New-York tribune., 1873-06-12
TIE STRENGTH or THE MACAAHON


French Republic as an abomination of desolatlon,
will read and lay to heart the scene In the AS
sembly at Versailles on Tuesday. The Mac
Mahon Government has shown its hand, and
il is not clean one. "If dirt was trumps,
" stranger what a hand you would hold" said
an observing but incOnsiderate euchre-player
on the Mississippi. When the Theirs Ministry
fell and the Government of France passed
into the control of the aristOcracy, people were
generally eager to say that MacMahon was
good soldier and an honest man, as
if these qualities were lnseparable. The
Empress Eugenie, referring to Gen. Trochu,
said, 81 will never again trust man who
"swears by the honor of a gentleman. a
Christian, and solder.5 Marshal MacMahon
has shown how worthless are all these claims
for he may justly advance all three,-in ruler
who knows nothing of government, who defies
and despises the popular opinion OF his time
and country, and believes in the divine right
of one class of men to rule all Others as they
NAV think fit. There is no fixed principle of
right and wrong among men of his kind, and
those who are governing in his name, which
they regard as equally binding upon them
selves and the masses. They have begun
their official career by acts of stupid and
evidently unconscious political depravity,
and their parliamentary campaign by
sincere and brutal avOwal of their intention
to govern France in their own way without
regard to criticism. When confronted by
Gambetta with the secret circular they had
sent to their Projects in the Departments sug-
gestng a system of bribery and subOrnatiOn
of the Press for the purpose Of influencing
elections, NJ. Beule, the Minister Of the Inte-
riOr brazenly avowed the authenticity of the
document and defended the Infamous policy
it betrayed. Yet this is the party which calls
itself the party of order, Of religion, of social
stability, and which receives the active SYM
pathy of those Americans who are ashamed of
being born free.
After what is characterized as ga pro-
"tracted scene of confusion and excitement"
the government which had thus received with
out an attempt to wipe it off the smut-mark
laid on by the hand of Gambetta, was sustained
in full chamber by vote of $50 against 3d.
The Orleans party are honest enough to suffer
q little at this discreditable companionship, but
not honest enough to revolt from it. In this
vote there is a new proof of the powerful
and unfortunate influence exerted upon the
majority by the insignificant contingent of
Imperialists whom they have at last admitted
into their camp. They are only seventeen i'll
number, but seem able to infect the whole
Right with their own bad morals. A chain
has only the strength of its weakest link,
and this Monarchist party appears to
have only the decency of its most disreputable
element. Even the veteran schemers Of the
Tuileries, like Rouher, must be amused to see
how awkwardly their new comrades initiate
their old villainies Not even Persigny, OF
Morny, or La Yalette, would have been caught
in so coarse a piece of political rascality as
that which has the sanction of the soldier and
gentleman MacMahon, the prince and acade-
mican de Brogle, and their equally respect
able and conservative associates. Yet the
Chamber sustains it, by a larger vote than
that by which they expelled M. Theirs from
the Government in the name of imperiled
society.
1t is difficult to explain this action of the
French Government and the majority of the
Assembly, for it rests upon an absolute para
dox. They pretend to justify their usurpation
and tyranny by hbeling the mass of their
countrymen, and they only dare to commit
these outrages. because they know their hbelsare
false. They say the French are fckle and
violent, tumultuous and ungovernable, and
therefore need a strong repressive govern
ment. If this were true the mob would have
hanged MacMahon and Beul6 yesterday. and
sacked Versailles while the Assembly was
voting them impunity. The truth is, and these
Conservatives presume upon it, that
the French people are greatly lacking
in that spirit of resistance to
authority which is the life-blood of English
and American liberty. They are too dOcile,
too content to accept the government for the
time being as the only embodiment and in
terpreter of law Every usurpation which has
cursed that country has been founded upon
this excess of the law-abidiDg quality in
Frenchmen. The Reign of Terror would not
have been possible but for the universal re-
spect for the powers that we're. The crown
ing crime of the I'd of December was put
within the reach of the desperate gamblers of
the Elysee by their certainty that if they
could send out their orders regularly signed
and sealed, the majority of the citizens would
obey them. They could never have
cut the throat Of the Republic, ex-
cept with her own sword and wear
ing her own livery. The MacMahon Govern
ment is acting upon this same conviction to-
day. They know that in the recent elections
q large majority of the people of France have
been shown to be Republican in sentiment.
But they count upon their submissive loyalty to
remain in possession of the government while
they plot the destruction of the Republic.