, 1875-01-30


are opposed to change can TRANQUILITY adj
here. He wants the Republican idea to
have the support of law and even OF re-
pressive law, as the Nonarchical idea has
in England, and not to be based on mere
understandings and compromises which
every party can interpret at pleasure, as
they did the Pact Of Bordeaux. He de-
sires to make a shout for Bourbons or Boz
nopartists illegal, or to use his own words,
which the interviewer processes to give
textualIy ii cannot be satisfied with
a promise. l wish to get rid Of ambi-
guilty. The lives of men and nations
are full Of contradictions the essential
thing is to destroy antiquities when or
ganising the existence OF a nation. l do
not wish you to have the appearance OF
voting a Republican Constitution which
may serve to create a Monarchy. | wish
you Of the Right Centre to vote, not to
proclaim with enthusiasm, but loyalty to
vote the Republic. I want the legal x
istence OF this Republic to be inscribed
at tho head of the Constitution, SO that
it being once voted, people can neither
cry nor write Vivc Ic Hoi,' 'V5re ] En-
pcrcur.' On this condition we viii recog-
Mise the constituent right Of the Assem-
bly,, and help you in framing laws and
measures which you may think requisite
to prevent that Republic from deyiating
from the principles Of order and social
protection which you demand. You ask
me to assist you IN creating an c%phomeral,
detenceloss power, resting on understand
ings, and which djsarms itself beforehand
against all the attacks by which it will be
assailed. You wish to create a nominal
Republic, which will merely serve to dis
credit that form of government. No !; |
want you to decide on creating a Govern
ment which finds in its organisation the
strength necessary to defend itself against
all attack, no matter from what side of
US it comes. NJ. Gambetta sees clearly,
what EngIishmen too often forget, that the
Republic once proclaimed and legaIised,
the Marshal, the Army, and the conser-
vatiye section OF society must accept 1t;
that it is thenceiorward an institution
and not a makeshift, and that the Marshal's
seven years. tenure Of the Presidency is q
mere incident not without its advantages.
Indeed, M. Gambetta will go on very
much farther. With that curious COM
prehension Of opponents, provided only
they be Frenchmen, which he has repeat
edly displayed, no is willing, his cardinal
point once granted, to make concessions
which we should deem over LARGE, to
take account of Conservative sympathies,
leanings, and fears, to accept for seven
years the programme which they think
needful TO protect society, and to let them
try fairly whether under q Republic they
can make themselves endurable to France,
If they can, we'll and good, let the Mar
shall be made r~e-eligibIe if not, there must
be a change but both experiments must
be tried within the limits of a settled Con-
stitution as they are tried in America or
in the United Kingdom. He sees in such
a concession, indeed, one great incidental
advantage, the adoption of all parties,
Conservative as well as Radical, into the
Republic, the avoidance of that o8tracism
of the old parties which his intetlocutor of
the Right Centre professed to fear, and
which the ex-Dictator frankly acknow-
lodged to be a substantial danger. With
out the legal acknowledgment of the Re-
public, its establishment as an acknowIed-
ed fact, this comprehension is impossible,
and the true Republicans must fight, not
as a national party, but only as an aggres-
sive party within the nation.
We cannot conceive how English Liber-