New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-02-15
TIE FRENCH.

! Although the teleSraphlc news FORM
France is very meagre and the accounts
of election returns are conflicting, yet
there seems some reason to believe that
the conservatives are III the ascendant,
| and that instead of a republic, the from
| of government chosen by the Assembly
may be Il constitutional monarchy.
Perhaps, on the whole, such form of
government would be more suitable for
France at the present time than one like
ours; and this. not because the French
are any more unfit bv nature for republic
can institutions than We are, but because
they lack the training that we have had
We did not start to life at once, as MIN
erva from her fathers head, full armed
republicans. In the persons of our Eng
h,h ancestors We had 4 long and thor
ouGh training il the principles Of civil
liberty Our political education may toe
SAID to have begun more than five hun
dred and fifty years ago, at Eunnymede,
when the belligerent bnrons Of England
wrested from the feeble John the Magma
Charta.
Every subsequent struggle i'll that coun-
Try, between the encroachment, of roy
atty and the demands Of civil liberty, was
a lesson by which we have proited The
sturdy commons, who Taught the indocile
StEarts that kings were amenable t. their
subjects, the Pyms, and Hanlpdtn', and
tromNoll5 were among our teachers.
Every obstacle in tie path o: freedom
which they removed helped 10 clear the
way for U.s. and when al length the spirit
Of liberty, which hal been 50 long ana 50
reeolutely wrestling with oppression in
the mother country, drove its children 70
this Western wilderness. they found here
i new and better schoo! than that they
had left behind. Here, strengthened by
continual effort. and favored by cream
stances, they We're prepared to profit by
the teachings of experience, and to gradu-
ate III due time as democratic republicans.
None of these advantages have been en-
ioyed by the French Ground down b.
centuries of oppression and ini,rule, ut
ter!y unprepaced for the duties OF self
government. in moment comparatively
speaking) they cast of, by a gigantic Ell
fort, the chains which bound them, and
rushed into chaos. That the confusion
which followed should have driven them
backward toward the old order OF things
was no more than natural-toward but
not to; for precisely the old order of
things could never be re-cstablisheI. The
people had learned their own power and
if they had also learned their own weak
ness, that fact helped them to submit for
q while to the schooling Of necessity and
bide their time. That they have made
Intellectual efforts at the e,ttl,- |
lishment of democratic institutions, c2tl |
effort ending III the resumption OF old |
forms, only proves that tLcy |
have not been able . undo in fifty years
the work of five hundred Never /
thelrss, though each separate wave seems !
to receda, the tide is steadily advancing. |
HE French people have learned mrrh by |
their revolutions and reactions: ana |
even should they decide t. re-
tain. for some time to come. tn
form, OF monarchy, it viii be quite
, different thing in spirit from the mon
,rchieS OF Old times, or even from tAe en-
oire which mas Just dissolved. The Count
Of Paris, should he lie raised BY the ,uf-
'rages of the French people to tbs throne
If hi; grandfather, viii inl that the
lines of his grandfather are passed away,
lever to return. Any monarchy NOW e.
i'll France will BE- only school
or repuDlic,nism.
The supposition, however, that mon
lrchy may be the present choice of the
French people, based as it is upon the m
certain information yet received, may
prove groundless. Further return, NAV
how republican gains; and before many
lays we may be called upon to stretch
,ur hands across the Atlantic in welcome
o sister republic. 50 may it be