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Black Republic of Letters

Note - Léon Livinhac

Léon Livinhac (1846-1922) was a Catholic priest who served as the head of the White Fathers and worked as a missionary in the vicinity of Lake Victoria/Nyanza in the region that is in modern day Uganda. Learn more about Léon Livinhac.

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"News & Events" In brief: Elections in Brazil – Missionary arrived in France – Shipwreck in Japan – President on vacation – Fundraiser for disaster victims – Dispute over a theatre box – Toasts at the anti-slavery congress – Monetary conference in Washington – Charles Canivet is improving – Spanish popular support for Portuguese sovereignty – New talent at the Colonial School – Support from a Guadeloupean senator – Copyright news in Switzerland – A new English ship – Statue of Berlioz – Company that helps the superstitious – Beards on magistrates – Obituaries

Rio de Janeiro
17 September—The Brazilian Legation in Paris received from Mr. Bocaynra, minister of foreign affairs, the following telegraph:

The elections just took place in an orderly manner, assuring the government by the majority. The new institutions have been ratified by popular suffrage.
Marseille
19 September—Mgr. Livinhac, vicar apostolic of Uganda and pioneer of Christian civilization in the heart of Africa, arrived in France by way of Zanzibar.

The eminent prelate is the right hand man of Cardinal Lavigerie. He is bringing fourteen young Black with him, who are destined to study medicine.
Shipwreck
Yokohama, 20 September—The Turkish warship Ertuğrul was lost near Kobe. The vice-admiral Osman-Pacha and 587 officers and sailors perished; 66 were saved.

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Mr. and Mrs. Carnot are on holiday in Fontainebleau. The president of the French Republic will return to Elysée on the 10th of October.

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Thursday 2 October, the Comédie Française will reprise a matinée of La Fille de Roland for the benefit of the victims in Fort-de-France and Saint-Etienne.

Mr. Herni de Bornier wrote a play in verse entitled For the Victims for the occasion.
Tuesdays at the Français
The incident regarding the theatre box given over to President Carnot was handled with great tact by Mr. Jules Claretie.

The princess had not been aware that the President of the Republic remained the holder of the proscenium and that his theatre box could be taken up every Tuesday by its tenant. The right of the Head of State is absolute and should elicit no comment.

The administrator of the Comédie-Française put his own box up for the Princess of Sagan to use, and Tuesdays will remain... Tuesdays, as in the past.

It is thus that one can say, while speaking of Mrs. Carnot:

"Nothing has changed at the Théâtre Français, there is just one more great lady."

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At the banquet offered to the delegates of the International Anti-Slavery Congress yesterday, Mr Keller—who presided over the Congress and the banquet with praiseworthy tact—called for the kindest toast to the Republic of Haiti and to its modest representative.

Mr. Benito Sylvain replied to the amiable and eminent orator. He thanked and congratulated the Congress fro the splendid results obtained, and drank to Europe the civilizer.

Other toasts were made by the German delegates to Mr. Keller, the likeable president, by Mr. de Vogüé to the English representatives—Mr. Allen replied—and by Mr. Lefèvre-Pontalis, who had kind and warm words for the members of the press.

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A Congress will be held in Washington, next January, in order to choose a monetary unit for the American states. Mr. Blaine, secretary of Congress, is proposing the decimal system which, it seems, has great chances of being adopted.

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Note: A lovely article by Mr. Charles Canivet (Jean de Nivelles) appeared in the Soleil of 25 September about African slavery. We hope that Jean de Nivelles is able to stay on this good path.

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While a crisis is breaking out in Portugal, a divers group of Republican has decided to stage a demonstration in Madrid in favour of Portuguese territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Portugal in the face of a nation that is violently threatening it without any respect for its rights.

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As can be read in the Paix:
Mr. Léon de Rosny, the eminent professor at the École des Hauts-Études, has just been named a member of the Administrative Council of the École Coloniale.

