The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-02-01
France THE Political Conflict The
Republic or the Empire.

ooSehS redSons why the present sO-calleu
republican form of government in that coun-
try is not likely much longer to last. The
undisguised affection for the House Of
Bonaparte which was revealed on the
occasion of the anniversary of the death
of Napoleon iii. ought not to be mis-
taken or msinterpreted Our sympathy
with the French Republic has never been
concealed. We rejoiced with France, as we
had formerly rejoiced with Spain, when the
Republic was proclaimed and we wished the
one, as We wished the other, godspeed. The
French people, however must be allowed
to be the best judges in matters of
government which specially concern them
selves. If they prefer the monarchy to
the Republic or the Empire to both,
that is their affair, not ours. France
is not unit on political questions; but the
tendency of the moment seems adverse to the
Republic and inclining to wards the Empire. 1t
is not the fault of the French government nor
of the French people if Henry the Fifth is not
now King. 1t is as little their fault if the
throne is not now occupied by Louis Philippe
the Second. The Bourbons younger and
older, have had their opportunity but they
have foolishly flung it away; and if France
desires still to be ranked among the mon
arches of Europe and Paris demands a court,
there is but one available house from which
to select their idol, and that is the House of
Bonaparte
Failure seems again to have attended the
republican experiment in Europe. France
and Spain are republics, at least in name but
in neither can the cause of republicanism be
said to have triumphed The tendency, how
ever, towards liberalism among the masses
in both countries has been most marked,
and constitutes the chief gain to re-
publican ideas. But with the outgrowth of
liberal ideas among the people and their
flowed a counter current of conservatism in
creasing yearly in violence. The conservative
current is due to two cause.-the effort of the
privileged classes to grasp more firmly a
power they feel slipping from their hands. and
desire of the clerical party to stem the tor
rent of free thought which threatens to sweep
away the foundations of Christianity. Two
extreme parties have been formed by the
struggle between progress and conservatism
the red democracy, represented by the Com
mune and the inrransigentes, and the white
or reactionary party, represented in France
by the royalists, the visionary Henri
Cinq and his faded white flag in Spain
by the adventurer, Don Carlos, and the
notorious Cure of Santa Cruz The one appeals
to the conservative instincts of the propertied
classes to save society from the popular deluge,
which rises with alarming rapidity the other
to the oppressed masses and the principles Of
the Revolution as the salvation OF the poor.
In the minds of the reactionary party the
idea of popular government is associated with
massacre and pillage, the overthrow of religion
and the subversion of all order and good
government. They are firmly convinced that
it means anarchy and spoliation, as well as the
loss of privilege and power to themselves.
Hence they would turn back the wheels OF
progress and restore the world to the feudal
or pre-revolutionary state, and so put an end
to the evils of modern society.
Such a programme is, no doubt, visionary
and impracticable. At least it .appears so to
the dispassionate onlooker who considers the
growth and resistless development of modern
ideas. But there are men, neither ignorant
nor visionary, who believe the march of
progress may be stopped, and who labor
constantly and untiringly to that end. They
are the white reactionists the men who teach
that kings reign by divine right that Church
and State should work together to restrain the
people. For success they depend on the tanat-
icism Of the religious the dread of change or
revolution of the propertied classes, the hatred
of the aristocracy to a system Of government
that strips them Of their privileges and reduces
them to the level of mere citizens. The
strength Of the white or aristocratic party lies
in the organized support of the Church. the
unity of interest of the wealthy and the gen.
eral intelligence of the men affiliated to their
ideas by self-inerest. They are neither more
scrupulous nor less daring than their oppo-
nents. Though they denounce red dema-
gogism they are themselves demagogues
whenever it suits the purpose of their party.
The men who rule France in the name of
the Republic are the leaders of this reactionary
party. In a moment of national weakness
and misfortune the French people intrusted
to their hands the honor and safety Of the
country. Once in power the reactionists re-
solved to keep their hold on the country and
establish form of government in accordance
with their own views. France desired internal
repose under government liberal in its ten
denotes but conservative in its mode of action;
government that would hold firmly but
evenly the scale Of Justice, repress disorder,
but respond to the liberal aspirations of the
popular mind; in word, the conservative
Republic. The men now in power are evil
IDENTIFY not in favor of the Republic. The
cause of the Republic, however, will not be
easily killed. The republicans carry the