The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-07-14
The Future of French Politics.

The death of the Count de Cham
bord is apparently near at hand.
His demise will have a marked
effect on the politics of France than
he exercised in life. The Count de
Chambord will leave nc direct heir.
With him the line of the Lesitimists
expires. The feud which has so long
divided the royal family of France
ends in his grave. 1t began at the
time of the unfortunate Louis XVI.
His brother, the Duke of Orleans
''moon-faced Philip of Orleans" as
he was described in the bizarre die
ton of Carlyle, joined the revolution
in the hope Of succeeding to the
throne himself. the outcome was
that not only Louis XVI, but him
self, lost their heads under the gull
lOtine.
Since then, and up to the establish
ment of the present Republic, France
has heen governed b ylwo Napoleons,
the First and Third, two of the direct
line of Louis XVI, and one member
of the Orleans branch, Louis Phil
ippe, the Citizen King, who in the
time of the revolution had been
a door-keeper of a Jacobin
club, and who had later gained
some doubtful military glory at
Jemappes. His grandson, the Count
de Paris, the eldest son of his eldest
son, on the death of Chambord, be-
comes the head of the royal family of
France. He has several uncles, the
Due d'Aumale, the Prince de Join
vile, aid others. The effect will be
to unite the two royal factions, the
Legitimists and Orleanists. The
white flag, to which Chambord chung
so tenaciously, will be disposed Of
finally, for the Orleanist branch &C.
cepted the facts of the revolution and
displayed the tricoler.
Often very childish notions supply
the motive power in great political
movements. From the time of Will
liam III and far into the present CEN
fury it was generally believed in
Great Britain that the success of one
party in the State would entail on the
people the financial and pedal dis
comfort of brass money and wooden
shoes. We can only look back with
amazement at the prevalence of such
absurd notions, but they were for
many generations prime factors in
English politics. There is perhaps
more sense in the French pref
erence for the tricoiOr, for it
is associated Historically with the
of property. Nearly all the
land in France is held nnder revolu-
tionary titles, and the tricolor is the
symbol ofthat great political upheav-
al. But at the same time it will be
admitted that something mole than
Chambord's harmless bit of white
bunting would have been required to
upset the existing social structure of
that great nation. AS nine-tenths of
all the people are interested in the
maintenance of the present order of
things, no reaction to the rights
which existed previous to the decapi-
tation of Louis Capet could be carried
except by the aid of a foreign and
Irresistible power. But the menac.
ing symbol of the white flag will be
laid away in the tomb of Chambord.
The effect will be to give a triangular
aspect to French politics, instead of
the quadrilateral which has so long
existed. There will not be two royal
factions, n imperial faction and the
Republicans, but a united Royal par
~, the 1mperialists and the Repub-
leans. II the effect should be to heal
up the division in the ranks of the
Republicans, of which Conservatives
md Communists are the express
the cause of coed government
would not be likely to suffer in the
east.
The Communists, as a matter of
act, are the best allies of the Royal
SITS. They are the rawhead and
,lOOdy-bones SO often exhibited to