The Bee-Hive. — 1873-11-08 (London, England)

THE COMTE DE CHAMBORD AND THE  REPUBLIC.  Comte Chambord's letter tä 31. Chesnelonk brings the idea of Divine right as a basis of government face to face with popular right. It is impossible not to admire the honesty and candour of the Comte. In those virtues he seta an example to his friends at Versailles, and. if they copy him, even in an imperfect way, they will have to. alter very materially the character and scope of their policy. If the doctrine of Divine right be a truth necessary of acceptance by men, and if, in its operation, it is to prove itself by its fruits, then it is the merest-lolly to drain off its spirit and strength at the very coro.mencern ent by unworthy suicidal compromises. • The Comte de Chambord is consistent. If he is to be King of France by Divine right, those who ask that he shall be so, in the name of that principle, if they meet him with stipulations and conditions which he must agree to, insult hire, and contradict themselves. Let us now see what this involves, for it is not with the honesty or consistency of the Comte we are concerned, so much afi with the character of the claims he sets up: It is with these, and these only, that the democracy of the world are concerned, because on their utter rejection Liberal men depond for that progress in society, promised by the development of science, art, thought, and all else connected with the welfare of 'men in this world.  It is not easy to unriddle the rather obscure sentences of the Bourbon pretender. There is a kind of mysterious dimness in them, suitable to their reedit:oval character; but in plain words they express., almost literally the programme laid down in England in the olden times. "My mouth," said Jack Cade,." 61141 be the parliament of England." Just as Comte Chambord now deolarea that his will shall rule in• France without the restriction of enforced guarantees, and that Right and Left, and Right and Left Centres shall be reduced to a common level by a dutiful su.bruission to his will. We think there can be little doubt after this declaration- that Henry the Fifth's chances-of filling the Frenoh throne have come to an end. We cannot believe it possible that any party in France is mad enough to suppose that the pretensions set up could be aceepted anywhere in this world out of Africa. If the King of AShantee be uriven out of his dominions, the Comte might become Henry the First there without shooking very violently the suoeptibilities of the people; but in France  the thing is clearly not to be thought of. Throughout Europe, even in its darkest corners, it would be difficult to imagine. such a thing, otherwise than as a subject for very sincere and very hearty, laaghter, We do not blame the Comte de Chambord for asking for or demanding the full prerogatives of the kingly office to which he has been invited, any .more than we should Name a chili for crying for the moon. He has been taught thus from childhood. To despise and detest popular privileges is to* him as much a matt& of course as it is for a Jew to hate pork, or a Brahmin to turn away in disgust from beef. He is king by divine right, and popular privileges cripple and weaken at all points the God-given powers of which he is the natural depository. The whole question as between this man and the nation may be stated in a few-words but its meaning, as far as the French people are, concerned, is infinite. It means what Church shall be established, and what amount of freedom those who dissent from its tenets or Government shall enjoy. It means that the power of parents over the education of their children shall be limited by this man's will, and that the priest, if he should so desire it, shall put abide the hand of the father as unfit to guide his own offspring. It means how much liberty the Press shall possess to comment on the affairs of the State in the interest of the citizens. It means the right to trammel free thought and to paralytic independent action. It means the right of association suppressed, as the natural corollary of tyranny and fear in the sovereign and his advisers. And flowing from this as naturally as muddy water from a' disturbed source, it means political discontent and industrial stagnation. In fact, it means the reversal of everything in the shape of progress considered most natural in the life of the nineteenth century. Luckily, however, the game so far as Divine right is concerned, is at an end, and what we are now interested in, is to discover the new channel into which the energetic scheming of the monarchical party in France may divert its activity. No doubt every possible move will be tried. Orleans, Bonapartist, and it may be a prolonged presidency. The political cards will be dexterously shuffled under the table, but if the right card is not in the pack, it cannot be turned up. The Republic, above all things, the , monarchical schemers declare to be impossible ; but an election cannot be indefinitely deferred, and If the nation should declare it possible, it will have to be tried. Some kind of settled government France must find, if she would not drop into hopeless anarchy; and if a Republic should be chosen on the, mere ground that kings, of whatever breed, cannot be set up again, it will' start with one of the best guarantees of permanence, namely, the conviction in the public mind of that, or nothing. To use a homely phrase, it is truly "Hobson's choice." Bonapartists and Orleanists neutralize each other. The Bourbon has committed felo de se. There is nothing left to Frenchmen, therefore, hut to govern themselves. The task is no doubt a hard one, but they must pull through. They must do what poor Comte- de Chambord declared it to be his duty to perform, namely, "reconstruct society—now deeply disturbed upon its natural basis—energetically 'restore the reign of law and order, restore prosperity at home, conclude lasting alliances abroad, and not fear to employ force in the service of order and justice." This programme is as good as it need be, so far as general terms are concerned, What the Republicans have to do, however, is to build on a different basis from that the Comte would have chosen, and in the 'employment of force for the maintenance 'of 'Order, to see that neither title 'nor position shelters any offender against the peace and security of the State.