The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-25
THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.

THE political changes effected in France by
the war are scarcely less striking than the
military results. In name Napoleon still
governs, indirectly, but in fact he has ceased
to be the ruler of the nation, and whether he
is formally deposed or not, he can never
again bend the nation to his imperial will.
The French will never forgive him for
plunging the country into war for which it
was totally unprepared, and even the most
ardent admirers of Napoleon the Great must
feel that it would be suicidal folly to re-
endow Napoleon the Little with supreme
power. When he went to the front
he made the Empress Regent and
left Olivier to act as Prime
Minister. The tidings of the first Prussian
victories led Immediately to parliamentary
defeat of this programme, and to the substi-
tuition of Palikao for Olivier. Since then,
increasing exigencies have led to additional
notifications, which have greatly weakened
imperial authority. General Trochu has been
made Governor of Paris with full powers,
and he has evinced strong disposition to
disregard all the imperial traditions and to
reverse in every essential particular the i'm
perial policy He has acted as the friend of
Napoleon's enemies, relieving the republi-
can journals of their interdictions, and has
made an earnest effort to concentrate
the energies of all parties in the one
great task of making the capital impreg-
nable to the assaults of the invaders Mean
while the opposition in the Corps Legislatif
to Palikao has become scarcely less tumultu-
Gus than the former opposition to Olivier,
and finally, by way of appeasing it, legisla-
tive committee has been permitted to share
executive power-this movement being prac-
tically a new blow to absolutism. The fact
that NJ Theirs is one of the members of this
committee adds greatly to the significance
of its appointment. He is the statesman,
per excellence, of France, and at the same
time the great French champion of parlia-
mentary government. Events have
proved that he was substantially right
in the position he assumed on all the leading
questions of the last ten years. He de-
advance; he declared in 1866 that Napoleon
was committing fearful error by his policy
of non-intervention; and he warned the Cham
bers in 1870 that France was not prepared for
the present war. He has demonstrated in
the most emphatic manner that Napoleon
t'has committed series of blunders fatal to
himself and fatal to the people he misgov-
erns." And when we are told that this man,
who bears to the Emperor the same relation
that Thaddeus Stevens bore to Andrew John
son, shares governmental power by virtue of
an Imperial decree, we cannot avoid the con-
clusion that Napoleon has become mere
figure-head in the Government, while abler
and more trustworthy men possess substan-
tial authority.
The French Chambers and the leading
French generals, more especially Bazaine and
Troohu, are the real rulers of France to-day.
Napoleon made himself ridiculous incubus
in the French camps, and he scarcely dares
return to the capital to face the populace he
has SO wofully deceived. Let the campaign
end as it will, he can make no new coup deta,
to recover the power he has already lost
through his fatal incompetency. Even the
imperialists would fear to trust him, an6
every other party of the Empire will strive tc
destroy his rule utterly as soon as a compe
tent successor can be provided.