POLITICAL “MIXED PICKLES” IN FRANCE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 16, 19 July 1887, Page 2

POLITICAL “MIXED PICKLES” IN FRANCE.

Since the death of Gambetta in 1882, constitutional government in France has been suffering a series of shocks which bid fair to endanger its very continuance of existence and to end in a disastrous revolutionary outbreak. Ministry has followed Ministry, and Premier Premier, only to be dismissed by the capricious will of the Assembly from which they were elected, True, the Republic is there and so is the so-called Republican party, but the latter is composed of so many discordant elements that it is only in cases of actual danger to the Republic itself that they possess any cohesion. The Opportunists, who may be also called Gambettists after their founder, together with another section paradoxically entitled Conservative Republicans, include some of the most moderate and statesmanlike of French politicians, It was from their ranks that came men like Jules Ferry, Paul Bert, Spuller, the patriot Alsatian member, Waldeck—Rousseau, Jules Simon and others, but this party, or rather these two parlies, now find themselves swept away by the force of the Extreme Left, of which M. Clemenceau, the member for Paris, an ardent Radical of the Radicals, is the able leader, and M. Floquet the President of the Chamber, the celebrated Clovis Hugues, the member for Marseilles, and Edmund Lockroy, Victor Hugo’s son-in-law, prominent spirits. To all of which sections may be added the Intransigeants or “ Never give ins,” of whom the notorious Rochefort is the head ; the Collectivists, Anarchists, and Social Revolutionarists, whose collective and individual mot d'ordte may be summed up as being “Down with everything.” Add to the Republicans the Bonapartists, who since the death of the Prince Imperial have accepted Prince Jerome’s son Victor as their future hope, and the Monarchists, formerly split in several sections, but now agreed upon accepting the Orleanist Comte de Paris as their leader, and we have mentioned the leading ingredients in that curious compound which may fairly be entitled as France’s political “ mixed pickles.” Things are going badly just now with France. The army is expensive and eager for a war, which would be more expensive even than inaction ; trade is bad and the Republic is blamed rightly and wrongly for it; the expelling ot the Orleanist Princes was a lamentable error and the popularity of General Boulanger is to the foreign and disinterested critic yet another and more serious sign of rapidly approaching upheaval. The more moderate republicans, of which the present Cabinet is composed, are accused of favoring a Monarchist regime and the whole army of the Rads are attacking them vigorously. The Anarchists are bowling denunciations at the bourgeoisie, and to complete the list of troubles, the Army is suspected of being undermined by Boulanger and likely to strike a blow in favor of his election as a Military Dictator, whilst over all the long Franco-German frontier hangs the black cloud of threatened invasion. To the student of contemporary history were he, which we trust he is not, addicted to betting, the odds at present would seem to be fairly divided twixt the chances of the Comte de Paris with a fairly constitutional Government, or the

sudden access to power of General Boulanger, with the certainty of another Franco-German war in the immediate future. To effect either result would involve a coup d’etat with more or less : bloodshed and disorder, but changes of Government with our Gallic friends are rarely accomplished without such disasters and they are now fairly used to them. The Republicans as a Whole are strong enough to control all the other sections, but a House divided against itself is proverbially Weak, and we fear that, unless more moderate counsels prevail, there are very bad times in store for the Government which succeeded the Second Empire.