Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/664

 628 FRANCE [HISTORY. 1372-75. The re action ary Ver sailles A.ssem- bly. The par ties in it. Death of Napo leon III. FallofM, Thiers. A reac tionary constitu tion. France; a huge money indemnity was to be paid to Germany for the costs of the war. The reactionary measures of the Versailles Assembly soon began, timidly at first, to push forward with boldness, if the first steps succeeded. Thus, it suppressed the national guard, in spite of the moderate opposition of M. Thiers ; it allowed Orleanist princes and members of the Bonapartist family to enter the Assembly; it strengthened its position at Versailles, though it had not the courage to move the Government offices thither. Early in 1872 the opposition of the Assembly to his financial proposals led to a first re signation of M. Thiers ; only on its earnest and almost unanimous petition did he consent to hold office any longer. Meanwhile, the attempts at a fusion between the legiti mists and Orleanists failed completely; the efforts of the Bonapartists, led by M. Kouher, were redoubled ; a great organized propaganda was set afoot; newspapers, pamphlets, photographs, bribes for the army and for Government officials, intrigues of every kind, were in motion, in order to create a public opinion on behalf of the emperor and the young prince imperial, as he was still persistently called. The three parties agreed in one thing, at least, that they would before long put an end to the republic. At the end of 1872 a commission of thirty was appointed to regulate the arrangement of public powers and duties, and to settle the vexed question of ministerial responsibility. It was composed of a majority of the Right, the members of the different anti-republican parties in the Assembly. From it sprang the attempts of the Assembly to postpone the day of its dissolution, and to frame the government of France in such a way as to secure the defeat of the republic. The weakness of the majority lay in the fact that their union was only negative ; and that if they did agree, it was only till they could rid themselves of the republic. The death of Napoleon III. at Chiselhurst in January 1873 created little or no feeling in France, and showed that imperialism had small hold on the popular mind. The Assembly now decided that it would remove the president from the chamber, because of the great influence which Thiers could always exert on a debate ; and, secondly, that it would push back its own dissolution as far as possible. These proposals Thiers accepted, rather than run the risk of a collision. When, however, it was announced that, thanks chiefly to the president s exertion, the evacuation of France by the Prussian troops would take place two years sooner than had been originally stipulated, and that the last foreign soldier would march off in September 1873, the parties of the majority became seriously alarmed ; for the life of the assembly had been, by their own admission, connected with the period of continuance of German troops in France. Early in April 1873, on the resignation of M. Gre&quot;vy, pre sident of the chamber, they carried their candidate M. Buffet, against the Thiers Government ; in May they came to close quarters, and brandishing their favourite weapon, the &quot; red spectre,&quot; these three reactionary parties defeated Thiers by a majority of 16 (360 against 344). Then the old minister resigned, and the parties, which had arranged their plans beforehand, at once elected as president Marshal MacMahon, the &quot;honnete homme et soldat,&quot; as he styled himself. With him they associated a cabinet of which the head was M. de Broglie. Immediately the functionaries were changed throughout France, and everywhere old imperialists were put in. At the beginning of 1875 it was agreed that the presidency should be for seven years, and a new constitution, with the republican element as much as possible effaced, was set up in February 1875. Before this M. de Broglie had fallen under the ill-will of the monarchical parties, and had been compelled by an ad verse vote of the chamber to send in his resignation. He was succeeded by General de Cissey, with what was called, by an inopportune invention, &quot;a business cabinet.&quot;. The is new constitution provided a president with a cabinet, a body which, by being thus styled &quot;a business cabinet,&quot; seemed to make the president s personality all the stronger; then there was a senate of 300 members, of w r hom 75 were life-holders,and the rest elected for nine years, renewable by triennial elections of a third at a time ; and, lastly, a chamber of deputies, to be elected by the country in the usual way. The time came at last when the chamber, which had been Tl elected to decide on peace or war, and had taktm to itself so the functions of a constituent assembly, and had framed a of new constitution, and had defied the public opinion of se France expressed at almost every bye-election, must bring its half-usurped functions to an end. The successive triumphs of the republicans in bye-elections had strength ened them so much that they could now hold their own iu the chamber. The president, aware that his strength was going, got rid of the cabinet of Dufaure and Jules Simon, and, trusting to official pressure at a new election, hoping also to work on the old fears respecting the extremer party, the &quot; irreconcilables,&quot; took advantage of an adverse vote, and after having in May 1877 adjourned the chamber for a month, eventually dissolved it on June 25, 1877. The republican party showed extraordinary prudence and mo deration under excessive provocation; the influence of the great jurists, Dufaure and Gre&amp;gt;y, made itself felt, neutraliz ing all the plots of the reaction, and quietly prolonging the crisis, until the country could speak; the &quot;Opportunists,&quot; as the followers of Thiers and Gambetta were now styled, united with the &quot; irreconcilables &quot; in opposition to the &quot; party of order,&quot; as the intriguers of the three reactionary groups, legitimists, Orleanists, imperialists, loved to call themselves. In spite of shameless interferences with the election, in spite of the unseemly appeal of the president himself, in spite of threats and all the ancient weapons of reaction, the country was so decidedly republican that even the death of Thiers (3d September 1877) could not for ar. moment check the fortunes of his party. His death perhaps - even strengthened it, for he became the saint instead of being the leader of it. His chequered political career, so long past, was quite forgotten; his memory was revered as that of the statesman who in his old age saved Belfort to France, brought peace, secured the payment of the war in demnity, and relieved the country from the German occu pation. All France felt that under his guidance tranquillity had returned, and the timid middle classes had learned to couple prosperity with the republic. And so the elections of 1877 returned a decisive majority for the republicans, now headed by MM. GreVy and Gambetta; the &quot; irreconcilables&quot; were not strong in the new chamber; the reactionary parties lost ground; and M. Gr6vy was at once re-elected president of the chamber. Consequently, the marshal president, after France had been deeply agitated by rumours of a new covp d etat, and by ominous movements of troops, at last gave way, and, honestly if reluctantly, accepted the verdict of the country. The reactionary &quot; Ministry of May 16 &quot; fell, and, after a new attempt at a &quot; business ministry,&quot; a re publican cabinet was formed at last (14th December 1877), under the presidency of M. Dufaure. By degrees, as the shameless behaviour of officials at election after election came to light, the bureaucracy of France began to resume a republican colour, by removals of reactionary prefects, by opportune changes of political views, and acquiescence in the loudly pronounced opinion of the nation. The army, which was far from satisfied with the late Government, showed signs of content under the new. In the senate only did the three reactionary parties still possess any power ; and even there their majority was so small that they could not venture on serious resistance. The Orleanist section, which, though very weak iu numbers,