. You have heard the witnesses; you are about to hear my counsel, who will tell you the true story, the story that maddens everybody and that everybody knows. I am, therefore, at my ease. You have the truth at last, and it will do its work. M. Méline thought to dictate your decision by intrusting to you the honor of the army. And it is in the name of the honor of the army that I too appeal to your justice. Never have I give M. Méline the most direct contradiction. I insulted the army. I spoke on the contrary of my sympathy, my respect for the nation in arms, for our dear soldiers of France, who would rise at the first menace to defend the soil of France. And it is just as false that I attacked the chiefs, the generals who would lead them to victory. If certain persons at the War Office have compromised the army itself by their acts, is it to insult the whole army to say so? Is it not rather to act as a good citizen to separate it from all that compromises it, to give the alarm, so that the blunders which alone have been the cause of our defeat shall not occur again, and shall not lead us to fresh disaster. I am not defending myself, moreover. I leave history to judge my act, which was a necessary one; but I affirm that the army is dishonored when gendarmes are allowed to embrace Major Esterhazy after the abominable letters written by him. I affirm that that valiant army is insulted daily by the bandits who, P |