The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-18
Politics In France-Prospects OF the
Republic.

Republic.
As parties now stand in France armed col
lision in the streets or elsewhere is scarcely
possible; and it is fact far from insignificant
that in political discussions which give rise to
very warm expressions Frenchmen find them
selves able to give and take, as do the people
to whom parliamentary institutions are natu-
raj, without the immediate impulse to solve
their differences by resort to force This
encouraging state of affairs may be due to an
advance in their knowledge of practical poll
tics, consequent upon the experience acquired
in an Assembly which has been the first in very
many yaers to have freedom to deal with the
real problems of government; or it may be
due to the fact that revolutionary 'ebulitions'
in France have never been strictly ebulhtions-
have never been tho spontaneous outbursts
on the surface of the popular life that they
have generally seemed-but have been always
organized, and that now there is no party
which finds it in its interest to organize revolt
All the active parties now tend toward the
same end. All the parties that operate
at any time by revolutionary methods
now agree together in the general
wish to organize the Republic; and
the monarchists who never build barri-
cades. and the Bonapartists who have equally
little fancy for that occupation, are not only
not in power, but are in the minority. As the
parties that usually organize opposition to
authority are by their union on the general
principle of the organization of liberal
government practically in authority, there is
no provocation to fighting. 1t could only
come by resistance to coup dftG for the
establishment Of an illegal power; and such
coup is not to be regarded as possible while
MacMahon is in power
Yet with this general agreement Of parties
on all but detail, which seems to assure
tranquility, and with no step imminent that
could provoke resistance to the government
the Deputies at Versailles seem to act as if
they were under the influence Of panic.
They rush forward all at once for the estab-
lishment Of the Republic as if impelled by
some fancy that it must be established now or
never; that this is the last chance; that
delay would be certain ruin. They precipi-
tate themselves toward all sorts Of republican
platforms, projects and schemes, as
men on o sinking ship might jump
for anything that looked Like raft OF q,
boat or life-preserver. Is there any cause
for this energetic and sudden activity for the
organization Of a republic over which these
same clamorous deputies have maundered and
drivelled since 1872 And is this cause merely
their exhilaration over the very general recog-
milton of the impossibility of the monarchy,
or has it another origin?
All this panlc-ike anxiety and eagerness
seems to us due to the apprehension excited
at Versailles by the known activity in the
country of the Bonapartist propaganda.
Bonapartism has, in fact, been actively. pur-
suing the people in their homes while other
parties have been content to agitate at Yer
sailles. 1t was to no purpose that the govern
ment Of Theirs and the government since
him suppressed Paris journals or provincial
journals also, when they seemed to press their
advocacy Of the imperial hopes too near for
bid1sa limit, II the leading articles that
would have appeared in these papers were
printed on slips and mailed in envelopes
to every voter throughout France.
And this, in fact, was what was done by the
untiring Bonaparte agents. Royalists at ver-
sailles discussed the theories of the monarchy
and the musty history of the flags Of various
colors, and the more active republicans, like
Gambetta, went down into the provinces now
and then to attend some anniversary banquets
and harangued the public that came to meet
them, and which sympathized with them al
ready, and both parties printed in the various
cities, great and small, many more or less well
written journals in which any one for two SOUS
could get at the politics of the day from the
party standpoints But the Bonapartists
worked as our own election committees work
for the thorough canvass of the whole country.
They used the printing press and the Post
Office, and went to every mans dinner table.
They spared the small rustic the necessity Of
| spending his two sous. They sent him the
news adroitly colored with their own views,
and at the same time fattered his vanity by
making him personally an immediate object
of the attention OF the imperial party If we
consider that the country was always the
stronghold of this party, and reflect on
the possible effect OF o propaganda
such as we refer to in reviving
and refreshing the allegiance Of the seven and
q half million electors who voted ssoui' on
the last plfbiscite and in gaining new adherents,
we may comprehend that the apprehension Of
the Deputies at Versailles at the propaganda,
whose success inspires the confidence of the
imperialist members, is not one that like
panics ordinarily, can be called altogether
| irrational
Although political steps taken under the in
fuence of panic are never likely to be very
wise, it is better that the republicans should
even be alarmed at the Bonaparte activity
than that they should ignore it !; for the i'm