| Show FRENCH AFFAIRS I The news from Paris and the state of excitement consequent upon the defeat of I the French at Langson fully justifies the apprehensions of many that Franceis on j j the verge of one of her numerous revolutions revolu-tions and when we remember that is as natural for a Frenchman to revolutionize as it is for him to economise and that we today see the overthrow of the Ferry I ministry although it is not very probable that the various factions of monarchists I will undertake any policy other than that I of goading the government and waiting their opportunity It is from Faubourg I du St Antoine and from Farbourg du J > Montmartre that revolution and anarchy come in Paris while coups d eat and monarchy come from Faubourg du St Honore As loaders of the people and the Com munards there are Clemenceau and I Rochefort while the champion of Bona jpartisin i is i Paul de Cassagnac These 1 men are able active and hostile I Should these prove unequal to the j j task of making the government anxious i 1 and of doubtful stability there are I the Legitimatists and the Orleanists and I these claimants have been made unduly hostile through the deprivation of their commissions in the army and the ignominy ig-nominy which has been put upon them The telegrams of yesterday say that I when Jules Ferry announced the decision of the Cabinet he was loudly hissed by I deputies and that Clemenceau fairly screamed traitors In most countries such things usually mean a riot perhaps I a serious riot but in France they mean a revolution and the military I The most serious demonstrations were in front of the Chamber of Deputies although al-though they were not hostile in character they were very significant and when it is remembered that the Chamber of Deputies Depu-ties is just across the Seine and facing Place de la Concorde there will involuntarily involun-tarily come to the memoiy the infamous scenes of blood and brutality which were witnessed in this same Place during the French Revolution It was here that between be-tween the 21st of January 1793 and the 3d of May 1795 more than twentyeight I hundred persons were guillotined It was of Place de la Concenle that Chateau briand said that all the water in the world could not wash away its blood stains Among the more famous persons who suffered death here were Charlotte Cor day Marie Antoinnette j Elizabeth sister of Louis XVI j here suffered a just death Danton and Robespriere and others whose names lend to the Reign of Terror the glares of hell I This Place has been a celebrated I I camping ground for the enemies of I France the Allies having been here and I in the Champs Elysees which are adjoining ad-joining in 1814 j and so late as 1S71 the Prussian troops bivoucked here and in the Champs Elysees while in May of 71 the Place was the scene of the most desperate des-perate conflicts between the troops of 1 Versailles and the Communards Inthe I center of Place de la Concorde stands the I Obelisk of Luxor this same obelisk having I hav-ing seen all the worlds changes for fourteen four-teen hundred years before Christ and has never been harmed by any of the conflicts which have raged around it since it stood in its present position If Waddington prove a man equal I to the critical juncture at which affairs I have arrived all will be well and good but if not let the Republic beware France gained but little prestige in her Tunisian venture but she made of Italy mortal enemy and Italy today is no petty power Perhaps France can retrieve I re-trieve in Chinese waters what she has lost in European lands but the rout at Langson even makes this a thing of doubt But France ill doubtless show herself more worthy of her past than maybe I may-be thought j and we must not forget that Cherbourg rivals Portsmouth |
