Note 26 — Chapter V

The following appears in the Nouvelliste, April, 1883:—“I read among your correspondence from Neuchâtel, published yesterday, that the whole population observes with pain the attitude taken by M. Aimé Humbert in the matter of the Salvationists. This certainly is so false and outrageous that I cannot let it pass without a protest. Certainly it is not my mission to speak for other people, and I will not say, as your correspondent does when speaking of himself alone, ‘the people of Neuchâtel;’ but I will say, in my own name, that I am very happy to see M. Aimé Humbert—one of the founders of our Republic, and one of the defenders of liberty of conscience in our Canton—once more supporting so good a cause, while the men now in power are endeavouring to stifle religious manifestations which are distasteful to them, after the manner of the ancient régime. M. Aimé Humbert is not, moreover, the only one of our ancient magistrates who continues to be the partizan of religious liberty. M. Eugene Borel, late Councillor of State and Federal Councillor, expresses the same sentiments. He recently wrote that he considered liberty of worship as one of the most precious conquests of the Revolution of 1848, and that there was no legal ground for depriving the Salvation Army of that liberty.”