Year: 1877

The Crisis in France.


1t is not perceptible how the French re-
public is to come safely through the present
far-reaching crisis unless President Mac
Mahon suddenly and absolutely abandons
the dangerous position he has taken; and it
will be readily comprehended that 1t is so
unlikely for man Of his nature to make
judicious retreat that Il solution in that
way may be excluded from consideration.
But in the absence OF such solution, and
supposing that MacMahon fully under
stands and intends the significance OF his
words and acts, parliamentary government
is at an end in France; and it is point
rather OF curiosity than OF Importance what
steps shall intervene and how many excl
ting days they will ill ere this is made
as plain rs it is real. For N1acSlahon
declares that he intends to rule, not simply
in indifference to the will OF the people, as
represented in the Assembly, but in defiance
OF that will; that he intends to act IN the
formation of his Ministry and the conduct
of the Government, not with regard to par
liamentary principles, but from his personal
predictions; that he intends to ignore the
majority and ignore the republican constl-
tuition, in virtue OF which the majority must
rule, and rule with men taken from the
minority. and that he will do all this from
sense OF his own "responslblllty TO
France" He puts his responsibility to
France in the scale against the constitution
made by the same power that made
him President, and against the will Of
the people, rs represented in the Assembly,
and in his scale is the army-the inevitable
"sword OF BrennuS." II the chamber re-
pudiates the dictation OF his Ministry he
will dissolve the Chamber. Another will
be chosen. and that will be more resoutely
republican than the present. He will not
be able to maintain the forms OF free gov
ernment with that and will dissolve 1t in its
turn. ILsurrections will follow, and, i'll
the name Of order, he will seize the supreme
power These are but so many stages OF
inevitable advance following the step he has
actually taken-the ultimate ones only to be
avoided By compromise, and in France COM
promise is stigmatized with 4 disgraceful
name and regarded as political crime.


Although the situation is suddenly made
with regard to a law against the freedom OF
the press, that occasion is, in fact, only a
final drop that has caused the cup to run
over. Ultramontane agitation is the real
source of the trouble. An ultramontane
opaganda-eXtensiye, determined, and
desperate-supplies vital spirit to the forces
now arrayed against the republican constl-
tuition and the republican party. In his
speech OF May 4th NJ. Gambetta correctly
designated the enemy in the present conflict
as clericalism. In this conflict, therefore,
the endeayor to found and consolidate the
republic in France is to be opposed by a
foe more dangerous than any the republl-
cans have yet encountered. Other enemies
have supplied comparatively cheap victories.





routed than the fragmentary imperial party
was in the Assembly, for its only political
capital was an inexhaustible fund Of impu-
dence. AS for the monarchlcal battles
against the republic. the different "mon-
archies'' simply whipped one another:
None of these forces had any well-concerted
or systematic aid from the Church party,
for none Of them had the confidence OF
that party; and the party hardly knew
its own relation to the new issues.
It was organizing. 1t was acting in
stinctively on the soundest principles
of primary politics; for the only way to
meet the growth Of the republican idea was
TO oppose it, without seeming or pretend.
ing to oppose it, by getting at the people
directly and insidiously instilling ideas with
which it could not coeXist. For this pur'
pose the pulpit became stump; the favor
ite machinery was those elaborately organ.
lied pilgrimages which from distance had
somewhat ridiculous aspect, but Whlch
touched patriotic aspiration and appealed
by emotional methods to what faith the ma
tion still possessed. These pllgrimages be-
gan in 1871. In recent French politics they
are of the same significance as those march
ings and singings and torchlight turnouts
by which politicians here have at different
times organized the people into Mlde'
Awake clubs or Boys in Blue or Los-Capln
and Hard Cider Men. They were rather an
effort in that direction than the realization
Of the effort, for they did not overcome the
republic at the polls, but they undoubtedly
had great influence in making head against
It. Clerical enthusiasts thus became thor.
oush "workers &" in the political field, and
with such success that now, after six years
of persistent propagation OF their Ideas,
they feel confidence enough in their
strength to push the battle into the Cablnet
and demand the control OF the domestic and
foreign policy OF the nation.


Against this party or any other the re-
nnblic would be sure OF victory il the bat
tle were to be fought on the ground OF the
Constitution or in recognition OF parlla-
mentary principles; but as it is initiated
with a coarse, peremptory, insulting, and
brutal defiance Of those principles, 1t Is
scarcely possible to feel sanguine as to the
result. The Chamber has declared by a
great majority that it will only have con-
fidence in Ministry resolved to govern
{. in accordance with republican princi-
ples.v and the President has declared that
he will have ministry more or less dis.
tinctly opposed to those principles, and thus
the issue is plainly made. The new Minis
trv is reactionary, and will be defeated on
every measure Of consequence that comes
before the Chamber. tits not probable that
the Republican majority will foolishly play
into the Presidents hands by making q
merely factious opposition. Its course is
guided by men too wise for that. 1t has
shown in difficult occasions GOODNESS, pa
tience, and good temper that could never
have been expected in q French Parliament.
It did 50 notably when Simon was put into
the Ministry, for he was not satisfactory to
the party out Of pretended Difference to
whose wishes he was chosen. That vote
designated Gambetta, but the influences
behind MacMahon would never accept him,
and hit upon the device OF seeming to &C
eept the vote by choosing man widely
knownas Republican and yet cheating the
Republicans by taking one In whom they
had no faith. That pitiful maneuyre has
come to an end with the unceremonious ex-