The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-11-02

transtgeant, that the ministry are rapidly
running the country-that the French
army in north Africa is rapidly melting
away, and that national cataclysm will
be precipitated by the accession of Gam
BETA. At the same time the boulevards
are always gay and brilliant and crowded
with people. The shops have no lack of
life and movement, and if you enter one
to buy knick-nack, the shop-keeper be-
hind the counter, in answer to your in
quiries as to how things are going, will
rub his hands rather cheerfully, and smil-
ingly reply that things are going charm
ingly. The weather has been wet but
Les afasres marchent ct tout le monde
est content Apparently there is
Solid Establishment of the Republic.
In the government of three years ago a
phantom of aristocratic or oligarchic rule
fingered. The marshal was in power.
Amnesty was scarcely an accomplished
fact. Gambetta was radical of the red
dest dye. The Jesuits were everywhere,
and hoping still to lay the foundations of
propitiatory Church which would
bridge the chasm lying between the ma
tion and Rome. Bonapartism went about
lifting its head, and frequently mutter-
ing that with few more turns of the
wheel its opportunity would come again
All this is changed. Whether any Lee
gitimists, Orleanists, Bonapartists are left
we know not. No doubt enemies of the
Republic still exist, characterized by
every species of political opinion-but
they make few if any public protesta-
tlons. The last revolution seems to have
borne the most substantial fruits of all
the political upheavals of France. The
Republic has already cast aside its swad-
ding bands, and is beginning to walk
erect and instinct with life. 1t has al
ready achieved much. 1t has made lib
erty no longer purple dream, but
splendid possession. 1t has called into
existence thirty-fve millions of men, who
now have an intelligent interest and voice
in the nations government. But it
awakens anticipations far more bright
French Republcanism will inevitably
impress itself upon the rest of Europe.
Ideas cannot be quarantined-th are
more Infectious than disease and more
dangerous than armies. The Republic
OF France cannot live in the heart of
Europe without sounding the death knell
of every tyrant, be he petty prince or
imperial lord. 1t will speak the Ian
guage of hope to all who have been borne
down by political wrong, and speed good
cheer to all who have despaired seeing
the rule of absolutism overthrown. Across
the Elbe over the vineyards of the Rhine,
where statesmen watch significantly every
motion of France-they have need to
fear something else than the tread of
French troops-and that something is
the impalpable invasion of the free ideas
of Republican France. Those ideas are
not confined to the magnificent Chamber
of Deputies passed to-day. AS will
conhne light, air, electricity, the mag
netic fluids. They are placed above all
human power. Republicanism in France
needs but to permeate the masses before
it starts upon the conquest of Europe.
That it is already doing this is evinced
by the very courage of the common peo-
pie. One thing in particular [ have
noted in London and Paris. Liberty is
more deeply rooted in England than in
any other country, and yet there is no
other country where the social classes
are SO sharply defined and are separated
by such profound abyss. When you
see one of those English omnibus drivers
setting with so much solemnity on his
coach box, you appear to see in the gray
ity of his air, in the majesty Of his coun-
tenance, the first Of senator's, seated on
his wool-sack, presiding over that high
chamber which only had equal in ancient
Rome. And yet how vast the difference
in his consciousness between that driver,
with all his assumption, and the English
aristocrat. On the other hand the French
plebeian makes no pretention to be aught
else but plebeian in his origin and his
habits, and yet he so bears himself with
a happy mixture of ightness and personal
dignity as to make you feel that he car
ries lnborn the consciousness that what
ever be the position of man-whatever
be his calling he is sufficient for himself.
And yet it cannot be fairly said that with
all the influence Of Republican ideas, and
the aspiration of the lower classes, that
the I'm-as-good-as-you-are feeling is de-
monstrated in an offensive form. There
may be nothing of the ponderous respec-
liability and icy servility of the English
underling-but there is peculiar defer
ence nevertheless. Equality between
master and man difficult for an English
man even to conceive of is already a re-
ality in France-but it is an equality of
! special character If in No vvo1y IN