Year: 1872




Caovernmcnt-The Only Way or safety


an Appeal 20 the French People.


The critical situation of the existing French
| government grows more alarming to France
and to Europe from day to day. This irregu-
Lar, PROVISIONAL temporary and unsatisfactory
government representing condition OF
things which has passed away and exercising
authorities with which it was not invested, in
fact, only continues to be tolerated in view of
| its chief duty still unfulflled-the duty of pro-
viding the ways and means for the re-estab-
lishment, as the people may desire, of the Re-
public, the Empire or the Kingdom in regu-
lar form. But the Assembly is so constituted
and the President is so situated that they can
agree upon nothing. while President and
Assembly alike seem to dread the conse-
quences of the first step towards an appeal to
the people. Hence the situation at Versailles
unsettles business Of all kinds throughout
France, because no man can tell whether the
lifting of the curtain by the Committee of
Thirty will be followed by voluntary disso-
lu6on a revolutionary uprising or military
| coup d'Stat. h.lt
| A special HERALD despatch informs us that
the composition Of the COMMITTEES of Thirty
| nineteen from the Right and eleven from the
Left) insures report in favor of the absolute
responsibility Of the Ministry to the vote of
the majority, the exclusion of the President
from the Chamber the reduction Of the Presi-
Dental veto to a mere fiction by stringent
limitations, resolute opposition to the partial
renewal of the Assembly, and opposition to
the organization of a second Chamber that
this line of action signifies decisive defeat of
President Theirs, aud that it is considered
probable that the government (Thiers) will
adopt one Of three courses to meet the emer-
gency First, q reorganization Of the Cabinet;
second, an appeal for the dissolution of the
Assembly or third, the acceptance Of
Cabinet exclusively from the Right On
the other hand it is stated that
President Theirs is expected to resign,
| aud that, meantime, the government will,
it is believed, make statement to the
Assembly Of the course it intends to pursue.
But the French republican journals strike the
drifting ship between wind and water in the
declaration that this Assembly does not repre-
sent the will Of France, and that it's immediate
dissolution is demanded. This is true, and,
being true, can we wonder that France is un-
settled and uneasy? The Committee Of Thirty
havs met, and having selected their officers
and agreed to plan of action adjourned to
Monday next. Their ultimate report will un-
doubtedly agree with what is foreshadowed in
our special despatch. President Theirs at
latest reports expresses his hopefulness Of the
situation. The action Of the Committee GER
tainly defers any change or otherwise for some
days.


This provisional French Assembly is now
but the Long Parliament Of England over
again, and they deal with such membranes
quite as effectively in France as in England
when the public patience is exhausted. The
moral pressure from which this Assembly was
elected came from the disasters Of the Empire
and the failures of Gambetta Between these
two extremes of imperialism and radical
republicanism stood the Bourbons and their
monarchy and a sort of monarchical republic,
and hence the prevailing royalst and conserva-
tive elements in this Assembly. But it was
chosen to make peace with the Germans and





then to provide for its own dissolution on the
transfer of the government to a permanent
organization. The first duty was simple and
inevitable, for M. Theirs and his Assembly
had no alternative but TO accept the condi-
tions of Prince Bismarck, who had France as
completely under his foot with the German
investment of Paris as was Prussia under the
foot of the first Napoleon with his occupa-
tions of Berlin. But the more difficult work
Of providing for the retirement of Theirs and
his provisional Assembly, in providing for the
creation of a regular form Of government for
France has been delayed until the call for the
change has become so urgent that further
delay is impossible, while the difficulties
of change have become really appalling.
Otherwise he would at once submit to
the Assembly the convincing argument
that its troubles will continue to increase
while it continues in the exercise of powers
which it never possessed, and would appeal to
it to retire, on the ground that the only way
of safety to France lies through the dissolu-
ton of this Assembly, after providing for the
election of a new representative body fresh
from the people, ''To this complexion it
must come at last" for compromise, coup
d etat or revolutionary convulsion, there en-
be no settlement in France short of an appeal
to the people.


The MHFLIN RAILROAD DISASTER The fatal
railroad disaster on the Pennsylvania Central
road. near Mifhin, appears to have been
simply an unqualified murder. The train
that was run into, although an express, was
half an hour behind time. The train which
ran into it was half an hour ahead of time.
Thus the two trains, which ought to have
l.~e.. l.&-.... =