Arizona republican., 1905-01-19
PHOENIX. AR1z.. JANUARY 1s. 1905.
The Fall of the combes Government.

political "criSiS." When the entire min- istry resigns. as happened yesterday when Premier Combes& and all the other cabinet ministers handed in their resignations to the president. it IS call cd a "crisis," but the word no longer carries it's original meaning. During the first years of the republic. follow ing the downfall of Napoleon Iu--and, indeed. until ten or fifteen years agn- the defeat of the government in the chamber of deputies and the ensuing resignation of the cabinet brought dread to the friends of the republic. There was always reason to fear that one of the monarchial groups might succeed in getting the Paris mob at it's back and putting an end to the eX- pertinent of popular government.
 But the French republic seems at last to be established on a firm founda- tion. Nor, since the Boulanger flasco. is there any "Inan on horseback" in sight From each defeat of the gov ernment the republic itself emerges stronger than ever. and when an ad- verse majority is formed for the time being in the chamber of deputies it is through a coalition of the most in harmonious clements. such as Bour- bons and Bonapartists, clericals and socialists.
 Americans sometimes find it difficult to understand why the downfall of the government should so frequently occur in France. It is due to the French parliamentary system. The cabinet ministers also sit as members Of con gress (the chamber of deputies) and when a bill backed by the admins tration is defeated the cabinet resigns, and the president forthwith designates some statesman to head new cabi- net. The man called upon for this duty selects his associates, a new cab met is sworn in. and the government goes ahead It is seldom, however that effort is made to carry out the policy which has just been rejected by the chamber. This system is supposed to be ideally responsive to the popu- lar will-absolutely a government by the people, through their representa-
 
 is somewhat analogous to the British system which requires the cabinet to resign and appeal to the country" when defeated in the house of con- mons. There being generally but two great parties in the English parliament eff we except the Irish party) Brit ish cabinet may reasonably hope to serve the full seven years prescribed for the life of a parliament. If each defeat of the ministry in France called for an appeal to the voters of the coun- try, general elections would sometimes follow within a month of each other. Parties are so numerous in the French parliament that the administration may at any time find itself in the minority through combination of us- ually dIscordant groups.
 A "crisis" in France does not occur so often as formerly. however. Tke party of conservative republicans is growing stronger ali the while, and the Combes ministry which resigned yesterday had been in power three yc1rs. Although not actually defeated, M Combes decided to resign because of the narrow margin by which the government had been escaping defeat for several days, notably in a lineup of forces Monday night.
 M Combes relinquishes power after winning some of the greatest parlia- Inentary battles in the history of France, and after putting into force the most radical policies with which the third republic has been identified. For more than two years he has car ried on a titanic struggle with the Catholic church. He drove the monas- tic orders out of the country, and abol- ished Catholic schools. Several timea the country seemed to be on the verge of civil war. But revolutionary as was this programme, it was merely the pre- Jude to his main scheme-the dissolu- ton of the Concordat-the famous compact between Napoleon the Great and the vatican, whereby the bishops appointed by the pope, were supported by the state. Combes remained in power long enough to carry this vast programme to substantial completion. Church and state in France have been divorced.
 Whatever view ones creed may lead him to take concerning the justice and wisdom of the Combes policy, it must he conceded that he is one of the strongest men modern France has pro- duced. Little had been heard of him ,,DtiI pracfdaDt T a.,hO+ calIa1 ,,noy,