’For even as Jean Calas was guilty of being a Protestant so is Alfred Dreyfus guilty of being a Jew, and at the present hour unhappily there are millions of French people who can no more believe in a Jew’s innocence than their forerunners could believe a Protestant to be guiltless.  Zola, for his part, is no Jew, nor can he even be called a friend of the Jews—­in several of his books he has attacked them somewhat violently for certain tendencies shown by some of their number—­but most assuredly does he regard them as fellow-men and not as loathsome animals.  In the same way Voltaire wrote pungent pages against the narrow practices of Calvinism and yet espoused the causes of Calas and Sirven, even as Zola has espoused that of Dreyfus.  The only remaining question is whether Zola will prove as successful as his famous forerunner. [Nearly the whole of the European press was at that stage expressing doubt on this point.] In this connection I may say that I regard Zola as a man of very calm, methodical, judicial mind.  He is no ranter, no lover of words for words’ sake, no fiery enthusiast.  Each of his books is a most laborious, painstaking piece of work.  If he ever brings forward a theory he bases it on a mountain of evidence, and he invariably subordinates his feeling to his reason.  I therefore venture to say that if he has come forward so prominently in this Dreyfus case it is not because he feels that wrong has been done, but because he is absolutely convinced of it.  Doubtless many of the expressions in his recent letter to President Faure have come from his heart, but they were in the first place dictated by his reason.  It is not for me here and at the present hour to speak of proofs, however great may be public curiosity; but most certainly Zola has not taken up this case without what he considers to be abundant proof.  I do not say he will be able to prove each and every item of his great indictment, but when you wish to bring everything to light it is often necessary to cast your net so wide that none shall escape it, none linger in concealment with their actions unexplained.  And I take it that whatever be the verdict of Zola’s countrymen, whether or not Alfred Dreyfus be again and this time absolutely proved guilty . . .  Zola himself will have done good work in striving to bring the whole truth to light so that it shall be as evident to one and all as the very sun itself.  And this, when all is said, is really Zola’s one great object in this terrible business.

’I may add that he is risking far more than his great predecessor risked in favour of Calas.  Voltaire pleaded from his retirement on the Swiss frontier; Zola pleads the cause he has adopted on the very spot, on the very scene of all the agitation.  Anonymous assassins threaten him with death in letters and postcards.  Fanatical Jew-baiters march through the streets anxious for an opportunity to wreck his house and murder not only himself but his wife also