The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-11
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EdItorirI Opinions of the Lending Journals
Upon Current Topics-Conpiled Every
Duy for the Evening Telegraph.
TROUBLE AHEAD IN FRANCE.

day proclaimed the Republic OF Europe, and
informed the inhabitants of the Continent
that they were no longer the subjects of en-
perors and kings, but the free citizens of the
United States of Europe. Victor Hugo, in
his most dazzling pyrotechnical rhetoric, an
nounced that the Federal European Republic
was already founded de jUr6, if not de fdct0.
the last of all wars was soon to be fought:
frontiers were to be blotted out, kings de-
posed, and paid soldiers replaced by gratui-
fous citizens; "civil lists, well-paid do
nothingisms, salaried clergy, remunerated
iudgeships, aristocratic sinecures, gratuitous
concessions of public buildings" were to
become things of the past; and socialism
and repubhcanism were to meet and kiss
each other and then to stamp out forever
that monster with a thousand claws,
that sinister incarnation of the old
monarchical and military crime which gags
and plumbers u.s. which claps one hand over
our mouth and the other into our pockets;
which has for its share our millions, the bud
get the Judges the priests, the soldiers, the
lackeys the palaces, the civil lists, the
armies but not the people These are the
rawlings of man of genius gone mad, 1t may
be said; they are missing paragraph from
the most crazy chapter of IL Homme Qui
Ritz" but when we have laughed at them
with mingled scorn and pity, and turn to see
how Louis Napoleon proceeds with his work
of crowning the edihce of constitutional lib
erty in France, and upon whom the Cortes at
Madrid are about to confer the crown of Isa-
bella, we see cause to moderate our mirth.
The free citizens of the republic of Europe
are impatient, it seems, of longer submis-
sion to the monster with the thousand
claws, and are making plain their deter
mination to slay him. What Is going on in
Spain is by no means unexpected, but the
news from France is startling On the 26th
of October, if the Rdppd has not been de-
ceived, 'the Deputies of the Left will sign a
protest declaring that the, Emperor has vio-
lated the constitution, and that they consider
themselves absolved thereby from their oaths
of fidelity to him" The Rappd is not the
best authority for any statement; and it
scarcely seems probable that the opposition
side of the French Legislature, having re-
solved upon a comp de Hsa{R which can only
end either in the overthrow of the empire or
their own destruction, should kindly give
nineteen days notice of their intentions, and
advertise the exact time and place for the
performance of their tragedy. Nevertheless
it is clear that affairs III France are in a most
critical condition, and that au explosion
can be much longer delayed seems highly
improbable. 1t is remarkable that the
increasing strength of the democratic
party, in Franco and in Spain, is
due much more to the blunders of the EN-
peror in the one case, and of the Spanish
monarchists in the other, than it is to any act
of wisdom on the part of the Democratic
leaders. Had Prim and Serrano been pre-
pared with their new prince before they got
rid of their old queen, or even had they been
able to agree upon candidate for the throne
at the moment when the Cortes voted that
the Government should continue to be a
monarchy, it is most probable that tranquility
would now prevail throughout Spain, AMI
that the republicans there would long since
have been crushed out In like manner, had
Louis Napoleon, once having resolved upon
the substitution of constitutional for personal
government in France, gone boldly forward
with the work, it is almost certain that by
this time the voice of discomfort within the
empire would have been hushed It might
have been wiser had he refused to surrender
his prerOgative at all; but, having once
announced that it was necessary to surrender
it, it was folly to hesitate and daily upon
the threshold of the inevitable. When
the Emperor told the Chambers that, as a
last resort, parliamentary government was to
be tried, the declaration had the effect of
dampening the hopes of the red republicans
and of inclining the hearts of the moderate
liberals towards the ruler whom they had
hitherto hated. The conservative classes,
who dread revolution, as do all men who have
much to lose and little to gain, being told by
the Emperor himself that personal govern
ment was not to be longer relied upon for the
safety of society, were certain to cooperate
heartily in the new experiment, by the success
of which they were assured they could alone
find safetyfor the future; the moderate liberals
were disposed to give the experiment fai1
trial, at least and the reds, who were then few
and comparatively powerless, found it difficul
to obtain listeners when they denounced the
proposed reforms as delusions and snares
The cue for the Emperor at thi
juncture was prompt action. Had ht
hurried the senatus-consultum to com
pletion, convoked the Corps Legslati
Immediately, and surrounded himself
with as liberal ministry as could be go
together, the new governmental machine
might have been set in motion without much
difficulty and it certainly would have beer
strong enough to Withstand the attacks
that might have been made upon it.
1t would have had the support of every
one in France who has anything to lose
The imperialists must have sustained it, since
the Emperor himsefhad told them it was then
only hope; the moderate liberals woult
they could hope, in time, to limit the powe
of the executive to the measure of the prero
gatives of one who reigns but does not govern
But the Emperor, with inexplicable faulty
has spent the last few weeks in fritterin,
away the support which he might have Sc
cured by a prompt and straightforward,
course of action. He has delayed an
hesitated in setting the new machiner
OF government at work, and every day of thi
procrastination and doubt has only served t
bring the proposed reform and the Empero
himself into discredit and contempt The ton
of the opposition organs Nyss fOrmerlv one r