New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-12
A TRYING DAY IN PARIS.
.,,,rerrRIAL CHANGES, FACTIONAL STRIFE
AND RUINED REGULATIONS.
=. ,,eor,s WISE MovE-THE RADICALS LOSING
xn-M CLEMENCEAU DIsCREDITED-
PROFOUND EFFECT OF CHARLES DE
LESsEPS'S TESTIMONY.
ssv CABLE TO IT,, rkIBUNk.
,sY CABLE TO TIL rxIBUSk

PROFOUND CfiAhi-i>o DI
LEssEps's TESTIMONY.
.sy CABLE TO TIL rkIBUSt.
,,,yvioht. 1898: By The Tribune Associdtion.
,..;s Ian lit cannot be said that the
.o,ion and reconstruction of the RibOt Min
''..r has produced an altogether favorable i'm
"..;on II is one crisis the more, and Il crisis
f,.,,r a crisis That NJ de Freycnet should re-
w.. r;th as little scandal as possible, and that
A. 1nuhet should follow his friend NJ Rou-
-, into retirement, is felt to he well. 1t is
..n also that in the midst of all these aglta-
.,r. the Prime Minister should recognize that
So nlace is not at the Foreign Office, but at
,he Ministry of the Interior, the true centre of
administrative authority in Frarce. 1t is not
to,.icn levy. hut malice domestic, which France
!, these days has most to dread.
so far. good But what weighs upon the pub
liz mind is the new and sudden proof of in
s.ability which these changes offer The Ribot
Ministry was only IA month in Office, and was
itself but new version Of the Loubet Min
lstry The two Ministers who have been thrown
overheard have each followers and friends Will
they support Cabinet which has just sacrificed
their own leaders? II they do not, or even If
they do, TO what groups or fractions of the
Chamber does the new Cabinet look for its ma
icrity? In no case is any permanent fully
coherent majority for any conceivable Ministry
to be looked for in the present Chamber. Ma
jorliies depend and have long depended, on ma
nceuvres, on cabals, on impulses. They are at
the mercy, and the Ministry is each day at
the mercy, of an incident, or accident No Min
istry is so much at their mercy as Ministry
twice reshuffed, which has shed three of its most
experienced members. Two of the three adroit
practitioners of every parliamentary art, NJ. de
feycinet and VI. Rouvcr, are gone: but they leave
memories ard enmities behind them. The public
looks on at these Transformation scenes with
anxiety and with deep distrust.
Everybody knows, moreover, that the Ministry
s not even now homogeneous. On what do NJ
hoot and VI. Bourgeois agree, except on Panama
What parliamentary strength does General
L0izillon bring with himo Since when has an
scquaintancewith agriculture been thought a
ti1cate of competence in foreign affairs, and what
other certificate has NJ Develle? Such are some
Of the questions, and only some, which people are
asking. There are people SO unreasonable as TO
say that they would like Ministry with a
policy with programme Ministry that can do
something besides drift with the stream.
There is, however one policy on which Ministry
and Chamber appear to agree, and that is, To get
rid Of. or at least 10 cisown, whoever is openly
attainted Of corruption or openly incriminated
In Panama. There remains III the Cabinet no
man on whom any suspicion rests, or has rested,
and the sacrifice Of n. Floquet is the eloquent
testimony Of the Chamber itself TO the supreme
political importai CO of the present demand for
not merely personal but political purity.
II any new political tendency is discoverable in
the events Of yesterday, it is a tendency toward
moderation. 1t was the day Of tho Left Centre
and, to some extent, of what is called the Con-
sttutional Right. NJ. Leon Say led the Re-
publican attack on NJ. Floquet, anu NJ. Jacques
Piou carried his group with him in support OF The
Republic, if not Of the Ministry. He and his
group have been it is true but ill received by the
Republicans whom they offer to reinforce The
Radicals naturally reject help from that quarter.
II tends to make the public rational rather than
-adical But the Moderates themselves were
hardly more cordial. They think il but Platonic
politics to rally 10 principle and to vote against
the Ministry which sands for that principle; and
pcrhans they are not far wrong The Piou group
like all the Right, is fighting for its own hand'
II any party has definitely lost prestige and
position by recent events. 1t Is the hahcals
Tbev did their best 70 re elect NJ. Floquet, and
failed. They see the Presidency OF the Cnam-
Der pass from Radical to Moderate VI. Casimir
perier is the incarnation Of the Moderate policy.
What ia worse for the Radicals, they have loso
their leader. or. more accurately speaking. their
leader has for the present lost his authority.
NJ Clenenceau is almost as much discredited as
N Floouet. in some WAYS more so. Each is free
frsm nersonal suspicion. and each sees his poiti-
cal prestige vanish at the same moment. NJ.
Clemenceau has been, if not Cabinet maker
the great Cabinet breaker. VI. Ribot's friends
say he is so no longer: that whatever NJ RlDot
has 10 fear from other quarters he stands in no
fear Of NJ. Clemenceau; that the once formidable
Radical would not dream to-day Of ascending the
tribune to attack a Minister; and that if he did.
he would fail. His almost unrivaled Darlia-
mentary career both as tactician and orator.
svails no longer. The associate of DR.. Cornelius
Herr has ceased to he power.
Such is one result Of that Panama campaign
on which the Radicals entered with lght
heart. Their two best men are down, and their
hopes Of coalition outside the Chamber, OF
union for electoral purposes with the SOCIALISTS
ii hot wholly TcnOunccd, are dim The Sociai-
lists are less power than they were. All that
Maison du Peuple business has come to naught.
Their alliance with the Anarchists brought
nothing but ridicule on both. The leaders OF both
committed themselves 10 struggle, and then ran
away. There is no leader. There are dozen
Of either group who can call meetings and make
speeches and compose maDifestocs; there is no
man whose name is flag The Socialists arc
force in Paris, in the great cities and in the manu-
featuring districts, but their recent proceedings
have considerably reduced their political value
and diminished the probability Of coalition with
The Radicals.
Parlamentarism. meantime, and Opportunisn
itself, seem toerably flourishing. The doom, or
the downfall, Of both has been rot only pre-
dicted, but proclaimed. There is not sign
that parliamentary government will be abandoned,
and not single rational or plausible proposal
% replace it. Opportunism was to give way to
kadicalism, but il is Radicalism which comes
worst out Of the conflict; and relatively TO the
radicals, the Opportunsts are stronger than
they were. Still stronger is the Republic. Nu-
nerous 40 are its enemies, they have nothing TO
0ner in nlaca of tho Eenublic nor can