This choice honours both Mr. de Rosny and Mr. Etienne, undersecretary of the Colonies, who has gained a useful collaborator.

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We greatly appreciate Senator Isaac who wrote words of praise about us in the Liberté Coloniale, regarding the founding of La Fraternité.

We are happy and proud to have deserved such encouragements from an eminent man, who is certainly one of the glories of our race.

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Against the rights of the author
A campaign is being prepared, in Switzerland, against the rights of the author. The municipal music committee of Bern has just launched a call to all the Swiss musical societies to organize a mass petitioning of the Federal Council to denounce the Franco-Swiss literary convention of 1882. They are asking for a new convention that would more effectively take into consideration the interests and the traditional activities of Swiss musical societies. More than sixty societies have already signed the petition.
A Monster Sailboat
The English have just launched, in Glasgow, a merchant sailboat made entirely of iron, which has five masts and can carry 6,100 tonnes.

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The inauguration of the statue Berlioz, the famous composer, will take place on Sunday 28 September at La-Côte-Saint-André (Isère).
To Avoid the Number 13
Decidedly, Americans have an unimaginable knack for making money anywhere from anything. One of them has established in Paris, in the Chausée d'Antin neighbourhood, an office where one can find people of a distinguished appearance and proper attire to fulfill the function of the fourteenth at the table and to replace, at the appointed time, the guest whose forced absence or departure obliges the guests to be reduced to a number that is vexing for people inclined to superstition.

It seems that this agency is working wonderfully and that they have already earned a considerable sum.
Wearing a Beard
It is rumoured that the rule in France that authorizes magistrates to wear beards may be modified.

Next, moustaches will be forbidden.

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Obituaries
Jeanne Samary, the incomparable maidservant of the Comédie-Française, has died in her thirty-third year, from typhoid fever. She had a talent that was becoming more robust and more savoury with each new creation.

Jeanne Samary first appeared in the Français on 24 August 1864 in Tartuffe, and she was seen for the last time on the 1st of September 1890 in Monde où l'on s'ennuie. She had, to the same superior degree, the classic and the contemporary gift. Dorine, Nicolle, Lisette, Toinon, Suzanne, Maguelonne were just some of her unforgettable incarnations.

She was a complete actress: she had both laughs and tears, and her tears were as contagious as her laughs. In rehearsals, it seems, everyone cried when they saw her crying.

The death of this wonderful artist It is a great loss for the house of Molière. She will be very difficult to replace.

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The funeral for the great member of the Comédie-Français took place the next day, at noon, at the Saint-Roch church. Many were in attendance. Pall bearers included Messrs. Jules Claretie, of the Académie Française, administrator of the Théâtre-Française; Got, doyen of the Comédie-Française; Febvre, Mounet-Sully, Worms and Laroche, members.

During the subdued mass, the excellent master of the parish executed different morsels, notably Kyrie by Mieder-Meyer; Messrs. Charon and Duc, of the Opéra, magisterially sang Sleeman's Miserere and Stradella's Pic Jesus, respectively; finally, Chopin's Funeral March, performed on the harp , produced a gripping and painful effect in the nave of the great church, which was entirely hung with sombre draperies.

The burial took place in the Passy cemetery. Before the tomb was closed, amid the pain of all and dominating their own emotion with great force, Messrs. Larroumet, direct of the Beaux-Arts, and Jules Claretie came to say a final and touching adieu to the incomparable actress and the accomplished woman.
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"The Anti-Slavery Congress at Saint-Sulpice" Translation: The opening ceremony of the free Anti-Slavery Congress was solemnly celebrated on Sunday, 21 September, at the Saint-Sulpice church. The enthusiasm of the Christian community was even greater than could have been expected. From one o'clock, the side aisles, the nave of the church were nearly full; at 2:30, when the vespers began, the holy space was jam packed, and one could not walk around freely.

