Year: 1872




form, we rejoice that our dispatches from
France indicate the preservation of the Repub-
lie there. By vote of three hundred and
seventy against three hundred and thirty
four the Assembly has agreed to the
adoption of the majority report of
the committee charged with reply
TO the message of President Theirs, thus
removing all fear of the immediate future.
When we consider what lay in the possibilities
that might have resulted from this majority of
thirty-six having been on the other side we
are fain to admit that there is something provi-
Dental for the land Of the Gaul in the crcum-
stance. Across the frontier-nay, on its own
soil-the German armies were ready to be
| gathered at moments notice to defend their
conquest and compel the beaten nation to pay
the last sou of the heavy war indemnity. We
are aware with the German victors
that one motive outweighs all others in
their position towards France. This is
countenancing whatever rule favors the
security of the newly acquired territory, in
Alsace and Lorraine, and which is most con-
ducive to allowing the payment of the remain
ing milliard. But beyond that it is certain
Prince Bismarck looks with a fear common to
all apostles Of absolutism in Europe on the
rise of republic in France. So far the
Republic Of M. Theirs has fulfilled
the two conditions which Germany
demands and has given no opportunity for
armed interference The defeat of the propo-
sition Of M. Dufaure would have been
followed by the resignation of M. Theirs
and frantic appeal to the barricades by the
red republicans, who would believe themselves
once more about to be placed under the
heel Of an absolutism they fear, or an old
seigneur monarchy, which they despise.
1t is not probable that the Bonapartists
would be idle and not impossible
that the army, freed for the moment from the
firm hand Of government, would place its
bayonets at their disposal. The German
Kaiser, then, from his strongholds at Metz
and Strasburg, could pour his overwhelming
forces through the passes of the Vosges and
the country Of Champagne and once more
become the arbiter of the destinies of
France. There is little chance to doubt that
such an irruption would be the end
of republicanism in Europe for many day.
Thrones must have other thrones as we'll as
bayonets to support them, and with q power
full nation like France it would not be safe to
leave gap in the line of regal governments
on that side when opportunity offered to have
it otherwise. Then, indeed, would France
suffer degradation a thousand times more
deep than that which came from her defeat in
the field of honorable war. The monarchy
or the Empire would be proclaimed according
to which party bid fairest to the German
view, and government of force detested by
the ruled would arise, to fall as its predeces-
sors have done, amid more blood, material
retrogression and national disgrace


The history Of France in the days of the
first revolution and during the Consulate and
the first Empire can never be repeated
That marvellous stretch of twenty years,
from 1892 to 1912, during which she
successfully fought all Europe combined
can never be re-enacted. The brooding
shadows Of 1914 and 1916 tell how even then
the gorgeous glory-ray was quenched in the
blood of France, and how mercifully the
sovereigns of Europe dealt with the popular
will by reinstating q monarchy whose sup
porters came back in the rear Of the in
vaders. It is repetition of this fate which
the majority to President Theirs has averted
It would be futile to measure the hopes
on which the wild socialistic republicans
would base their belief in final success The
Republic of 1892, which gave birth to Napo-
leon Bonaparte, swept Europe because it
seized the time and found the man. There
are immense armies now, whose powers and
organization have been amply tested, with the
telegraph to inform them and railroads to
transport them. A campaign in Italy
or Germany and another elsewhere
is no longer possible for any coun-
try to-day. The system of soldier
nation which the first Republic taught, and
the Empire, over-perfected, has been success
fully applied by absolutism since. It is not in
that field that France will write her name on
the roll of honor.


The triumph Of President Theirs has been
accompanied with declaration on his part
which deserves special attention. He said
yesterday, in his review of the situation,
after admitting that he was in favor of
constitutional monarchy:-"T The mon
archy is impossible. We have q repub-
lie now; let us make it conservative"
This knowledge from the history Of the aged
statesman with monarchical record, more or
less OF forty years standing, and a doubt that
he held the latter view, have been at the
bottom Of the republican discomfort with a
government having him at its head On his
record, too, the 'Orleanists, who are the
stronger of the monarchical sections, happily
divided, hung their hopes of his leading them
back to the throne and the privileges of
CASTE His utterance, given as it undoubtedly
is against the strain of his prejudices,
marks very strongly that the question Of power