The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-18

1t is not perceptible how the French Re-
public is to come safely through the present
far-reaching crisis unless President MacAla-
hon suddenly and absolutely abandons the
dangerous position he has taken; and II VIII
be readily comprehended that it is SO IN
likely for a man of his nature to make
judicious retreat that solution In that way
may be excluded from consideration. But
in the absence of such solution. and sup
posing that MacMahon fully understands
and intends the significance of his words
and acts, parliamentary government is at an
end in France and it is point rather OF
curiosity than of Importance what steps
shall intervene and how many exciting days
they will fill ere this is made rs
plain as it is real. For MacMahon
declares that he intends to rule, not SIM
ply in indifference to the will OF the
people, as represented in the Assembly, but
in defiance of that will that he intends to
net in the formation of his Ministry and the
conduct Of the government, not with regard
to parliamentary principles, but from his
personal predictions that he intends to
lSuOIe WIG uudJoIity niu A5hoiS WV A~P~"-,7
can constitution, in virtue OF which the
majority must rule, and rule with men
taken from the minority, and that he will do
all this from sense of his own RESPONSE
bility to France" He puts his response
bility to France in the scale against the con-
stitution made by the same power that
made him President, and against the will OF
the people, as represented in the Assembly.
and in his scale is the army the inevitable
ssword of Brennus." If the Chamber repu-
dates the dictation of his Ministry he will
dissolve the Chamber. Another will be
chosen, and that will be more resolutely
republican than the present. He will not
be able to maintain the forms of free
government with that and will dissolve il in
its turn. Instructions will follow, and, in
the name of order, he will seize the supreme
power These are but SO many stages Of
inevitable advance following the step he has
actually taken-the ultimate ones only to be
avoided by compromise, and in France
compromise is stigmctized with disgrace
full name and regarded as a political crime.
Although the situation is suddenly made
with regard to law against the freedom of
the press, that occasion is, in fact, only
final drop that has caused the cup to run
over. Ultramontane agitation is the real
source Of the trouble. An ultramontane
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, determined and des-
perate--snpplies vital spirit to the forces
now arrayed against the republican consti-
tuition and the republican party In his
speech Of May 4 M. Gambetta correctly
designated the enemy in the present conflict
as clericalism. In this conflict, therefore,
the endeavor to found and consolidate the
Republic in France is to be opposed by
foe more dangerous than any the republi-
cans have yet encountered. Other enemies
have supplied comparatively cheap victories.
Few enemies have ever been more easily
routed than the fragmentary imperial party
was in the Assembly, for its only political
capital was an inexhaustible fund of impu-
dence. As for the monarchical battles
against the Republic, the different "monar-
chies' simply whipped one another None
of these forces had any well concerted or
systematic aid from the Church party, for
none Of them had the confidence Of that
party; and the party hardly knew its
own relation to the new issues.
1t was organizing. 1t was acting
instinctively on the soundest principles
of primary politics; for the only way to
meet the growth Of the republican idea was
to oppose it, without seeming or pretending
to oppose it, by getting at the people directly
and insidiously Installing ideas with which
it could not ooexist. For this purpose the
pulpit became stump; the favorite ma
chinery was those elnborately organized pill
grimages which from distance had some
what ridiculous aspect, but which touched
a patriotic aspiration and appealed by emo
tional methods to what faith the nation still
possessed. These pilgrimages began in
1871. In recent French politics they are of
the same significance as those marchings
and singings and torchlight turnouts
by which politicians here have at differ
ent times organized the people into Wide
Awake clubs or Boys in Blue or Log Cabin
and Hard Cider Men. They we're rather an
effort in that direction than the realization
of the effort, for they did not overcome the
Republic at the polls, but they undoubtedly
had great influence in making head against
it. Clerical enthusiasts thus became thor
ough ''workers" in the political field, and
with such success that now, after six years
of persistent propagation Of their ideas, they
teel confidence enough in their strength to
push the battle into the Cabinet and de-
mand the control Of the domestic and for
eign policy of the nation.
Against this party or any other the Re-
public would be sure Of victory if the bat
tie were to be fought on the ground of the
constitution or in recognition Of par
liamentary principles; but as it is mi