The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-22

"overnness OF Frenee.
A peculiar interest attaches to tho
voawnss Hoso France IL Governed, b,
RAYMOND PoINcARE, Member OF the
Academy and President OF the Repub.
Nc Mcbride, Mast 4 Col II Ia to bt
assumed that It's distinguished autho,
prepared Il before he was aware of the
polltical preferment that awaited him
20 the highest place in the gift Of his
countrymen. Also Il il To be expected
that some q the propositions that he
has academically laid down therein will
return to plague him more or less in
his great ONCE. Theoretically. az he
shows. the President of the French Re.
public IL tar more immune to political
criticism than the President Of the
United States, who In fact IL and re.
mains throughout his term the chief
of q political party. upon whom the
criticism of that party il necessarily
concentrated. He Is, again theoretically
almost as immune to Il as the SOW
ereien Of England, whom. as long as he
observes the limitations Of the mon
archy and IN content to reign without
gUverning. even party rancor spares,
But the President OF the French Re-
public 10 almost necessarily a politician
With q past, though, II IL true, without
q future. His previous indiscretions
are strictly marked against him in the
minds Of very watchful and wary par
tisans. Some Of the entertainment
which the reader derives from this
present volume consists in speculation
Of how much the parliamentary oppo-
eition can mako OF propositions which
the disinterested reader must regard as
harmless, II not even platitudinous.
The disinterested reader must be
grateful that II has been put into the
heart Of the future President OF the
French Republic to make this volume
evan a. Ro,,nS broks Records that his
sstudious man of Christ Church" was
overheard to thank God that Il had
been put into the hearts Of some men
20 make dictionaries. For nowhere else
can such such Q reader md such an
account of the actual government Of
France. The French passion for clear
mesa the French insistence upon re-
rsrrins phenomena to principles and
upon making logical sequences of hap
penines which may be casual are here
strongly In evidence But In such SUBJ
3eUts the defects Of these qualities are
equally in evidence, insomuch that sucl.
q treatise as the present Is likely to
be considered a "primer" Of the SUBJ
tect, an attribution which the author
would not in the present case be apt
20 resent or disclaim. The British Con-
stitutiou has been most extensively
written about, but the attempts to sys-
teunatize It and refer It's provisions to
principles are productive OF much weari-
ness, both TO writer's and readers. It
a IN fact a bundle OF contradictions and
anomalies. But through them one
comes to discern a real evolution, as
Tennyson has II, OF the story OF a land
Where Freedom slowly broadens down
From precedent to precedent.
Hence II Ii that Great Britain, as
Taine sets forth, 10 the happiest OF
nations, politically speaking. since 1t Is
"alone, in our days, among all nations.
In the enjoyment not only of the pres
emit but Of the past" while OF his native
France he has to speak OF the "philo-
sophical barracks" which Frenchmen
have had to inhabit since 1883.
It ID q distinction for NJ. Poincare's
book that he traces French institutions
to their historical origins. That Is the
only way In which existing institutions
can be rightly apprehended. But then
In France the natural development has
been 10 often artificially hincered. there
has been In France, as Lowell puts 1t,
such . tendency ito spell evolution with
an initial r." that the historical trac-
ing Of an actual institution Ii even
moro difiicult and more unsatisfactory
than the like process In England.
Nothing In his book Is more Instructive
than the successive chapters on "The
Commute" and THE Department.
Tho commune Is the natural political
unit Of France. Rather curiously. 1t
appears that the maintenance OF the
commune, or rather Its restoration from
the condition of negligibility into which
Il had fallen, was the work OF the theo-
rists and system mongers of 1888. NJ.
Poincare shows how. In the conflict be-
tween the kings and the local seigneurs.
the towns had attained some measure
Of municipal and the villages some
measure Of parochial self-government
by methods widely differing In the in
dividual cases. The degree Of liberty
and independence enjoyed by the COM
munes differed as widely as the means
by which It had been attained. But
the local patriotism engendered by
became during the Middle Ages a for
midable force with which It behooved
aspiring politicians to reckon.