The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 5, 1879.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5600, 5 February 1879, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 5, 1879.

The resignation of Marshal M'Mahon has caused a thrill of excitement to vibrate throughout the civilized world, Not a man of brilliant talents, hardly even of solid abilities, not a great military chief, certainly not a great administrator. He possessed one quality which endeared him to the Fench nation, that of tenacity. It is now some four years since, in reply to an inquisitive village deputation, the old soldier remarked that he was President of the Republic and that his policy consisted in the retention of that position—“ J J y suis, j’y reste.” Thenceforward he represented to Prance the idea of stability. Ministries might come or go, intrigues might be formed, and Chambers elected or dissolved, but the Marshal would remain. He had accepted the Republic, and he and the army he was supposed to influence would remain faithful to that form of Government. Subsequent events hardly justified that belief. To drive from office a Ministry which possessed the confidence of the nation at large, to appoint in their places an unscrupulous

cabal, the representatives of an undoubted minority, and to pacify a justly exasperated legislature by terminating its existence, was a method of procedure likely to destroy the most unbounded popularity. There can be no doubt that the Marshal was responsible for all this, and for its results. The illegal acts of his cabal, ■their wholesale system of bribery at leleotiona, their persecution of Republican officials, their intimidation of political'opponents, all these have been laid ■at his door. The distrust of a people jhaa worn down even his tenacity, his of power has become, illogical jand impossible, and he has now taken a ;quarrel with his Ministers as Bn opportunity for laying down the office he could ho longer endure to fill.

i Alter their recent scare, the Republican party are evidently deter* •mined not to mince matters. Indeed, to do otherwise would be folly. fPhb {1 conduct of the Conservative has been such as- to give ground for fears tjiat they would not stop .short at any length in Striving for the jasper hand, and to justify the Strongest measures of precaution. Out pft&eir own mouths they stand condetened: It is only the other day that M. de Fourtou, the head of their cabal Ministry, was arraigned before the incensed Chamber of Deputies, and what was,, 1 his defence ? Simply that his party represented the Salvation of prance, and therefore any conceivable fvrong' was justifiable when done in support pf that party. He expressed regret for his action; but it was not because that action was illegal, but because it was not illegal enough.. Not because he hkd bribed, tyrannised, and perse i cuted, but because he had not employed these: -engines of oppression with sufficient violence to ensure the triumph of his .party. With such a leader and such a following, appeals to law and justice are so much waste of breath, dhey niust. be met by decisive action, and deprived once and for all of the power of disturbing the tranquillity of the country and baulking the wishes of the nation. On one point Oambetta and his triumphant supporters have made up their minds. If / the Republic is to be the established system, it must be protected from the constant and nervous fear of sadden and illegal overthrow. Now such 1 overthrow - coUld : come but from, one quarter. Not from Comrpimi wn; for even had ’ this bugbear recovered from the merciless lesson of 1871, from the shootings, transportations, and banishments of , the Thiers Government, yet the Socialists know well oh which side their bread is buttered, and are earnest in their support of an institution which tolerates their existence as long as they do not trouble the peace and welfare of their fellow citizens. Nor was attack to be dreaded from abroad. Germany, however much inclined to interfere in the affairs of her late enemy, yet knows that the last man ever to give her cause for hostility is Gambetta, and that so long as that incarnation of the new French democracy continues to sway the destinies of his country, the sincere desire of France will be to remain at peace with all men. The elements of turmoil, lay nearer at hand, and it is in a body that elsewhere is identified with the preservation of order and law, that the Republicans have cause to look for the resurrection of disorder and political crime. Under the second Empire, the army was a gigantic machine for the maintenance of the Bonapartist regime, and it can he easily understood that the tradition of its misuse would be slow to die, either in the army itself or in the breasts of the party that have so long been taught to regard it with dislike and suspicion. It is hut natural to suppose that the officers, the superior ones especially, who owed their position to the fallen dynasty, on whom that dynasty lavished a thousand favours and caresses, should remember its fall with regret, and be ready to strike a blow for its restoration. Whether tbeir soldiers would follow them or no, this feeling and these men remain a standing menace to the Republic, and they and they only could render a coup d’etat possible. Hence the insistance of the Republicans on the removal of the leading Generals, and hence the Marshal whose sympathies and hopes are known to be with the Bonapartists, has opposed a rage and obstinacy to the measure which have culminated in his resignation. And now to the mind of an Englishman comes the astonishing part of this history. The traditional method of governmental change in France is supposed to he riot and bloodshed. Excited crowds, according to the popular notion, rise and erect barricades; half hearted troops waver and revolt; obnoxious partisans flee into exile; palaces are sacked; and the whole machinery of national control is shaken to the centre. But instead of this what have we P Perfect quiet and tranquillity. The existing representatives of the people peacefully meet and choose a new head for the constitution; his predecessor retires into private life, and the rest of no citizen is disturbed for a single night. On the immediate effects of the recent changes it would be idle to speculate. Even a mill-pond is disturbed by the splash of a new pebble, and France is no mill-pond. But to the ultimate effects we may look forward with calmness and confidence, and for these expectations the character of the new President is alone a sufficient guarantee. M. Gr&vy is not an unknown adventurer, but an able, politician of long experience and approved patriotism. Above all, ho is conciliatory and moderate, and therefore thoroughly in accord with the temper of the people whose Ohiof Magistrate he has become. The Frenchman of to-day would push no man to extremes; he will not sacrifice his Republic to au idea. “ Give me the Republic,” said Gambetta, “ and I accept all the rest;” and it is Gambetta who, Inpre than any other man living, repretiie of modern France. Ahd that this temper is snob, is surely a pleasant, thing to contemplate. It is goad to see a great nation learning the lessons of compromise and self-restraint learning in the truest and noblest

sense of the word to govern itself. The sacred right of insurrection, that unhappy legacy of the first Revolutionists, which has so long alternately cursed and blessed their descendants, seems now consigned to the limbo of the past. Frenchmen have at length exchanged the pike for the voting-paper, and have found a refuge from shams and pretenders in the Freedom and Unity for which they have striven so long. We are not of those who affect to believe that in their case liberty will degenerate into excess, but rather are sanguine as to the future of this people who have taught again to the whole world the old lesson that true greatness lies in selfcontrol, and that patient endurance and resolve are ever the best passport to ultimate freedom and Happiness.