The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-14
THE PLAY OF CHANCE IN FRANCE.

IHE PLAY OF CHANCE IN FRANCE.
From the Pal Mall Gazette.
When we speak Of the prospects of SOW
erelgns and governmental systems in our
own day, a sound common logic, associated
with a good knowledge of facts. sufices to
lead us to conclusions more or less correct.
But when we speak of the prospects of
people we should be far more circumspect:
for among other things, there is a very arbi-
trary element constantly working in the
course of human affairs which must never be
LETT out OF consideration. 1t may suit histo-
rlans to find in their researches an explana-
uon for every event they have to deal with.
and to describe these events as existing in
such necessary connection that the
credulous reader thinks the laws
OF history act constantly without
alteration, and that all of them are perfectly
well known to modern writer's. But no rea
sonable contemporary has the n necessity orthe
right to follow the historians example, espe-
cially when he has to deal with France The
alternate plaudits and cursings to which that
nation has exposed herself for nearly CEN
tury have led other countries to wholesale
Verdlcts which have neither the merit of truth
nor Of political utility. They have no utility.
for they can neither improve nor help peo-
pie. They have not the merit of truth. for to
say OF people that it is not fit for
liberty, as some do, or to say
that 1t is essentially revolutionary and
never contented by anything, as others do. is
TO say nothing whatever and to say NOTHING is
not to say the truth. Moreover, hardly anv
country in Europe has the right to pronounce
upon the capabilities of the French
people as citizens taken as a whole.
Tor II there Is one nation which can
boast of greater political liberty there is Ger
talnly not one that has arrived at a greater
Independence of individual life. And as.
taking all IN all, it does not matter much what
klhu Oh tfammels stop the natural develop
ineh' n oi man-whether they be political, re-
Ii8lous u SociaI-lt would be hardly true to
say OF a contemporary Frenchman that he is
generally speaking in a worse position than q
contemporary citizen of any other country
IL we md, as we do sometimes that tTe
incense OF French life is too great if is oh
IlouS tnat there can be no want of individual
independence; and as the chief aim of noliti-
cal noerty IS to grant independence to the
lnulVluual, we are bound to saw that a
people whlch mas arrived at individual free
Hoih without enjoying political freedom must
very Skllul people. When we see
'ii"' 'IouSh constantly checked in its
pursuits IN science, literature, and Other de-,
Paftihehts OF HE, the devevelopment of which
imphes considerable share of liberty IL hos
oeeh always advancing so as to be constontIv
initiated by other nations we are OBLIGED 10
ada that 1T must be very clever peonIe too
And seeing that skilful and clever sV
people Is IN constant trouble about its govern.
mental ahaiIs' we are naturally led to the
! questlon-What is the reason az snob " ",4nto 10
of things? ''0n S'aVe
However some future philosophical bisto-
rian may reply to this question. we at .avo
can only say that the answer must be somcht
IN those seemingly irregular combinationS nS nS
events which constitute what is called tba oa
play OF chance Although circumstances ba 90
shaped the French revolution differently from
all the other religious and political revoiutions
OF Europe, 1t Is reasonable to believe that If
J that revolution had been stopped by any other