The times., 1898-10-27
THURSDAY, OCTOBER q. 1898.
The End of the French Republic.


Ever since the establishment of the
third republic in France, the most
thoughtful Englishmen have predicted
Its downfall and the success of some as
piring genius with the faculty of leader
ship in the role of dictator. Time after
time the specific prophecies of an i'm
mediate destruction have failed. but
there has never been any weakening of
English expectation. Whether these
careful observers formed their opinion
on the nature of the particular institu-
tions of France, including the great de-
pendence on the army, or whether their
knowledge of the French character was
the basis of their belief that parliament
tary government could never succeed
in that country, they did not explain.
Often it seemed that it was the hope Of
failure that inspired their predictions.
Recent events, however, by which is
meant the events of the past six or
eight years, beginning with the menace
of a Boulanger regime, have brought
other observers to the same conciu-
sion.
France has never enjoyed a parlia
mentary government in the strict sense.
There has never been time when the
ministers have not been ready to vir-
tually suspend the constitutional forms
to meet a momentary condition and to
employ the army to support movements
that could not have the approval of n
majority Of the people. There has
never been an important election i'll
which the agents of the government
have not been able and willing to defeat
the popular will. Also there has never
been a time when it was not possible
for the most obvious of vulgar dema-
gogues to muster up a following to in
timidate the better class of citizens. In
the sense in which Great Britain and
America enjoy constitutional and pop
ular government. France has never had
1t, and has never resented the lack. 1t
is so contrary to the instincts of that
people that a government which should
keep itself strictly within the proper
boundaries would be an object of con-
tempt and derision to its own people
The genius of the Latin races is not
in harmony with the only system of
government to which an Anglo Saxon
people will long submit. No race is
more prolific of sentiments favorable to
democracy or more ready to make the
rashest experiments in that direction
than the French, but they seem in
capable of sustained submission to the
conditions the principles of democracy
impose. AT this moment the danger of
or
without the name of dictator is slight
Only because the strong man is lack
ing. A man who thoroughly understands
the radical weaknesses of the peo-
pie and who knows how TO direct their
energies to his own advantage, would
have little trouble in gathering about
him the greater part of the people and
no small part of the army, If he could
get up significant cry. Even a weak
man, If a soldier, who should cry, "A
Berlin!" would not be laughed and jeer-
ed into obscurity, but might aspire to
a leadership very menacing to the gov
ernment. The same unreason that has
impelled the mobs to encourage mill
tary domination, which is fatal to re-
rUblioanism, would lead the masses of
the people to surrender any common
sense they may have and place the
fate Of France in the hands of almost
any adventurer VINO would promise i'm
possible things
If there has been any doubt about
the insecurity of parliamentary govern
ment in France, any belief in the fitness
of a Latin people for the severe obliga-
tions of self-government, surely it must
have been dissipated by the abuse of
justice in every step of the Dreyfus
case and its accompaniments. from the
trayesty Of judicial proceedings in the
trial of Zola to the persecution of in
nocent Jews. The scenes In the streets
and in the Chamber of Deputies on
Tuesday reveal the peculiar unfitness of
the French for popular institutions
quite as well as their ready consent to
the violation of personal rights in