Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-11-25
How France Is Governed.

ThesChamber Of Deputies Is the Real
Seat OF Power-.-How the French Sys-
tenn Differs from that In England and
in this Country.
From the New York TribUnes London letter !
The premiership in France is monarch
ial survival borrowed from England, and
the presidency is an adaptation of an
American idea. The real republican prin-
ciple, which has been handed down as the
tradition of the great revolution, is the
supremacy of the popular legislative cham
Der. The convention was omnipotent in
1791-93. The chamber of deputies is now
the chief stronghold of political power.
BY means Of its majority in national as
sembly II elects the president OF the re-
public and revlses its constitution. 1t
holds at its mercy premier and ministers,
and controls the executive administration
by means of votes of confidence and select
committees. Within 20 years it has re0r-
gained nearly every department Of the
public service, and has done more legisla-
lalive work than any parliament in Eu-
rope. The efficiency Of the legislative
and administrative machine is due in large
part TO the system of bureau committees
introduced by Gambetta; but the idea Of
an all-powerful chamber embodying the
sovereignty of the nation and enforcing
the will of the people is French and has
come down from the great revolution.
English critics, and, as fear, American
as well, leave out of account the essential
fact that the French people have been try
ing an experiment in government on lines
of their own. What is unique in their
system is the reproduction of the old-time
revolutionary convention, with a few com
promises and safeguards such as the pre-
miership, the presidency and the senate,
and its conversion into an engine Of gov
eminent which is singularly effective and
rapid in all its processes. The premier
may have lost the political authority of an
English prime minister, and the president
may not have the independence and re-
sources of responsibility with which an
American president is armed; but the
chamber of deputies is an organ of French
democracy, which performs its functions
with directness, simplicity and eXtraordi-
nary efficiency. The premiership may
have declined in political power; cabinet
government in the English sense may be
unknown ministers may have become
legislative clerks, and the presidential
functions may not have been developed in
conformity with American precedent and
practice; but the characteristic idea OF
French republcanism-the allpowerful
popular chamber-has been carried out
with lucidity Of intelligence.
The single question Of paramount i'm
portance is the ability Of the chamber Of
deputies to maintain its authority over the
army which it has created and re0rganzed
The Revolutionary assembly could not do
this, and a military empire was established
The English press is now convinced that a
struggle for ascendancy is imminent be-
tween military and civil authority in
France, and the army will not allow any
ministry, or the highest legal tribunal, or
even the chamber itself, to sanction the re-
vision OF the Dreyfus trial. Its prophetic
gifts have not been conspicuous in rela-
ton TO French affairs during the last %
years. Not one Of the confidently predicted
revolutions has ever occurred, and students
Of contemporaneous history who really
know France are not seriously alarmed in
this instance. They cannot perceive either
in the Duke Of Orleans or in Prince Victor
a man Of force capable OF taking advantage
Of revolutionary crisis; nor can they find
a Boulanger, much less Napoleon, in the |
list of generals They are impressed with |
the fact that the chamber of deputies. eX-
citable as 1t may be on great occasions, |
resolutey maintains its supremacy as the |
stronghold Of civil authority; and that the |
French people have continued TO exercise |
the functions of citizenship with soberness
and intelligence.
Meanwhile France, with that cynical in |
difference to foreign opinion upon which |
Englishmen plume themselves, contrives |
10 disappoint her critics and TO work out |
her destiny in her own way without revo- |
luton OF catastrophe. Foreign censors |
may revive the old metaphors Of Gallo |
dancing on the crust of a volcano, and Mr.. |
Punch may portray her as bounded into |
the bottomless pit by the spectres of an
archy, chauvnism and militarism; but she
emerges with brave heart and with vol
atile mind from every crisis. 1t is the I'M
expected that always happens in France,
and that is peace without revolution or
chaos.