The whole nave was reserved for invited guests, at the head of whom were the clergy of Paris, the directors of the congregations and charities, and the delegates of the seven major powers represented at the Congress, which were: Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Portugal. Also present were the six delegates of the French Anti-slavery League; Messrs. Jules Simon, Georges Picot, of the Institute, and Lefèvre-Pontalis, the former deputy, for the Committee of High Patronage; Messrs. Keller, the former deputy, the Marquis de Vogüé, the former ambassador, and Baron d'Avril, former minister plenipotentiary.

The entrance of the young Black converts brought by Mgr. Livinhac, bishop and apostolic vicar in the region of Lake Nyanza and who has been called to serve as Mgr. Lavigerie's coadjutor, caused a true sensation. These children went into the choir stalls, having the White Fathers beside them. Mgr. Livinhac officiated.

The papal nuncio, Mgr. Rotelli, made his entrance as the magnificat began. The whole clergy, Mgr Livinhac at its head, went before this representative of the Pope who had come, in solemn procession, up to the dais that had been prepared for him near the choir stalls.

When the vespers concluded, the nuncio, the officiant, and all the bishops in attendance came to sit on the pew that faced the pulpit. Mgr. Rotelli has to his right, Mrg. Livinhac, Mgr. Brincat, the Bishop of Hadrumetum and auxiliary of Mgr. Lavigerie, the Abbot Icard, superior general of the Sulpicians; to his left were Mgr. Fabre, archbishop of Montreal, and Mgr. Combes, bishop of Constantine.

After one hundred and fifty singers artfully performed the Cantata on African slavery, composed by Mr. Bellenot, the choirmaster, His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie mounted the pulpit. Although sickness and fatigue have left traces on his venerable face, the eminent prelate is still admirable for his vigour and eloquence. With his long almost white beard, he reminds one of the beautiful heads of the patriarchs whose memory has been preserved by tradition.

It was 4:10; the daylight was fading and the church was beginning to illuminate. Along the two stairways that went up to the pulpit, to the left and right of the majestic prelate, six White Fathers stood motionless; while at the edge of the nave packed with a contemplative crowd, spreading out from the dazzling base of the lights of the high altar, were the black silhouettes of the little Africans. The spectacle was gripping for its originality and grandeur.

Recalling, in a few words, the ceremony that had taken place two years earlier in this same church of Saint-Sulpice, where he found his former superior as well as one of his most zealous collaborators, the Cardinal traced the historical contours of the great project to which he had dedicated the last years of his life, and for the triumph of which the Pope did not cease to give his support. He also recalled the Brussels Act through which the powers of Europe a plan of execution to destroy the slave trade in Africa. In the success of his noble task, Mgr. Lavigerie had the more or less unanimous support of the episcopate, and he thanked the diverse press for what they had done for him. Thanks to this support, definitive success is certain, if the powers hold to their resolutions written in the Brussels Act.

The prelate then described the organization of the committee, each of which represents a nation and overseen interests in Africa in the region placed under its dependency. Then, in an eloquent move, he recalled the results he had achieved in the Sahara and the regions of Sudan:
What do I do in these immense regions?

I did what the Church does, the Church that Our Lord made, in his image, as the great Sower. Exiit qui seminat, seminare. I sowed what Christians sow, as our Tertullian said, when they want to assure eternal harvests; I sowed with blood, the blood of my sons, the White Fathers you see at this moment around the pulpit. Six of them, in addition to those who were sacrificed in other regions of Africa, suffered martyrdom under the blows of barbarians and fell blessing their executioners.

How can I forget them today, in this parish of Saint-Sulpice, to which the first of them belonged like you, by his birth, my three dear Brothers, and whence, six years before his martyrdom, he left to come learn among us in the hard life of missionaries.

But that blood of the apostles was not the only blood.

All devotions are united in France for a conquest that we are leaving to Providence: science, charity, even the army have left, for a quarter of a century, in the desert, the traces of their bloody heroism.
In a magnificent peroration, Mrg. Lavigerie solemnly conferred a part of his noble mission on his coadjutor, Mgr. Livinhac.

