The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-12
Political Drifting In France.

those dazzling, shooting lines that may pre-
sage thunder and lightning and storms. The
debates in Versailles recall the tennis court
M. Gambetta, whom everybody has been id
miring for his cool intrepidity, has at last lost
his temper and taken to calling names. The
Bonapartists, who seem to have become unac-
countably sensitive, are resolved in some
way to prevent this Gambetta freedom of
speech. and especially being called ''rnscals,
which the cable informs us to be M. Gam
betta's exact word As there can be no storm
without that bird of storms, NJ. Cassagnac,
we see him on full wing. His language
is SO violent in discussing public
affairs that the republicans have re-
solved to resent it For this purpose they
have deputed NJ. Clemenceau to fight him.
The significance of this selection will be seen
when we remember that NJ Clemenceau was
Mayor of Montmartre during the siege; that
he was appointed to be Project Of Lyons when
Gambetta's power fell; that he was o member
of this Assembly, and only resigned whom the
Paris delegation withdrew. Clemenceau is
generally understood to be the principal lieu
wounded Bonapartist officer in duel he
seems fitted to encounter the redoubtable Cas-
sagnac. As if these tokens were not menacing
enough, we have the stormy petrol Rochefort
flying over the sea, burning with all the
hatred of defeat and exile, impatient to relight
the Lanterne on the borders of Switzerland.
Versailles is GLOOMY" and Paris is ''elec-
tric;" and what do these omens mean? The
contest between Clemenceau and Cassagnac
typifes the character of the struggle between
political parties in France. Cassagnac may
be called the champion, as his enemies call
him the bully of the Empire. Through good
and bad report, even in the disheartening days
which followed Sedan, he never failed in his
allegiance to the star of Napoleon. For this
cause he has always beenready with his sword
and his pen. Clemenceau is q representative
radical republican, who went to the very
verge OF the Commune only to see its
madness and retreat in time. Their
controversy shows that the struggle ha S
finally become struggle between the Empire
and the Republic All the elements of the
monarchy have faded away and we no longer
see those attractive phenomena of lilies and
white banners, and the heavy, amiable, pur-
poseless face Of Henry, the ''God-bestowed"
Count of Chambord, which have held so large
place in France tor three years. The Bour-
bons have faded into Q sullen waiting upon
Providence and fighting everything that indi-
Gates the consolidation Of government The
Orleans people have lost whatever hopes they
may have had of q crown by their avarice.
These monarchists represented simply an i'm
possible restoration, the sixteenth century
engrafted upon the nineteenth; divine
right attempted in an age of reason,
study and speech, of penny press and
universal suffrage. However ''the faithful
may sympathize with the antipathies of the
Pope towards these new influences, we cannot
but see, as it no doubt sadly occurs to His
Holiness, that there is no way of avoiding
them. People will read, and no effective
means has yet been found to prevent their
voting. For if the suffrage does not appear
in the silent forms of the ballot it will be
seen in uprisings in the Jacquerie of the
| rural DISTRICTS in the Commune riots of
Paris and Marseilles.
The Empire and the Republic unite on one
idea. They claim to respect the wishes of
France. The Empire will ask France to de-
clare by plebiscitum whether she is
willing to have chains put upon her
hands and feet, there to remain until
another Sedan and Waterloo. The Republic
proposes to bring France and her government
IL
represent the varying wishes of France. One
is legend and the other a principle, and in
dealing with people like the French, SO ner-
vous and passionate and easily moved, such a
curious compound of passion and logic, we
are never sure whether the legend is not more
powerful than the principle. This is more
especially true when we remember that the
legend is Napoleon and the principle finds its
source in Robespierre. Napoleonism is one
of the most attractive forms of a government,
just as the Republic is among the least
attractive. One is q pageant, the other self
denial The first has all the coruscating
elements OF worldly success and achievement
activity, energy, glory-with the picturesque
history Of the greatest man Of modern times
as its gospel. Napoleonism means the glories
of the First Emperor, the wealth and material
prosperity of the second it means good har-
vests, tstes, highways and bridges new
Paris, industry, display, financial gain an
Emperor in the Louvre and the eagles of
France once more looking to conquest. 1t is
hard to cherish victory and remember Sedan
but nothing is more readily forgotten than
defeat, especially by people as self-conscious
and vain as the French. They will forgive
Sedan as readily as they forgave Waterloo.
When we add to this the remembrance that
France was never SO powerful or apparently
SO prosperous as during the Empire we can
understand the influence Napoleon the Fourth