A GREAT FRENCH STATESMAN.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11280, 22 May 1902, Page 4

A GREAT FRENCH STATESMAN.

France, F.-iid some cynical observer of the "bri.rf.Hved Ministries which have flitted succesrivdy .crce. the stage of modem French politics, has many politicians, but few statewnen. With the retirement of M. Waldeck-Rousseau, the Prime Minister who has held the reins of power for nearly thre. years, and has successfully emerged from the turmoil of the recent general elections with a large majority, France will losrj a leader who may be classed''among her few itatcsmen. He came into power in troublous times. T-hre* Governments had fallen during the previous- eighteen months, during which time France had be-en shaken -o tha centre by the long-drawn cut agony <f th.* Dreyfus- case. only set sled by the judgment of the Court of Cassation less than three weeks before M. , WaCde-k-Ri-usseai*- formed his Ministrj.

Above all thing- France _eede_ political rest, and that is just what the present Government has given her, in as large quantity as -so excitable a nation would take it. In his first speech in the Chamber of Deputies the Prime Minister sounded the k-eynote of his three years' labours. He declared that tbe first care of the Government must be "to put an end to agitations, "carried on under disguises which are "easy to penetrate, against a regime to "whirih universal euffr-gie has given its "sanction, and which, it will uphold, to "require from all the services a loyal as- " sistance and the courage of responsi"bility." He announced the Government. determination to have all judicial decisions respected, to defend the ajmy against unwarranted attack, and at the same time to demand from it the "inviolable attachment) to discipline, "which is the first guarantee of "it- great-ess." Finally, he said, "We " ask you to give a truce to irritating dis- ■' cussions, which are hurtfufi to the interests "of the country, and to vote without " delay the laws necessary to the good work"ing of tho public services. If our efforts " are not sterile, the Republic will shortly resume its work of economic and social " progress, and! we shall regard ourselves as " having done our duty if we have once " -lore opened up the path to a policy from " which shaE be banished all that has divid"ed Republicans and atl that can disunite "them." In great measure success has followed, the administration carried out in accordance with these ideals. Personally, __~ Waldeck-Rousseau is a wealthy barrister, whese inclinations would never have led him into politics. He accepted office from a pure senge of duty, but has worked for bis country as if he found his greatest pleasure in the whirl of political life, "Unsurpassed in oratory, unrivaTled in experience, and unimpeachable in his patriotism, Waldeck-Rousseau ranks with the unhappy Jules Ferry, as on the whole, the greatest statesman whom the Republic has produced." Such is the verdict of one who studies deeply Continental politics, and history may yet re-echo the eulogy.