M. LOUBET'S VISIT. T HE unanimous vote by both the French
Chambers of £24,000 to defray the expenses of the President's visit to King Edward is a most significant incident. It is prompted, no doubt, in part' by an intense desire that the outward dignity of the elected representative of France . should not be less than that of a King, and that his external impressiveness during his visit should be in no way impaired by considerations of economy. The French love show on occasions, and among all French Republicans there is an uneasy feeling that Monarchists look down upon them because of the absence of a throne among their institutions, a feeling which led during the term of M.
Faure's Presidency to some rather absurd concessions to chamberlains' ideas about etiquette, precedence, and display. The Parisians need have no fear, however, on this occasion. King Edward, besides liking France, under- stands as few men do what international courtesies should be ; and M. Loubet will be received on Monday at Victoria Station with as .stately a cordiality as if he were a reigning Sovereign and head of the house of Bourbon. A programme has been arranged which ordinary mortals would consider slightly exhausting, but which is in the highest degree honorific, and honorific in the way in which Kings reckon .honours, a way which is sometimes a little perplexing to the remainder of mankind. That they should expect to be treated as men far removed above the herd is natural from their traditions, and they must feel a natural curiosity about the interior of each other's homes ; but why, when civilians, they should consider a review an entertainment due to their rank in the world is not so readily explicable. Still, they do, and therefore M. Loubet, the quiet lawyer whom France has placed at her head, besides being welcomed by the King and by the City, which latter welcome in this country signifies approval by the commercial classes, will be taken to see a grand military parade, and will be expected to delight in it as if he had commanded armies in the field. It is all en regle, and will all be well done, for King Edward forgets nothing, and on ceremonial occasions never makes a mis- take • but one wonders sometimes if a visitor thus enter- tained does not return to his own country with a feeling which might be mistaken for one of relief. As for the reception by the people at large, there can be no doubt about that. The weather, to judge from all signs, will be magnificent; the Londoners will be out in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands ; and about their cordiality there need be no latent apprehension. Their instinctive hostility to anything French has entirely passed away. The French Republic, they know, is peaceful ; their history leaves them with no grudge against France—it being one of the strangest facts in modern history that the loss of the American Colonies, which was partly due to French action, is remembered without the slightest sense of .grudge when remembered at all—and there has filtered down among them a distinct respect for M. Loubet himself, as a man with a stainless record, and a worthy representative of all that is best in a great people. He is, as they are well aware, the nearest approach to a Constitutional King visible among the great States of the Continent, and deep down in their hearts is the con- viction that in a wisely arranged State there should be a Person at the top who should be as dignified as pos- sible, but should let responsible Ministers govern. That is their fundamental idea of good political order, and out- side Britain they do not greatly care whether the Person is head of an ancientdynastyor an elected official. In Britain— well, you see, "King, Lords, and Commons" are Providen- tial folk, having always been there—the people do not remember even the name of De Montfort—but if President Roosevelt could come over he would be astounded by the warmth of his reception. So, we do not doubt, will be President Loubet; and the fact is one of good omen for future peace between nations who have fought each other for centuries without either creating in the other that im- pression of inequality which produces popular fear. It is fear which among nations is the permanent root of bitterness, and neither France nor Great Britain has any fear of the other.
The Foreign Secretary, M. Delcasse, we see, accompanies the President ; but we do not know that that means any- thing in particular. There is always something to settle between Great Britain and France ; but we can recall nothing of immediate urgency, still less of importance. Lord Selborne, perhaps, would rather that Spanish Admirals were not quite so effusive about the " unity " of the French and Spanish Fleets ; but the unity is not threatening, and the French have kept their public pledges about Morocco with a fidelity almost beyond expectation. Our respective interests in that quarter, too, are well understood, and even if Morocco fell to pieces, the necessary arrangements could be carried through, if not without diplomatic difficulties, at least without collision, for the Hinterland of Morocco, which so excites the Governors of Algeria, is not within the range of British ambition. Indeed, international politics have so changed from what used to be regarded as their normal condition that there is now no point in the world, except Egypt, where the interests of the two nations clash, and in Egypt the question of sovereignty, which was really the one in dispute, is for the present settled. The Government of Paris is not now pressing Siam ; and though we hear every now and then of trouble in Yunnan, it never leads to movements which the owners of Burmah must or would regard with jealousy or distrust. A strong party in the French Chamber no doubt preaches colonial expansion; but it is very doubtful whether the ruling Republicans are inclined towards a policy which the Army at heart dislikes, as involving heavy deduc- tions from its strength, and the possible acquisition of stations which are detested by every conscript for their unhealthi- ness and the monotony of life which they involve. In West Africa the work of " delimitation " which secures peace goes on steadily; and in Europe the great interest of France, which is the limitation of German ambition, is also ours. On the other hand, the visit of itself proves that France has not pledged herself to assist in aggran- dising Russia on the Pacific ; and she has, from the condition of her finances, a peremptory interest in not engaging in the terribly costly competition in building ships of war. There is, in fact, no reason whatever why the reception of the French President should not be as heartily cordial as both King and people intend to make it, and this reason at least for sparing no effort, that it may bring our statesmen and the Republican chiefs a little more closely together. They still have, it is sometimes alleged, a certain shyavoidance of each other. Our Conserva- tives are very apt not to know the "plain men" whose careers have been so wonderfully smoothed by the Third Republic, and perhaps to forget that our really dangerous foes across the Channel were the Bourbons. Napoleon, no doubt, was more aggressive than they because of his genius, of his world-wide ambition, and of his overweening desire to crowd all history into one lifetime ; but for steady and continuous hostility to Great Britain, hostility, too, directed as much against our sources of wealth as against ourselves, there never was a power like the French Monarchy which in 1815 we did so much to restore. No enemies were ever so determined, so patient, or so nearly successful in defeating the ambitions alike of British statesmen and British merchants as those who wielded the immense resources at the disposal of the Family Compact. Correspondents will doubtless remind us of Fashoda, but Fashoda was an almost accidental episode in thirty-two years of an unbroken and most fruitful peace. It was a point of friction, no doubt ; but its settlement was no more a triumph for us or a humiliation for France than any other act of frontier delimitation. The "man in the street" hardly remembers that incident, and will welcome M. Loubet as the honoured chief of a State which, in sending him with the consent of both her Chambers, must mean to imply that she is not merely courteous for diplomatic reasons, but is honestly desirous that the peace between the two nations which has now lasted for eighty- eight years should endure for yet another generation.
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