New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-14

sent to organize new Ministry that will COM
mand the support of a homogeneous party
"a group without name" M Ferry dis
claims the responsibilities of political leadership
Having narrowly escaped parliamentary defeat
on the eve of the general elections, and having
confessed his inability to cope with NJ. Gle
menceau in Oratory and argument, he meeky
| follows whittier NJ Gambetta leads Imagine
Mr.. Gladstone at the opening of political can
vass shrinking from an encounter with Mr..
Bradlaugh in debate, and humbly subscribing
to the electoral programme of Speaker Brand
Premier Ferry shares the fate of all his re-
cent predecessors in Office. M. Simon was Pre-
mier when the Republican Ministry was dis
missed in 1877 but when the reactionary
Pohgnac Cabinet was voted down at the poll
ing places he did not return to Office. NJ Dufaure
could not survive the election of new President
nor M. Waddington the gradual transfer of
political authority from the Left Centre to the
Pure Left. These three Premiers were power
less to resist the superior will of the real leader
of the dominant party. NJ. de Freycinet en-
tered upon Office as NJ. Gambetta's personal
friend and direct representative, and conducted
the administration with unwonted vigor and
lf-reliance He fell as soon as he affected
Independence in his foreign policy and in his
dealings with the religious orders. NJ. Gam
beta excited a revolt against him in his own
Ministry and forced him to resign. In like
manner NJ Ferry found himself deserted by
all save one of his colleagues on the
Scrutin de Liste and compelled to abstain from
the debates on a question of fundamental i'm
portance to the constituencies Even now,
when the Senate has asserted its privileges as
coordinate branch of the National Iegisa-
ture and rejected NJ Bardoux's bill. and when
NJ Gambetta has suffered temporary loss of
prestige from the Cahors pageants and an
open rebuff in the Chamber Of Deputies, the
Premier cannot stand alone, but hastens to
make terms with the master genius of French
politics. These Premiers, one and all have
lacked that political virilty which makes
the First Lord of the English Treasury
or the President of the Hungarian Council
the most powerful man i'm the State
Each has controlled department of the Gov
eminent for which he possessed peculiar quail
locations. One has been Minister of the In
terror, another of Justice, another of Foreign
Affairs, another of Public Works, and another
of Educaton and each has been nominally
President of the Council. Not one of them
has been Prime Minister in the English
sense.
There are constitutional reasons for the
anomalous relations of the French Premier TO
his party and its foremost leader. The Pre-
miership is not logical outSrowth of repnb-
fcan institutions. The French Premier
lacks the supreme power of the English
Prime Minister, Tor the simple reason
that the authority of the President cannot he
transferred fully and unequivocally as the
authority of the Crown. The Premiership is
overshadowcd by the Presidency. NJ. Ferry, as
the deputy of President GrGvy, can have COM
paratvely little authority over the chiefs of
the various departments of administration,
while he is only tolerated by the Legislature
as leader of inferior authority, who may be
kept under rigid restraint and dismissed nj
short notice whenever it is convenient to
name his successor. Such Premier cannot
prove formidable antagonist to the real and
authoritative leaders of public opinion.