He could hardly
recall some of the plats of this noted artist without displaying
signs of deep emotion. These ancient towns on the banks of the
swift-rushing green Rhone seemed to me to be perpetually dozing in
the warm sun, like old men, dreaming of their historic and varied
past since the days of the Romans.
My French legal friends were much exercised by a recent decision
of the High Court. M. Thiers had been President of the Republic
from 1870 to 1873. A distant cousin of his living in Marseilles,
being in pecuniary difficulties, had applied ineffectually to M.
Thiers for assistance. Whereupon the resourceful lady had opened a
restaurant in Marseilles, and had had painted over the house-front
in gigantic letters, "Restaurant tenu par la cousine de Monsieur
Thiers." She was proceeded against for bringing the Head of the
State into contempt, was fined heavily, and made to remove the
offending inscription. My French friends hotly contested the
legality of this decision. They declared that it was straining the
sense of the particular Article of the Code to make it applicable
in such a case, and that it was illogical to apply the law of
Lese-majeste to the Head of a Republican State.
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