The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-17

to the necessary restraints of such policy.
They are vain, vivacious, and full of bril-
lance. Their literature alone would provoke,
as it has SO often provoked, the bitterest
enmities. They are restless, too, and their
intellect is incisive and capricious. They
would never long endure lowly place in the
world. Yet once federalize France and you
would find it an almost impossible problem
for the central Government to overcome the
local jealousies and animosities. If war were
to break out, the animosities between towns
and country, between commune and COM
mune, between province and province, would
be interminable The central government
would have no power to overcome these
jealousies, and yet no power to face the
enemy till they were overcome. Bretons and
Burgundians, and NormHns and Provencals
would quarrel as to the relative magnitude of
their contributions to the war and to its funds
iealousies of race as to the command of troops
would be stronger than ever-and they were
strong enough in the recent war-since the
local principle would have been fairly consecra-
ted by separate administrations of the various
provinces. The foreign policy which ap-
proved itself most to Normandy would ap-
prove itself least to Provence. Nice and
Savoy given up to their own local government
would probably break away from France alto
gether. The department of the Jura would
in all probability feel that, federalism once
admitted, its national affinities are stronger
with Swiss federation than with French
The Roman Catholics of the Flemish border
would find the ties to Belgium growing
stronger as the tie to France grew weaker
And against difficulties such these the
Federal Government would have to travel on
its difficult and perilous way. Nothing can
in fact be less like the situation of fede-
rated France than the situation of the
United States and of the Swiss Cantons. In
the latter, all the traditions are of the same
hue; all the dangers are of the same kind; all
the political life is homogeneous; and, per-
baps most important of all, all the local inte-
rests either far outweigh the central interests
in Importance, or at least did so during the
period in which the federal principle was
roofing itself in the minds of the people
Now, in France all the provincial traditions
are of opposite hue; the dangers are very di-
verse; the political life is most heterogeneous;
and yet important as are the local interests of
the people, the central interests are inevi-
tably still more important and therefore GER
tain to be the subject of the hottest possible
rivalries and contests between the federated
elements. Nothing, then, can be less favor
able for federation than the conditions of
public life in France, and we should fear that
the federal experiment, if ever tried, would
only be name for chronic civil war. And
We hold, therefore, that the real alternative
before France, if she is not to fall into
chronic civil war, is either a strong central
government dictated by the peasants, who
are Royslists, or a strong central government
dictated by the cities, which are Republican,
and in either case one strong enough to put
down and keep down the Others If the cities
were to conquer, there would be the anomaly
of a minority forcing a majority to accept a
form of freedom which they were not free
enough to reject. If the country were once
more to conquer, there would be again the
anomaly of the most ignorant and reaction
ary governing the most intelligent and ener-
getic, and of government really adverse to
education, instead of favorable to it as
means of government. The alternative is
not pleasant one. Either one branch or the
other of it involves the gravest practical and
moral anomalies. But either one or the other
is, we fear, more feasible and less dangerous
than the experiment of Federalism, which
would probably involve all the evils of each
and many of its own as we'll.