The morning call., 1893-01-15
THE FRENCH cALDRoN.

The French caldron continues to seethe,
but as the Trial OF the Panama directors
proceeds suspicion is gradually concentrat-
ing round the heads of few individuals,
instead of involving every one high and
low. The English scrbblers who supply
the press Of this country and Great Britain
with tidb bits of scandal, ard who have been
threatening to disclose secrets which would
overWhelm every one from the President
down, have had ample opportunity to touch
off their explosives and they have not yet
done so. Nothing for the moment is COM
ing to light The situation is just what it
was, and what NJ. Coastans has known
since 1889 that it was. The Panama Com
psny, fl0undering in concealed insolvency,
was the prey Of every inscriptions adYen-
turer and every impudent blackmailer in
Paris. The circumstances were too des-
perate 10 allow it to turn on the vultuTes
and defy them. 1t held up Its hands. Il
paid every r9bber who demanded its money
or its life, newspaper fellows who threat
ened it with exposure. Deputies who de-
clared they would move for an inquiry.
lobbyists behind the throne. bOursiers who
menaneed bear. raids, social leaders who
said that they formed public opinion, and
Government who demanded money as the
price of silence.
The trail of all this corruption was easy
to follow. No money was paid Out eX-
cept by check and each check had stub
Four years ago NJ. COnstans. who was then
Minister OF the Interior, got hold of these
stubs. From that hour he held the life of
the boodlers in the hollow OF his hand.
Why aid he notthen expose them? That is
a question not easily answered. He may
have wanted to give one more chance to the
great national enterprise in which French
men had sunk /, 40o. GOO, 900 francs. He may
have been swayed by the entreaties Of the
grand old man whom every one in France
loves and respects. He may have been IN
willing to furnish the scandalous advent
urer BOulanger with ammunition to assall
the republic. Many reasons may have in
huenced him. Certain it is that he laid all
his information, together with the stubs and
Th0usseau's report, before the council Of
Ministers more than three years ago. N.
Carnot took ample time to deliberate; be
knew that delay would enable some of the
Tascals TO get away with their plunder; but
that was small matter in comparison with
the effect of the explosion Of the scandal
upon French institutions. When he deemed
that the right time had come be gave the
word, and the machnery of justice was set
in motion.
Ii fills an impartial observer with respect
for the leading public men Of France to see
how few of them have been tainted by the
wholesale corruption Of the day. With the
exception of Baihut, who seems to be a
poor miserable petty larceny rogue, none of
the many members Of the many admins
trations which France has had since 1889
are charged with having touched Panama
money. The penny-a-Iiners would have the
public believe that everybody was impli-
Gated; they arrest some new criminal every
morning; they are quite sure that CaFnot
was in it. and that he is going to sign or
be driven from Office. Those Of them who
are English are satisfied that the scandal
viii be fatal 10 the republic, and viii fur
nish one mora proof that order and honest
administration cannot be secured without
king, lords and commons and a state
church.
Meanwhile the trial proceeds in an orderly
way and the truth is coming out without
respect to persons. The French procedure
allows larger latitude to Judges and cOun-
sci than AnglO-Saxoa rules permit. Every
witness is compelled 10 answer questions
whether they cTiminate himself or any one
else, and no lawyer is permitted to inter-
pose objections to conceal the facts. Before
the trial is ended the history Of the decline
and fall of the Panama Canal Company Will
be revealed in bread daylight, with the
names Of all who found it fainting by the
roadside and stripped it bare And then
even-handed French justice will mete out to
every criminal the due penalty for his
crime, and Mr. Carnot aud his friends very
probably will go down to history as men
who passed through the greatest scandal of
the age without a faint upon their fair
names