The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-27

of May in the Hofburg of Vienna is date of
the eravest kind. Let us hope that the event
will be fortunate for the great eastern
kingdom" which has been the barrier of
Europe against NJ ecca and against Moskowa.
DUMAS THE YOUNGER ON THE
FUTURE OF FRANCE.
From the ". Y. Times.
Alexandra Dumas-ftS, as the French Jour
nails still persist in calling him, albeit the pere
has passed away-has written notable letter
on the present state and future needs of his
countrymen. The letter is chiefly remarkable
for three things. 1t is extremely long-flling
upward of four columns of LOptDt0n Ma
ti0ndIe-it contains very little that is new,
and it is, withal, very readable. M. Dumas
has been to Versailles to see, because, as he
says, to see is to know, and to know is to
foresee. This great truth, it appears, he
found embodied in that remarkable man, NJ
Theirs, who has seen, known, and predicted
everything. NJ Dumas has also done little
in the prophetic line, though, of course, at an
immense distance behind the great NJ THEIRS
For example, in novel published three years
ago the philosophic Alexander did solemnly
enunciate these startling facts. that the old
society was everywhere crumbling, and that
all original laws, all fundamental institutions,
both human and divine, were being surren-
dered, and called in question. Further,
few months later this far-seeing novelist
wrote in this sybilline strain to the editor of
the GaulOis, who had asked him to furnish
seme articles of literary criticism: "Whats
the use Is there anybody who, in a year or
two from now, will occupy himself about our
books and our plays? The drama will no
longer be in the theatres; it will be in the
legislative chamber and in the streets Lite
rature is played out, action is about to
begin"
After having triumphantly vlndicated his
right to claim possession of the divining rod
and the prophetic mantle, M. Dumas proceeds
to give the world an insight into the inner
consciousness of M. Theirs. AS a preparative
for this we are treated to the aphorism that
sin France nothing is so easy as to be pro-
claimed great, while nothing is so difficult as
to be admitted to be honest" We are then
informed with impressive gravity that ''M.
Theirs will neither prove Monk nor Wash
ington; he will be Theirs. To the reader
vaguely speculating over the significance of
this mystic phrase, Nj. Dumas adds, rather
more explicitly, that, order once restored,
the French executive in the person of
Theirs will, in effect say to the nation,
''Choose your Government freely, Loyalty
and intelhgently if you can-and name whom
you please, provided it is not l. Then he
will remain quietly at home, if he has by that
time a home at which to remain" Alongside
of the French novelist's opinion of his politi-
cal hero, it may not be uninteresting to place
that of Karl Blind, the German socialist, con-
veyed in a late communication to the Neue
Freie Presse. 'Changarnier and Ducrot
would fain play the part of Monk at once.
Theirs only hesitates from tactical motives.
At the same time, he has no desire to be set
aside by his rivals. Hence he rather keeps
with Mcmahon, the Bonapartist, in order not
to be ousted by the generals of the united
royal lines. Thiers, too, means to have his
thrust at the Republic, only his mode of fenc-
ing is different one.
Descending to the role of historian, M.
Dumas informs his countrymen that for some
seventy years they have been nourished upon
fictions-upon words that signifed absolutely
nothing. Liberty, military glory, universal
suffrage, the nation, universal brotherhood
in short, every idea that has dominated
Frenchmen since 'S9 has been either bur-
lesqued or misdirected. To this pass it has
come at last, that there is no historical for
mula which has not been created and dis
solved in France, none of her political expe-
dients which has not been both done and
undone. The plan, then, evidently,
is to begin at the beginning. Every
body is calling loudly for the man
who is to save the nation. eHe is not
far to seek, says M. Dumas, with an
him very close at hand; it is you, and 1, and
all of u.s." The individual-"the being au-
tonomous and self it appears,
non existent, or, at least, very rare in France.
When a Frenchman gets up in the morning,
he requires other five or six people to assist
him in getting through the day. First he
needs policeman to protect him in the
street, next a soldier to protect him at the
frontier, then a professor to teach his child
rem, still further a priest to teach him mo-
rality, some unfortunate or other to go and
take the chance of getting killed in his
stead, and last of all king or emperor to
keep the machine of state in motion. This
eminently lucid and comprehensive de-
tails of Frenchman's doubles" forms
the key to the new political gospel
the soldier and the substitute-the Commune
extinguished the policeman, the professor,
the priest, and the emperor. A very OBJ vious
opening has thus been made for every man
becoming his own policeman, soldier, substi-
tute, etc., and herein lies the future salvation
of France. OF course, NJ. Dumas being a
great literary artist does not descend
from his lofty platitudes quite so
suddenly as this, but, in plain terms, this is
what his specific amounts to. Ten years of
this regime will pay off the hundreds of
millions of new debt, will restore the lost
psovinces and will make France ''the fore
most nation in the world" The period re-
quired is moderate, but NJ. Dumas seems
rather apprehensive that to volatile people
it may seem too long Let him reconsider
the matter, and see whether he could not
conscientiously advise every Frenchman to
become his own baker, tailor, boot-maker,
and builder, and perhaps the great regenera-
tion could he effected in half the time to the