, 1875-01-13
THE
MESSAGE.
(From the Spectator }
MESSAGE.
(From the Spectator }

The Message of Marshal MacMahon to
the Assembly, the letter OF the Comte de
Chambord to his friends, and the attitude
of the Republican party combine to pro-
duce the same conviction in dispassionate
minds,-a conviction that only two alter
natives are before the French Representa-
tives. They can go on quarrelling as they
have hitherto done, in which case the
Septennate will go on as q provisional gov
ernment dependent upon one mans life,
or they can agree to the Dissolution which
alone can create a solid working majority.
No other alternative is before them while
the Marshal retains his hold upon the Ar
my. He originally intended, we believe,
to ask in the most pressing manner for
laws I" constituting" his powers,- that is,
for laws creating o Second Chamber, regu-
l8ting the transmission of the Presidency
in the event of death, and providing for
the dissolution and reelection of the AS
sembly, but his plan was interrupted by a
new iucidenh The Comte de Chambord
perceived that an organised S~eptennate
might prove a fatal obstacle to his hopes,
and forwarded to q trustworthy Legitimist
a letter which his friends accepted as an in
struction to resist any such proposal.
This letter determined from fifty to eighty
Deputies to vote against the Constitution
al Bills, and at first seemed likely to break
up the Marshal's Cabinet, which contains
at least two avowed partisans of the White
Flag. The Marshal, however, who is we'll
aware of the difficulty of selecting q Cabi-
net from an Assembly fallen into anarchy,
contrived for the time to avert the disaster
by cobbliDg his Message,-till the Soir at
tributed a fire in the chimney of the Presi-
dency to the burning of so many rejected
rough drafts-and on Thursday, the 3rd
inst, despatched to the House q very
moderate document indeed. In it the
President informs the Deputies that the
country greatly desires the organisation
which shall give to the Septennate the
strength that it requires, and hopes that
they will come to an agreement, but adds
most significantly that he did not take
power to serve the aspirations ofany party,
that he is simply " a, means of social de-
fence and national recovery" that he shall
invite the men Of oil parties to assist him,
and that nothing shall discourage him from
accomplishing his task. Till November
90, 1880, he will occupy his post with
"immutable frmness and s%crupulous res
pect for law"
There can be no mistaking the meaning
of these sentences, and little doubt as to
the effect they will have upon the action
of the Assembly. which they, in fact, re-
duce temporarily to powerlessness. The
Marshal, whether he will or will not obey
a vote which establishes a form Of Govern
ment, while leaving him in possession Of
his authority, refuses to aid any party,
and without his aid no party in the
present Assembly is strong enough to
realise its desires. The Government is not
strong enough, for without the aid of the
Legitimists the Cabinet cannot hope to car
ry the Constitutional Laws it has devised,
one OF which at all events will be resisted
by all fractions Of the left. The Legiti-
mists are not strong enough, for until their
King .abandops his resolution as to the
White Flag they have no support within
the Chamber and could not reckon on the
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