The morning call., 1893-01-12
1T CANNOT LIVE.
Ribot's Ministry Is vitality
Weak.
BUT ONE CRISIS THE MORE.
The Men Who Have Been Cast Out
Have Yet Friends Who Rally
for Vengeance.
Special to THE MORNING CALL.

NEW YORK, Jan. 11.-Smalley cables to
the Tribune from Paris: 1t cannot be said
that the resignation and reconstruction OF
the Ribot Ministry has produced altogether
a favorable impression. 1t Is one crisis the
more, and it is a crisis within crisis. That
Freycinet should retire with as little scan
dal as possible and that L0ubet should fol-
low his friend Rouvier into retirement is
felt to be WELL 1t is well, also, that in the
midst Of all these agitations the Prime Min
ister should recognize that his place is not
at the Foreign Office, but at the Ministry of
the Interior, the true center of administra-
tive authority in France. 1t is not foreign
levy but the malice of domestic cliques
which France in these days has most TO
dread. So far so good. but what weighs
upon the public mind is the new and sudden
proof of instability which these charges
offer. The RibUt Ministry was only one
month in office, and was itself but new
version of the Loubet Ministry. The two
Ministers who nave been thrown overheard
have each followers and friends. VIII they
support the Cabinet which has just sacrl-
ficed their own leaders? IL they do not. or
even if they do. 10 what groups or factions
OF the Chamber does the new Cabinet look
for its majority? In no case is any per-
manent or fully coherent majority for any
conceivable Ministry to be looked for. In
the present Chamber a majority depends
and has long depended on the msneuyers
Of cabals or impulse. They are at the
mercy, and the Ministry Is each day at the
mercy of an incident, an accident. No
Ministry is so much at the mercy of these
things as a Ministry twice reShuflled, which
has shed three OF its most experienced
members. Two of the three adroit practi-
TONERS of every parliamentary art, Frey
cinet and Rouvier, are gone. but they leave
memories and enmities behind them.
The public looks on at these trans
formation scenes with anxiety and with
deep distrust. Everybody knows, more
over, that the Ministry is not even now,
homogeneous. On what do Rbot and
Bourgeois agree. except on Panama
What Parliamentary strength does General
Loizillon bring with him? Since when has
an acquaintance with agriculture been
thought certificate of competency In
foreign affairs, and what other certificate
has Deyeile?
Such are some Of the questions, and only
some. which the people are asking. There
are people so unreasonable as to say that
they would like Ministry with policy,
with programmed Ministry that can do
something besides drift with the stream.
There is. however one policy on which
the Ministry and Chamber appear to agree
aud that is to get rid, or at least to disown.
whoever is openly attainted Of corruption, or
openly incriminated in Panama. There re-
mains in the Cabinet no man on whom any
suspicion rests or has rested, and the saeri-
fee of Flouquet is eloquent testimony that
the Chamber Itself is alive to the supreme
political Importance of the present demand
for not merely personal. but political phr-
lly.
II any new political tendency is discover
able in the events Of yesterday it is a ten
deney toward moderation. 1t was the day
of the left center and to some extent what
is called the constitutional right. Leon
Say led the Republican attack on
Floquet, and Jacques Pou carried
his group with him in support of
the republic, If not Of the Ministry II ana
his group have been. it is true, but i'll
received by the Republicans whom they
offer TO re-enforce. The radicals naturally
reject help from that quarter 1t tends to
make the public rational rather than rad
ical. But the moderates themselves were
hardly more cordial. They think IL but
Platonic politics TO rally TO principle and
to vote against a Ministry which stands for
that principle; and perhaps they are not
far wrong. The Piou group. like all the
Right, is fighting for It's own hand. Ii any
party has definitely lost prestige and posi-
tion by recent events it is the radicals
They did their best to re-elect FlOquet and
failed. They see the presidency of the
Chamber pass from a radical to a mod
crate.
Baihut's case is said 20 be without prece-
dent. Never before has French Minister
been known TO ask for bribe as a reward
for his ministerial influence. 1t is remarked
and remarkable that the Attorney General,
who is prosecuting has sought to prevent
the mention of names The court over
ruled him and told De Lesseps to tell the
Baihut story. Whatever else may follow,
the evidence Of the first day is decisive.
De Lssseps and his colleagues on trial may.
or may not be convicted of the particular
offense of which they stand accused, but no
man responsible for the management Of the
Panama Company can ever recover his
Mace In the world.