The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-20
srxRxx or Ezn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
FIRST DAYS OF THE FRENCH ASSEM-
RTY

BLY,.
From the NJ Y. Tribune.
The opening scenes of the Assembly at
Bordeaux are not sufficiently accented to
afford any sure indication of the result which
is to follow from their deliberations. There
has been some rather violent comment by
Republican members on the fact of the doors
of the Assembly being guarded by soldiers;
one sanguinary patriotfrom Paris announcing
his intention to come in future to the sessions
armed On the other hand, the elections Of
officers so far have been marked with the
greatest prudence and discretion. Nj. Grevy,
the President, was a member of the Third
party of 1862 so liberal and so fearless in his
opposition to the abuses of personal govern
ment that most of our contemporaries classify
him enormously as Republican. He is
the same undaunted liberal that mounted the
barricades of 1880, the same undinching
advocate of popular rights that withstood the
Establishments and plots of the Elysee in
1851, the same incorruptible tribune that re-
Gently twice defeated the Government in his
own district, when, after eighteen years of
seclusion, he came out again to attack afresh
the crumbling fortress of usurpation; but it
is too soon to claim him as a Republican.
If the will of France honestly expressed, be
in favor of the republic, she will find true
and honorable servant in him. But his
early associations and later utteranceS alike
monarchy.
Four rVice-Presidents have also been elected,
of the same highly respectable character. The
most advanced of these, Louis Joseph Martel,
has never been thus far graded as a Republi-
can. He was member of the Legislative
Body during the Government of July, aud
was one of the earnest partisans of NJ Thiers
in the debates of that day. He was promi-
nent in the Third party just before the war.
OF his colleagues, Vicomte Benoist d Azy was
an old and chivalrous champion of the Bour-
bons before and after their expulsion in 1880,
and, since the shame and disgrace of the coup
detdt, has retired entirely from politics until
called forth in his vigorous age by the shock
of war and revolution to take part in the re-
construction of the country. Ludovic Vitet
is also rather memory of the past than an
active politician of to-day; his last term of
service in the Legislative Body ended twenty
years ago. Maleville, the fourth Vice -Pres-
dent, also ended his public life on the day
the liberties of France were strangled by Ma
poleon and his gang of conspirators. Up to
that time he, as well as Vitet, had been dis
tipguished among the friends of M. Theirs
and partisans of the limited monarchy.
With such q tendency of the Chambers in
dicated by its choice of officers, it will be
readily seen how premature if not entirely
apocryphal was the London despatch pub
lished by the morning papers recently an
uOuuCtuB tude pho InuJoilpy hhu uBEoou upOu
Provisional Government of which M.
Thiers was to be the head, and the leading
members of the present Republican Commit
tee the most prominent members. A propo-
sition has been introduced for comforting
upon the veteran statesman full powers of
forming a Cabinet signed by the weighty
names of Dufaure, Maleville, and Vitet, who
are all old friends and lifelong parti-
sans of his. The House of Orleans, among
all its most precious possessions, has
nothing to be compared with the faithful and
disinterested devotion of this great scholar
and politician. There must of necessity be
something worthy of regard and respect in
the Princes of a family which has been able
to retain through twenty three years of exile
and misfortune the warmest devotion of such
enlightened men as those who have come to
the surface in the last great convulsion of
France.
NM. Favre and Picard have arrived in Bor-
deaux to receive the instructions of the AS
sembly in regard to the German terms of
peace. These will probably be given in what
ever sense the Prussian Cabinet may direct.
All parties seem anxious that the question of
peace should be disposed of before that of the
definite reconstruction of the country is ar
ranged. All factions will feel easier when
the overpowering presence of Bismarck is re-
moved from their borders; and the election
of king would be of i'll omen if it were
made while France was writhing under the
conqueror's heel.