Hors-d’oeuvre

The end of a reign

Precisely, the Academy received Me Henri-Robert, glory of the bar, at the hour that marked the end of the reign of the lawyers.

Here, in fact, is the definition of the change that has occurred in France in the order of things: the reign of the lawyers has ended; the reign of the academics begins.

For a long time the French people, who are easily governed with words, have allowed themselves to be governed by lawyers, whose most representative types since the late Waldeck-Rousseau, were incontestably the late Millerand and the late Poincaré.

Now, if there is a profession whose members should be excluded from politics, it is the profession of lawyer.

Certainly, a politician needs a certain aptitude for eloquence and a certain flexibility of mind: these are natural gifts that the gymnastics of the bar develop (and it is always on a bar that a parrot studies).

But an ideal policy, that is to say a policy that takes into account the interest of the nation more than the interests of individuals (this is a Platonic point of view, or more precisely a Platonic conception), presupposes a certain aptitude for good faith, a generosity of spirit that takes an exact account of truth and error.

The professional deformation of the lawyer is exclusive of all good faith. The lawyer has chosen his cause, either for the fees or for the good role. From then on, he adapts the truth and the facts to his cause, he holds as null and void the facts that do not support his thesis; he wants to hold as perfidious and evil the men whose testimony does not agree with his truth and he strives to discredit them. Now he knows very well, deep in his heart, that his truth is a lie. When he has won his case and made lies triumph by oratorical artifices, he has not the slightest remorse... Basically, the profession of lawyer is not a pretty profession.

So did Mr. Millerand and Mr. Poincaré, stubborn defenders of unjust causes. We can say what we want against academics, whose training is artificial and whose idealism is tainted by ideology... But precisely, ideology is channeled, reasonable pedagogical idealism. And then ideas, as a dynamic force, are still superior to sentences, which have only ever turned windmills.

Educators are obliged to bring to their studies and their conduct a conscious and informed sincerity. They are obliged to bring to the government of children a concern for justice that they can adapt to the government of men. We learn at any age. It is probably not too late to give the Republic a schoolmaster.

G. DE LA FOUCHARDIERE.