THE embarrassment in which the French Government felt themselves with respect to Victor Hugo's funeral yesterday shows that there are reasons for great anxiety. The first thought yesterday of these who were in charge of the public peace in Paris must have been, will the day pass quietly over? and the last at night one of gratitude that it was quietly over. Whatever may he said about the Monarchical parties, the Communists are not at all cowed. The conflicts which have recently taken place between them and the authorities, even in Pere la Chaise itself, prove that the old spirit of revolt and defiance has recovered from its prostration of fourteen years ago.
There are now, as there were when the Republic wag again proclaimed in 1848, the difficulties about the red flag, which was not allowed to be carried yesterday. The tricolour was the official Republican banner: the red flag was proscribed, though it could scarcely be prevented from appearing at some points. The funeral was such as Victor Hugo would have loved. The Arc de Triomphe, converted into a catafalque for the reception of his remains, which were there to lie in state till the population of Paris filed past in their thousands last Sunday, was just what he would himself have wished, notwithstanding the humble hearse in which he desired that his body should be conveyed to the tomb. The multitude, too, assembling at night, singing and dancing round the coffin, as the lower class of Parisians do, with their characteristic levity and recklessness, would not have jarred upon his feelings. This was Parisian: it was after the fashion of the people: and that for Victor Hugo would have been enough. Much was said and written about this great French octogenarian yesterday: much will be said and written of him for a long time to come. Whether his writings have really in them that immortal spirit exciting the sympathies of all nations and ages may, with all respect to his passionate admirers, be doubted. In his genius there was much that was rhetorical, theatrical, and even false. His political writings were for the most part rodomontade. His constant abuse of the late French Emperor would have been much more effective had it been less hysterical and violent. His humanitarian appeals in favour of convicted criminals too often showed as much egotism as benevolence. But Victor Hugo was a Frenchman of the type Frenchmen love. His aspirations were much nobler then those of Voltaire: but it remains to be seen whether he has established anything. He was doubtless a great personality: but he was a little too much of a personality. Now that he has passed away, what remains?
Northern Whig, Belfast, June 2.
Victor Hugo's Funeral
Victor Hugo's Funeral
Table of Contents
Miracles of healing - Christian Miracles or Healing
History of Russia: Christian Versus Barbarian
History of Japan: Early Christian Martyrs
The Jesus of History
The Assyrian Origin of Devil Worshippers
The Christ Of Dogma
The early history of Constantinople
