The New York herald., 1871-02-20
M. Theirs and IN. Regency in France

by special telegram to the NEW YORK
HERALD from Bordeaux we are enabled to
present to our readers the new Ministry
selected by M. Theirs to assist him in the deli
cate task Of restoring peace to France. In
the selection Of advisers M. Theirs has done
WELL Jules Favre is Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ernest Picard, Minister of the In
terror Jules Simon, Minister of Public
Instructions General LIE Flo, Minister
of War; Admiral Potthuan, Minister of
Marine; Jules Dufaure, Minister of Justice,
and Felix Lambrecht. Minister of Commerce.
The appointment of Minister of Finance has
net yet been announced. This Cabinet is
| strong one, and is composed of men Of energy,
who will devote themselves to the work before
them. There is hope yet for France With her
proud capital in sackcloth and ashes at the
| foot of the invader; with her National Assem-
bly, elected and in session in provincial city
| by permission of the German Emperor from
| his headquarters at Versailles with half her
territory laid waste; with the flower of her
late imr:rial grand army, to the number Of
four hundred thousand men, held as prisoners
of war beyond the Rhine; with the terrible
fighting Germans, to the number of seven
hundred thousand, still upon her SOIL and in
the midst Of all her unparalleled disasters, hu-
miliations, sufferings, bewilderment and politi-
cal confusion, there is still hope for poor
France. There is the hope of a treaty of
peace under which, without further blsodshed,
she will be relieved of the German armies,
and the hope of a peaceable reconstruction of
her government by authority Of the French
people, and the complete re-establishment of
internal law and order and all her industrial
activities, through the good sense, prudence
and thoughtful patriotism of her present Ma
| tional Assembly.
| The election Of her wisest and most expe-
rienced living statesman M. Theirs, to the re-
| sponsible and delicate position of acting Execu-
tive, regent of her present provisional govern
ment, in behalf of peace, external and internal,
is exceedingly encouraging. To France, in the
severe extremities of her misfortunes, he may
be likened to the immortal Cincinnatus, and
there is every reason to believe that the great
Frenchman, like the great Roman, will go
down to history as model Of honest patriot
ism and heroism under the greatest tempta-
tions Of absolute power. So stands this great
and venerable French journalist, historian and
statesman NJ. Theirs, to-day for it may be
said that the French people, through their
assembled deputies, have placed the recon-
struction of their government in his hands, to-
gether with the terms Of their submission for
peace to Germany. AS the head of what we
may call the Regency of France, what will he
do with it2 He is neither radical nor an
imperialist. He is either an Oreanist or a
moderate republican, as we find from his pub
lie record. Let us see.
In 1892 as journalist, through the Ma
tionGl he opposed the unconstitutional pro-
ceedings of Charles X and his Minister,
Polignac. Next, from his long association
with the government of Louis Philippe, and
especially as his Prime Minister, he became
closely identified with the Orleanists. He
was, however, called from his retirement to
| serve in the National Assembly of the republic
| of 1913, and expelled from France by Louis
| Napoleon, with his coup d6tat of December,
permitted to return to Paris. He has since
repeatedly been returned by the liberals to
represent them in the imperial Legislature,
where he has distinguished himself as cham
pion of the peoples rights and as an opponent
of Italian unity and as an upholder of the
Popes temporal sovereignty. With this
CT rious admixture of principles-iberal and
conservative-we have in M. Thiers the
embodiment of compromise between the
two extremes. But what will be the fruit
from this blossoming of the Assembly at Bor-
deaux-a liberal monarchy or a conservative
republican Orleanist king, who will recog-
nize the sovereign rights of the people, or an
| elective president under a constitution bind
| ing him to recognize the sovereign rights of
| the Pope2 This is the problem which M.
| Theirs is now called upon to solve. He goes
for the people and he stands by the Pope, and
the Count de Paris, in this view, would seem
to be the coming man for the dogma of the
sovereign rights of the Pope is utterly incom-
patible with the dogmas of French republic.
| The parallel which we suggested yesterday
between the dictatorial position lately held by
| General Prm in Spain and that now held by
Theirs in France is very interesting. We may
say, however, that the late Spanish Regent,
Serrano, and General Prim, are now repro
| duced in France in Theirs and Trochu. 1t
was the able, cool and sagacious Serrano who
| so successfully conducted the transitional
government of Spain from the revolution
which expelled Isabella to the establishment of
that new and liberalized monarchy under
| Amadeus of Italy; but at the same time it
was Prim, who, with the army in his hands,
played the part of General Monk in securing o
king for the spaniards. 1t would appear that
| while the Regent Serrano, with the Spanish