The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-23

| the Dipiomuttc COrps-uruef III HtanVe
and the Peace Of Europe.
We are informed by our latest dispatches
| from Paris that President Theirs receives
gratifying evidences of public confidence from
all quarters; that the diplomatic representa-
tives of foreign governments waited on him in
body on Sunday last and presented their
congratulations on his determination to remain
at the head of the government. and that the
greeting received by the President from Count
Orlof, the Russian Ambassador, was no.
ticeably warm and cordial. Now, we are
strongly inclined to the opinion that while
these evidences of public confidence from
oil quarters, in President Theirs, signify that
his continuance at the head of his government
| is necessary at this crisis to the maintenance
of law and order at home, these diplomatic
! congratulations indicate that peace in France
is necessary to the peace Of Europe.
But how is it that peace in France and the
peace Of Europe now depend upon the con-
tnuance Of M. Theirs in his present position
of de .facto Dictator? We think this some
what startling and important question may be
readily answered. The venerable Theirs has
resolved upon a certain line Of financial
measures for the deliveraace of France
| from her heavy German indemnity.
As one of these measures, he submits
a bill through his financial Minister,
M. Pouyer-Q uertier, for tariff upon
a variety of raw materials used in French
manufactures. Taxed as are the French peo-
pie already, Of all classes, almost to the limits
oil their strength, under their terrible losses and
| exhaustion from their late ruinous war, there
came up from them universal rem0nstrance
| against this new exaction. Their representa-
tives in the Assembly, sympathizing with their
sufferings. rejected this tariff bill Of the Execu
tive. But he had no substitute to OFFER With
him it was this bill or nothing; and so with
its rejection he submitted the designations of
himself and his Cabinet But this terrible
announcement dropped like bombshell upon
the Assembly. President Theirs, it may be
said, is without party in that body. and be-
tween Its Bourbons, Bonapartists and repub-
cans the only bond of cohesion is the fear and
distrust with which each of these parties re-
CARDS the others. They oil saw, with the re-
tirement Of Theirs, that conflict for his place
must follow, which menaced nothing less than
bloody revolution and all the horrors and
confusion Of civil war, from Paris to the at
most boundaries of France. Hence these ap-
peals and apologies to their cruel President from
all sides of the Assembly, and hence these
''evidences of public confidence from all quar-
tiers" in his government
With the Assembly, the men of property,
the men engaged in active business operations
and the men of law and order throughout the
country comprehended the dreadful conse-
! quences which must follow the retirement Of
the indispensable Theirs from the head of
affairs, and they made haste to avert the dan
ger. But whence this great danger of civil
war? It comes from the revolution, the
humiliations, the heavy disasters and the over
whelming debt and exactons resulting from
the war with Germany and from the Com
mune and the International. The idea Is still
widely entertained in France that in the chap
ter of accidents among the European States
France will escape great part Of this merci-
less German indemnity, and in the chapter of
accidents, we apprehend, Germany may yet
be driven to the alternative of the appropria-
ton of few more of the Eastern departments
of France in the way Of foreclosure of her
mortgage. With the thousands of millions
lost by the war, with the consumption or
destruction of her articles of subsistence by
hostile armies, with the prostraton of her
agricultural and manufacturing industries
and her foreign trade, with the general de-
rangement Of all her fuancial and business
affairs, ''poor France" was compelled to &C.
cept the peace terms of her conqueror in the
sacrifice of two of her favorite departments
and two of the strongest and most beautiful
of her cities, and to bind herself to the con-
ditions of German occupation contingent
upon the payment Of an indemnity of four
thousand five hundred millions Of francs, or
nine hundred millions Of dollars.
From an effort which astonished the world,
under these depressing circumstances, in June
last, France paid OF to Germany one thousand
five hundred millions of francs of this indem-
nifty, leaving three Thousand millions sill to
be paid up to 1874. On the 1st of the present
month of January was to begin the payment
OF the fourth half miliard Of francs, or five
hundred millions of the indemnity, aud the
one hundred and fifty millions Of the interest
upon the remaining three thousand millions.
These moneys-and VIII appalling figures =
are to be paid in fortnightly instruments Of
eighty and ninety millions. But the funds
have not been forthcoming, though they must
be obtained somehow, or the German armies
will return to the desolated departments they
have lately vacated. Hence the desperate
| eTnrta of PraaidonI innI,,dinnx hia far