New-York tribune., 1906-05-20
THE NEW FRENCH REVOLUTION.

The more the results of the election in
France-whieh will be completed to-day-are
considered, the more evident does it become
that substantial revolution has been effected.
The once formidable Centre has disappeared,
or has become a negligible quantity, while the
civil watchwOrd enunciated by Gambetta. lie
Clericalisme, VOLTA lennemi,' which was
peated with variations by Ferry, by Waldeck-
Rousseau and by Combes. has passed from
practical politics into historical "reminiscences
by the side of Louis Napoleon's "L'empire,
c'est la paix." We must bear in mind that
the question of Church and State was so much
the paramount as TO be practically the sole
issue in the campaign. Since the days of
Waldeck-ROusseau it had Overshadowed every
other consideration in France. Under DR..
Combes 1t was further magniied, and when NJ.
Rouyier put the separation law into. effect with
force and arms and even with blOodshed, the
crisis seemed to have come. We were told that
popular revolution would have swept the gov
ernment out of existence but for the fact that
an election was close at hand at which the
same end could be more peacefully and no less
effectually reached. So the Church counselled
patience and an appeal to the people, conf
IDENTIFY expecting the result of the election
would repudiate and reverse all that bad been
done by the secularists.
Upon that issue the campaign was fought
and practical plebiscite was taken. The vote
poled was the largest and fullest in the his
tory of the republic, the ballots being more nu-
merOus by 100000 than three years before The
result was that the anti-Clerical policy Of the
government was sustained and approved by a
more than two-thrds majority Of the Cham
her, and by a five-sevenths majority Of the
electorate. The government strength in the
new Chamber will be more than 400. the oppo-
vr,nfIo 0f Of
France five have recorded themselves against
Clericalism to two in favor Of the COncOrdat.
more emphatic verdict than that could not
reasonably be desired. We must expect that
the Church will recognize its force, will ac-
quiesce in It, and will without further demur
adapt itself to the new conditions thus de-
cisively and-we may assume-permanently
established. Nor will it surprise us if pres
emily it shall he found that the policy of a
free Church in a free State" so dear to ca
mile Benso proves as profitable to the Church
IN France as it has in America, and that as
some have confidently been saying, the death
Of CIericalism means the renewed life of re-
ligion.
Henceforth French parties will be separated
by other issues than Clericalism, or than "Na-
tionalism," which has also vanished from the
scene. The tendency is Enthusiastically toward
broad division into two parties, or two
| groups OF parties, the Radical and the Reac-
tionary-or the Liberal and the Conservative.
Il the more moderate names be preferred :
though, in fact, moderation seems now to be
approaching the vanishing point OF the nearly
oOOoOOO voters. more than One-tblrd inscribed
themselves as Radicals or Socialist Radicals.
Al the other extreme the reactionary factions
gained 100000 votes over the preceding elec-
ton. AS for the Moderate Republicans. thev
Iost nearly SUoOOo The four radical parties,
TO wit Republicans Of the Left, Radicals. Radi-
cal-Socialists and Socialists, all made marked
gains and among them polled considerably