The Paris correspondent of the Times contributes • to Wednesday's
issue a long and interesting letter on France in 1902. Of the stability of the Republican regime he takes a somewhat gloomy view, while admitting that tbe Repub- licans have learnt one great lesson,—to distrust their enemies. It was General Boulanger who opened their eyes. But their awakening has its dangers : an epoch of mistrust has succeeded one of indifference, and the supporters of the Republic are "watching vigilantly all men of ambitious or domineering temperament who are aiming at the Presidency." He further charges the Republicans with having done nothing " to come to terms with their enemies, so as to bring in the reign of uni- versal co-operation among French citizens for the grandeur and prosperity of France." The result is that there is always a chance for a Caesar—only that the Opposition does not seem capable of throwing up Caesars—and it is solely the mediocrity of the Opposition which enables the Bloc, as represented by the Cabinet of M. Combes, to pursue its sterile policy of Anti- Clericalism,—a policy which in the view of the writer is repug- nant to the average provincial Frenchman. As regards the prospects of leading statesmen, M. Rouvier inspires most con- fidence; M. Delcasse is unpopular, but is likely to be retained because of the distrust of the alternative Ministers, MIL Etienne and Doumer. The Humbert affair is being un- scrupulously but unavailingly exploited by the Opposition to discredit the Government; and the advance of the "new morality," fostered by the new French literary school, is illus- trated by the interest excited by the elopement of the Crown Princess of Saxony, and portends the advent of a time "when family ties will become a simple fiction, and when, unless a radical change intervenes, society will have atheism as a basis and voluptuousness as a summit." Amongst the reassuring symptoms the writer notes a saner attitude towards Britain, and the impotence of the Opposition. But the " sudden and unexpected impulses " of the Kaiser are a source of anxiety to reflective minds, and the best that the writer can say is that the year ends as it began, "fairly reassuringly."
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