"As for me" he added,
I will return to my Africa, never to leave again, and I will give to it what God wills to give me in courage for the remaining years, being happy if, not having been able to work any better for the sanctification of the Father's flock that He has surrounded me with for a quarter of a century, it is my lot to fall pursuing the lost flock!
The emotion in the room was profound when the Cardinal descended from the pulpit. Many people knelt as he passed by, imploring his blessing. It was 5:05.

The allocution was followed by the singing of Veni Creator by Saint-Saëns, and by the taking of the Holy Sacrament led by Mgr. Rotelli. Auguez sand Rousseau's O Salutaris, and Vernet, Gounod's Ave Maria; the choir magisterially executed Tantum ergo by. Widor, who played the great organ, and Handel's Alleluia.

It was after 6:30 when the crowd left the church to its calm and silence. This magnificent and imposing ceremony left the deepest impression on all those who attended.

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"Deliberations of the Anti-Slavery Congress" 20 Summary of the proceedings of the Congress plain 2024-12-10T10:45:03-05:00
First Session
Monday 22 September

The delegates of different antislavery Committees gathered, at 9 o'clock in the morning, in the hall of the Geography Society, 184 Boulevard St-Germain, under the chairmanship of His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie, for the constitution of the definitive board and the setting of the agenda.

Mr. Keller, the former deputy and president of the Directory Council of the Antislavery Society, was elected to preside over the Congress, and the Count of Resbecq, as secretary general.

Haiti, the first independent Black State, not yet having an antislavery committee, did not have a representative at the Congress. We shared our regrets with Mgr. Brincat who, with with a haste for which we are grateful, was happy to submit the case before His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie. On the request of the prelate, the Congress unanimously admitted us as Haitian representative.

In this first session, Messrs. the members of the Congress examined if it was appropriate:
1. To publicly adhere to the dispositions of the general act of the Brussels Conference, as it was adopted by the powers.
2. To decide that the Antislavery Campaign should remain divided into fully independent national committees, according to the nation to which each belongs, and to specify, by consequence, the sphere of action that each of these committees should adopt with regard to Africa.
3. It if was appropriate for each of these national Committees to offer their active support to the respective Governments in the sphere of territorial influence of each of them, primarily for the creation of a corps of volunteers chosen from among the men who spontaneously offered their services to the Committees.
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At 3 o'clock in the afternoon
Public Session
Cardinal Richard, archbishop of Paris, who had intended to preside over this session, found himself suddenly indisposed, and asked Mgr Livinhac to replace him. Mgr. Brincat read out the letter by which the prelate had excused himself.

Mr. Keller eloquently read the proceedings of slavery as "contrary to natural law and Christian law."

After having welcomed the representatives of foreign committees and sang the praises of Great Britain's colonial conduct, gave a warm appeal to all those who have an interest in humanity. For the fight against the ferocious slavers, missionaries and resources are needed; schools must be founded that will give the Blacks the taste for work, hospitals, etc. It was to assure the means to attain this goal that the Congress was convened.

Then, Mr. Descamps David, member of the steering committee of Brussels, spoke brilliantly about the providential characteristics of the anti-slavery movement in the nineteenth century and on the opportunity of an active campaign.

Next, Brother Alexis, the well known geographer, gave an interesting lecture on the shared policy in Africa, following on the latest diplomatic conventions.

