THE FRENCH MINISTERIAL CRISIS.
THE French Chamber is, we fear, getting out of hand, and as soon as the Bill establishing the Scrutin de Liste has been passed, should be dissolved. The foolish attack upon the Unauthorised Orders has so embittered party feeling, that the Right will join anybody, even the Extremists, to overthrow any Republican Government whatever ; while the Extremists have " tasted blood," and are furious, as M. Clemenceau has openly avowed, because the Government had resolved to spare the unauthorised societies of Nuns. At the same time, the rapid fall of Administrations at the bidding, or supposed bidding, of an unseen power has deprived the Cabinet of its natural and useful prestige, each Government being regarded as a mere inter- regnum until M. Gambetta is ready, and a French Premier now speaks with less authority than the leader of a group." The natural consequence of all this is that the " groups " become more numerous and more violent, and that M. Gambetta, who hitherto has been able to moderate them, finds his ascendancy weakened, not only over the whole Liberal party, but over his own particular group, the Union Republicaine. The balance of power rests with him, but not power itself. It is evident that, whatever spirit of intrigue may be ascribed to M. Gam- betta, he did not wish that the Ferry Ministry should fall, for it is mainly due to his exertions that it has been replaced in its very precarious and rather humiliating position.
Many interpretations are possible of the incident of Tuesday, but by far the most probable seems to be this. The Ministry formed during the vacation was not acceptable to the Clemen- ceau party, or quite trusted by the Union Republicaine, and its first declarations through M. Jules Ferry were considered too moderate, the distinct and rather peremptory pledge about the nunneries—" we shall not disperse the female com- munities "—giving especial offence. The air, too, is full of suspicion, and the Premier's statement that the Government would give priority to the Education Bills, and take up the Bills on the Magistracy afterwards, gave rise to an idea that the Cabinet desired to avoid the attack on the Judges and Procureurs for which the more violent Radicals are panting. They think it impossible to tolerate so many lawyers in office who are hostile to the Re- public, and have been excited to a sort of intellectual frenzy by the frequent refusals of magistrates in the Departments to
carry out the Decrees of March. The Extremists, therefore, after having first shown their temper by supporting the de- mand of M. Laissant (Radical) for a Parliamentary inquiry into the charges against General de Cissey, which the Govern- ment opposes, really for reasons of diplomacy, but nominally because a legal investigation is already ordered, proceeded to pass on the Cabinet a direct slight, involving in principle a vote of no confidence. Any Administration must decide on the comparative urgency of its measures, but M. Ballu proposed a motion declaring that the Education Bill should not be taken first, but the Bill for purifying the Magistracy, and after that, according to the Times' correspondent, the Bill for the Repeal of the Concordat, thus relegating education to the third posi- tion in order of time, and one behind two of the most burning questions. M. Ferry fought for his proposal, but the Right saw their opportunity of overthrowing and discrediting one more Government ; and the Advanced Left, reinforced by eighty-one Royalists and Bonapartists, defeated the Go- vernment by 200 to 166. Although the House was not full, the total numbers, the subject of the vote, which was on a purely administrative question, and the fact that the Ministry had that moment asked for full confidence, made this vote a severe rebuke, and the Ferry Cabinet was perfectly justified in placing its resignation in the President's hands. It had been told that it could not be trusted even to arrange the order of business, lest it should obey some arriere pensee, and neglect measures on which the Chamber had set its heart. That was the clear intention of the vote, and after allowing for a certain incon- sequence, and even thoughtlessness, in the habitual action of the Chamber, it is impossible to perceive any other course which the Ministry could have adopted with dignity, unless, indeed, they had boldly demanded a vote of confidence without resigning, a line of action for which there are many precedents..
The resignation struck a certain dismay into all parties,. except the Right, which, exasperated by the March Decrees and by the near. prospect of the elections, is assuming the attitude of the Home-rulers in the British Parliament. M. Grevy, a strong Constitutionalist, is weary of being called upon to work with a new Ministry every quarter. M. Gambetta, though probably not well affected to this Administration, which upon points differs from him in political tone, the Ministers being, we fear, more moderate as regards the Church, and we hope more timid as regards foreign affairs, is most un- willing to see a dissolution before the Bill has been passed establishing the Scrutin de Lists, a measure which he thinks will make the Chamber more homogeneous. Quiet Republi- cans, moreover, are sensible of the danger and discredit brought on the Republic by these rapid changes, and especially by the dismissal of a. Ministry before it has been allowed to discuss its policy in debate, and through a vote taken upon an essential, but still elementary, point of form. Great pressure was therefore brought to bear upon the Ministry, and after long discussions at the Elysee, it was resolved to ask the Chamber for a definite vote of confidence. This was drawn up. by M. Guichard, of the Pure Left, in a very dry form, in these words :—" The Chamber, approving the acts of the Govern- ment and confiding in its declarations, passes to the order of the day." The vote was passed by 297 to 131, but not until. M. Ferry had made an ambiguous declaration upon the priority of business which will give him serious trouble in the future. He did not insist upon priority for the Education Bill, as he should have done, but did not waive it, only declaring that such priority " did not involve
any question of principle." If, therefore, he insists on his own order, he will disappoint the Extremists afresh ; while if he does not, he will be considered squeezable to a degree which always makes a French Ministry contemptible, and brings it to the ground. The French never believe in men who do not believe in themselves. In any case, his Government, after such a brutal rebuff, can have little inherent strength, the Right being mad with it for carrying out the Decrees against monks, and the Ultras irritated with it for
leniency to nuns. It may potter along, if it insists on going its own way ; but if not; it must either fall, or openly declare that it holds power only as a Ministry ad interim till the country has been consulted. The danger of such an attitude is, of course, that the Chamber will then take the bit in its teeth ; and this Chamber has lost, in a large degree, mastery over itself. Passions are excessively., inflamed, as.is shown by the deplorable Baudry d'Asson inci--
dent, during which some of the first men in France went to fisticuffs with the guard of the Chamber ; the " groups " which must coalesce to obtain a majority have grown jealous and sus- picious of each other ; and the authority of M. Gambetta within the Chamber, if not in the country, has declined. Parties are so savage that the bourgeois common-sense of Frenchmen—that sense of the expedient which constantly operates when everything seems going to pieces—may come into play, and the Chamber sink for a time into a kind of apathetic calm ; but if this change does not occur, it is difficult to see a way out, except through a dissolution. The country must be asked how far it means to go against the Church, and how far it trusts M. Gambetta, and parties must be arranged according to the answer. Otherwise, we cannot but anticipate for the immediate future a period of legislative sterility, varied by scenes of extreme violence, each one of which deepens the passion of parties, and discredits the character of the Chamber for gravity and self-control.
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