THE POLITICAL ASPECT IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 262, 10 May 1878, Page 7

THE POLITICAL ASPECT IN FRANCE.

Lovees of liberty and lovers of France cannot behold that Republic, after passing through the trying ordeal from which she has just emerged, without mingled feelings of joy and admiration. With noble patience, exercising an unexampled self-restraint, displaying heroic calmness and forbearance, she has walked like the martyrs of old over red-hot ploughshares, and with the sword of Representation has given the death blow to monarchical despotism amidst the world's applause. It was with heartfelt thankf illness and unmixed delight that I heard of the peaceful and decisive triumph of parliamentary principles last October, and of the success which had attended the silent expression of the people's will. It was a trying moment for France when she saw her most cherished institutions threatened, and when under the free folds of her Republican flag acts of tyranny were perpetrated and legal coercion practised, which were almost without parallel in the days of the monarchy. It was demanded of her that she should return a Chamber, like our last Irish Parliament, to strike the knell of its own doom, or if not absolutely to legislate itself out of existence, to hand over to Napoleon Quatre its liberties, privileges, and mission. Le spectre rouge was flaunted in her face, and it was told her that if " social order" was to be maintained Frenchmen, must use a little self-denial, and give up the idea of free Parliamentary Government. Republicanism, it was averred, was not consistent with Catholicism, and that if the Revolution was to be overcome, if infidelity and socialism were to be swept out of France, the nation must put cm the iron glove of monarchy. It was thought that thus all sincerely religious people would be placed upon the horns of a dilemma. It was hoped that the sophistry would be undetected, and the fraud unexposed, until the honest Catholics of France had sacrificed their freedom, under the delusion that by so doing they were saving their faith. An attempt was made to place the issue before the electors as one between the Church and the Revolution, between Marshal MacMahon and "le lion " Gambetta, as M. Louis Veuillot calls him. But for once Frenchmen went to work with prudence and moderation, flung passion to the winds, and brought reason to bear on the subject, and the consequence was they saw how falsely the question had been stated, how artfully the intriguers had planned a coxq) d'etat, and they went and, under the threatening eye of a gendarme, recorded their votes for liberty and constitutional government. "Whatever may be M. Gambetta's faults, however dangerous his principles yet announced may be, there is no use denying the fact that he is now the popular tribune in France, and that his counsel to the nation all through the crisis was both sensible and patriotic. He everywhere inculcatedconfidence in pacific and constitutional action and submission to the law. He never questioned the right of Marshal MacMahon to appeal to the constituencies, but he stated his firm determination to abide by the result of that appeal whatever it should be. So far he must necessarily have the confidence of all lovers of Parliamentary institutions. The appeal was made ; France spoke, but still for a while her voice was disdained ; until the honest heart of the soldier President at last felt a pang when the scale? were removed from his eyes, and he saw how he was enticed upon perilous quicksands, and without the path of strict legality ; and immediately, like a pure souled patriot, he sprang to obey the clearly defined will of his country, and spumed the mal conseils incessantly poured into his ears by the worshippers of kingly pomp. He thought it no humiliation to avow before the world his complete submission to the new parliament, and to affirm his confidence as the nation's representative in the stability of Republican institutions. This triumph of moral force and constitutional action will unmistakeably cause a great revolution in the minds of Frenchmen. They will see that that which they formerly endeavoured to win with rifle and barricade can now be obtained by the magic power of the voting paper, and that the voices of their parliamentary representatives, clothed in their habits noirs, are more effectual to strike down tyranny whenever it presents itself than the amis of a whole people aroused at Fr.eeflom'e wttchwprti - *

The Catholic Church has nothing to fear from freedom and free institutions, and those who aver that she does not love both, libel her fair name. She -was the nurse of freedom, as well as the protectress of learning, through the ages of mediaeval darkness, and her voice ever rang out in no uncertain tones against the " weaponed arm "of oppression And now, though — " Tortured and torn by Persecution's rage, , And bound with chains in cruel vassalage ; Tho 1 all the Caesars on her shrine have trod., Still, still she shines, the beacon of a God." A politically and morally educated free people is what the Church desires, and to train up which is the one grand object of the noblest minds in her fold. Nothing, therefore can be more false and criminal than to say that the Catholic Church is a foe to Liberty. Were the Empire in France possible, without despotism, secrecy, and plotting, there is good -reason to think that Frenchmen themselves — as well as most observant, thinking foreigners — would prefer it. But though the young, honest, and gifted Prince, who would ascend the throne in the event of a re-establishment, might entertain large and enlightened views which were foreign to the mind of his father, and though he might at first determine to loyally, hold the crown for no personal interest or gratification, but for the good and welfare of the whole of his subjects, yet the influence of evil advisers might at any moment overcome all his good resolutions and make him embark on a career of combat against the institutions which would limit and watch the exercise of his power. It is this consideration which has made the majority of the piofessional and commercial classes Republican, and which secured the safety of the Republic in the crisis through -which it has just passed. And should the lessons which they have recently learned sink indelibly into the minds of Frenchmen, and the nation become inured to the machinery ' of Parliamentary Government, the new France now arising may survive the intrigues of the factious, and live on in increasing vigour and unimpaired beauty, as the home of liberty and the mother of the arts. W. J. N.

Auckland, April 25th, 1878.