The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-08-16


disclose the important fact that ''poor
France is on the verge of another crisis and
another revolution. Paris is excited The
situation is menacing. Trouble is threatened
from several sources. Yesterday, NapOleon's
| tete day, the air was full of rumors of an i'm
pending revolt Of the army against the Yer
sailles government and Of the proclaiming Of
Maj shall MacMahon as Regent in behalf of the
empire. People were leaving Paris in sort
of stampede. Some believed that the schemes
OF the Orleanists for coup T6tat were ripe,
that these schemes have been hurried up by
the movement in the Assembly to make M.
| Theirs permanent Executive of the nation, and
by the fear that his government would head
off the Bourbons. Worst of ALL it appears
that the venerable Theirs, in trying to con-
ciliate all parties, has arrayed them all
against him-republcans imperialists and
Bourbons.
This is an ominous condition of things from
which the outlook for the French republic is
anything but cheering. The trouble with the
Theirs government Is that it no longer satisfies
anybody. 1t is republican only in name, and
even Of the name it seems to be half ashamed.
1t has cultivated the goodwill and .co-opera-
ton of the Bourbons only to betray them. It
has gone out of its way to give the cold Shout
der to the Bonapartes, and it has forfeited the
sympathies of the Church and the Church
party in refusing to intervene in behalf of the
restoration to the Pope of his temporal king
dom. The services which M. Theirs has rem
dered to France since the surrender of Paris
to the Germans have been valuable beyond all
calculation. In rescuing the country-frst,
from the wild and visionary Gambetta and his
| impracticable and reckless government of the
national defence; next, in coming down to the
best terms of peace that could be obtained
from Prince Bismarck, thus relieving France
from the complete prostration and destruction
otherwise threatened her by the German
armies, and then, in his decisive settlement
with the Paris Commune, President Theirs
may be called a providential dispensation to
France
But having escaped the disastrous conse
quences threatened-frst, by the wild ex-
cesses of Gambetta and Company, and next
by the diabolisms of the Paris Commune
and having provided the ways and means for
the removal of the German armies from their
soil, in pursuance of their peace treaty stipu-
lations, the French people are impatient for
the establishment of their national govern
ment in permanent form. President Theirs
and his National Assembly occupy position
very much resembling that of Marshal Ser
rano and his Provisional Cortes while Gen.
eral Prim was casting about for King for
Spain The parallel may be extended in COM
pairing the present position of Marshal Mac
Mahon with that of General Prim, as the
actual master of the provisional government
concerned. In the case of Spain Serrano
held the Cortes as within the palm of his
hand, while Prim, with the army at bis back,
could do what he liked. though his patriotic
loyalty to Serrano and the Cortes was illus
trated to the last. In the case of France all
parties in the Assembly so far have recog-
nized the necessity of supporting the views
and continuing the supreme authority of Presi-
dent Theirs, and the loyalty of Marshal Mac
Mahon to Theirs and his Assembly has been
as remarkable as that of Prim to Serrano and
his Cortes.
But here the parallel ends Prim had no
exIled Spsniards claims constantly before
bin, challenging his sympathies as q soldier
and a servant, under dynasty displaced by
the misfortunes Of war. MacMahon, who
owes bis military elevation and fame and
position to Louis Napoleon, on the other
hand, can hardly forget the favors showered
upon him by his late imperial master, the
gracious friendship of the Empress and the
victories with the imperial army in the field
which made the distinguished soldier Mar
shall of the empire and the Duke of Magenta
Hence these rumors in Paris of medtated
revolt Of the French army-mostly made up
of soldiers of the empire-and hence the
popular suspicion that the army contemplated
the elevation of MacMahon as Regent in behalf
of the restoration of the empire. In truth, with
all the power possessed in his day by General
Monk in similar emergency he had neither
the temptation Of the past nor the induce
ments of the future that invite MacMahon to a
coup dftat in behalf of the recall of his exiled
Emperor
Nor can we doubt, after the refusal of Pre-
sident Theirs to complicate the foreign rela-
tons of France by active Intervention in be-
half of the Pope, that the French Church and
Church party are ready to cooperate in
behalf of the restoration of the Bonapartes.
The eighteen years during which the Pope
was held secure in his temperatures by Napo-
leon are forgotten neither by the Holy
Father nor his faithful children in
France. 1t may be said, however, that
the Bourbons are the dominant party in the
Assembly, and that Theirs Is with the Bour-
bons, if we reduce the question involved to an
issue between the Bourbons and the Bona
parties On the other hand, however, it must
ha fornottan that the disc stara Of iho apa