Evening star., 1899-03-04
How Our English Cousins View the
Situation in France.
new PRESIDENT has A HARD Task
Russia Spends Still More Money
on Preparations for War.
QUEEN VICTORIA'S TRAIN
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

| Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
| LONDON, February q, 1899.
The presidential election in France is, to
| all who know and admire the good quail
| ties of the French people, not q great sur
prise. The only surprise is that the cleo
ton was accomplished SO easily. Under
| the conditions now obtaining in Paris, and
considering the prolongation of the scan
dals, one might have expected some real
| opposition to arise at such time. when
a leader of state was struck down by death
| and a new one had to be elected from the
sorry list Of public men now in evidence.
| Opposition there was some, and futile at
| tempts Of few self-advertisers to stir
| up street rows and to besmirch the fame
| OF the new president are simply laughable
| and contemplate. The election may be
| taken as a guarantee of the strength of
republican principles which lie behind all
the froth and all the nonsense of French
politics, as we know them in the present
time The remarkable expedition with
| which France has provided herself with
| a successor to the presidential chair has
| had ons Invaluable result 1t has given
| none of the self-seekers who have been
/ longing to exploit their country an OPP
portunity of maturing their plans at which
! they have been more or less ayowedly la
| boring.
A Three-FoId Danger.
| The sudden death Of NJ. Felix Faure laid
| the republic open to at least three-fold
| danger. On the one side 1t has long been
| known and evident that a strong military
| segment is In favor of military dictator
| ship. and nothing but the exceeding pow
| erty of spirit and resource among the
| members of the general staff has prevented
| the attempt to establish the supremacy of
| the army. Napoleon was not asked for,
| A Boulanger would have served the turn,
but there was not even Boulanger to be
| found. There is not officer In the French
| army at this hour, nor has there been since
! Boulanger's fiasco, who has had the power
/ to set in motion the very slightest wave
| OF personal enthusiasm. But had the con-
stitutional proceedings of the legislative
| assembly been attacked with less swift
| ness and ardor 1t is quite within the linn
Its Of possibility that some kind of a mill
| tary hgurehead might have been found.
| and that the effort to affect a coup mill
| taire would have succeeded. The army
! chiefs have permitted their opportunity to
| slip by, and 1t is fortunate that they are
! not likely for the time being to recover
| it. The conditions, had they chosen to be
! rapid and daring, we've eminently in their
| favor. 1t is rule, for one thing, that
| French soldiers shall never be quartered
| in those regions to which they belong and,
as result, the troops now massed in and
| about the capital are not on terms of per-
| sonal intimacy or affection with the Pa
risian popuiace. This fact alone has been
| reckoned as being of high value by the
| more ambitious and aggressive members
OF the etat major and had they been real
| ly prepared against contingencies it would
| have been utilized beyond doubt.
| Not n Serious Menace
The Second danger lay in an attempt on
the part of the Orleanists, but, though it
is hardly worth while to dismiss it as be-
| ing entirely visionary, it was certainly
| not of a very serious character. The Due
| d Orleans is feeble creature. and 1t seems
| impossible for him to open his mouth with
| out the utterance of some foolish phrases
| about the commercial union, scheme in
| which nobody is in the slightest degree
| interested outside the limited ring of cleri-
| cal sympathizers who rtsked and lost their
| money in the effort to kill the influence of
| the great Jewish bankers.
| The third danger was more real and a
! great many people who have somewhat of
| an inside view Of the ramifications of
French politics are surprised to observe that
it has been SO easily disposed Of.
Victor Had No Chance.
Prince Victor Napoleon not only has more
| of name to conjure with than the legiti-
mate representative of the Bourbon house
but he is something more Of personality
| and had wider and more influential con-
| tingent ready to support him. But the dead
president was not coffined when his success
| sor was elected, and the interregnum be-
| tween power and power has been too brief
| to permit even of the issue of an effective
| manifesto. We hear that the time does not
| seem opportune to the advisers of the pre-
| tenders, and that 1t is proposed to wait un-
| til the Dreyfus affair has more thoroughly
| oiSguSted th5 people. But in the opinion of
| most outsiders the pretenders have lost
| their opportunity, and If NJ. Loubet's rec
| ord does not belle his future actions 1 think
! the time is past during his term of Office
| at any rate, for successful attack on the
| republic. NJ. Loubet, the newly elected
| president, is not yet very well known.
| His name is much more familiar than his
| ideas are even in his own country. He en-
! joys the undoubted distinction of having
| been already assaulted by NJ Quesnay de
| Beaurepaire, whose inexhaustible fertility
| in the way of libel has already fastened
| upon him certain charges, which, If they
! had been advanced by an honest and re-
| spectacle man would have been serious.
/ But to be assailed by NJ. de Beaurepaire is
| equivalent to being blessed of all men who
love fair play, and there is therefore some
hope that the president will display those
qualities which are so needed by him. It
is quite certain that if he were not suspect
ed of a desire to do justice in the one mat
| ter of revision M. de Beaurepaire would
| have let him alone.
Hard Role to FIJI.
| M. Louhet, who a day or two ago was
| simply a politician OF average reputation,
! now occupies such a post that the eyes of
the whole world are drawn to him. If he
l piose d StToiiS uldH, IL MS courage
| and probity should be equal to his day,
France and he alike will have reason to re-
| member with thankfulness the hour at
which he emerged from comparative OBJ
| scurity. It has been a theory too long that
| France is not in need of a strong ruler:
| that a man who will let her go her own way
| is the man who will make best for her
prosperity. But the history of the past few
years has scattered that doctrine to the
Winds Give France masterful ruier-a
man whom she can worship and obey. and
she will go far in any direction in which
| he may lead her. With a weakling at the
| head of affairs she is the victim of thou
| sand divided counsels. swaying hither and
| thither in all the greater anguish of inde-
cision because of her own intellectual acute
| ness. The world will wait with profound
| anxiety to learn whether her new chief is
| or is not fitted to play a chieftains part.
The New President.
| The Paris correspondents are telling us
| all they can learn Of M. Loubet. He Is a
| cultured, housekeeping man. with a pro-
| vincial bonhommie that hates parade and
is not without country slyness He has not
4 intrigued, and the impression he gives is