Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-06-23
FRENCH POLITICS.
The Republicans are for Order, Tran
quilIity and Religious Tolerance.

quilIity and Religious Tolerance
PARIS, June 22d.-In a speech delivered
last Monday at the National Republican
Association banquet, NJ. Jules Ferry ac-
Centuated the declarations he had pre-
viously made in the Chamber of Deputies
He was energetic i'll his condemnation of
the agitation in favor of revising the Con-
stitution. The idea of convoking con.
stituent Assembly and making a Constitu-
ton at a time when republican institutions
were exposed to attack on every hand was
said by NJ. Ferry to be an error The terms
in which the Opportunist leader insisted
upon the necessity of concluding peace be-
tween the Church and the STA e were note
worthy. Il was this part of his speech in
the Chamber which most excited the ire of
NJ. Clemenceau, but far from restricting
any of his opinions, NJ. Ferry reiterated
his statement that religion in France repre-
senied great moral force which the civil
power should not disregard and with which
it should avoid all quarrel.
AS might have been expected, the Radi-
Gals have taken umbrage at these declara-
tons, and their organs take NJ. Ferry
severely to task The Justice. Lanterne and
other newspapers of the same shade of
opinion declare that The retrcgrade policy
OF the Tonquinuis cannot be accepted by
the Republican party. A revision of the
Constitution is, they say, both necessary
and urgent in some instances. They pre-
tend that the National Assembly was not
qualified TO draw up a Constitution for
France. The Conservative journals join
with the Radical journals in criticising NJ.
Ferry's speech. NJ. De Cassagnac is for
once with NJ. Clemenceau. Accordingly.
in his defense of the existing Constitu-
ton, NJ. Ferry has to deal with Radicals,
Monarchists and Boulangists. However,
he has the support OF all of the members
OF the Moderate party, and his programme
exactly answers to the desire of the ma
lority of the population.
AS whole the people of France want
not change Of government, but order, tran
quillity and religious tolerance. NJ. Ferry's
language would consequently be well re-
ceived throughout the country if his per
sonal situation and remembrance of his
past policy did not detract from its effect
The Conservatives for their part have no
confidence in him. In his mouth liberty
of conscience, religious peace and tolerance
are but as vain words, for it cannot be for
gotten that it was Ferry who passed Arti-
Gle I; that II was Ferry who expelled the
religious orders from the soil of France
that it was Ferry and the Opportunist
party who weeded out from the ranks of
the magistracy those who were suspected,
with or without reason, of clericalism; that
as a sop to the Cerberus of radiCalism the
Opportunists adopted the formula Les
cures avec lie sac au dos" and that the
laicisation of the schools and hospitals was
in the beginning their work. Nor can it be
forgotten that in obedience to the injuHc-
tons of the Radicals the Ferrists were
among the first to declare themselves in
favor of the partial revision of the Consti-
tuition. and that all their policy when they
were in power was the constant pandering
to radical opinions.
If, say the Conservatives, it were possible
to believe the Opportunists sincere at this
juncture, the past might be forgotten, but
they have not broken their compact with
the advanced section of the Extreme Left.
Their camps are still allied in view of an
election, when the requirements of the sit
uation will force Ferry's partisans to vote
for the suppression of the budget of wor-
ship and for the revision of the Constitu-
ton. Moderate Republicans allied with
ex. Communists make certainly curious
spectacle,