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 the greater part of the peasants and small bourgeoisie stand side by side, and also by the great majority of the French people, who do not allow themselves to be led astray by the priests, nor coerced by the reactionary capitalists. Militarism is by far less strong and dangerous in France than in Germany, and the French army is to a much greater extent than in Germany a people's army. The army is as large as in Germany, although the population is fifteen million less; it contains therefore a larger per cent of the total population. France is actually at the point where it must break with the Prussian-German military system which it adopted after the war of 1870–71; it must either do as the minister of war, General Gallifet, has recommended,—replace it with a well-drilled Prætorian Guard,—or enter at once upon the militia system, and arm every person capable of bearing arms. A coup d'etat is impossible with such an army. No matter how reactionary a portion of the officers may be, the mass of the soldiers are too close to the people to be used for such purposes.

If, as has been represented to us, the actual formation of the Waldeck-Rousseau Ministry was necessary to protect the Republic against a coup d'etat, then the republican sentiment of the French proletariat was security enough for the government,—in every way a far better security than the participation of a socialist in the Cabinet.

The circumstance that the chief of this ministry was a particularly clear-cut capitalist, and that the Minister of War was one of the most notorious "saberers" of the "Little Napoleon," and one of the most bloodthirsty murderers of the Commune, made the unnaturalness of Millerand's action all the more evident. But even if in place of Waldeck-Rousseau there had been a genuine Democrat, as for example, Brisson, and in place of Gallifet, an honorable soldier, not yet stained with laborers' blood, the step would have