THE COMING PARIS ELECTION.
THE contest for Paris,—technically the Department of the Seine,—which is to come off to-morrow week, between M. de Remusat, M. Thiers' Minister of Foreign Affairs, and M. Barodet, the ex-Mayor of Lyons, will affect very seriously the future course of political events in France. The curious feature of that contest is that the Extreme Right and the Extreme Left openly express their wish for M. Barodet's suc- cess, and precisely for the same kind of reason for which the
serious danger of reaction. government, and yet give no government any coherent sup.
of the French Left are now pursuing in Paris, and which, we regret to say, has the sanction of the organ of M. Gambetta. without receiving steady, reiterated, firm support from the M. de Remusat has been the friend of Liberty all his life. people. They might as well expect to find a windmill working He has just been the able colleague of M. Thiers in a diplo- matic effort of tha first importance to France, the negotiation the people which the people never support against the oppo- f or the liberation of the territory. His address to the nents of the people except when they are pleased and in good electors of the Seine is everything that could be wished, even humour with it.
by the most advanced Liberals. He accepts the policy of M. But, then, M. de Remusat says nothing about the dis- Thiers' speeches and "Messages,"—including, of course, the solution of the Assembly T Well, a considerable majority of celebrated Message of last November, which so grievously the present Assembly is pledged to resist dissolution, and offended the Right. He accepts definitively the Republic. nothing but the strongest and most striking support of the He accepts universal suffrage " in its integrity." The laws Government by the party which wishes for dissolution, would by which the organisation of the new state of things should enable the Government to take that side with the least hope of be secured, "cannot," says M. de Remusat, " in my opinion success. Is it for M. de Remusat to pledge himself to a speedy have any other object than to organise the Government dissolution, and then perhaps get beaten ? What an outcry of the Republic, consolidating it by regular institutions of joy would not the Right raise ? Would it not be said at in conformity with universal experience and founded on the once that M. de Remusat had been deserted because he had integrity of universal suffrage." It is not possible to have abandoned moderate principles, so that no distinction could distincter language than that. In addition to these explicit be drawn between the Radical candidate and the candidate of declarations of Liberal opinion, M. de Remusat represents the the Government ? There could not have been a greater blunder Executive Government, and his election by Paris, therefore, than for M. de Remusat, with the doubtful prospect before would mean not merely approbation of M. de Remusat's poli- him, to declare for an early dissolution. But if the moderate
tics, but a wish to strengthen the Government which avows Republicans wish for an early dissolution, as most of them do, such politics. It would mean that Paris intends to support they could hardly do better than support M. de Remusat, and so M. Thiers in his struggle with the Right, and to encourage give the Government the courage of its opinions. He has not him to enter upon it boldly, instead of to paralyse him by left his real view doubtful. " France," he says in his address, avowing a want of confidence in the only leader who is capable "is to-day calm and free, and never has she been more corn- of winning the victory. pletely mistress of her own destinies." The man who wrote most culpably in accepting the law which suppressed the Undoubtedly the Assembly was elected when France was neither municipality of Lyons ; that it dares not avow itself on the calm, nor free, nor mistress of her own destinies. If so, the question of a deferred or immediate dissolution ; that it is Assembly then elected can no longer represent her as she is, and hesitating and time-serving, and therefore that it needs a it is of the first importance that it should be changed for one warning from all genuine Republicans, which the defeat of a re- that can. If the Government needs a warning, then Lyons, not sponsible Minister by a representative of the grievances of Lyons Paris, is the place to give that warning. It will be a fatal would just adequately give. M. Gambetta's organ denies that mistake, a mistake which may for years affect injuriously the
the success of M. Barodet (the ex-Mayor of Lyons) would fortunes of France, if the Liberal party abandon the Liberal mean a declaration of war against the Government by the Government at this most critical moment, and give the Right Left. On the contrary, it would be nothing but a gentle good ground for saying that M. Thiers no more represents the hint, an encouragement to be bolder and not, for the future, people of France than he represents the combined parties of
so cautiously official. The rejoinder, and it seems to us un- the Napoleons, of Henri V., and of the Comte de Paris.
