Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-10
THE FARCE N FRANCE.

1t is both affirmed and denied that the
young Orleans Prince, Philippe, returned
to France with document containing the
abdication of his father as pretender to
the throne of France, and comforting upon
the boy the honor of the shadowy crown
which the Orleanist house claims by di-
vine right to be its. We are inclined to
the belief that the lad had Just such a
document, and that he returned to France
for the purpose of rallying the remnant of
the followers of the house of Orleans and
forcing revolution. Such policy ac-
cords with the whole course of the Royal
lists and the Imperialists of France since
the republic put them TO one side. The
idea that the young man came back in the
face of the decree of exile for the purpose
of serving in the army is absurd. He
knew very well that such thing would
not be permitted.
We assume, therefore, that the real pur-
pose was to foment discord and collect such
force as to compel President Carnot to
recognize it as belligerent. 1t was
hot-headed and boyish expedition, and the
result clothes him with shame Instead of
regarding him as hero and the savior of
the nation, all France is laughing at him.
The most inopportune time in which to
provoke revolution is in the time ofpeace
and prosperity. Financially, indust1ially,
socially, France was never in better con-
ditlon than to-day. The men of this hour
were boys of five and six when the Orleans
house had such following as to make it
menace to France. The traditions of
kingly rule have only vague and indis
tinct memory with them, and there is
nothing in their experience to lead them
to sacrifice themselves that one of the
"anointed' may be proclaimed "King by
Divine right"
Rural France has fixed for itself new
horizon; it has had enough of domestic
war, and realizes fully that in the event of
a revolution it would be the chief sufferer
It has not forgotten that it once poured
out its wealth and stripped even the rings
from the fingers of its children and wo-
men to pay one enormous tribute to the
folly and ambition of an Emperor. Its
security is in leaving well enough alone,
and this conviction it has repeatedly, in
the past twelve years, manifested.
The dramatic entry of young Orleans
and the farcical "wind-up" of his expedi-
ton in a prison is, therefore, but passing
surprise. 1t has not at all disturbed
France, and in that fact is found the best
possible evidence of the strength of the
Republic in the National heart
There is one claim made by the young
Prince for consideration that is amusing.
He asks that he may be permitted to serve
in the army of his native land, on the
strength of the service his ancestors rem
dered to the nation in the forefront of
battle. But he appears to forget that
these same ancestors, who won the plaud-
its of past generations for their gallantry,
were battling not for the liberties of free
people, but for the supremacy of thrones,
and that some of their iercest struggles
were made in contest with other lines
than theirs claiming the right to rule.
The French freeholder of to-day is keenly
alive to the fact that, armed with the
ballot, he is his own king, and that he
owes nothing whatever TO the titled heroes
of eras that, with this generation, are little
more than traditions 1t is no wonder,
therefore, that the Frenchmen of to-day
are laughing at the Quixotic attempt of
the boy, Orleans, to rouse them to arms to
destroy, for name and title, the peace
and content of the present. Such knight
errantry, to the mass of the people of
France, is day but farcical episode, to
be forgotten tomorrow.