Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/663

 END OP TIJE SECOND EMPIRE.] refused to hear of the emperor s return to Paris, and ordered 1870-71. MacMahon to march to the Belgian frontier, to take the Prussians on the flank, and to relieve Bazaine at Metz, a plan excellent with a strong force able to march fast, fatal with an imperial army, disorganized, doubtful, and slow. The northward movement ended speedily in the great The catastrophe of Sedan (1st September 1870). On the 2d battle of the emperor, with an army of more than 80,000 men, was Setlan - the prisoner of war of the king of Prussia. X. THE THIRD REPUBLIC. In spite of all precautions the news oozed out at Paris all too soon for the dismayed imperialists. On September 4 the third Republic was proclaimed on the advice of M. Thiers, with a Government of national defence ; the chief The members were Jules Favre, Jules Simon, and Gambetta ; ^ ^ General Trochu was its military head. Gradually the Ger- Rp P uljlic - mans closed in on Paris ; no serious resistance in the field being attempted, or indeed being possible, at a moment when one half of the available army of France lay in Metz and the other half was either destroyed or prisoners at Sedan. The first siege of Paris lasted from September 19, 1870, to The first January 30, 1871, during which period also the temporal sie s e ot power of the papacy came to an end (September 1870), for ans it fell with the imperial cause, which alone had held it up ; and in December the king of Prussia was invited to accept the position of head of a new empire of Germany. With a Ger man emperor, and Victor Emmanuel at Rome, and France in extremities, it was clear that great changes had come, and must lead eventually to broad rearrangements of the political world. While Paris held out bravely enough, if not very wisely, Gambetta at Tours used incredible efforts to rai.se fresh armies for France; the old hero of Italy, Garibaldi, also appeared, now that imperialism was gone, and placed his sword at the disposal of the struggling republic. Before the end of October the capitulation of Metz had released a whole German army, which protected the operations of the besieging hosts ; at last, on January 28, 1871, an armistice was announced, which brought the despairing resistance of Paris to an end. The war elsewhere died out almost at once ; the Germans occupied all the forts round Paris. On 8th February elections took place for a National The As- Assembly to be held at Bordeaux, to deliberate on the ques- sembly tion of peace or war, or rather, to arrange the terms of f Bor ~ peace, for the country, returned the Assembly with that intention. It was a body nominally republican, with strong monarchical leanings, as yet unexpressed ; hardly half a dozen Bonapartists were returned to it. Garibaldi was among the deputies elected, though he declined the honour of acting as a Frenchman. The new republican Government of France now had M. Thiers as chief of the executive power, with M. Grevy as president of the Assembly; and it was decided that the Assembly should hold its sittings at Versailles. The fierce outbreak of the hot republicans of Paris interfered sorely with their peaceful labours. On 18th March the commune of Paris declared itself in opposition to the Versailles republic ; the old grudges of artisan Paris once more asserted their unpleasant exist ence ; and Marshal MacMahon was instructed by the Versailles Assembly to reduce the insurgent capital. Then The followed the second siege of Paris, from April 2 to May 21, second with its accompanying horrors, and the gloomy spectacle p 1 ^ of street-fighting and the burning and ruin of the public buildings of the town. Meanwhile M. Thiers had at last, by his unwearying The activity, succeeded in getting terms of peace agreed to. treaty of The treaty of Frankfort was signed on the 10th of M 1871; by it Alsace and a large part of Lorraine were ceded back to Germany, while Belfort was restored to