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Second Session
Tuesday 23 September, at 9 o'clock in the morning
1. We researched a simple and practical method for procuring annual resources for the charitable work in Africa and the missions that the Act of the Brussels Conference called for and promised to protect.
2. We examined terms in which the question of free labourers could be resolved without harming the interests of European colonists, nor the liberty of the Blacks.
3. We deliberated on the practical means of resolving the question of African Mohammedan fanaticism (Madhism, Senussianism, etc.) without provoking accusation of religious persecution.
4. On the necessity of immediately electing, from among the National Committees, a Jury to judge the open contest for the composition of the popular work most able to boost, in popular opinion, the cause of the abolition of African slavery, and to specify the conditions of this contest.
A supplementary meeting was held at two o'clock to clarify the latter points. And it was decided to continue acting on public opinion by way of anti-slavery Bulletins and to communications made to the press, in order to ensure the strict execution of the decisions adopted by the Powers.
Public and Solemn Closing Session
The attendance was much greater at this second and last session of the Congress, a considerable crowd filled the place. Well before 3 o'clock the whole vast hall: they had to hear His Eminence the Cardinal.

It was the Baron d'Avril, former minister plenipotentiary of France in Valparaiso, who first took the stand. An expert in geography, he traced on Brother Alexis's map of Africa an ingenious railroad project, going from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean through the Sahara, for which the posts of the missionaries, soldier and merchants formed a triple barrier, and effective fortification for the better part of the Soudan, for the Niger and the Algerian lands, against the shameful plague of slavery. The speaker then describe the vast establishment, created by Cardinal Lavigerie at Biskra and currently in great prosperity, "where young people ripped from the slaver traders are cared for, educated, regenerated by Christianity. The results obtained have already reduced to nothing the assertions of those who see the Black race as inferior to ours."

Although the session started at the appointed time, the Cardinal had not yet arrived. The Marquis of Vogüé, rapporteur of the Congress, nevertheless began reading the wished expressed by the private morning session, when the arrival of Mgr. Lavigerie was announced. It was the eminent prelate, indeed, who, smiling and resplendent, made his entrance.

Before beginning a casual and touching chat, which was interrupted many times by applause from the audience, Cardinal Lavigerie read a telegram from Leo XIII, "from the pope taking in hand the defence of slaves throughout the world from the depths of the prison of the Vatican," thanking the delegates from the good wishes they had sent to him, asking that they report on the slaves in Africa. Then the prelate said a few words on the role played by Mgr. Livinhac, his student and his son, "the first missionary in Africa," a man of science and a slave to his faith, laureate of the Academy of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and liberator, at the risk of his life, of unfortunate children destined for torment, "the bishop who bears at once the palms of the martyr and the palms of the Institute."

Mgr. Livinhac is about forty years old, of overage height; his face, looking both fine and energetic, is enveloped in a brown beard. He speaks, in a think Gascon accent, a French that he has hardly had the chance to use in the past twelve years in Africa. The fourteen young Blacks—the converts he brought with him—obey his slightest gesture with remarkable docility.

He first invented them—in their language, as not one of them speaks French—to thank the cardinal who had just blessed them; and all falling to their knees and smiling while murmuring a thanksgiving, which gives the most picturesque rhythm to the cadenced swaying of the bodies and the oblique clapping of joined hands. Among these young people, there are martyrs whose heroism is reminiscent of that of the first Christians.

The bishop told us their story. He called two over to him; one, very young, had seen his father flayed and burnt; another, instead of an ear had nothing but a hole on his head. It had been cut off. "Why did you have your ear cut off?" Mgr Lavigerie asked him. "Because they wanted to stop me from praying." Cardinal Lavigerie drew them near to him to embrace them. And in the hall, among those who had just been laughing at the spiritual embellishments of the cardinal, I could see men who were crying.

But time was passing. Once again the Marquis of Vogüé took the stand and announced the closing of the Congress and read the wishes expressed by the delegates.

At five o'clock, Mr. de Vogüé's reading is finished. The English delegate, Mr. Charles H. Allen, addressed in the name of the foreigners a compliment of farewell to Mgr. Lavigerie who, after embracing him, turned toward the assembly on his knees and blessed it.

And the Congress was over. Outside, a small crowd was waiting for the prelate and greeted him respectfully.

This splendid event—unique in its type—ended with a banquet in which the delegates took part, and which took place at the Hôtel Continental, under the chairmanship of Mr. Keller.

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