11 DECEMBER 1886, Page 8

THE FRENCH CHAMBER.

WE cannot affect to regret the fall of M. de Freycinet, whom we have reasons, not yet published, for regarding with profound distrust ; but that fall reveals a great danger to France, and possibly to Europe. The present Chamber is incompetent to wield the power it nevertheless

claims. As we have repeatedly pointed out, the historic tendency of representative bodies in France, whether called Assemblies, Conventions, or Chambers, is when they are free to claim sovereign power, to treat their Ministers as clerks bound to obey orders, and to guide the Executive directly for them- selves. That was the ancient plan, too, though the Athenians had not hit upon any representative scheme, and is, of course, quite an intelligible one. It is democracy reduced to its most naked form ; and though we cannot understand how self- respecting statesmen can hold office on these terms, still an able and self-restrained Chamber, a modernised Roman Senate in fact, might conceivably guide executive policy, through Committees, both with sense and spirit. The general direction would belong to the orator who commanded the House, and Ministers would be in the position occupied in England by the permanent heads of department. This system, however—while always a bad one, because it separates power, which belongs under it to the orator, from responsibility, which belongs to the executive agent—requires as its absolute condition a capable Chamber ; and this Chamber is visibly incapable. It does not act even under the influence of emotion, which is usually calculable, but under that of intrigue, which must always be incalcu- lable. Everybody knew that, the French arms having been defeated in Tonquin, the Ferry Ministry must fall, French feeling holding the head of the Government responsible for defeat ; but who last Friday was to calculate that the Reac- tionaries, whose steady policy it is to strengthen the civil organisation, would vote for the dismissal of all Sub-Prefects? Such a vote was nevertheless given, and as M. de Freycinet had personally intervened, and made the question one of con- fidence, away went the Ministry into space. That is to say, the Chamber, rather than wait a few months for a small administrative reform—for the Minister of the Interior, M. Sarrien, pledged himself absolutely to dismiss the Sub-Prefects next year—overturned a Government which, as the Deputies knew, was involved in the most anxious negotiations, which is coquetting with Russia, pressing and embarrassing England, and risking the possibility of collision with Germany. It postponed the most serious interests of the country to a comparatively petty internal detail, or, rather, sacrificed the country rather than forego the pleasure of "giving a lesson" to a too independent Minister. It has done this, too, in such a way that no succeeding Minister can feel secure, for the vote was carried by a junction of Extremists and Reactionaries ; and as Extremists are never contented, the Reactionaries have only to join them and vote against their own principles to upset any Ministry. How is it possible to manage important business well on such conditions, even if the Ministers consent to be clerks ? Accept the Chamber as Sovereign, and still it is vacillating as no successful Sovereign ever vacillated yet, or is as reckless of consequences as a child.

It may be said, and we entirely agree, that a Chamber may sometimes be compelled to dismiss a Minister upon a nominal charge, and that the Chamber may really be dis- satisfied with M. de Freycinet's foreign policy, and not with his conduct about the Sub-Prefects. Well, that would be a valid defence, if it were only true ; but then, the evidence shows that it is not true. It is less than a fortnight since the Deputies formally approved M. de Freycinet's Colonial policy, and voted his budgets for Tonquin and Tunis, while they received his exposition of his Egyptian policy with rapturous delight. His speech on that subject was considered of itself to have solidified his position. They have never hampered his Russian policy by so much as a comment ; while his German policy consists in supporting General Boulanger, and General Boulanger is to stay in. More than that, it is well known

that the policy which alarms Germany, and has induced Prince Bismarck to antedate his Military Bill in order to increase the Army at once, is the immense expenditure advised by General Boulanger on war materiel, of no use unless war is considered at all events imminently probable. So far is the Chamber from disapproving this expenditure—which, indeed, it has sanctioned—that General Boulanger has demanded, as the condition of his adhesion to the new Ministry, that a new credit of twelve millions sterling extra shall at once be opened for him ; and the new Ministry has agreed. It is possible, of course, that M. Goblet, in so agreeing, has misread the mind of the Deputies, and that the vote may be refused ; but if so, General Boulanger and some of the most capable men in France who have accepted office on those terms, are, to speak plainly, misunderstanding their Sovereign's wishes, and making fools of themselves and the country. Is that likely ? Grant that it is likely, and we have an incal- culable Chamber, which can no more be served than a madman or a child could be; grant that it is unlikely, and we have a Chamber which, in the gravest of crises, overthrows a Govern- ment of which, except on a trivial detail, it approves. Such a Chamber is incompetent.

We admit there is a third theory. There are cynics who say that M. de Freycinet only resigns because he wishes for the Presidency. He is deep in M. Grevy's confidence, knows that the aged President, shaken by years, by illness, and by the death of his most trusted adviser, General Piffle, will shortly resign his office, and he desires when that great event happens nJt to be in power. Premiers in France accumulate dislikes, and a few months of retirement may efface recollections which otherwise would militate against his promotion. Super-subtle as that explanation may seem, it is still a possible one ; but then, what sort of a Chamber is it by which such an intrigue could be tolerated, or which is expected by a candidate to be more favourable to him if he suddenly abandons the great task he had voluntarily undertaken ? If the Chamber does not know of such a motive in M. de Freycinet's mind, it is acting incon- siderately in the face of grave circumstances ; while if it does know, it is facilitating an intrigue which of itself suggests that it is governed by petty spites rather than statesmanlike calculation. We do not ourselves think it so bad as this, but we do believe it to be inconsiderate, capricious, and incom- petent to the exercise of that direct executive power which nevertheless it will not give up.