FRENCH UNCERTAINTIES.

Southland Times, Issue 1572, 3 May 1872, Page 3

FRENCH UNCERTAINTIES.

The position of France at the present moment is one of great uncertainty, and every week of increasing peril. There is constant talk of another coup d'etat. The monarchists are openly scheming — issuiug manifestoes, drawing up programmes, making new alliances among political factions. M. Tbiers has clearly lost power since hia petulant resignation, and the transitional government he exercises seems on the point of dissolution. What is to come next nobody knows — whether a king by divine right or anarchy and j civil strife, or an Emperor or new man of the army. M. Rouher has been returned as a deputy by Corsica, but his presence in Paris has not yet done much ! for Napoleon. The Assembly has provided that in case it should be dissolved by violence the Conseils Generaux should elect each two delegates, and so constitute a provisional body to meet in any town of France; but the precaution suggests the nearness of danger. The well-informed correspondent of the Guardian depicts the situation with ominous facts : — " Not to speak of the absolute ravings which," he says, " one hears occasionally from pur sang Ultramontane Legitimists in private, it is quite worth while for any traveller passing through Paris at this moment just to stroll through the Faubourg St. German, still the quarter par excellence of the party, and witness the outburst of ' loyalty' which will there meet his eye externally in every direction. The windows of every book and print shop are filled with ' Manifestoes' of the Comte de Chambord, or Idees Politiques of the Comte de Chambord, or how the Comte de Chambord is going to govern France when she at last, fatiguee de revolutions (the stereotyped phrase), throws herself into his arms, and beseeches him to come back and ' save' her, and ' begin over again' from 1789 ! Then there are promises put forth of ' how much liberty' Henry V. will 'accord to his penitent subjects, or how much he can accord consistently with hi3 ' divine' rights. There, too, may be seen displayed ' maps of France under the Bourbons' —in what shape they received, and in what state they left it — compared with another map which exhibits the country in its present shorn and diminished proportions. Portraits without end meet you of Henry V. and his Queen (the latter an extremely lady-like and interesting looking person) encircled with mottoes assuring France that they alone can restore to her religion, peace, and a stable Government. There are long pedigrees of the Bourbons exhibited, with all the great men the family has produced ; and a careful omission of all the scapegraces and scoundrels of the same Royal race. One might fancy oneself already ' gone back ' to before 1789, when traversing the old streets of Paris on the left bank of the Seine." — Home News.