THE FRENCH ELECTIONS. T HE elections in France have come and
gone with more than their wonted quietness. Paris, as usual, was apathetic, and in the provinces votes were recorded without rioting and the results received without excite- ment. And yet, following upon the strikes and the fall of the Rouvier Ministry, and with May Day so recent, the elections might reasonably have been expected to be stormy. Many of the leisured classes left Paris through dread of them, and sober prophets predicted that a contest fought mainly on the Separation Law would rouse the same passions as the law itself. Even the warmest friends of France feared that recent events, both domestic and foreign, had so kindled the inflammable elements in the electorate that, even if there were no irregularities at the polls, the nation would speak with many different voices and the elections would show no clear mandate. But friends and foes alike have been wrong in their forecast. France has never spoken with a clearer or more sedate voice, and the Sarrien Ministry have the satisfaction of knowing that they are the Ministers completely approven by the nation. The event shows how thoroughly constitutionalism has taken root in what was once regarded as uncongenial soil. The recent election of M. Fallieres passed off with a decorum which was almost dull, and to-day we find the question which of all questions is most apt to rouse the passions of mankind— the supremacy of Church or State—decided without the intervention of a single gendarme.
The results of the first ballot show that of the 427 Members elected, 262 belong to the various groups of the Republican Bloc,—the Socialists, Radicals, and Left-Centre Republicans who voted for the Separation Law. The Opposition, who have chosen the name of Anti-Bloc, number at present 165, made up of such heterogeneous groups as the Right-Centre or Anti-Separation Law Republicans, the Reactionaries, the Clericals, and the Nationalists. In 155 constituencies a second ballot must take place, since the candidate who heads the poll has not received the statutory proportion of votes ; but it is calculated that this second ballot will show the same general result as the already published. returns. An estimate is given by the Petite Re- publique which shows the probable division of groups and their relative strength. In the new Chamber it is predicted that there will be 15 Socialists, 29 -United Socialists, 166 Socialist-Radicals, and 200 Left-Centre Republicans,—a Government total of 410. The Opposi- tion will be composed of 56 Right-Centre Republicans and. 122 Nationalists and Reactionaries,—a total of 178. This will give the Government a majority of 232 votes ; and though this majority may be enormously decreased on many subjects owing to its composite nature, it will be available in its full strength on the great question of separation. M. Olemenceau, who is responsible far the administration of the law, has none of the ordinary Anti- Clerical bias, and he may be trusted to see that the change is made as decently and fairly as possible. A Ministry with a strong majority behind them are more likely to bo patient and tolerant than a Government who labour against time, knowing the precarious nature of their support.
The elections are a popular ratification of the recent policy of France,—its attitude towards the Church, its attitude toward Labour, its attitude towards foreign Powers. Republicanism has triumphed as against the heterogeneous faiths which have sought its overthrow. For many years French politics have been a museum of strange creeds, each with a certain popular following and with one or two able exponents. The group system has been carried so far that in the multitude of parties it was hard to find any clear opposition of principle, where one side could be said to maintain the affirmative and. the other the negative. The result was a certain sense of unreality in French politics. It was not a case of Republican against Bonapartist, or Secularist against Clerical, but of each sect contra mundum. Principles were fluid, pro- grammes were vague, and it almost seemed as if France had applied to politics Flaubert's famous dictum, L'ineptie consiste a vouloir conchae. The Separation Law has created a new division and a real one, and it has also shown the world what it did not know before,—the fundamental convictions of the French nation. France is against clericalism, to begin with. The State must be supreme, and no privilege must be allowed to interfere with this hegemony.—We wonder what the average Frenchman would say to such a measure as our own recent Trade Disputes Bill.—But France is equally against other tyrannies. Socialism, in the sense of Collectivism, which announces its intention of putting an end to the present " capitalist " regime, has failed to attract her. It will be remembered that the various Socialist groups sunk their differences for the purposes of the Election. They have had some successes, and they may have about thirty representatives in the Chamber, but on the whole their campaign has been a failure. France will not allow herself to be dictated to by a party of doctrinaires. The so-called Socialist-Radicals are merely advanced Liberals, who may advocate measures which can bear a Collectivist interpretation, but whose whole line of thought is alien to the dogmatism of the extreme party. Nationalism has also been re- jected, and indeed the Nationalist Party has almost disappeared from sight. "The candidates," says the Temps in its commentary on the elections, "who have been successful have vigorously rejected Collectivism and anti-patriotic manceuvres. They have declared that they want a strong France, respected abroad, a France pacified at home by the respect for order and the tolerant application of the Separation Law." France has declared emphatically for efficiency and sanity in government. She has rejected the countless nostrums which political quack doctors have tried to foist upon her. The majority, whether they call themselves Socialists or Radicals or Republicans, all desire to take full account of all the data of France's problem, and not to try to solve it by leaving out the difficulties. They recognise the necessity of some efficient system of defence ; they see the desirability of a colonial dominion ; they are averse from political abstrac- tions; they wish for progress by constitutional means. And this majority, though the mildest name it calls itself is Republican, is essentially conservative. If we exclude the extreme Socialists, who even if they vote with the Opposition will leave the Government a large majority, all the groups desire a virtual maintenance of the status quo and gradual and well-considered reform in the details of government. In the Opposition we have no such clear policy. It is a fortuitous collection of the discontented. Between Clericalists and Nationalists and Conservative Republicans of the M. Doumer type there is no common principle. If anything, their creed is ill-considered Radicalism, for, like all reactionaries, they are apt to try to retrieve the past by overthrowing its last vestiges in the present. It is not the least of the ironies of French politics that Constitutionalism should be called by Jacobin names and Radicalism should masquerade in the garb of Conservatism.
But especially the _elections are a victory for the Republic and all that it stands for. They prove the solidity of its foundations, and the lesson will not be lost on Europe. It was Bismarck's hope when he consented to the formation of the French Republic that it would be a transient and feeble form of government, and would prevent France from being ever again a force to reckon with in Europe. It is thirty-six years since then, and every year has revealed an advance in security and strength. France, having found the government which suited her, has shown a contentment with it which has virtually put the question outside practical politics. The Separation Law proved that a highly controversial measure .deeply affecting the prejudices of many classes could be debated, carried, and administered without in any way shaking the constitutional fabric. This fact—with the merits of the law Englishmen have, of course, nothing to do—increases the value of the Anglo-French entente. That arrangement has been accepted by the French nation and by all parties, and it has therefore the guarantee of popular goodwill. If the guarantee of stable institutions be also added, the entente becomes one of the least speculative of modern international transactions.
Previous page
