, 1875-03-10
The "AVIS"
TELEGRAMS BY ENGLISH MAIL.
FRANCE.
IS PUBLISHED
EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.

Why cannot the Marshal succeed in
forming a Cabinet2 Because he has listen
ed to dangerous counsellors who have
drawn him into the scene so that, in
stead of being above all Parties, they have
henceforth identified him with one side
of the Assembly, depriving him of the
independence requisite for speaking sole
ly in the name of the country. This
very mistake caused the fall of II. Theirs,
and the Marshal has been induced to re-
peat it. NJ. Theirs naturally fell when
he told the Assembly, Gas for me, [
have engagements with the Republican
Party l am bound to keep them, but
you are free, you can do what you like. "
In like manner, the Marshal has been
made to say that, as a defender of Con-
sentative interestS-a task he could not
abandon-he could not concur in the
Republican Vote of the Assembly. Now,
as in the eyes of perfectly impartial
men there is no reason to think Repub-
lican principles wisely applied would not
be as much for the welfare of France as
Conservative principles placed at the SER
vice of the reaction, the Head of the
Government had no right to express a
preference for the latter rather than the
former. He ought to speak only in the
name and in behalf of the country. More
over, by making the Head of the State
the exclusive champion of one Party, he
is deprived of the means of combating
others without exposing himself to the
reproach of being partial and arbitrary,
and he is prevented from controlling
events which are becoming his master.
This is proved by his being forced to
declare that he must wait to form a
Cabinet till the Constitutional Laws have
been passed or rejected. There is this
strange inconsistency. The Marshal in
tervenes to reject the Senate Bill; thus
imperilling the passing of the Constitu-
tional Laws, and, after doing this, he
declares he cannot form a Cabinet till
those Laws have been passed. The pro-
per course was to remain at the elevation
assigned to the supreme power, form a
responsible Cabinet, make it intervene III
the discussion, not to defeat the Laws,
but to enlighten the discussion by the
authority of the Governmental opinion,
get possession of the direction of the de-
bate, and then await the final Vote of
the Sovereign Assembly. If, in spite of
this intervention, not of the Marshal, but
of q living and authorized Cabinet the
Laws had not been such as the Govern
ment approved, the Marshal, appealing
to history and the nation, might have
begged the Assembly to con6de the exc
cution of those Laws to somebody else.
l am certain, however, that with SO loyal
and constitutional an attitude on his part
no majority in the Assembly would have
been capable of voting Laws which the
Marshal could not have executed without
compromising the principles of order and
security, of which he considers himself
the guardian. If such was the proper
attitude, the Marshal was wrong to shrink
for a day from the formation of a new
Cabinet, and it cannot be admitted that
he should defer this till the end of the
crisis. If the Crisis exists, the men to
whom he will give his confidence should
henceforth direct the. issue of it. 1t is
singular prudence that of a Cabinet which
keeps under shelter till the storm has
passed, allowing those whose succession
it awaits to undergo it's violence. 1t is