Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/258

 250] FOEEIGN HISTOEY. [1899.

taken into custody and locked up, and so the projected revolution miscarried. On the next day the Chamber without a moment's hesitation acceded to the Prime Minister's proposed that the two deputies should not be allowed to plead parliamentary privilege from arrest.

The situation was a strange one. The Government was perplexed, and not knowing on which shoulder to carry its gun most advantageously, endeavoured to conceal its embar- rassment under a series of incoherent manoeuvres. One day it ordered searches to be made in the houses of the secretaries of the Leagues, the next it announced that D6roul£de was not to be prosecuted for an attempt to upset the republic, but for some mere press offence. As a matter of fact the crafty Au- vergnat was anxious to conciliate the Nationalists, thinking that they were the more strong because the more noisy party. He gave them a proof of this in the eager insistence with which he urged the Senate to agree to the bill for depriving the Criminal Chamber of its authority, which had aroused strong opposition. Three sittings were occupied in its discussion. MM. Monis, Waldeck-Eousseau, B6renger and others spoke strongly against the innovation which the Government sought to introduce. By only nine votes an amendment was lost which would have returned the bill to the Chamber, but at length the Senate having extracted from the Government a formal promise to publish the evidence taken before the criminal courts the bill was allowed to pass (March 1). Some days later the Figaro saved the Ministry the annoyance of breaking their promise by publishing in extenso the depositions of the witnesses sum- moned before the court. This publication, which the Govern- ment in vain attempted to hinder, produced an extraordinary sensation throughout France, and rallied a large body of the nation to the side of the Eevisionists.

There were not wanting other indications that the* change in the Presidency would necessarily involve a change in the policy of the responsible Government. M. Fallieres, a former Prime Minister, known for his devotion to Liberal Eepublicanism, was elected President of the Senate ; M. Urbain Gohier, a writer in UAurore, the organ of the extreme Dreyfusards, was summoned (March 16) before a civil court for insulting the Army, and on the same day Captain Picquart was transferred by order of the Court of Cassation from the military to a civil prison — whence a few weeks later he was definitely released. Even in the literary arena the fates were hostile to the Nationalists, for the Anti- Dreyf usards of the Society des Gens de Lettres, wishing to exclude from the committee on its annual renewal the friends of M. Zola, found themselves left in a minority, and M. Jules Lemaitre had only a single vote to support his candidature.

Meanwhile the Chamber was wearily plodding its way through the mazes of the ever-swelling Budget. Interpella- tions were frequently addressed to ministers, who managed to