The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-08-26
INSATIATE MONS. THEIRS.
The Man Who Spares Esth:ns to Revenge His
Injuries.
HIS CANDIDATURE FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF
FRANCE.

HIS cANDIDATURE FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF
FRANCE.
Shopld the present constitutional strug-
gle in France ever find it's Homer the theme
of his song will be assuredlv the wrath of
NJ. Theirs. The wrath of M. Theirs, the
vindictiveDess of NJ. Theirs, the sated ven
geance of NJ. Thjers-there are the three
grand divisions of the epic. The little
great man Rves for his revenge, and until
he has had it be cannot die. The passion
for that kind of compensation is his flame
of life, his animatiDg principle or oeipg
He cannot bear to die with q score unpaid
He is weary, but be must settle his debts
and Mcmahon, his last aud his greatest
creditor, paid, one may believe that he
would esteem it O. fortunate thing TO be
removed from the scene ere lie had time to
contract more of the burdensome obliga-
tions of hate. The history of his reveDges
is the history of his rise-they are the oh
jective points of his varied and seemingly
most erratic course. He fought NJ. Guizot
for supremacy, and the Kings fall was but
an accident of the struggle. The throne
simply fell in the scnfle as chairs and ia
bfes. fatt in bar room fight. M. Theirs
did not want to overturn the furniture of
state he only wanted to get at his man.
The empire suffered because it's chief had
given him slight; because De Morny and
Napoleon judged that they might make
coup d'etau without him.
MacMahon has given him worse ofense
than Napoleon, SO MacMehon must suffer,
or M. Theirs will was going to say-dle
for it; but with bis rage ungppeased he
would never commit such q mistake. Mac
Mahon was his cresture-he firmly believes
that-a plant that bad second growth in
the eunshipe of his favor. Sedan might
have ruined him forever, only III. Theirs
gave him another chance by putting the
recapture of Paris from the Communists in
his way. But in this undertakipg-so
thought his employer-he was a mere fore
man of the work under head contractor.
AS NJ. Theirs built the walls, 80 it was he
alone who could show how they were to be
preached and scaled. Tue second siege,
which he 30 successfully directed, was a
lesson for the Germans without the fortif
cations as well as for the Communists with
in. So again thinks NJ. Theirs, because
though others may have a high opinion of
him, he on principle always contrives to
have higher one of himself 81 fancied 1
had game d the battle of Toulouse after my
own piap,'' said Sonlt one day, "but Nj.
Theirs has convinced me that it was after
his" His self esteem is colossal, and Mac
Mahon has given it it's deepest wound.
Thus We cannot rightly understand what
has passed in France without taking his
cravings for revenge into account. The
Marshalate was hardly established before
the house in the Place st. Georges became
a sort OF rival establishment to the Elysee.
There were two conTts in Paris, as there
were sometimes two in LOudon, under the
King and the disafaeted Prince of Wales.
Some went TO one, some to the other, few
of rhe highly privileged to both, to let the
Marshal know that M. Theirs thought him
"a noodte, and to let NJ. Theirs know that
the Marshal secretly regarded him as the
terror of his life. 10 the in nterval between
dinner and IL o'c!0ck-the hour of lights
out in the Place St. Georges-M. Tbiers
would pass the most recent acts of his sue
cessor IN rapid and pitiess review. He
speaks even more tellingly in drawing
room than in the Chamber, being a master
of the conversational style; and as his
words we're generally listened to by the
leading men in the country they had near
ly as much influence on opinion as If they
had been printed in the official reports.
NJ. Theirs generally took plying tone,
the most damaging of all. The Marshal
was not a wicked man, only weak one;
not heartlees, only blind. In this way he
slowly but eurely undermined his rivals
credit with the elite of France, and even
with the foreign Ministers-for the plea
sure of listening tn this wonderful old man
took them to the Place St. Georges rather
oftener than the duty of listening to the
Marshal took them to the Elysee. Insen-
sibly they began to see French events
through the spectacles of M. Theirs There
was much to excuse it ; he seemed a natu
raj chief of the state by his years, his ex-
Perience, the great offices he had held. It
was as though the country were governed,
like Japan, by a real and a nominal holder
of power. Tha difference in state was
almost imperceptibe. If the footmen of
MacMahon were the tineGt fellows in
France, those of NJ. Theirs were shorter
only ny the eighth of an inch. IT the Ely
see gave grand dinners 40 did the Place st.
Georges. There was an equal spIendor
and equal variety at both boards, aud if
tue miuor one seemed less digni6ed it was
only because it was less dull.
NJ. Thiers was still working in bis mines
when Providence sent hrm the 10Th of May
partly, indeed, as a just reward fer the
exer,ions he had made to provoke it. He
might then have exclaimed with Cromwell,
':The Lord hath delivered them into my
hand" The time had come for more open
action, and in a few weeks, or almost days,
his second candidatnre for the Presidency,
which all men might have thought to be
impossible, was before the country. 1t
seemed to have come about in the most
natural way in the world. The Msrshal's