Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/125

 THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN FRANCE 1 09

them the Duke of Orleans, the great-grandson of Louis Philippe I. Of him it is known that he is married to an archduchess of Austria, and that he has no children. He is immensely wealthy, his fortune being estimated at 50,000,000 francs. He is banished from France and lives abroad, by virtue of the law of exile for the pretenders. He has always busied himself more with his private affairs than with politics. He maintains, however, a political bureau in Paris, which keeps him informed and issues orders to the Royalist papers of Paris and the provinces. These papers are very few. Many which were formerly Royalist are now Progressist Republican or Nationalist, and are enlisted for the republic.

The Royalist papers of Paris are La Gazette de France, Le Gaulois, Le Moniteur universel, and Le Soleil, though the last- named generally masks its royalism. As a rule, these papers have no great circulation. La Gazette de France does not issue more than four or five thousand copies. It is the official organ of the party, and expresses the views of Charles Maurras a man of about forty, and a writer of great talent. His dream was to regenerate royalism with new social ideas, especially reforms in the relations between employers and employees. His efforts have not been successful. The other Royalist papers did not come to the support of his theories, which they deemed revolutionary. They held to the purest conservatism, being more or less avowed adversaries of all social reforms along democratic lines, and con- fining their program solely to a propaganda for a monarchical form of government which would maintain the existing social order, with its well-marked social hierarchy. To this class belongs Le Gaulois, the official organ of the nobility. Its circu- lation amounts to some 15,000 copies. Its leading writer is Arthur Meyer, an Israelite, who was born in humble circum- stances, but is now rich. A few years ago he abjured his religion and was baptized. Recently he was married to Mademoiselle de Turenne, who is nearly forty years younger than himself. Le Moniteur universel exists only in name. As regards Le Soleil, it was formerly the organ of liberal royalism, but apparently tends to give up royalism and to label itself " Liberal Republican." The