, 1875-04-28

country would have dreaded us as
much as people tried to make out. We
will support the new Ministry on two con
ditions. The first is that an end be put as
soon as possible to those laws of exception
which we have opposed under every form
of Government. The second condition is
that the administrative staff be sincerely
Republican. To-day the Republic lie the
political name of France. He who at
tacks the Republic is ~factious and comes
within the condemnation of the law.
What l will also ask of the Ministry is
that it should hold itself in readiness for a
Dissolution which must come soon. In
making the Constitutional Laws we have
exhausted our commission 1t iS time to
give back to the country the sovereignty
which belongs to it This is all our pro-
gramme. l venture to think that it is es-
sentially Conservative"
On the above the Times Correspondent
makes the following comments:
This speech, which is justly praised for
the skiItul way in which, it describes the
part played by the Left Centre, deserves
serious reflection for the concise passage
in which Nj. Laboulaye traces the political
programme of his friends That pro-
gramme is comprised in two paragraphs.
Nothing can be worthier of praise han
the FIST, in which NJ. LabouIaye demands
that exceptional laws be dispensed with.
It indicates a true conception OF liberty.
In France, unfortunately, people always
understand liberty when they are not IN
-..- al bo.tnD 20 fOrCot fhpSn CpnnT-
Gus principles AS soon as they are intfusted
with the application of them. All Parties
have always made use OF those fine words
Liberty and Legality in attacking those
in power but, when they themselves have
gained power, they give occasion for the
same complaints to be addressed in turn
to themselves. The State of Siege to
which NJ, Laboulaye here chiefly makes
a%Ilusion was applied to many Departments
still subject to it by the Fourth of SIP
TENDER Government and NJ. Theirs, and
the present Government has simply main
tanned it.. Exceptional laws are a means
of government for all Parties in this coun-
try, and the only thing which can be
desired is that NJ. Laboulaye's friends in
the Cabinet shall plead in the Ministerial
Council The cause defended by him in his
inaugural address. TIE chief p0int of the
speech, however, is the second paragraph,
which asserts that the administrative staff
should be sincerely Republican. The
curious thing about this desire is that the
Left Centre have always been and are
still twitted with not being sincerely
Republican. If this reproach is we'll
founded, the inference is that M. LaboulaYe
does not wish the administration to be
after his W image, but desires to impose
on it a stronger Republican sentiment than
that attributed to himself. What is more
striking in the speech is that it raises that
spirit of suspicion and distrust which lies at
the root of all old Republican doctrines. 1t
proceeds on a principle OF exclusion quite
contrary to liberty it promotes that fatal
disease of p~lace-hunting with hich France
has been afflicted for so years, which has
become the devouring leprosy OF all revo-
lutionary countries, and which is one
great cause of the degeneracy of Spain.
It is surprising TO see a man who passes tor
a Liberal enunciate a doctrine which the
Left seem to have abandoned. 1t isnot by
transforming the administrative staff at
every change the country undergoesY tlat
persons hostile to Republlcanism will be
conciliated, nor is it by such changes and
the uncertainty they create that q better
administration will be secured. What Is