The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-06
SOME VIEW
ms n.r.,u,,s. ssa rI.s.r. france.

NA4"
-
Ehs Rsveiutisu ana HHsdsrn France.
Il will be generally acknowledged, we pre-
sumo, that We nre indebted TO an Engllshman
for the best account OF our system OF Federal
and State government. Another Englishman,
Mr.. J. E. @. BoDLEY, has now given us in two
volumes, collectively entitled Frcnce Macmil-
lansl. a lucid and thorough exposition OF tho re-
lations Of the Third French Republic to the FIRST
French Revolution, and Of the structure and
worhinQs Of the constitution established In
1875, which has already outlived any OF the
politics constructed in France since 1883.
The method Of study adopted by the
writer IL that which was pursued by De
Tocouoyillc and by Mr.. James Bryce, that 10
70 say his conclusions are based not only on the
study Of documents, but upon prolonged first
hand observation. Mr.. Bodlcy has devoted
moro than seven years to the investigation OF
his subject through personal inspection of the
actual state Of things not only In Paris, but In
Almost every French department. The present
work embraces the outcome Of but q part OF his
researches. He has planned, he tells us, a third
volume, which is to deal with the centralized
administration, the Church and education, the
judicial and fiscal systems, as well as with
questions relating to capital and labor, to
The colonies and to the army. The matters
which are especially discussed in the work
before us are the executive and leg
islntive powers under tho existing constitution
and, as we have said, the complex effect OF the
changes introduced by the great revolution and
By tho first Napoleon upon the France OF to-day.
The evidences Of industry, of breadth of view,
Of insight and of catholic sympathy psgvade this
interesting book. and the facts and deductions
arc set forth in n singularly attractive way.
Since the appearance Of tho American Com
1nonwealth - there has been produced no study
OF contemporary national institutions which
can be compared with Bodley's Franco.
In the present notice we shall only glance at
that discussion of the relations OF the revolution
to modern France which occupies the greater
part Of the first volume. reaerving for another
occasion some account of tho authors COM
ments on the text and operation OF tho coDstitu'
ton Of tho Third Republic.
What lie the cause of the acute and contagious
pessimism with which every section of the
French nation seems to be afflicted at the end OF
the nineteenth century This is q question
which MIR. Bodley considers Mt some length in
m introduction. Admitting that France Is not
the only country which is Just now stricken
with pessimism, ho points out that, in many re-
spects, civilized progress has had less de-
pressing effects in Franco than elsewhere.
One does not find there, for instance. any
counterpart of the hopeless misery Of
the poor in English cities which has. been ng-
gravated to a degree unknown in other COM
munities by the congestion of population due
to comoti facilities, as well'a as by the substi-
tuition of machinery for manual labor. That the
social question ia serious In France no one dis.
putes. but 1t does not present any such sombre
pictures Of extreme suffering. calculated to de-
ject the minds Of those disposed to gloom. French
pessimism. therefore. cannot be regarded as
merely q symptom of n universal malady char.
acteristic of the age, but one must search for
the peculiar causes which have given to the
nation . predisposition. unnatural to its for
merly sanguine temperament, to contract in
ordinately the habit OF taking the darkest view
OF things.
It is commonly said that q special cause Of
pessimism in Franco during theaast quarter Of
the century was the disastrous issue of the war
with Prussia. Witnesses who arc old enough
to have known France before 1870 say that she
came out of that struggle like q man who. pre-
viously bright. expansive and prosperous, Is
smitten with an illness which leaves him prem.
aturely old. peevish and suspicious. as we'll rs
damaged In fortune and bercaved in his affec-
lions. Mr.. Bodley would not question the
distressing moral effect upon the French
nation of defeat and loss of territory. but
q close study of the people and their
history has convinced him that the contrast
thus depicted is too emphatic and indiscrimi-
nate. As for the simile of the man broken with
sickness, We are reminded that nations are
happier than individuals in being able perpetu-
ally to renew their forces. This Is particularly
true of a race as buoyant as the Frcnch. and 1t Is
q fact that. on the very morrow of their re-
verses. they left on record proofs Of their swift
Fecuperativc power. For instance, the French
- kL- --t~ 49, 80 1Nyrt
the war with Germany contains little trace of
being the production of n people in mourning,
and 1t ia noticeably free from the Unconditional
pessimism which defaces much of the work
done In the third decade after the war. The
drama in France Is the reflection of the feelings
and tendencies OF the nation at large. or,
ut all events. of the capital. and Mr.. Bodley
draws attention to tho fact that II we ex-
amino the pieces written Mt the first-namcd
epoch by The younger Dumas. We shall find his
Frenchmen and Frenchwomen. who discuss
subtle problems ON the boards of the Theatre
Francois after tho loss of A~lsace-Lorraine not
more solemn than those whom he put on the
stage of the Gymnase In the light-hearted days
Of the Second Empire. In fiction, Octave Feuil-
let's heroes and heroines were as romantic after
Sedan as in the days when he spent the inter
walls of composing in the gay circles Of Com
piegno and at Fontainebleau; and. though. in
losing his imperial protectors. he had more
personal reason for gloom than, perhaps. any
other writer. his creations after tho war ovinced
none Of the dyspeptic dependency displayed by
the unwholesomc characters Of the analytical
school which have now taken possession Of
French romance. If 1t be said that imagina.
tive literature reflects the particular tenn.
permanent OF q writer quite as much as it does
the spirit of the age, our author points us to
another source of evidence free from that con-
fusion. The debates OF tho National Assembly
from 1871 to 1873 are entirely dissimilar in
tone to those OF the Chamber of Deputies in the
third decade of the republic. Under the Prcsi-
dency OF NJ. Carnot and NJ. Faure skepticism
and violence have been the dominant notes of
parliamentary eloquence; under M. Theirs and
Marshal MacMahon, though party strife was
bitter. the language of tho Deputies showed that
all men were inspired with faith in the destinies
of their country. Yet. at that time. the Prus.
slams were still cncamped within their borders,
and France, without even a settled government.
WINS not only mutilated. hut isolated. Now I'm