answerable, is that such hints would take away the power to act on them. M. Thiers, if he is cordially supported by the people, if he can truly represent his Government as a genuinely popular government, may do much to counteract the intrigues of the Right, but it is only his strength outside the Assembly which can enable him to ignore his weakness in the Assembly. Let the Left play into the hands of the Right, and they drain away all M. Thiers' political resources. If it were otherwise, would the Right be so anxious to see M. Barodet elected as they actually are Besides, if the Left want to give a mere hint of their feeling, the opportunity is open. The election for Lyons itself is to come off on the 11th May, just a few days before the Session re-opens. What could answer their purpose" better than to elect M. Barodet for the city which has been aggrieved by the recent municipal law ? That Tories and Sir Charles Dilke might possibly agree in desiring would be a hint, and more than a hint. But to elect him
to see the Tower Hamlets electing a working-man in favour for Paris in the place of M. de Remusat is virtually to say that of manhood suffrage, equal electoral districts, and the pay- M. Thiers has lost the confidence of the people as completely ment of election expenses out of the rates, in the place as he has lost the confidence of the Right,—that he may of Mr. Ayrton. Such an election would be a marked dis- fairly be treated by the Conservatives as no more the repre- respect to Mr. Gladstone's Government, and therefore the sentative of the people than they are themselves,—that he is Tories would like it ; it would also seem to indicate that nothing but a helpless figure striving to separate two great Mr. Gladstone's Government would become more popular parties, and running the risk of being crushed to death be- if it would reopen the question of Reform, and go in for still tween them. A hint, such as it is proposed to give M. Thiers wider democratic changes, and therefore Sir Charles Dilke in Paris, is surely very like what it would be for the bulk of might like it. But it is clear enough that though a small an army to intimate through its officers to its General that party might be found in England, professedly Liberal, who he could not rely on its support for any but a decisive ac- would like to see Mr. Gladstone goaded into more strenuous tion with the enemy,—that in all subsidiary operations it Liberalism through the defeat of a member of his Administra- must be free to take its own line, and lend its support to tion by an extreme Radical, there could hardly be any such unfriendly neutrals. Such a hint as that would probably party at all if Mr. Disraeli and his friends happened to re- annihilate an army in face of the enemy. And it is present, not Parliamentary Conservatism, but some principle such a hint as that which the French Radicals mildly involving thoroughly reactionary ideas, say a partial restora- propose to give to M. Thiers' Government, when they want tion of the prerogative of the Crown. The policy of weaken- Paris to elect M. Barodet in place of M. de Remusat at such ing the best leader you have, in order to goad him into going a crisis as the present. When will Frenchmen understand further and faster, is always a dangerous one ; but it is more that the independent constituencies have a double duty to per- than dangerous, it is almost reckless, when the condition of form,—not simply to express the precise shade of their opinion, equilibrium is so unstable as it now is in France, so unstable but to confer life and authority on the official party which that a victory for the reactionary party might really mean a they best trust ? How can they keep demanding a popular
serious danger of reaction. government, and yet give no government any coherent sup. Yet this appears to us to be the policy which the Radicals port? A government cannot be really popular without having some continuity of life, and it cannot have any real continuity regret to say, has the sanction of the organ of M. Gambetta. without receiving steady, reiterated, firm support from the M. de Remusat has been the friend of Liberty all his life. people. They might as well expect to find a windmill working w ithout wind, as to find a government always in sympathy with matic effort of tha first importance to France, the negotiation the people which the people never support against the oppo- f or the liberation of the territory. His address to the nents of the people except when they are pleased and in good electors of the Seine is everything that could be wished, even humour with it.
by the most advanced Liberals. He accepts the policy of M. But, then, M. de Remusat says nothing about the dis- Thiers' speeches and "Messages,"—including, of course, the solution of the Assembly T Well, a considerable majority of celebrated Message of last November, which so grievously the present Assembly is pledged to resist dissolution, and offended the Right. He accepts definitively the Republic. nothing but the strongest and most striking support of the He accepts universal suffrage " in its integrity." The laws Government by the party which wishes for dissolution, would by which the organisation of the new state of things should enable the Government to take that side with the least hope of be secured, "cannot," says M. de Remusat, " in my opinion success. Is it for M. de Remusat to pledge himself to a speedy have any other object than to organise the Government dissolution, and then perhaps get beaten ? What an outcry of the Republic, consolidating it by regular institutions of joy would not the Right raise ? Would it not be said at in conformity with universal experience and founded on the once that M. de Remusat had been deserted because he had integrity of universal suffrage." It is not possible to have abandoned moderate principles, so that no distinction could distincter language than that. In addition to these explicit be drawn between the Radical candidate and the candidate of declarations of Liberal opinion, M. de Remusat represents the the Government ? There could not have been a greater blunder Executive Government, and his election by Paris, therefore, than for M. de Remusat, with the doubtful prospect before would mean not merely approbation of M. de Remusat's poli- him, to declare for an early dissolution. But if the moderate
tics, but a wish to strengthen the Government which avows Republicans wish for an early dissolution, as most of them do, such politics. It would mean that Paris intends to support they could hardly do better than support M. de Remusat, and so M. Thiers in his struggle with the Right, and to encourage give the Government the courage of its opinions. He has not him to enter upon it boldly, instead of to paralyse him by left his real view doubtful. " France," he says in his address, avowing a want of confidence in the only leader who is capable "is to-day calm and free, and never has she been more corn- of winning the victory. pletely mistress of her own destinies." The man who wrote But it is said on the Radical side that the Government acted that must in his heart approve of an immediate dissolution.
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