TOPICS OF THE D.Y.
THE SERIOUS SIDE OF THE FRENCH FJiTES.
WE cannot help thinking that Punch, often as sharp- sighted as most humorists are, is this week gravely in error, and that the reception of the Russian Admiral in Paris is anything but a " farce." It is not the histrionic display which impresses us, though that was wonderfully managed, but the unanimity of the people. The Parisians have been taught from childhood to hate Russia. Their idea of the Czar is of a being who is the incarnation of cruelty and despotism, who, with the knout in his hand and a pile of sentences to Siberia on his table, sits moodily planning outrages on liberty and schemes for the conquest of the world. It was doubted in 1869 whether the Czar Alexander II. would be safe in the streets; and his reception, though carefully arranged by the Court, was, among the people, far from cordial. It is, moreover, a tradition of Parisians dating centuries back, that Poland ought to be loved, and that the one oppressor of Poland, Germany and Austria being alike forgotten, is the Russian Czar. There must be scores of thousands in Paris, including a majority of her Municipal Council, with whom hatred. of Russia is almost a religion, and who at any other time in their lives would have welcomed any grand disaster to the great Eastern Empire as a relief to themselves and to mankind. Yet there is no jarring note in this enthusiastic reception ; no appearance, in public at least, of any section of the Parisian people who retain the old ideas. The Government is restrained and cautious, the Army has apparently received a hint to abstain from demonstrations, but the people are unanimous, a few Socialists excepted, in their welcome of the Russian Admiral and his men. Count d'Haussonville, representative of the Bourbons, presents himself, for the first time in his life, at the President's reception, to indicate that the event is so joyous as to extinguish politics. Respectable ladies kiss the Russian sailors in the streets—they are most of them Finns, and must be as surprised as delighted—and the masses cover remote quarters with flags, and swarm round the officers till the latter are beside themselves with emotion and the pressure, and strive, with their Slav adaptability, to outdo even their hosts in their expressions of loving feeling. Imagine a Russian officer with the tricolour folded over his heart ! Frenchmen, usually so reluctant to part with money, give presents by the thousand ; champagne flows like water down the throats of men who never heard of its existence, and, in fact, Paris, the quickest-witted if not the most intellectual city in the world, is delirious with satisfaction. It has not stripped itself half-naked, as Toulon appears to have done, having something of the sensible North in its composition, but it has gone crazy in other ways.
It is not wise to say or to believe that all this is senti- mental. No doubt the French, like all races into which the Celtic element enters largely, have a passionate desire for sympathy, feel an isolated position to be a position of inferiority, and will pardon even an enemy if he will but profess admiration and affection for their nation. They cannot, if their fortunes are clouded, bear to stand in patience and wait till the sun shines ; nor do they ever feel, as Germans and Englishmen feel, that the only satisfactory work is the work which is done alone. They hunger for praise like poets, and for sympathy like women. But there is another side to the French mind, which is never to be forgotten,—a mathematical side given to calculation, keen in business, apt to be even unpleasantly clear-sighted in its recognition of the actualities of life. The true Frenchman adores, quite genuinely as far as emotion is concerned, and then asks about the dot, as if lie were only calculating for the family benefit. The Parisians to be so moved must see advan- tage somewhere in all this display ; and it is clear they can only see it in the future. In the past they have nothing to be thankful for. In 1870, Russia deserted them, like the rest of mankind, and deserted them when a single remonstrance from the Czar would probably have saved Paris, and certainly have saved the cession of the two Provinces. No doubt the Czar is believed to have intervened in 1876 ; but it is very doubtful now if he did not do this under advice from Prince Bismarck, who thought the German military party had beoome in their prosperity reckless and ill-advised. France had no aid from Russia in Egypt, nor has the Russian Foreign Office. encouraged her Colonial dream, which indeed is no dream of her masses. It must be the future which France regards as she precipitates herself upon the Czar's broad bosom .
and the only future in which he can aid her is one of war. He is the potential enemy of Germany ; and there- fore, despot or philanthropist, or neither, the loved of France. He sympathises with her, and be has wealth,— wealth in men, horses, and cannon to place at her disposal, and France rushes to his arms.
We fear the hard side of the Frenchman, the side which has made him the best mathematician and the most savage realist in Europe, is enlisted in this affair, as• well as the sentimental side, and that is a serious re- flection for the world. Nobody doubts that it is fear of consequences which is now arresting war ; and if fear of the consequences is lifted off from the heart of Paris, still more if it is lifted off from the heart of France, an important guarantee for peace has disappeared. We all, even in the most Chauvinist moments, desire that war shall be a concern with limited liability, and with Russia by her side, Italy hampered by financial difficulty, and England under Mr. Gladstone, Frenchmen may believe that liabilities even in the Great War will not be unlimited. A security is therefore taken away, and one which operated strongly even in moments• of acute emotion. It is true the Czar may not feel on his side equally assured. It is not the tendency of Kings to believe much in outbursts of popular feeling ; and Alex- ander III. may well hold that nothing has been changed, that France will not fight the better or worse for her kisses to Russian sailors, and that of the reasons which impel him to be peaceful, not one has been removed. For all the flags and fireworks in Paris, he will still have to win his own battle pretty much alone,—to take the ultimate command himself, and to bear, if fortune deserts him, all the consequences of defeat. Still, it is not in human nature to believe nothing of complimentary speeches from the great—and France is great—or to refuse to calculate, when an equal promises cordial assistance, what a differ- ence it would make. The Czar is absolute ; but he has his own war party to contend with, and his power of resist- ance, though probably still sufficient, is materially lessened by the general Russian conviction that France is thirsting to utilise the new alliance. Monarchs distrust Republics, and Alexander III. distrusts the French Chamber ; but when a Republic throws itself laughing, sobbing, and embracing at the Monarch's knees, distrust may be suspended for a moment,—and it only takes moments nowadays to set an army in motion. Besides, there is Germany to be thought of. The Emperor there gazes on the splendid scene in Paris with a very thought.. ful brow ; he reflects on the past history of his country, and when he rises to make a speech, as he did on Wednes- day at Bremen, every sentence recalls some war with France in which Germany was triumphant. The German Em- peror will declare no war if he can help it, but his view of the chance of war being declared on him must be materially affected. He knows perfectly well that the real cause of this effusive friendship between two utterly dissimilar Powers is a common hatred of Germany; and his business in this world is to see that hatreds borne to Germany do her no serious hurt.
We do not know that England is specially threatened by the display. Russia no doubt, by threatening India, could make a French war with England additionally dangerous ; but even if France fought one and won it, she would be no nearer to the revindication of her provinces. She would be weaker for war with Germany, and her Army would probably have acquired little additional glory. The peasantry do not want to fight England, nor does the Army ; and those two forces have always to be considered by the rulers of France. If Germany were out of the way, indeed, then a descent on Egypt, with Russia as backer, might exactly suit both the spite and the vanity of the directing classes, and we might almost without warning be engaged in a great war ; but Germany is not out of the way, and to fight a long war with England with Germany looking on is not, we think, a course of policy which will commend itself either to French or Russian statesmen. Still, the stronger we are, the better for peace ; and we heartily trust that neither the War Office nor the •Admiralty will take Sir John Tenniel's mistaken view of the reception of Admiral Avellan in Paris, the heart of France. When France goes wild with enthusiasm, something is very apt to happen.
Previous page
