In the course of the festivities attending the unveiling, at
Calrors, of a statue of Gambetta, M. Jules Ferry made an im- portant speech at Perigneux. He described himself as entirely opposed to the Extremists, believed that the peasantry desired the safety of property above all things, and declared that the- " Republic should be the Republic of the peasantry, or it should not be at all." In particular, he would not allow Municipalities to become little Parliaments, or tolerate petty insurrections within the State. He held it necessary, if France was to be. respected, to affirm "that in no part of the world would she allow her legitimate interests to be tampered with." Democracy hardly yet understood that a country like France could not hold her fitting position in Europe, unless her Government offered certain guarantees of stability and steadfastness of purpose. Europe would not trust or make contracts. with a Republic whose head was changed with every week.. He had been in office eighteen months, and if he had effected anything—and he had settled Tunis and finished the military portion of the work in Tonquin—it was because the Chamber had supported him with a solid majority. M. Ferry is supposed to include Egypt within the places where the rights, of France must not be tampered with, but whether those rights are the rights of bondholders he does not explain. The whole speech has in it a trace of that Napoleonic vein into which all rulers of France seem naturally to fall, in spite of the fact that the peasants they rely upon detest war.
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