The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-03-16
THE CHANGE OF MINISTRY IN
FRANCE.

"Cilt "ho thChA HI AAOOi iiOhA
these has concluded popular govern
ment to be a failure? Not likely.
True, some erudite American editors
have 80 thought, but the Prince of
Wales is more of a statesman than that.
He may be frivolous at times. but he
was born to craftsmanship as his
craft, and he knows that ''Freedom's
battle once begun, Bequeathed by
bleeding sire to son, Though bat1ed
oft is eyer won." This battle has
been going on in France since the days
of the Bsstille, of Marat, OF Robespierre
and the other priests and leaders who
though they sacrificed 10 license yet
sowed seeds of genuine liberty ana
right. This battle has been baf1ed
oft, as the poet said, but out of the
ashes of bitterness has ever sprung a
living flower to bloom and blossom
| and give forth sweetest perfume to the
| millions around about who have the
same aspirations, but who have had to
| stife them at the dictation of Fred
ericks, of Alexanders and of Bis
marcks; at the behest of the Bourbons
| to the south of them and the Guelphs
| to the north of them.
Surrounded by monarchies, the
| hated of despotisms farther away F.;
subject to attacks from open enemies
| abroad, and to the intrigues of the
| aristocracy of the whole world at
| home, France has waged a glorious
| conflict for constitutional government
and manhood suffrage. Suppose a
ministry is changed once in a while
| Was not ours changed, in this country,
last Monday? No doubt that indicated
to European minds a species of reyolu,
| ton; and so it was, a revolution more
violently reached than the one In
France, where. a simple vote Of the
general assembly showing a lack o.
popular support Is enough to unsea'
one ministry aud to seat another
There is this advantage. too, about TIT
French pian-there the president
counts for little in partisan politics.
the cabinet for everything, and there
the cabinet must be in harmony with
the views of the people al the time
mo one Lere will want to give NJ
American institutions or American
policies for French, but all those who
love liberty, all those who remember
Lafayette and the gallant Frenchmen
who came with him to help ouI
ancestors win their independence,
must love and admire the persistent
struggle of the French people either to
found, or having founded, to maintain
a republic. -
They had many foes to overcome
From the aristocracy they looked fol
resistance, the Louises, from he OF the
Pare az CERT down to Louis PHILIPPE,
all fought against the cession of Tie
divine right of kings. But from The
men Of the people, the Napoleons. they
had a right to expect better treatment
than they received. Great III many
things Napoleon was not as great as
Cesar when he refused the diadem al
the hands of Antopius. nor as great as
Washington when he spurned a crown
The third Napoleon, in spite OF lht
i E..l:,no,, rs hio ,aiHn 90 for N q c,tan.lT,
and show may be made to 60, coulC
we'll have been handed down 10 history
as LIE Petit. Both were friends 10 them
selves and enemies to liberty. Boil
loved glory more than the welfare o
their fellow men. Then look again a
Francel Has she not made u glorious
hghl? Reclaimed from the Bourbani
by the consulship she fell into olt
Empirs. Reclaimed again she again
fell into Imperial control under the
same blood. Inundated under this
%pretentious but empty leader by the
combined power of continental
aristocracies she rose from her knees
bleeding. wounded, sore, dispiritec
and detected, but she arose a republic
a country where men have the right t
make and unmake their measures anC
their rulers by the ballot, and wher'
all are equal before the law. And tina
country of alleged frivolity, where
debt was taken and paid in weeks tina
no other country could then have lifted
in twice as many months, a countr.
whose manufactures and experts al,
second only to England's, if ever
second to hers, the earnest purpose o
the earnest men of that country arr
impressing themselves upon all tn,
world. England no longer hates her
The freedom loving Englishmal
respects her. Even the Prince O
Wales honors her. The Irishmsr
always loved her, and now the German
who, since jena, Eylau and FreidlsnG
has hated her, begins to see in he
noble ambitions for the amelioratiol
of the condition of mankind not onl,
ia France but in all the world. TIL
German bourgeoisie, the German
worker in all walks of life, begins t
like his French neighbor, and To wis
that there could be fewer restraint
aud letters on his own limbs. Tn
sristocrat in Germany, as the aristocra
everywhere else in Europe, continue
to hate France, and to foment a
causes which will make enemies 70
her OF the common people.
Let no American, then, fall into th
vein of those who ridicule the effort
vi The French TO reach the highe'
plane OF republican government. ID
not fall into the common error {
Judging the entire country by Pari
the most cosmopolitan city on th
earth. Remember that the rural di
tricts are behind her, where nearl
/, every matured mau owns his own viz
and fig tree. Remember that whi.
she has her Boulangers and L
e ltouledes and Rocheiorts, that 81
{ also has her Carnots, her Freycine'
/ aud her Tirards, all men of sense,
culture aud OF patriotism. A chang
e of ministry under the latter mean l
revolution that need alarm lovers
democracy and right in the old wor
o or the new.