Year: 1872

French Republic.


If we may credit the telegraphic dispatches,
NJ Theirs is about to return to his first love
and appear as the confessed supporter of the
Republic. Since the 4th of December, when
the republicans seized the reins of power from
the paralyzed imperialists. the government
of France has been provisoire. It has been
essentially government of compromise in
which nothing was certain. The temper of the
army, the fears Of the people, conjured mp
by the spectre of the Commune, initiated
against the hearty acceptance of the Republic
by the French nation. But the experiment
that France has made Of governing herself
under the guidance Of Theirs has been
attended with SO much success that the veteran
statesman is of opinion that the provisional
condition of the Republic may safely be brought
to an end Under the popular government
crime has been punished with rigor
almost unknown under the Empire, and the
people have been made to understand that
order and liberty can be maintained without
the interposition of Caesar. This has been
the severest blow administered to the mon
archists. So long as the bourgeois and peas
ants could be persuaded that the Republic was
synonymous with rapine and disorder they
could be relied upon to support Bourbon or
Napoleon indifferently, if only he would
secure to them their beloved order. Now that
by practical experience they know that equal
security can be obtained under government
xyh iot, 10 a 10 cf,>
sonal liberty than they have hitherto enjoyed,
the enthusiasm Of these classes for royalty has
been sensibly diminished. On the other hand,
the republicans, for the first time in many
years, are at liberty to advocate their
opinions, and the elections held from time
to time show clearly that they are gaining
rapidly in popular favor. While all
other parties in the State are losing in
fuence with the people, the position of the
republicans becomes stronger day by day.
The monarchists find that the tables are
turned on them and that the immense con-
servative neutral party in France, that always
supports the existing government, has trans
ferred its allegiance to the Republic. 1t is
now the monarchists who are the intriguers,
conspirators and disturbers of that sacred
''order" about which they were wont to talk
so glibly. The Republic is the emblem of
peace, and those who wish to overthrow it are
the party that invoke civil war; In presence
of the sacredness which the imperialists in
voked for accomplished facts they find it diff
cult to attempt the overthrow Of the Republic.
The royalist chambers have completely lost in
fluence with country they have long ceased
to represent They are rather the semblance
Of representative assembly than q
reality and NJ. Theirs thinks the moment
opportune to declare the permanence
of the Republic. In this the old statesman
displays his accustomed shrewdness. Any
attempt to change the government of France
would end in civil war; while all parties are
likely to acquiesce in the continuance Of
the Republic. The army, which was
the chief danger, has been reconciled to
the change, and will now shoot down
imperialists or royalists with the same good
will it displayed in its support of the Empire.
We in America will wish the experiment sue
cess, because we believe that in the adoption
of truly liberal and representative govern
ment the French nation will find the srrest
safeguards against those political paroxysms
which have earned for France an unenviable
notoriety.