Recently, when it was proposed to suppress, without indemnity, the _Majorats_ of the _ancien régime_, M. Rouvier, Président de Conseil, indignantly rejected the motion, saying, “Il ne faut jamais que la signature de la France soit protestée.” But when it is a question of mere Catholics, the sense of national honour becomes blunted. They are _hors la loi_. This form of jurisprudence has been familiar to highwaymen from time immemorial--for them, the unarmed are always _hors la loi_. M. Raiberti, a deputy from Nice, eloquently protested against the vote of urgency, declaring that the country had never been consulted. “No law,” he said, “can be just and stable which does not express the wishes of the people.” All in vain. The Socialist voting machine worked automatically at every turn towards the end. It is an incontestable fact that Separation has never appeared on any programme these thirty-four years, except on that of 181 deputies at the elections of 1902. Nevertheless, 341 (against 249) have just voted for this law of Separation that is the negation of fifteen centuries of national history.[11] The _Gazette de France_ calculates the number of electors represented by these 341 deputies who carried the Separation Bill in the Chambers in July:-- “On a total of 11,219,992 French electors only 2,997,063 pronounced yesterday by their deputies in favour of the denunciation of the Concordat and the spoliation of the Church, voted by a so-called majority. “We must bear in mind that at the elections of 1902 the majority only vanquished by 200,000 votes out of 8,000,000 voters inscribed, and there are 400,000 functionaries. Thus spoke a senator (de Cuverville), and he further quoted the declarations of M. Deschanel in a public speech, July, 1905. “A minority, he declared, governs the country, and a law voted by a certain majority represents 25 to 30 per cent. One deputy is elected by 22,000, another by 1000. The Department du Nord has 500,000 more inhabitants than six departments of the south-east, yet it has five deputies less. Roubaix, with 125,000 inhabitants, has one deputy, while the Department of Basses Alpes, with 115,000 inhabitants, has five deputies.” It is easy to see how a little judicious electoral geometry and arithmetic will always give the Government a majority. Each _arrondissement_ having a deputy, it is only necessary to cut up a given district, notably anti-clerical, into a great many _arrondissements_, in order to secure an increased number of deputies, _blocards_; and vice versa the process need only be reversed in districts suspected of “clericalism.” We must also remember that at least one-third of the electors never vote, and so the Government can always have a majority.