that a new world might be born in which we might breathe more freely, where injustices centuries old might be made good, where France, arising from long humiliation, might resume her rank and destiny! Then, in that France, healed and revived, what an awakening, what a renewal, what a sap, what a magnificent flowering there would be! This will be thy work, soldier of 1914! To you we shall owe this resurrection of our beloved country. And later on, and always, in everything beautiful and good that may be done among us, in the creations of our poets and the discoveries of our savants, in the thousand forms of national activity, in the strength of our young men and the grace of our young women, in all that will be the France of to-morrow, there will be, soldier so brave and so simple in your greatness, a little of your heroic soul! CERTAINTY OF VICTORY RENÉ RAPHAEL VIVIANI FAITHFUL to the signature which she attached to the treaty of September 4, 1914, and by which she engaged her honor, that is to say, her life, France, in accord with her allies, will not lay down her arms until she has avenged outraged right and regained forever the provinces which were torn from her by force, restored heroic Belgium to the fullness of her material prosperity and political independence, and broken Prussian militarism so that the Allies may eventually reconstruct a regenerated Europe founded upon justice and right. We are not inspired, gentlemen, in this plan of war and of peace by any presumptuous hope, for we have the certainty of success. We owe this certitude to our army of all ranks and to our sailors, who, joined to the British Navy, secure for us the control of the seas, and to the On December 22, 1914, René Viviani, then Premier of France, delivered in the Chamber of Deputies an address of world-wide interest, a part of which is printed below. In this speech Viviani served notice on Germany and Austria that France was in the conflict until it became possible for France and her allies to dictate terms of peace. Viviani became Premier of France immediately after the outbreak of the war, but was succeeded by Aristide Briand in 1915. He has been called "Europe's foremost orator." Contrast these lofty sentiments with those expressed by the German editor Maximilian Harden, in the New Yorker Revue (1915). "We are waging war for ourselves alone. We need land, free roads to the ocean, and for the spirit and language and wares and trade of Germany we need the same values that are accorded such goods anywhere else." RENÉ RAPHAEL VIVIANI 23 troops who have repulsed in Morocco incessant aggressions. We owe it also to the soldiers who defend our flag in those far-off French colonies, who from the very first outbreak of the war hastened back with their tender solicitude for the mother country. We owe it to our army, whose heroism has been guided by incomparable leaders throughout the victory of the Marne, the victory of Flanders, and in many fights, and we owe it to the nation, which has equaled this heroism by a corresponding demonstration of silence and serenity during the critical hours through which the country has passed. Thus we have shown to the world that an organized democracy can serve by its vigorous action the ideal of liberty and equality which constitute its greatness. Thus we have shown to the world, to use the words of our Commander in Chief, who is both a great soldier and a noble citizen, that "the republic may well be proud of the army that she has prepared." And thus this impious war has brought out all the virtues of our race, both those with which we were credited - of initiative, élan, bravery, and fearlessness and those which we were not supposed to possess - endurance, patience, and stoicism. Let us do honor to all these heroes. Glory to those who have fallen before the victory, and to those also who through victory will avenge them to-morrow! A nation which can arouse such enthusiasm can never perish. BELGIUM SHALL RISE CARDINAL MERCIER My dearest brethren, I desire to utter, in your name and my own, the gratitude of those whose age, vocation, and social conditions cause them to benefit by the heroism of others, without bearing in it any active part. If any man had rescued you from shipwreck or from fire, you would assuredly hold yourselves bound to him by a debt of everlasting thankfulness. But it is not one man, it is two hundred and fifty thousand men, who fought, who suffered, who fell for you, so that Belgium might keep her independence, her dynasty, her patriotic unity; so that after the vicissitudes of battle she might rise nobler, purer, more erect, and more glorious than before. In your name I sent them the greeting of our fraternal sympathy and our assurance that not only do we pray for the success of their arms and for the eternal welfare of their souls, but that we also accept for their sake all the distress, whether physical or moral, that falls to our own share in the oppression that hourly besets us, and all that the future may have in store for us, in humiliation for a time, in anxiety, and in sorrow. In the day of final victory we shall be in honor; it is just that to-day we should all be in grief. Extract from the famous pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier, December 25, 1914. Since the first atrocities in Belgium Cardinal Mercier has stood forth, a tower of strength among his stricken fellow-countrymen, fearless, helpful, defiant, uncowed by vengeful threats, constantly giving aid by word and deed to his beloved land. CARDINAL MERCIER 25 Oh, all too easily do I understand how natural instinct rebels against the evils that have fallen upon Belgium; the spontaneous thought of mankind is ever that virtue should have its instantaneous crown, and injustice its immediate retribution. But the ways of God are not our ways. Providence gives free way, for a time measured by divine wisdom, to human passions and the conflict of desires. God, being eternal, is patient. The last word is the word of mercy, and it belongs to those who believe in love. Better than any other man, perhaps, do I know what our country has undergone. These four last months have seemed to me age-long. By thousands have our brave ones been mown down; wives, mothers, are weeping for those they shall never see again; hearths are desolate; dire poverty spreads; anguish increases. I have traversed the greater part of the districts most terribly devastated in my diocese; and the ruins I beheld were more dreadful than I, prepared by the saddest of forebodings, could have imagined. Churches, schools, asylums, hospitals, convents, in great numbers, are in ruins. Entire villages have all but disappeared. In the dear city of Louvain, perpetually in my thoughts, the magnificent church of St. Peter will never recover its former splendor. The ancient college of St. Ives, the art schools, the consular and commercial schools of the University, the old markets, our rich library with its collections, its unique and unpublished manuscripts, its archives, its galleries - all this accumulation of intellectual, of historic, of artistic riches, the fruits of the labor of five centuries all is in the dust. Many a parish has lost its pastor. In my diocese alone I know that thirteen priests were put to death. Thousands of Belgian citizens have been deported to |