The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-11
THE FRENCH SITUATION.

The equally foolish and daring conspiracy of a
hanofu OF royalist politicians in Paris to make tie
return of Maj Marchand and the order for the re
vision of the Dreyfus sentence the occasion of q no.
htical upheaVai has not up to this time been fol-
io"eo by any results which should at all alarm the
friends of republican government In France
Nor Is there any adequate reason to believe thar
there is any danger any such result being accom-
phshed The mass efstie French people, outside of
Parls and Lyons, have not shown the slightest in
tefest IN the schemes and counter-schemes of the
civil and military politicians who have brought 81,
much of turmoil the republic They are intent ON
their own affairs Thereis no European peonle mer.
eentented with their. lot who have more reason
to feel such contentment. than the French There
never mas been time in their history race when
prosperity was more general among them. Their
government is safe and. conservative France pos
sesses advantages Of soil and climate perhaps SUI
perier to those Of any country in Europe larger
proportion of her people Of the soil they
TIL than in any other country in Europe The French
peasantry Is simple. frugal and extremely indus
rrleus race They are, too. intensely patriotic and
too shrewd ito lose sight of the fact that under the
republic for years they have been happier and less
burdened by the exactons of the governing class than
ever before in the historyyof the nation.
France has had altogether toe many unhappy ex-
periInents in royalty since Che Bastile vomited forth
its contents and Louss aAe Marie Antoinette Followed
each other to the seaffod And before that time If
thereeis such thing popular tradition ia France
there are few peasant families that cannot relate fha
stories of an ancestry Fobbed beaten and fanaished
through royal exaetions; of young men torn from
their resfdes to ghte battles Of their rulers and
of wives and chdrengleft to suffer and die withour
protection. - { ~"
The French nation is not mad. It is true that
Paris has been the center Of all many tragedies OF
politics which have passed the nation In little
over century. But there has always been power
outside of Paris which has shown itself to be master
OF the metropolis when the crisis came And within
Paris there has been ready expression given to thas
power The first two presidents of the present re-
public, Theirs and Marshal Mcmahon were in their.
day infinitely unpopular than the president or
today. Their names heard with louder ana
more frequent denuncation that is that of Loubee
They stood, as he stands, against the canaie and
the cut-throat royalists of the French metropolis
Like them the present president is calm conserva-
tive man, with all their intense patriotism, even IL
without their great abilities.
The American peepe-have the profoundest In
terest in the success pf the French republic and In
the wellbeing of the French people. No mere pass
ing popular fancy such that of the Macmillan
business the with Spain in the late I'M
pleasantness has inteered with that feeling. They
have seen the Frenchs people achieve wonders In the
way of national recuperaton under the republic ana
they naturally hope and believe that the French
people have too much national good to be made
the victims Of the few cheap marplots who
busy these days setting the seeds Of national diseod