TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE FALL OF M. DUPUY.
0"prediction of last week about the French Ministry has been fulfilled with a rapidity we did not expect. We ventured then to doubt whether M. Dupuy, with his Whig programme and his apparently splendid majority, would be able to keep power ; and he has fallen already, and for the very reason we assigned. There is no co- herence in the Moderate Party, no genuine agreement either about clerical affairs, or fiscal affairs, or the great Labour question. The groups coalesce, but they never combine into a party, and the moment their subjects of difference come up, they divide and attack each other. Even in the Cabinet there was no real union, the men sitting there to confer, even if they wanted a common end, which is doubtful, being radically opposed as to the im- mediate methods of attaining it. Even on Saturday three of them had resigned. What was the use of the agree- ment on Church and State which M. Dupuy professed to promise, when M. Terrier, Minister of Commerce, had just said in the Senate that "religion was a trade like any other ; " or on fiscal policy, when M. Dupuy pledged himself against the Income-tax, and M. Peytral, Minister of Finance, was resolute to introduce one ; or on the Labour question, when M. Viette, Minister of Public Works, wanted to spend largely, and M. Dupuy wanted to get a surplus and use it to "reopen the too long closed account of the redemption of debt" P Such differences may be called differences of detail, because everybody desires religious peace, financial wisdom, and plenty of employment for the population ; but in reality they are vital and immediate. Our compositors might as well all quarrel about the colour of the ink to be employed— whether it should be black, blue, or red—but declare that they were all in harmony, because they all wanted the paper to come out. There are details, like the mode of breathing, which affect life. Moreover, the differences extended to the Chamber. If they had not, M. Dupuy, who is not without ambition or firmness, would have let his colleagues go, have filled up the vacancies from among a hundred aspirants, and would have faced the Chamber with an unbroken Ministry, a resolute programme, and an invitation to his opponents to overturn him if they could. It is nonsense to say that M. Dupuy was en- veloped in M. Carnot's intrigues. We dare say M. Carnot, who is a human being, thinks himself a very good Pre- sident, and would like another seven years' term in his great office ; but what could M. Carnot have done if M. Dupuy had possessed a genuine majority ? He could have dismissed him, of course, for the Ministry is consti- tutionally responsible to the President as well as to the Assembly ; but of what use would that have been when the Chamber would next day have passed a vote compelling the President to reseat his Premier ? It was simply impossible, with such a conglomerate majority, to do anything but beat time ; and as M. Dupuy did not choose to beat time, but to profess a definite Whig policy, he had to go. The method of his going, no doubt, was not creditable to him ; but if he had been sure of his following, he would not have tried that method. What actually occurred appears to have been this. M. Dupuy, aware that he had no solid foothold in the Chamber, wished to receive the heavy vote in favour of his programme which would appear to give him one ; and accordingly begged his three recal- citrant colleagues to postpone the announcement of their resignations. They agreed, with a certain levity, to do so ; but as the debate went on, M. Peytral began to feel his personal dignity affronted by M. Dupuy's ex- plicitness. He was scolded by his friends during a short recess for having given up his own ideas, and replied in heat that he had done nothing of the kind, but in order to defend them had signed his resignation that day, as had M. Terrier and M. Viette. The statement was at once conveyed to the House, and M. Dupuy, after a brief interval of shuffling, during which he said, "We are a complete Cabinet, you see us all here," retired from the Chamber and gave in his resignation, which he has subsequently declared to be final. There are, of course, all manner of stories as to his disliking his own programme, which was adopted to soothe the Emperor of Russia into a belief that France had become Conservative ; but, as a matter of fact, if he mild have relied ma his majority, he would neither have concealed the resignations, nor have shuffled about them, nor have retired.
There has been the usual difficulty about forming a, Ministry. The President, of course, wishes for a solid majority and a quiet life' and is not indifferent to the fact that if the Moderates can be " concentrated " into a working: party, he himself will be the most prominent candidate for re-election. Everybody, however, is afraid that the majority cannot be kept together, and that if he fails to. keep it he will be discredited. The strongest man in the Chamber, therefore, M. Casimir Prier, declined with a certain peremptoriness, and one of the most popular, M. Raynal, followed suit ; and M. Carnot was therefore driven back upon the old list of mediocrities, M. Bour- geois, M. Maio, M. Develle, and, lastly, M. Spoiler, Gambetta's friend, who for a moment accepted office with a new string of Ministers. President Carnot is- greatly scolded for his repeated efforts, and accused of "preferring his own re-election to the welfare of France ; " but what was the poor man to do ? There were two strong Moderates available, and one strong- man who is not a Moderate ; but the President, tilt M. Casimir Prier yielded, could not choose any one- of the three. He will not send for M. Constans, be- cause he believes him, possibly with reason, to be too unscrupulous ; he cannot accept M. Brisson because Moderates would not serve under him ; and M. Casimir Prier refused office—hoping for the Presidency, say hia enemies ; liking the Presidency of the Chamber, say his friends—so M. Carnot was driven back among the mediocri- ties. France sends up few others, and unless the President took the desperate, though legal, step of looking outside the. Chambers for a Minister, he must accept what he could get. He knows quite well that anybody will do in a way, and that nobody will do very well, and hesitates, we believe,, rather because he wishes to appear painstaking, and to conciliate all sections, than because he cares very much. who is Premier, or of what individuals the Ministry is, composed.
For amidst all this confusion, which even in England would produce excitement, France and Paris have remained profoundly tranquil. There are articles in the newspapers and endless gossip among politicians, but the people do. not care one straw whether M. Dupuy is out or in. They see M. Carnot at the head of the State, they know that the Chamber is in existence, and they believe that the great machine which really governs them will go on, as it always has done, irresistibly. They do not want any particular person to be Minister, and no more pledge their- Deputies to support M. Dupuy, than to support M. Bour- geois, or M. Spuller. It is exceedingly doubtful if per cent. of the peasantry ever heard of M. Dupuy, and. quite certain that outside the official class, not one man in a thousand could repeat the list of the retiring Ministry. Those among the electors who are Socialists wish Socialism to be victorious, but are devoted to no leader ; and those who are anti-socialists, wish for strong government as against them, but look to M. Carnot for it„ and look no farther. While order is maintained, the jarrings of the groups do not frighten them ; and as to. individuals, as was said long ago, "loyalty to persona is dead in France." That Parliamentary government can go on at all under such conditions is something of a miracle ; and, indeed, it hardly does go on. There is. government by a Person who controls the Army and the- huge Administrative Services, and the Person is more or less controlled by a representative Chamber which changes its agents every year or so, without reference to fitness ; but of Parliamentary government, as we understand it,, there is hardly a trace. It is government by representatives,. not by a thoroughly organised body. The system costa the country a frightful sum, and makes consecutive policy nearly impossible ; but the machine goes on, there is pro- found order, and there is as yet no trace of discontent.. Even the Socialists, though they would remodel society from top to bottom, do not attack the political system, and as far as the public knows, neither the President nor any Minister has yet been threatened by any Anarchist, society. A certain measure of success cannot be denied. te- a Constitution which works in this way ; but it always- strikes us that France is rather on a tramway than a road. The carriage moves, but only while there is a train. Some day or other it will get off the metals, and then we shall see a stoppage which it Will take the whole strength of France, and probably a tearing up of the lines and metals, to get straight again. Great States with huge armies and vital foreign policies and high taxation are hardly safe in the hands of mediocrities ; and no one now rules Fiance who is not mediocre.
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