TOPICS OF THE DAY.
M. CARNOT.
AS we expected, the dark horse has won. IL Gravy, after a bitter struggle with himself and his lingering hopes, resigned on Friday week, in a Message to the Assembly in which the querulousness of an old and probably a vain man struggled almost pathetically with an habitually dignified self-restraint. He could not help saying that the public mind was just turning towards him when he received his summons from the Houses to depart, or from hinting that blows at himself were blows at the Republic ; but for the rest, he wrapped himself in his vesture of good intentions, and submitted with fortitude to his fate. The Houses at once ordered the Congress to meet on the following day ; and on Saturday, at 2 p.m., after many private meetings, and probably many intrigues and much sleeplessness, the first ballot was taken. The roll-call occupied two hours; but when the counting concluded, it was evident to the entire Repub- lican Party of all shades that, if the election was to conclude at once, their favourite candidates must be thrown overboard. The Right, remembering the proscription of the religious orders, had declined finally to vote for M. Ferry, and he received, therefore, only 212 votes, less than half the number required for a majority. It was known that the Right would not go back, and it was hopeless to think of seducing the Radicals, to whom K Ferry is at once a terror and a scorn,—terror as a tyrant, and scorn as the man defeated in Tonqnin. M. Ferry, therefore, was out of the competition ; and M. de Freycinet, though far less hated by the Radicals, was not trusted by them, and lowered himself by his undignified and importunate canvas of individual representatives. He sought the Presi- dency as if it had been a post at the disposal of a body of patrons. The whole Republican Party, therefore, looked round for a fresh candidate, with a sense that it was indispensable to find one quickly. It was known that Belleville was begin- ning to stir, that the old Army of the Commune was raising its head, that if one more night was granted, there might be a descent into the streets, a sanguinary straggle on the Boulevards, and a soldier left, amidst a panic-struck France, master of the situation. The need was urgent, and, fortunately, among the crowd of second-rate politicians there was one candidate whom Republicans of all shades could accept without loss of honours. Among all the traditions of France, the most living is that of the Great Revolution ; and in the Revolutionary legend, Carnet, the austere regicide who directed the armies of the Convention, is known as the "organiser of victory." His son Hippolyte, now a very old man with a high character, though he did defend Barrere, sits as a life-member in the Senate ; and his son, again, Sadi Carnet, engineer and politician, was a Deputy of more than fair repute. The Republicans knew him to be sincerely devoted to their cause, the Extremists hoped that a grandson of Carnot could not be a Moderate at heart, and the great financiers, who wield a powerful though moult influence in the Chamber, had noticed that, when Minister of Finance for a few months, he was honest to austerity. It is probable, too, that the feeling that, should the great struggle with the foreigner ever come, a Carnet at the head of affairs would be an encouragement to every French soldier and a restraining influence on every French General, exercised a deep though unacknowledged influence ; while, as it happened, no party bore against him any personal grudge. He was known to be a member of the " advanced " Left, yet he had protected the Concordat by his vote ; and though a personal intimate of M. Clemenceau, M. de Freycinet was not unwilling to serve under him. The Republican parties, therefore, agreed to con- centrate their votes on the man who divided them least, and who even in the first ballot, had received 303 votes ; and though the Right still adhered, with unexplained tenacity, to their candidate, General Saussier—who, being a con- vinced Republican, is ruined by their adhesion—M. Carnot was elected by two-thirds of the combined Houses. With the occasional rapidity in getting through forme which helps to make French history so scenic, he was at once proclaimed President of the Republic, and set out—with thoughts in his heart, one would fancy—under an escort of cavalry, to take possession of the Elysee, and commence difficult negotiations for the construction of the thirteenth Ministry since 1879. Paris, Belleville included, received the election with an approval which was reverberated back from the provinces, and M. Carnot, who drops his prefix of " Sadi
inherited from an uncle named during the Terror, is as firmly seated as ever M. Gravy was. The Presidency has ceased, it is true, to be a permanent office, and is now held during pleasure ; but then, since 1792, so has been every form of the executive headship in France, the Crown included, and Frenchmen either perceive no change, or rejoice that the vote of the Chambers has superseded the barricade as an instrument of revolution.
A great many Englishmen, deceived by M. Grevy's self- effacement, believe that a change in the occupancy of the French Chair can exercise little effect on the policy or the destinies of France. They are, we think, in error. The direct powers of the President of the French Republic are, if wielded by a strong man, very considerable. He chooses all Ministers, and his choice is much less limited than in England, for the Minister sits in the Chambers in. virtue of his appointment. He could dismiss any Minister whom his colleagues did not earnestly protect, or whom the Chambers had begun to distrust. He has no power of dissolu- tion, but a public appeal to the Senate to dissolve might be, and probably would be, backed by an emotion among the people. He has no legal veto, but a threat to resign would. arrest the passing of almost any law. He materially influences all Cabinets, for they sit in his presence and must hear his advice, and his constitutional responsibility for all patronage gives him, in all appointments of consequence, an insur- mountable veto. Above all, he has a permanent right, through his Messages, of appealing to the people, and the people are greatly moved by the advice of the Head of the State, whose words penetrate at once into every family. If he, for example, declares the expenditure ex- cessive, woe to the Deputy who suggests new waste. A strong man as President in France may do much, and though opposed to personal government, which, even when successful, necessarily prevents the rise of able statesmen, we hope that M. Carnot may prove a strong as well as a moderate man. For, we take it, the main use of a President of the Republic- as distinguished from a President of Council, is not that he can "represent France," or even select the Ministers—for a Speaker elected every Session could do either—bat that he can compel Ministers otherwise absolute in the support of their majority, to reflect upon their course, to hear another side, to make their own action clear to their own minds. So centralised is government in France, so complete is now the control of the Chamber, so strong is the tendency of Ministers to follow and not lead, that the President is the only authority left able to compel deliberation, and to utter clearly the arguments, often the strongest, which cannot be used in public. The necessity for obtaining his signature secures him at least that power, and. the higher his intellectual character, the greater is its utility to the State. Whether M. Carnet possesses the necessary qualities, remains, of course, to be seen; but as yet the little known of his inner self is nearly all favourable. He has had the best training France can just now give, that of the Poly- technic. He is a man accounted "pious" in France, because he upholds strongly the idea of a God who governs directly though he may not have revealed himself. He is free from suspicion in pecuniary matters to the English degree, and those who know France best just now will most value that qualification. And he is a man suspected by friends and enemies alike of a determined will,—a will which can, on occasion, withstand any pressure whatever, and go on in- different to results. Those qualities or attributes, if guided by adequate intelligence' make up a strong man ; and we shall be surprised if M. Carnet leaves no mark in the history of France. Of his political plans, however, little is known ; and on the great subject of all, his view of the relation Prance ought to bear to Germany, there is a total and somewhat inexplicable silence. All that is certain is that he is patriot to the bone, and that he voted against the Armistice in 1870, when Thiess believed it to be indispensable to the existence of France. With his unyielding character, that is a significant incident in his history ; but since then If. Carnot has sat in Cabinets, has studied men, and has acquired the experience which comes of living through seventeen years of peace.
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