The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-04


puts our free popular institutions in
greater peril than any other form Of
oligarchy or auocracy.
Politics in France.
Recent dispatches from Paris have re-
ported a change in the Ministry as imminent
and the administration of President Grevy
as in an unpleasant predicament. Perhaps
these gloomy accounts depict the opinions
of virulent opponents rather than the actual
facts of the case. The Bonapartists and the
advocates of extreme radical theories may
believe the government to be in all the diff
ficultes in which they would like to see it,
as call seems yellow to the jaundiced eye."
Satisfactory assurances are given. on the
other hand, that there is harmony IN the
Ministry on the only important topic now
agitated betw cen the parties-the proposed
universal amnesty; and if that is SO there
can be no trouble for the government in
the absence of an adverse vote in the
Assembly. Such vote is predetermined.
We believe that the government in its
sound and rational opposition to the wild
cry Of universal amnesty will be sustained
by a majority whenever this subject is
brought to decision.
All that is new in France, therefore, is
new agitation, and with this included the
political situation is such as we might ex-
pect to find in any country whore the
people and the press are free. There is
no obvious danger involved in it. The
common fact in French history heretofore
has been that when it was safe for the ex-
treme radical to fill the air with his blatant
idiocy it was dangerous for the royalist
to make himself visible, and when the royal
ist summed himself in the prosperity of the
hour the other remained in discreet OBJ
security. But now the adherents of Henry
V. indulge themselves in public banquets
quence, and simultaneously the men at
the other end of the social scale build their
hopes on Blanqui, just out of state prison,
or hurrah for Humbert, the communist,
Just home from transportation, and de-
mand, with clamorous impatience, that
the Republic shall restore to their bosoms
those patriots yet in exile who en-
deavored to blow up Paris in the
great days of the Commune. With this
freedom the political atmosphere is, of
course, not unruffled; but these daily agita-
tons do not shake the frame of the State;
they only balance and neutralize one an
other.
Even if the agitation now aimed at the
existence of the Ministry should attain its
aim no harm would be DONE for the consti-
tuition would survive and the laws, and
the regular operation of these in repub-
lican State does not depend upon the pres
ence in office of any one man or set of
men. Theirs threatened to quit Office many
times, and each time his threat filled
timid world with alarm because men then
thought the State could not stand without
him. But he was at last replaced by Mac
Mahon and the Republic went on safely.
Another cataclysm was feared it MacMahon
should go out, and yet he was replaced by
Grevy with as little distraction OF public
concerns as if it were only that the Common
Council of Paris had changed the name Of
one more street. Ministries may come and
90 just rs easily.
But if the Ministry is put out on. vote
declaring for universal amnesty to all the
Communards, will that not touch upon the
point OF change of the constitution? Will
it not so alarm people OF moderate views
who now respect the Republic rs to make
imminent proposition to modify the
form OF government? That certainly is
what is counted upon by the react ionaries
who are ready to support this radical
motion. Cassagnac has declared, in half
ecstatic political rhapsody, that he will vote
for amnesty, tor he wants as many Com
munards brought home MS possible. His
hope Is that these creatures by their antics
will soon disgust men with the Republic,
and that in such disgust there will be ~
chance to force change. Other factions,
which in similar spirit regard the success
of party as superior to all other copsdera-
tions, will vote in the same way, and it is
possible that thus enough support may
be gained to carry the proposition. But
what thon? A new Ministry would in
terpret the vote in its own way, and enforce
it SO far as it might deem wise; and the
Communards, if all launched upon the
Paris streets, would be less heard Of there
than they are now in New Caledonia.
But we do not believe this proposition can
be carried. Those who are for it are tho
classes Of men who make d noise in the
politics of all countries out of proportion
to their numbers. In the vote we shall
probably find that the real sentiment OF the
nation is conservative and not disposed to
regard crime as an eccentricity. Over this
difficulty, as over so many others. the great