Omaha daily bee., 1893-04-08
OTHER LANDS rHAS OURS.


been thirty ministries. This is an average
life OF only about nine months for each min
istry. For the last few years the length Of
ministerial terms has been much shorter
than this. Loubet served but few weeks,
and Ribot only eleven. This looks good
deal like child's play, and gives point to Bis
marck's sarcasm "it is not government, IL is
opera bouffe,n and justifes to some extent
the charge of instability brought against
the French character There is an
other side TO these frequent ministerial
changes, however. which is worth consider
ing. II is doubtful If the republic would
have survived as long rs 1t has, had not this
safety valve for popular discomfort and un
easiness existed Within a century the
French people have overthrown three mon
arches, two directories and an empire, and
have been governed by two consulatcs and
presidency or semi-republic besides. The
present republic has existed longer than any
other government in France since the revo-
luton of 1889, and was never so firmly estab-
lished as now. Its promise of pcrmanence
is excellent, and it is largely due
to this elasticity of its constitution which
makes these frequent changes in the exccu-
tive or his representatives so easy. The
cabinet crisis is proving and has proved
successful substitute for the revolution, and
if in troublous times like those through
which the republic has just passed, these
crises come often, they 90 not seriously dis
turb the steady progress of the nation. So
far, therefore, are these crises from showing
that republcansmO government by the
people are a failure in France, that they go
far to prove that no other form OF govern
ment is so well suited to the French people
as the republic.
~
The political situation in Norway is very
complicated 1t is evident that intense feel
ing has been excited in the minds of the Nor
wegians and that the controversy between
them and the Swedes is but surface indica
tion of much deeper feeling. The present
contention is almost trivial, at least to the
eyes of the outside world Norway wishes
to be represented at foreign ports by Nor
wegians and not have the consular appoint
ments exclusively in Swedish hands. The
matter seems very simple, but is really
only the visible evidence of the de
sire for autonomy which underhes 1t.
Norway was once a portion of the
| Kingdom of Denmark. and even then was
! known as "rebeliOus Norway The hardy
! Norsemen rejected control from any source,
and repeated conquests did not eXtinguish
the desire for liberty. Denmark transferred
! its sovereignty to Sweden, and thus the dual
kingdom was formed But as Mr. Nansen,
! one of the leading liberals in Norway, said
: to correspondent last week, the Nor
/ wegians have never ratified the compact
| Even if the king of Denmark once rightly
held sovereign power in Norway, Mr. Nan
sen said he could not transfer that
power He could abdicate it, but he
| could not make it portion of com
mercial transaction. The Norwegians
recognize their present position as con-
dition, but protest against it as an injustice.
| 1t is this feeling voiced by Ullmann, but
held by the whole body CT the Norwegian
| people, which renders the present deadlock
between the king of Sweden and Norway
and the Storthing serious. The people of
Norway have recently undergone an intel
lectual development which is difficult to
describe or understand. The universities
are crowded, not by the sons of the rich,
but by farmers boys, who carry back to their
lonely homes a new light. Artists and mathe-
maticians have come from this most unex-
pected quarter of the globe to surprise
the world by their genius, and with wider
education the liberty-loving spirit of the old
rected. The population of the whole coun-
try is scarcely larger than that of the city
of New York and it's wealth is compare
lively very small, but the strength of char
acter the intelligence and the vigor of the
| people may vet make it the nucleus of one
of the greatest nations in Europe, the chief
state of the republic which shall include the
closely allied races of Sweden Finland anC
Denmark. This is the dream of the Nor
wegian patriot, and who shall say that it is
an idle one!
The prospect of Spanish republic is mo-
very bright in the opinion of that mos
earnest of republicans, Castelar,, who was
president of the only republic Spain eve
had. He said recently that there were TIVE
fundamental reasons for this. In the frs
place, although the great cities are hal
republican, the mass of the people is yer,
far from being so, Therefore temporarily
successful revolution could result in the enc
only in bloody and victorious reaction
Further, the republican leaders, whC
momentarily pooled their issues for the lat
election, have not really two ideas in com
mon. Salmeron is a socialist Margall Is al
anarchist, Zorrllla is for a dictatorship
+ These men cannot work together cOnsruc
| lively, and, if they could, would have t.
a.,