TOPICS OF THE DAY
THE CRISIS IN PARIS. THE crisis in Paris is a little less acute, but the situation is not improved. The majority of the Cabinet, afraid of the Radicals, afraid of the Princes, afraid, as they avowed during the debates, of the Ambassadors who remonstrated on their behalf—King Humbert, for example, is exasperated at the insult to his sister—resolved to adopt a Bill proposed by a little known Deputy, M. Fabre. This proposal, though called a compromise, is nearly as unjust as M. Floquet's, is politically more dangerous, because it alarms the Army, and is logically much more absurd. M. Floquet declares the Princes danger- ous by right of birth, and expels them ; and his Bill, though cruelly unjust to men who were amnestied for their crime of birth by formal statute, is intelligible and final. M. Fabre's Bill, on the contrary, does not expel the Princes, but enables the Government by Order in Council to expel any or all of them, deprives them of all rights of voting or being voted for at any election, and disqualifies them for the Army in any capacity, even that of private soldiers. Prince Victor. Bonaparte, for example, who is serving his legal year as a Volunteer, must go home to Paris. The practical effect of the measure is to place the Princes in a category apart, which may be called a disgraced or a privileged category, at pleasure ; to make them liable to expulsion for no reason except the caprice of a Minister or a hasty vote of the Chamber, to strip them of rights' inherent in their military commis- sions, which the Army regards as properties, and to restrict in a very gross way that right of universal suffrage upon which the Republic rests. The electors are forbidden to vote for candidates they prefer, although those candidates are still, for all but voting purposes, citizens. The Princes are, in fact, placed by law in the position of women, with the aggravation that they may be exiled at any moment, without proof of misconduct. And yet, under the Bill, as if to add a crowning touch of absurdity to the injustice committed, any one of the Princes may still be legally elected President of the Republic. That is not an "election" in the statutory sense, as the defenders of the Bill admit ; but an appointment by the Assembly, in the exercise of its sovereign right, is in fact a law, and cancels any proscription. No Bill at once so foolish and so unjust was ever proposed in the Convention, where men had at least the courage of their opinions, and its acceptance by the majority of Ministers in a Cabinet supposed to be moderate is absolutely inexplicable.
Accepted it was, however, and the moment the resolve had been taken, the Ministers of War and Marine, General Billot and Admiral Jaureguiberry, threw up their posts, and the Premier, M. Duclerc, who was lying at home too ill with pleurisy to be seen, sent in his resignation. The President had, therefore, to reconstruct his Cabinet, with only a few hours to do it in, and, after a vain attempt to persuade M. Jules Ferry to take office, M. Ferry positively refusing to defend the measure, he offered the Premiership to M. Fallieres, a pleasant man, just then Minister of the Interior, with no force, no popularity, and, as it turned out no health. M. Fallieres could find no Minister either for War or Marine, the anxiety of a position to which he was inadequate killed sleep; and on Tuesday, after completing half a speech, in which his main arguments were that the Princes conspired by their silence, and that in visiting Frohsdorf the Comte de Paris had "rebuilt the House of France," with all its pretensions, he was compelled to plead fatigue, and, retiring to the lobbies, fainted away. The Chamber adjourned to Thurs- day, when the Ministry presented themselves again, still without the Premier, the remainder of whose speech was read by an Under-Secretary, but with Ministers of War and Marine, whose appointment marked in the most painful way the hostility of the Army and Navy. No Admiral at all could be found to vote for the degradation of the sailor Prince de Joinville, and M. de Mahy, a civilian, was gazetted Minister ad interim; while, after applications to General Champenon, whom Gambetta favoured, and to another General, not named, the Bureau of War was actually entrusted to General Thibaudin, an able officer and firm Republican, but accused of break- ing his parole. General Thibaudin may be a slandered- man, and his own aecount, that he was not asked for his parole, because the German doctors pronounced him physically " unfit for further service," may be exactly true ; but he un- doubtedly accepted a command under a false name, he is believed by Germans to be Filly, and he would not have been selected had the Government been able to find a competent adminstrator with a history provoking less discussion. The Ministry, however, was technically complete, and after scenes which recall the Convention, after the adoption of the Cloture and a resolve to sit en permanence, after a protest read at mid- night from twelve of the Ultra Extremists against pro- scription on any grounds whatever, and after a vote by roll-call, which takes hours, and recalls the worst scenes of the Revolution, by a dead heave they carried the Fabre the final vote in its favour being—according to Reuter, who. is usually right-343 to 163, a majority of 180. That is more than a two-thirds majority of all present, and nearly a two-thirds majority of the whole House, and, of course, so far ends the debate.
If this were all, the incident would be over, and we should: only have to lament that a Liberal Republic should have adopted the most dangerous of all forms of oppression—the most dangerous, because it covers classes, not persons, and does not awake the instinctive conscience, as the guillo- tine or confiscation does,—in order to punish political. suspects ; but this is not all. The Fabre Bill has yet to pass the Senate, and if it is rejected there, a disso- solution is inevitable, with a general election to the cry of "Proscription, or no Proscription I" a cry almost sufficient wake civil war,—a cry which will call out the whole strength alike of Reactionaries and Ultras. If, on the other hand, as.
is now expected, the Bill is amended in the Senate by the addition of a clause limiting the right of expulsion to Princes guilty of overt acts, the dispute must be long and wearisome,.
and must still end in establishing the precedent that persona may be disfranchised and disqualified merely for their poli- tical position,—an accusation which would justify the application of the same penalty to every non-Republican.
general, statesman, or powerful financier. In either case,. during the whole discussion France must remain virtually without a Government. This one is a poor make-shift, and no.
considerable statesman, no popular Minister of War, and no- first-class financier will take office until this question has been.
disposed of. That would not matter much, if the Chamber could be trusted to govern, as the permanent Bureaus can do all necessary work ; but the Chamber, without leaders, without an influential Ministry, and without a permanent majority, has- become a mere public meeting. It does not know its own- mind from day to day. It has in this very week revoked the vote by which, only two months ago, it affirmed the im- mense and most dangerous principle that the Magistracy' should be elective. The groups form and re-form almost hourly, often in obedience to occult influences, and both Reactionaries and Extremists slip from side to side solely to, embarrass adversaries, till Ministers feel as courtiers feel in presence of a Sovereign whose mind is not quite sound,—as if any course of action whatever would expose them to dis- grace. We do not believe that such a game of blind- man's buff can continue in any country without danger,.
and regard the situation as slowly reducing itself to• three alternatives. Either some new leader will take the- helm in a determined way, M. Brisson, the President of the Chamber, being the only probable one ; or M. Grevy will dissolve, and ask the country for some definite reply ; or there will be a stroke struck either by the Army or by Belleville.
The second is the right alternative, and, we trust, the most probable one ; but for the first time in twelve years, we feel a sensation of distrust. The old passions are loose again, and the Chamber—the only civil authority in France which has genuine vitality—is suffering under them, until its action can- not be predicted even for hours. It is the only sovereign, and when sovereigns are liable to coups de te te, States suffer.
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