The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-08-12
DISCNION AMONG THE FRENCH con-
SERCATTES

The Comte d'Haussonville was right.
The thing which the French Conservatives
have most to fear is division in their own
ranks. Unfortunately some of them do
danger. The Impsrialists began to irritate
the other Monsrchists by claiming q pre-
ponderance in the coalition, and by alleg-
ing that of the candidates pat forward by
the Government more than three hundred
would belong to their party, while only
one hundred would be Legitinists and
the Ministerial organs reply by saying that
the list of candidates is not yet settled. In
face of the union which prevails among the
different sections of the Opposition for the
purposes of this election, these controver-
sizes between the Conservative parties are
not very encouraging. NJ. Gambetta has
been making speech to some Alsacians,
who, having opted for French nationality,
had settled at Bienne in Switzerland, and
who last week presented the leader of the
Opposition with watch and an address.
He speaks of the victory of his party at the
approaching elections as an absolute GER
tainty, and puts forward NJ. Theirs, whose
health, he says, was never better, profes
sing his own desire to remain in the back
ground for the present. 81 have no pre-
tension" he says, I" to figure in what is
called a plebiscitary alternative. My post
is in the ranks of the democracy, which /
serve as 1 mean to serve it, disinterestecly
and without any after-thought. France
does not mean to raise come men above
others but she has right to expect that
each of her sons should be q passionate
servant of her glory and her prosperity. If
then 1 accept your testimony in my favor,
you must keep it within the limits you have
assigned to it-ss a testimony of RepubH
can aud French frateroity." The meaning
of which is that NJ. Gambstta knows very
we'll that, if the choice between MacMahon
and Gambetta were put to the electors,
Oh hn for Ia 70
him. But with NJ. Theirs as the candidate
for the Presidency, he is, or processes to be,
quite sure of success. We must not, OF
course, attach implicit credence to such
confident predictions, but we should be
more sauguine than we are of their prov
ing false, if the Conservatives displayed
greater union among themselves. And let
ters which have appeared in the Defense
present a rather unfavorable picture of the
dispositions prevailing in many Depart
ments. 1t is TO be hoped, with a view to
the avoidance of future prolonged conflicts,
that all the Conservative sections will
speedily come to an agreement on the can
didates to be supported. The national ar
bitter between them, according to the Fran
Gals, is the Government, and If its decision
Is equitable and firmly pronounced, all will
necessarily accept IT. The moral ls, that
the Government should make haste
and finish the examination of candidates
which it has recently taken in hand, and
thus put an end to the tirGilIementS out of
which the Radical Press is making all the
capital it can. That there should be
period of such tirGillementS the Francois
thinks quite natural, and though it regrets
| the Excessive exigeDcies" of the Bona
partists, and rather too noisy recrimina-
tious which they have provoked, it does
not see anything in these incidents which
| should cause serious uneasiness. We hope
sincerely that it's confidence may be justi-
| fed by the event.
IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF A RADICAL
VICTORY.
For, if the elections should be unfavoE-
| able to the Government, Whist will be the
consequences The Marshal President has
distinctly declared that he will not retire,
and if the present Ministers should resign
he will certainly not take Cabinet from
the Opposition, even il he is driven to
choosing one outside the Chambers. It is
more than probable that under such cir
cumstances q hostile Chamber of Deputies
would refuse supplies, and thes the only
! course open to the President would be to
| 90 again 70 the Senate and ask for q second
dissolution. Whether this would be more
successful than the first it is impossible to
predict-perhaps it would, as the necessity
of getting the budget passed would weigh
heavily with the conBtituencieS-but the
prospect of such conflict, which might
possibly be indefinitely prolonged, be-
tween the Powers of the State, 10 unsAtis-
factory enough to justify the desire that
Chamber in harmony with the PRESIDENT