The Crisis in France.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14984, 3 June 1914, Page 8

The Crisis in France.

Franco is now in the throes of another political crisis the Ministry of M. Doumcrguo having resigned. Crises may almost be said to be tho natural order of things in French politics, which are always in a stato of moro or less unstable equilibrium. It will probably interest some of our readers to loam what is the course now to be pursued. They will find .it all described in M. Poincare's admirable work, "How Franco is Governed." It is the President of the Republic who appoints the Ministers. But he docs not really select them. Ho confines himself to appointing tho President of the Council When a Ministerial crisis occurs—that is, when a Ministry, having boon put in a minority by tbo Chamber upon an ■-"-important question, considers it its duty to retire—the President of tho Republic consults the politicians who seem to him best qualified to advise him upon the situation, and notably the President* of tho two Chambers. Ho then summons tho man to whom the circumstances _<?em to point a*? tho leader of a fresh Government. He may apply to a Senator, a Deputy, or to a man who does not sit in either Chamber. If the personage who in the Eng-

lish phrase is thus "sent for," accepts tho commission to form a Ministry, then ho chooses his colleagues as he thinks fit. In principle, therefore, tho plan adopted is very much on tho linos followed in England or ono of the self, governing Dominions. Although theoretically under the British Constitution, a Minister need not- bo a member of either HOll5O, custom demands that ho shall find a seat in either Assembly without delay. Needless to say tho idea of entrusting tho formation of a Ministry to ono who is not a member of either Houso is altogether repugnant to British ideas of responsible government.

With tho session only three weeks off tbe Primo Minister can-spare little more time for spcoch-makinr;. W« are very glad, however, that het'oro returning to Wellington ho intends to deliver an address in this city. r fho real audiences of Ministers, and of politicians generally, aro tho people who read tho paper*-, who are, of course, scores of times more numerous than any audience can be. At tho same time, tho cities expect the political leaders to pay them tho compliment of personal appearances on tho platform. Durinji tho recess the Prime Minister and. his colleagues have so completely establish od their claim to have provided sound and equitable government, clean administration, and democratic legislation, that Mr Massey will not find it necessary to break new ground. Perhaps the Government's opponents may arran.o to disturb tho meeting, but it is possible that their organisers have by now realised that it is not profitable to exercise too freely their monopoly of rowdiness. We expect that this time they may tako tho opportunity to show that at times they can behave with the courtesy which the Reformers display toward. ' Opposition speakers. Tho Prime Minister has been in exceillent form since he recovered from his serious illness, and if he is free of tho cold that troubled him iii Dunedin, the public may exr>-v-t a te'ling and vigorous speech on Friday night.

Our Wellington correspondent mentions, in a message we print to-d;iy, th-e latest feat of the Opposition 'financial critics. The Napier ''Tele.-rr-'pr-.' which is under the same management as the chief organ of the Opposition party, declares that tho financial year just ended did not end with a surplus, but wibhadeficit of £34.503! "Liberal" arithmetic is so wayward that it too.*us some little time to discover how this result, which is certain to appcai strongly to, say, Mr Russoll or Mr Isitt was arrived' at. Tho actual expenditu-o for the year* (including £11.400 debentures paid off) amounted to £31,837,263. Tho actual revenue amounted io £12,229,660. But the Opposition expert actually took tho final surplus of £426,905, called it expenditure, added it to the £11,837,263, and got a total of £12,264,168! He then subtracted the revenue from this total, and called the remainder, £34,508, tbe cfeficit I We cannot even begin to imagine what our "Liberal" friends will find themselves proving by the time their last shred of intelligence has gone.

The removal last week of the mace in the Federal Parliament seems to have been only a practical joke, but the removal of "tho Speaker's uotos" —such was the phrase used in the cablo messages—apparently bad a more serious motive. Tho Speaker kept by him a copy of May's ''Parliamentary Practice," the standard work on the subject, and had gone to great troub!. to annotate it and mark important references by tahs of paper, so that ho | could quote authority in any emergency, tTiat might arise. Tho book was taken away and ultimately found amongst wood and coal in one of the lavatories. It lay open and face downwards, and all the markers were missing. The incident has a sinister look, and indicates the state of feeling in tho Houso. Should the Commission that has been appointed to investigate the matter sheet it home to a member, suspension will probably follow: in which case (as it is hardly likely that a Liberal is the culprit) Mr Cook will find his majority temporarily increased.

According to tho report in an en- [ thusiastically friendly paper tho member for Avon had "a capital hearing at Milton"—which wo quite believe, und are very glad of—four or live hundred people being presont. Tho public is also asked to believe—and Mr Russell will claim when, in due course, he returns and grants one of those comical interviews—that this enthusiasm proves all that has been said (in between those nasty by-elections at- which the figures wox't behavo) about "tho rising tido of Liberalism."' Tho public might mako a more successful effort to pretend that it is impressed were it not for such littlo things as, say, tho last sentence in the five-column report- of tho Milton speech. The first sentence reads: "This evening Mr G. W. Russell addressed between four and five hundred people at the Coronation Hall."

Tho last sentence is: "Mr Russell afterwards held a meeting of Liberals when forty attended." Tho other 360 or 400 peoplo seem somehow to have escaped tho contagion of enthusiasm. Between a public meeting and "a meeting of Liberals." obviously, there is a 90 per cent, difference. Tho 90 per cent., it would appear, attend only for the free entertainment guaranteed by tho "flying squadron." The remaining 10 per cent, aro the rising tide.

A remarkable figure in tho English literary world passed away recently in Sir Edwin Darning-Lawrence, tiio leading Baconian of his time. A member of a wealthy I/ondon family, and for _omo years a Unionist M.P., Sir Edwin devoted the iater years of his life to an attempt to provo conclusively that Bacon was Shakespeare. No man was ever surer of anything than he was that Shakespeare was a ••mean, drunken, ignorant, and absolutely unlettered rustic," and that Bacon wrote tho plays to which his name has always been attached. Ho published in 1910 "Bacon is Shakespeare," of which it has I been said that "no more-ingenious perversion of reasoning, no more industrious misdirection of research, is to be found evon in the.most finished literature produced b_| those who used to prove the flatness of the earth and tho fallacies of the Qrjpernican theory." Sir Edwin must havo spent a small fortune on his theory, and must havo numbered converts by the thousand, for tho idea is superficially plausible-

Two years ago a popular abridgment of his book, published at. one penny. w__ in its 301 st thousand. Sir Edwin was not content with assigning the Shakespeare plays to Bacon; he -sought to prove, too, that Bacon wrote "Tho Faery Queeno," Marlowe's plays, anj "Tho Anatomy ot Melancholy." •{-•,__. comprehensive •sweep did not tako the Baconians aback. When once they aro fairly started they worn to X,.. a j,j p to credit almost anything.