Morning journal and courier., 1893-02-07

| AtoA4 ehsaohy ~ tle presidential of
 hce all members of former reignipg fam.
 ss these, besides not being eligible for The
 presidency, are debarred by the eonsti.
 tuition from serving as senators or depn.
 ties The French presidency, however.
 is anything but an exclusive office. In theory 1t is ss accessible to the French | citizen as the ballot box iteelf. There la
 not even an age limit, unless the attain.
 ment of ones majority may be so called To be eligible for senator the French oit.
 izsn must be forty, and he must be not
 less than twenty-five before the chamber of deputies can open to him But the presidency is within his reach, with sb-
 soiutely no condition attaching to 1t be
 yond the mere formslity of getting elect
 ed, the moment he Is old enough to vote.
 This Is decidedly liberal, though wheth- CT Frenohmen are satisfied that to give them one good chance, in competition
 with ten millions of their fellow citizens.
 to attain to the presidency themselves. is sufficient compensation for depriving
 them of direct vote in the filling of that office, is different question. Such,
 however, Ia the situation of the case. and this is another feature in which the
 French republic differs so fundamentally rom our own as to almost lose all kin ship with it. The French president is chosen by national assembly: in other
 words, st joint session of the senate
 and house ot deputies; the only relation
 or the great mass of the people to such
 an event being that originally-perhaps
 years before-they themselves efected- primarily for legislative dutiss-the men
 upon who1a now the election of s head
 Of the state devolvee. If these men had
 been voted for in special view of & pres
 ideniisl vacancy, with due announcement
 on their part of the presidential oandi-
 date to whom their suppor, vould he
 given, the system would closely resemble
 our own. But nothing of this kind oc CUTS, and 1t Is questionable if, while the French remain as excitable ss they are.
 our highly approved American plan, spite
 ot all its checks and safeguards. could
 with safety be introduced here.
 Where Frenchnen, in the working of their political system, bear & decided re
 semb'ance to ourselves Is in the tendency
 they have shown to pass by their stronsest
 men, and 10 sxalt 10 presidential disnities
 respectable mediocrity only. Jules Grevy
 was retired lawyer, his chief recommen- dstion being that he was honest and not a peddler. The only thing which distin- guished NJ. Csrnot beyond thousands of ether wel-equippsd Frenchmen was the great name he bore, 6 legacy in the second degree from one of the best men of the revolutionary era. In this tendency the two republics are considerably alike But how different the reasons in the two cases No American ts big enough to imperil the republic simply by his occupancy of the presidential chair, whereas experience has shown that man may do this In France even If he Is not very big. but only thinks himself so, providing he has grit and the prestige of little military fame. Because they know this, and have gained their knowledge of 1t in 60 hard 8 school, the French are shy of great men, and are ceAs- ing to take much stuck in great nsmes
 This Is one reason undoub ubtedly why cs b. inets fall so soon. Not the chief reason That we must look for in the want of agreement and cohesiyeness smougst French republicsns-in the fact that in | stead of forming great party, the friends | of the republic are divided into betty groups, who act often from motives of | spite, and who, to carry their point, do | not disdain slliaucs with the bitterest reac- tionaries. Here is the chief reason why | the ministry Is so often changed. The | conservatives, ss they call themselves. are | always against ir, and when these snd the | extreme radicals combine, as they frsouent- ly do, down goes the existing government. There Is, however, as we have hInted, an other reason.
 Beneath all this pettiness and love of change there Is no doubt & substrstum of principle. Not perhaps the highest prin- ciple, but one certainly which has 6 little patriotism in 1t and wholesome amount of prudence as well. The French are afraid of those who govern them; afraid | to give them teo much power or to keep them too long iq office. They have a nor tai dread of despots thesSs later years and | m a If 1a-- and surely, with the spectres of Napoleon III, MacMshon and Boulsnger rising out of the recent past, there Is plenty of justi- ication for this feeling.
 The salary of the French president Is one hundred and twenty thousaUd dollars a year, and he Is allowed another one hun dred and twenty thousand dollars for CT penses. Cabinet ministers get twelve 1 thousand dollars a year. The president, two chambers, has at least the constitution | al right of asking them to reconsider. Af- | t,rwsrds he has no alternative but to put | into effec. whatever is decreed. The style of life at tins Elysee Palace is less simple than st the White House. The office of tbe French president is not wholly free at present from the pomp and circumstance attaching to royalty. In reference to all matters of this kind one must make large allowance 10th for the traditions of the nation itself and for her situation in the midst of powerful monarchies. The won der is, not that with & republican form she still lacks in simplicity and has not yet reached in all things the republican ideal of government, but that she is a republic at all.
 The patronage dispensed by the presi- | dent of France is tritling in comparison with that of our own executive, and in | this respect the French have & decided sd- | vantage over ourselves. All officials ex- ceptipg the highest are non-politicsl, and | government employees after thirty years of | service enjoy a pension. Still the presi- l dent of the French republic has 6 far l reaching staff to look after All the pre- fects of departments are under his con tvol, and in fac. he is represented, directly or indirectly, not only in these SC larger divisions of the republic. but in the 362 srrondissem-nts. in the ? S7l csntons, and even in the %, l2I communes.
 Which reminds us of another thing in the French republic diffsrsntistiug it from our own, viz: it's tendency to oentraliZs- ton, or in other words to conserve the in terests of the general government st the expense of the local government, some times even to the dstriment of individual liberty. This, however, can hardly be called in truth tendency Of the republic. It Is rather a legacy feom the empire, and We may hope, therefore, that the nation in its regenerated form will soon outgrow 1t.
 HI.
 Although many remedies are pushed into the market by spicy adyertisements Dr.