Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1893-01-19
THE CRISIS IN FRANCE.

It is interesting to the student Of
history-to the statesman, patriot
and the man Of affairs-to contenl-
plate the situation in France at this
time and to speculate on the prob
able outcome.
The present is the fourth occasion
On which, since its foundation in
September, 1870, the French Re
public has been menaced by grave
and perilous difficulties. 1t emerged
from the COY horrors of the Com
mune Of 1871 Scared, bruised, and
not little disheartened, but never
theless resolved to knit together the
scattered forces Of the nation and
protect it against foreign foes and
native frebrands, Several years
later it was saved from destruction
by the oyer-chivairoas conduct of
the Count of Chambord, who, hav-
ing been offered the French crown
by the constituent assembly Of
Versailles, on condition that he &C
knowledge tha tricolor as the sole
national flag Of France, Indignantly
refused to abandon the Bourbon
lilies of his fofefathers. Boulanger,
seated on his cream white charge, :,
was, at a subsequent period, very
near establishing a second First
Consulate on the ruins Of the Re
public; but his cowardly flight to
Brussels destroyed all his prospects,
and made the cause he represented a
helplessly forlorn one. Politics had
more Or less to do with all previous
attacks on the R. public,
On this occasion, however, the
wholesale corruption Of some of its
representatives, including several of
it's ex-ministers, has brought down
upon it the odium of many who
stood aloof from all political feuds
and quarrels. The dupes of the
Panama Canal Company, forming as
they do very large section of the
people, are justly indignant at the
conduct of Republicans who bartered
their votes and corscienoes for a
miserable mess of pottage. 1t is
probable that most Of these voters
will refrain from supporting Repub-
lican candidates for the Chamber of
Deputies at the general elections
which are fixed for the coming g
autumn.
Yet it is exceedingly probable
that the French Republic Will come
out Of the present ordaal triumph
ant in the end. True, it has made
sad and all but irretr:evable mis-
takes, yet it will be tolerated b5 the
overw helming majority of French
men, who prefer the ills they know,
rather than have anything to do
with the ills they know not of.
The Republic has outlived by sew
eral years the period Of existence of
any and all of the different dynastic
regimes that have come and gone
since the decapitations of Louis XIV.
1t is the only possible form of gov
ernment that is Or ever can be likely
to satisfy the aspiration of modern
Frenehmen, most of whom consider
the monarchial system of rule ab-
surd and illogical in the extreme, as
well as anachrolism in this progress
sive age Of ours. Moreover, The
greast mass Of the peasant commu-
nifty cling to the established order
of things as a barnacle does to a
rock. They are totally averse te
change. They have no sympathy
with revolutions. They will sup.
port the Government of the day sc
long as they are allowed to till thsil
fields in peace, and secure a good
market for their agricultural pro.
ducts.
Adverse critics may say that it il
the unexpected which always takes
/
place in France. Instability, they
may allege, is the only thing that il
stable in French politics, but there
can be little doubt Of the fact thai
the French people at large-tht
masses-haye accepted the presen
Republic for good-not because th
Republic is at all perfecss in its con-
stitution and policy, but becaus
every other form of government ha
been tried by them in the balanc
, and invariably found wanting.
The Royai.st faction clamors 70
the Count of Paris, the Bonapartist
shout themselves hoarse for Primo
E Victor Napoleon. 1t would be easie
to blend oil with water than t
, combine in a single unit such oppos
} ling factions, On the Radical sid