that the present republic has outstripped
all its predecessors, whether republican, imperial, or monarchical,
leaving even the most fortunate of them two or three years behind, and
bidding fair to increase the distance indefinitely. Its longevity has
been greater than the first and second republics taken together, which
covered a period of a little over sixteen years; while if we combine
the existence of all three republics, equal to about thirty-six years,
we again find that no other regime has shown such prolonged
vitality,--the two empires having lived for only twenty-eight years,
and the two monarchies for about thirty-three and a half years.

But the early years of the third republic--from 1870 to 1879--like the
declining period of the first and second republics, were more
monarchical than republican. And again, there are so many weakening
influences in the present institutions of France, that the decisive
conclusions which might otherwise be drawn from the foregoing
considerations need, I regret to say, to be considerably qualified.
Previous to the election to the presidency of M. Grevy, in 1879, the
government was happily styled "a republic without republicans." But
since that date the same party--the republican--has had supreme
control. Practically, therefore, the third republic has been in
operation about twelve years, and has, therefore, still to pass that
dangerous turning-point in the history of French governments, the
twentieth year.

I now come to the consideration of some of the more serious causes of
lack of faith in the duration of the present regime. But it should be
pointed out right here at the start that many of these blemishes, most
all of them in fact, have characterized every government in France, so
that they are not peculiarly republican; and I hasten to add that my
object in pointing them out, in analyzing them and dwelling on them,
is not for the purpose of belittling or ridiculing the estimable
government now controlling the destinies of France. As an American and
a republican who has observed contemporary French history on the spot
since 1874, who has been an eye witness of many of the crucial
episodes of this critical period, who has known personally several of
the leading actors and who wishes well for the present institutions, I
take up this subject not so much in order to find fault with what is,
as to endeavor to discover how far these imperfections and weaknesses
endanger the existe