It is no more than a "letter"

In the past, Mr. Millerand had little taste for the style of President Félix Faure. For it was not only Casimir-Périer that Mr. Millerand attacked, as was recalled yesterday in the Chamber; it was his destiny to attack successively all the presidents of the Republic before becoming one himself. That did not prevent him from being suffocated with indignation when people allowed themselves to criticize him in turn.

A curious thing, and doubly curious; it was a literary quibble that Mr. Millerand sought with Félix Faure, who had just made his debut in the "message" genre. "It is not us," wrote Mr. Millerand in "La Petite République" of January 30, 1895, "it is not we who will think of complaining about the colorless character of the president's personal literature."

Did he believe he himself wrote with a sparkling pen? Or, already dreaming of the Elysée, did he apply himself like Renan to extinguishing the overly bright colors of his style? For, he added, "the less accent the president's literature has, the closer its author will come to the ideal type of the president as our Constitution obliges us to conceive him."

I do not know whether the Constitution imposes on the President of the Republic the duty to write badly, as Mr. Millerand claims, but it must be honestly acknowledged that he succeeded without too much effort. If he had fulfilled the other duties of his office as well, it is quite probable that no one would have violently reproached him for the originality of his epithets and the petulance of his turns. It is not the excess of his verve that would have forced him to resign.

No one will dispute any more that his latest production is very suitably presidential. It is, in truth, as "colorless", as devoid of "accent", as the most constitutional pages of the late Félix Faure.

If this letter to the country "adds nothing to the academic glory of Mr. Millerand, it will not teach its recipient anything new either. The essence of this document, which will be found further on, is contained in this heavy and painful sentence: "If our Constitution leaves the choice of the leader of the State solely in the hands of parliamentarians, she at least had the prudence to provide that once elected he would not have, except in the case of high treason, to answer to anyone during the duration of his seven-year term.

Although Mr. Millerand repeats it with dark obstinacy, he does not manage to clearly state this enormous megalomaniac pretension. So, a President of the Republic can allow himself anything for seven years? He does not have to answer to anyone"? Except to God, no doubt.

Are we not losing our heads a little breathing the too heady air of the Elysée? Let us rejoice that the candidate of the Republicans has a really solid head...

Gustave Téry (See Mr. Millerand's letter on page 2)