THE IDEAS OF THE FRENCH MONARCHISTS.
pARTIES die hard, and the French Royalists, though to outside view they seem mortally wounded, have not yet given up the ghost. The other day a correspon- dent of the Figaro was at the pains to interview a very distinguished Monarchist, whom he does not name, in order to get from him his opinion on the recent drift of Conservatives to the Republic. The questions he put to him were sufficiently searching, and the answers have, at all events, a great air of truth. If they are not what a Royalist leader actually said, they are what a Royalist leader determined not to despair prematurely might very well have said. The immediate occasion of the interview was the appearance of certain articles in the Soleil, a paper which has long been regarded as the ablest and most influential of the Royalist organs. The Soleil has been driven to lay down its arms by the foreign successes of the Republic. What is the use, it asks, of fighting against a Government which has virtually nego- tiated a Russian alliance, and restored France to her place among the Great Powers ? These are the very things which the Royalists have always insisted that the Republic would be unable to do, and lo ! the Republic has done them. The Royalists chose their own test, and the Republic has stood that test successfully. They pointed to weakness abroad as the inevitable and inseparable consequence of degradation at home, and now the weak- ness abroad has disappeared. The Distinguished Person wisely makes no reference to the Soleil's reasoning ; he contents himself with denying the representative character of the paper. M. t douard Hervit, he says, is too independent and too important to accept direction from any one, even from the Comte de Paris himself ; and it does not seem to strike him that the quasi-conversion of this independent and important journalist has any special significance. Does it not at least show,' asks his in- terviewer, that there is great discouragement in the Monarchical camp, and many defections from the Monarchi- cal ranks?' ' Not at all,' is the reply. The defections have made much noise, but they are few in number, and they have made a far greater impression on people living in Paris than on people living in the provinces. The latter have simply been irritated by them, and when the elections come, they will make those who have left them feel the error of their calculations.' The interviewer then turned to the recent change of attitude on the part of Catholics.
Has not that,' he said, drawn away a great number of Royalists ? " Much less than is thought,' was the answer.
We are grieved, of course, at the professions of faith in the Republic put out by the Archbishop of Algiers and the Bishop of Grenoble. But the clergy have not made these professions their own. On the contrary, they have maintained a strict neutrality. The organisation they favour and recommend to their flocks is the Christian Union founded by the Archbishop of Paris, which takes no side in politics, and only demands justice and freedom at the hands of the State.' The next point raised was the new friendship with Russia. No doubt,' said the Dis- tinguished Person, this is a benefit to the Republic, but it is not really new. It was a feature of Marshal MacMahon's policy just as much as of M. Carnot's. In fact, it reflects honour, not on this or that Government, but on France generally. It is the reward of the sacrifices to which she has submitted in order to create a new Army.' Up to this point it will be seen that the Royalist reply has been purely evasive. It is a series of acts of thank- fulness for the smallest possible mercies. Our ablest organ in the Press has thrown us over, but it has done so -without our consent, and because our chance seems to it at an end. We have sustained conspicuous losses, but they have been in Paris, and among politicians, not in the country, where people do not care about politics. The clergy, who used to support us, now stand aside ; but this is a change we welcome. The Republic has made a friend of Russia, but we should have done the same if we had been in power. Indeed, we did it when we were in power, only nobody noticed it, and so we gained no advantage from it.' We do not wonder that the reporter of this conversation kept strictly to the character he had assumed of a simple asker of questions. The answers were not of a kind to encourage controversy. There is no arguing with the inveterate optimism which is undisturbed alike by M. Herves despondency, by the secession of politically minded Royalists, by the conversion of the clergy from belligerents into neutrals, and by the fact that the harvest of the friendship with Russia has been reaped by the Republic instead of by the Royalists. On these principles a party can never be defeated, a cause can never die. Misfortunes are bless- ings in disguise, and the best thing that can befall a man is to have all his schemes come to nothing. It is an admirable frame of mind to be in from the point of view of moral training, and if the Distinguished Person speaking for his party had simply said with the Psalmist, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted," we should have admired his fortitude. But to say that these things are not afflictions, that they in no way affect the prospects or detract from the prosperity of the party, is a sign, not of fortitude, but of blindness.
He was on firmer ground when he came to criticise the Republic. In the provinces,' he said, it has never been more intolerant and more persecuting. On the first of next month, the last Con gregationist schools will be closed, and the work of laicisation completed. What have the Republican professions of certain Catholics done to stop this ? Religious orders are still compelled to pay a ruinous and unjust succession-duty. Have M. Rouvier's promises prevented this ? Granted that the Ministers preach peace, have they the courage to practise it ? They may wish to be just and to treat all Frenchmen equally, but will the Radicals allow them to do it ? "The Distinguished Person is evidently better at asking questions than at answering them. He has put his finger on the weak spot in the recent change in the distribution of parties in France. The Conservatives have gone a long way towards the Republic ; and all that is wanted to make the union lasting is that the Republic should go a little way to meet them. In appearance this is the simplest thing in the world. It exacts from the Republic no abandonment of principle ; it only asks it to do by others as it would wish others to do by it. But in fact it is one of the most difficult, because it requires from Ministers an amount of minute control over subor- dinates which it is very hard for a Minister to exercise. The Radicals are in possession, not of the Government, but of the permanent staff ; and every order a Minister gives has to filter through a medium which is bound to disregard that order as far as it safely can. And it can go a long way in disregarding, without running any considerable risk. Ministers have their majority to think of, and though the Conservatives have come over to the Republic in large numbers, they have as yet sent very few representatives to the Chamber. Still, the really important consideration is, that so many Conservatives should have come over without waiting for the Republic to mend its manners. A way has thus been found out of the deadlock which once existed. For a long time neither side was willing to make the first move. The Conservatives waited for the Republic to show itself conciliatory. The Republicans waited for the Conserva- tives to abandon all thought of a restoration. Now that first step has been taken, and taken by the Conservatives. They have declared themselves Republicans in the hope of eventually proving strong enough, in concert with the Moderates, whom they have hitherto refused to work with, to shape the Republican policy afresh. Ministers see this change clearly enough. It has already influenced their speeches ; it will in the end influence their acts. But for the present, there is still need for forbearance on the part of the Conservatives, and for boldness on the part of the Govern- ment; and so long as this need continues, the Royalists may be expected to go on hoping against hope.
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