The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-04
Politics in Francc-Bonapartfsna or Re-
publfco nism.

-
publicanism; and in our opinion this is an
accurate designation OF the tendency of the
conflict This is also apparently the uncon-
scious sentiment of the Assembly and the
country. 1t is even indicated in the vote on the
Municipal bin, which was utterly unlike the
vote that would have been cast if the party
adherents voted on their convictions and did
not temporarily relinquish those convictions
out Of apprehension OF what they regard as the
common enemy.
As we have hitherto pointed out in these
columns, the Bonapartist vote is at this moment
the most important element OF the complca-
ton in the Assembly. 1t is like the master
piece of a puzzle-one piece OF wood no larger
than any one of thirty other pieces slips deity
combination firmly together With that piece
in its place the combination Of pieces is COM
pact and bids defiance to ordinary efforts at
disintegration without that one piece there
is no combination that may not be broken up
at touch. In all the combinations of French
parties in the recent endeavors to form min
istry the Bonapartist vote has been like that
thing may be done, without it nothing can be
counted upon. By the aid of the Bonapartist
vote Theirs was cast down; by the assent Of
the Bonapartist vote MacMahon was set up.
What stability there was before the
recent changes rested upon the good
will of the Bonapartist party, and could not
stand without its support; and the govern
ment was so truly and thoroughly character
istic, SO absolutely French government in
its want of political sagacity, that it refused
to recognize the power without which it could
not stand and so down it went. An effort TO
set up new ministry without the adhesion or
assent of the Bonapartist party was laudably
made, but utterly without success, and the
present condition, as we see, rests only upon
the cessation of hostilities between parties
naturally embittered against one another and
only hating each other less because they hate
the Bonapartists more. But this sort Of hollow
truce is poor basis for political power.
Although the cat in the fairy story made
very fine lady for time it was only necessary
that mouse should run across the room to
excite the irresistible instincts Of her nature
and send her away on all tours to the havoc of
toe feathers and laces that adorned the pretty
deceit So in the Assembly the moment one
of those topics comes up on which the
antipathy of parties is more particularly
fierce, the artificial attitude will be forgotten
and the fabrics it made possible will be torn
away in the slap dash of an instructive
scramble.
At the first glance so much power may seem
disproportionate to the size Of the Bonapartist
vote, but that great power may thus be
welded by small, compact group is natu-
raj consequence OF the tactics upon which
parties are operated, and is fact often OBJ
served in party history. No faction of the
\ French Assembly is so feeble numerically as
this one. Two years ago Corsican Deputy
said &c Nous somnees trent cling deuouGs;' we
are thirty -fve devoted ones. Since then there
have been several additions to the number by
the return Of members to fill vacancies, and
there have also been accretions apparently due
to the more promising aspects of the party,
as the monarchy has seemed from day to
day to become utterly impossible; but to
count the party at its absolutely least quantity
we may say it has forty votes. As parties
now stand in the French Assembly few points
are determined in which forty votes taken
from one side and added to the other
would not change the result, for difference
of eighty votes is thus made by the forty All
the other sections of the Assembly are divided
by an adherence more or less rigid to points
of principle. They are first for the monarchy
or for the republic, and if the question could
come markedly before the Assembly ON the
choice Of one or the other of these two forms
of government there would be, leaving out
the Bonapartists, but two parties; and even
then, on that the broadcast and simplest division
that could be made of the Assembly, the
adherence of the Bonapartsts to one
side or the other would very likely
turn the scale. If, therefore, their vote
could decide the issue on the broadcast divi-
sion that could be made of the Chamber, how
much more decisively would it be effective in
those lesser divisions, where the vote is not
between the two parties, but between from
four to Six for the monarchists of the AS
sembly are not merely Inonarchists, but mon
archlsts of various types, and the republicans
are republicans OF various shades Each fac
ton wants not merely monarchy, but its
own particular monarchy; and among the re-
publicans it is the same-each little division
wants the republic it has conceived in its own
imagination, and will have no other There
are consequently at least two monarchical
parties, and there is whole gamut of repub-
lican parties, though the constitutional estab-
lishment Of the republic has never yet seemed
sufficiently imminent to give definition to the
groups and tell just how many shadowy di-
visions of republicans there are But in these
many divisions of parties animated by some
views of principle one against another, it is