| Show FRANCE IN A FERMENT It seems that France is ripening for a coup detat The cables are tellln of an outbreak in Paris Hundreds of people have been killed or injured al ready A revolution seems imminent Tie breach between the army and the people has widened The civil authorities authori-ties are powerless The military cannot can-not be trusted The people arc taking sIdes and public sentiment is in the acute stes of fermentation A yvtr ago the antiSemites were insolent in-solent and the Drefusards ere timid The former clement was so greatly in the ascendancy that the temptation to hurt anybody did not move it The faction that wanted to see justice done even to a Jew was too weak to either attack or provoke the ruling mob But the revision the revelations at the pending trial the consequent change or sentiment tho inevitable distrust of the army and its champIons the waning wan-ing influence of the general staff the transformation of the national administration adminis-tration has made lovers of justice and fairness in France bold to raahness and screeners of corruption and conspiracy frantic and revengeful The ciil authorities of Paris have tried to drift with the mob After I using their authority for the DUlose of promoting rascality when rascals I were in the saddle they have yielded to popular clamor at last and are trying try-Ing to conciliate the masses Thus they have gained the hostility of the militarists mili-tarists without regaining the confidence of the public who continue to regard them as selfseeking opportunists whIch they doubtless are One trouble with civil authority In France is that its executive officers hold their power by the tenure always precarious in France of formal civil I right The form of government could I be changed almost entirely and the name republic retained lli appropriately appropriate-ly 1 as It has applied to France for many years The army long has had it in its power to overturn civil government in a day provided the long expected man on horseback or any other leader who could command its confidence and obedience obe-dience appeared and he could set up almost anyi form of government that pleased him We are not sure that such a change would be acceptable to the people of France or that any change involving a curtailment of their liberties or privileges priv-ileges would be received by them in a spirit oC submission Any people who haye enjoyed freedom to any extent or of any kind politic or religious and who have had a voice II the shalin of legislatioa or the selection or rulers and lawmakers are not going to sit I down quietly and allow any of those I rIghts liberties privileges or prerogatives preroga-tives taken away from them Europe however would be delighted to see dy I nastie government restored in France I It was on the whole quite content with the wretched performance of 1851 not sO much on account of the fraternal reeling of monarchs which is always an uncertain quantity nor yet because they feel that no other government than that of absolutism can endure b taU t-aU commercial powers arc Interested 111 having order restored and maimrtaired in the domestic affairs or France to insure In-sure permanenco and rellablllt in the foreign relations of that feverish nation na-tion France l11l a tyrant they say to restore her equilibrium Her people are mercurial supcrstltlous and suspicious Her Intrlsues arc historical Her traitorS trai-torS often prove to 00 the most conspicuous con-spicuoUs of her popular heroes Like the French drama French history is Incomplete In-complete without its heavy mains Its traitors and its 1 > lots These are jUdged upon their artistic merIts rather than from their moral standing nut there may be no uprising It docs not seem that there Is a hand strong enough to strike the blow UOalt ma make the attempt but French royalty Is decrepit and impotent Time militarists arc too badly Imolved in conspiracies to tju teach t-each other The army has only theatrical the-atrical generaLs and colonels and nt a genuine hero or leader li Its front The > revoitltioim b apt toJlwlndle Into a 1I1ert riot But even wHit peace the outlook for tIC French people is not 1iatteri9n Pezimaps after aIlS a chlI < i 1I I > roar pald1aHfy ihi 2atrnciihere ot France |
