M. Challemel-Lacour has at last resigned the Foreign Ministry of
France, and has been succeeded by N. Jules Ferry. There- never probably was a Minister about whom opinion was so unanimous. M. Challemel-Lacour, by the consent alike of friends and enemies, is a man of great or even splendid gifts, a philosopher and investigator of high rank, whose powers are rendered useless by an irritable arrogance of temper, and an inability to understand that men are governed by other things than logic. Wherever he has been stationed as diplomatist, he has made enemies; and whenever he has been Foreign Minister, France has been embroiled with weak Powers. His failure is attri- buted to temper; but we greatly fear the weak point of the men of science in the practical business of life will be found here. Their conclusions are always too absolute. If M. Paul Bert thought church-going unhealthy, he would close all churches, in the face- of an insurrection ; and if M. Challemel.Lacour thought the Malagasy inferior people, he would treat Envoys from Mada- gascar as if they were animals, never heeding that he was doubling the risks of war. The old "doctrinaires "—the men who believed in systems like political economy—were pliable by the side of the new men of science, who absolutely cannot believe that it may be unwise to treat men as if they were. merely forces expressible by mathematical ..signs, and to be used in the " wise " way, without reference to their wills. The strength of France being e, and the strength of Switzerland ar,. what could the manner of a French diplomatist towards a Swiss. Minister signify to the restilt ? One might as well consider the colour of the ink used in the calculation ?
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