THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9021, 6 April 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1888.

Whatever may be the military strength of France there seems a permanent source of weakness in the extreme instability ofj its executive Government. Governments succeed one another with bewildering rapidity—a circumstance which results in giving an uncertainty to foreign policy, and must inevitably impart an intermittent and irregular action to administration throughout the whole State. During the last year there have been some three or four distinct administrations at Paris, each one of them, on being installed in power, being forthwith met by intrigues for its overthrow. The last Government — that of M. Tirard—came into power in December, and the Government of M. Floquet, which has just taken its place, is already threatened by the dissension and cabal which seem inevitable in France under the Republic. That this places the country at a terrible disadvantage, in face of the consolidated strength of Germany, wielded by a firm hand, must be patent to the people of France themselves, a fact which cannot be otherwise than a standing menace to the safety of the Republic. We are inclined to attribute this instability in the administration to the fickleness of the French character, but it appears to be mainly attributable to the number of pretty evenly balanced parties that constitute the National Assembly. We have seen that in the British House of Commons,the existence of even a third party in Parliament has the effect of embarrassing Parliamentary Government, and it would almost appear that the existence of only two strong and fairly balanced parties is essential to the success of party Government.

In the French Chamber of Deputies, however, there are no less than six permanent and distinctly defined parties, with two or three others of no particular importance; and as three of these six are of nearly equal strength, and two of the others possess numbers each that are not at all to be despised, and as the French politician is essentially a party man, and throws himself into party warfare with all the elan and vim of the national character, one can readily imagine the permutations and combmations that result out of the seething sea of politics. The parties of the State are roughly divided into republicans and reactionaries, the latter commonly known as the United Right, consisting of the Legitimists and Bonapartists, who desire to see an end of the Republic. Constituting but one of the three principal parties, the United Right have but little chance of grasping power at present, especially as the possession of power would at once split them into two irreconcileable sections, but they are capable of causing an infinite amount of embarrassment, and if their constructive power is nil, their destructive power is immense. In the present Chamber of 584 deputies the Monarchists of the Right number 180 all told. The second great party, or what from its distinctness and compactness, may be called the first, is the Opportunists or the party once led by Gambetta, and now the followers of M. Ferry. It numbers at present about 150, and controls the important papers, the Republique Francaise and the Temps. It represents the most numerous and influential republican party in France. The third great party is the party of the Left, which, consisting of two sections, the Extreme Left and the Radical Left, numbers in the present Chamber about 160. The head of these is the great Radical leader M. Clemenceau. This is the great Paris party, every member from Paris being a member of the Left; and it is from this party almost wholly that the present Government of M. Floquet' is taken. Its organ is the powerful paper La Justice.

These are the three great parties in France, and it is between the Opportunists and the Left that Government is commonly tossed as a shuttlecock between the battledores. There is another small party called the Conservative Republicans, numbering about 60 members, drawn from what is known as the " Centre;" and which to a considerable extent holds the balance in hand,, and acts specially as a bulwark against the Royalist and Bonaparte sections, and it is opposed to everything of a revolutionary character. Its recognised leader is M. Jules Simon. Besides these there is another section for whom the Extreme Left is, too moderate, and who have formed themselves into a party which they call the Republican Socialist. They number in the present Chamber about 16, and include all those who go by the name of Communists. They are not numerous, but they are very noisy, and make up for their lack of voting power by keeping themselves always in evidence. The sixth section is an insignificant one, being the few followers of the hopeless faith of the restoration of the old Royal Family of France, and they pay homage to the Dauphin as the descendant of. Louis XVII. Such, with a few stragglers under various names or no name, are the sections into which politics are torn in France. But it is to be remembered

that the struggle is practically between the two great parties, the Opportunists of M. Ferry, and the Left of Clemenceau, and Floquet and Freycinet and Lockroy and others; and it is a singular feature in French politics that the principal strength of the Extreme arid Radical Left is in the fact that that party can commonly calculate on the support of the monarchical party olc the Right. ~... The present Ministry of M. Floquet, therefore, is the triumph of the Radical party of Paris ; and M. Boulanger i 3 their military chief, as he is the idol of the people of Paris. He was tho Minister of War in the Government of M. Freycinet before, and in that of M. Goblet, both members of the present Government, and their accession to power is a victory over the enemies of M. Boulanger. M. Lockroy, one of the Ministers, is the husband of the favourite daughter -in - law of Victor Hugo, and of kindred spirit with his distinguished relative, and he headed the poll over all the other deputies elected by Paris. M. Floquet, the Prime Minister, was second on the poll for Paris, and once put in a considerable period of imprisonment as a Communist, so that, altogether, the present Ministry, if it coutinues, promises to be a warm one for France. Time will better develop its characteristics, but reflecting, as it does so strongly, the mind of the people of Paris, and representing so distinctly the friends and party of the bellicose ex-Minister of War, M. Boulanger, we are disposed to say that its accession to power will be viewed with some uneasiness at Berlin.