UNREST IN FRANCE.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10264, 6 February 1899, Page 4

UNREST IN FRANCE.

Not a week passes without some event happening in France which reminds the public that another revolution is now due. The assiduous courtship paid to the Army by various parties, the mistrust of Courts and Cabinets, the activity of the Royal Princes, and the "Vive l'Empereur" of crowded theatres, are all ominous of change. All that is lacking is a man of mark who has really done something in the world. None of the Princes Royal or Imperial come within this category. Had the Prince Imperial escaped the Zulu assegai, and led a dashing life of adventure in various British expeditions, as he would probably have done, the Republic would not now be worth a week's purchase. The whole philosophy of French revolutions may be summed up in a few words. The nation overthrows the dynasty or the Republic that has exhausted its hope. Despair and anarchy rage and destroy for a brief space. Very few hours suffice to show that any Government is better than none. Then hope reasserts herself, and a new form of Government begins its precarious career. At the present moment many things contribute to make the status quo unendurable. The gigantic Panama Canal frauds and the Dreyfus case have shaken the faith of good citizens. They see that even under Napoleon HI. corruption was not so rife, nor the honour and efficiency of the Army so doubtful. The taxpayer also sees that- he never before had such an expensive Government as at present. The enormous revenue of £140,000,000 is not sufficient. The gigantic national debt, almost equalling the next two largest debts in the world put together, is rapidly increasing, and there is no end of this increase in view. Discontent expresses itself in swift changes of Administrations, which come and. go like dissolving views. Each change is followed by increased expenditure ; for each Cabinet sets itself to the buying of support. Places must be made for followers, and money must be spent to obtain popularity. The officials of France probably number nearly a million and a half. A recent writer in the "Nineteenth Century" estimates that there are at least V 00,000 officials under the direct control of the Central Govern-

ment, while the French Constitution gives it a veto or some other control over the appointment of officials by Municipalities, Education and other Boards, banks and large companies. Thus, what is called "the sitting army" of officials rises to the amazing proportion of about one in every twenty-five of the total population. In a compact and thickly-peopled country, this can only be accounted for by corrupt administration. Each new Ministry makes many new appointments, but though it shows some ingenuity in securing dismissals and in retiring men on pensions, tho arrivals always greatly exceed the departures. If we imagine in New Zealand a succession of Ministries animated by the same principles as the Seddon Government, each trying to outbid its predecessor in providing for its friends, it is clear that a limit of forbearance would soon be reached. In France the breaking point is not far off. Ministries find their scope lessening and their days of office growing fewer.* This same swift coming and going of Ministries renders a dignified and continuous foreign policy impossible. Politicians want to go one better, and to win popularity by scoring off neighbouring Powers. 'Inis little game has at last brought the stern rebuu over Fashoda from long-suffering England. This has wounded the national pride—and in France most things are less than vanity.

The standing army again is n greater burden than the sitting army itself, and the object for which it is maintained recedes steadily further and further from realisation. Russia has been found to have a huge axe to grind. She has secured loans and weapons, and then proposed disarmament, and even played the spy over her ally's secrets. A desperate cry has at last arisen for reconciliation witli Germany hersslf. This feeliug of despair of the army on the part of the intelligent and thrifty has been brought to a head by the Dreyfus iniquities. A book entitled "The Army versus The Nation" has made a considerable sensation, and the Government is prosecuting the author. The municipal authorities of Paris, however, have shown unwonted courage by placing the book in all the school libraries of the city. The tone of the book may be gathered from the following: "The military spirit is one of the forms of barbarism." The indictment is a severe one, but the Dreyfus scandal justifies it. The alarm of the time-serving Government is shown in the prosecution of the trenchant author, and the strong and bitter feeling of the citizen class in the action of the Paris authorities in placing the book in the hands of the young. These and many other symptoms of faction and decay, too numerous for our space, convince the thoughtful that France is only waiting for Carlyle's "Man that Can."