Part 39 (2/2)

In one year twenty-one Republicans and six Bonapartists gained seats in the a.s.sembly, while the Orleanist and Legitimist parties gained not one. By 1874 the cause of royalty in France was at a low ebb. In this year--a year after the downfall of M. Thiers--the Duc de Broglie was defeated in the Chamber on some measure of small importance; but his defeat turned him summarily out of office. The Left Centre--that is, the Republicans from conviction--was the strongest of the seven parties. The Republic seemed established on a basis of law and order.

According to the const.i.tution, the president was chosen for seven years, with the chance of re-election; the Chamber of Deputies was elected for seven years by universal suffrage, but every year one third of its members had to retire into private life or stand for a new election. The Senate was chosen by a complicated arrangement,--partly by the Chamber, partly by a sort of electoral college, the members of which were drawn from the councils of departments, the _arrondiss.e.m.e.nts_, and the munic.i.p.alities of cities.

As Gambetta said: ”So chosen, it could not be a very democratic a.s.semblage.”

”Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt,” in the political language of our Southern States, would be translated electoral districts either in town or country.

In the Northern States it would mean districts for the cities, towns.h.i.+ps in the country.

The Speaker, or President of the Chamber, at Tours, at Bordeaux, and at Versailles, until a month before the downfall of M. Thiers, had been the immaculately respectable M. Jules Grevy, who had entered public life in 1848. He had been deposed during the period when the Monarchists had strength and felt sure of the throne for Henri V., and he had been replaced by a M. Buffet. It was M. Buffet who became prime minister on the downfall of the Duc de Broglie. Marshal MacMahon by no means relished being governed by a cabinet composed of men of more advanced republican opinions than his own. But it is useless to go deeper into the parliamentary squabbles of this period.

Then began the quarrel of which we have read so often in a.s.sociated Press telegrams,--the dispute concerning the _scrutin de liste_ and the _scrutin d'arrondiss.e.m.e.nt_. ”Scrutin” means ballot; ”scrutin de liste” means that electors might choose any Frenchman as their candidate; ”scrutin d'arrondiss.e.m.e.nt,” that they must confine their choice to some man living in the district for which he wished to stand. The Left disapproved the _scrutin d'arrondiss.e.m.e.nt_, which gave too much scope, it said, for local interests to have weight over political issues. In our own country local interests are provided for by State legislatures, and in elections for Congress the _scrutin d'arrondiss.e.m.e.nt_ is adopted.

On the last day of December, 1875, the National a.s.sembly was dissolved.

Confused, uninteresting, factious as it had been on points of politics, it had at least taught Frenchmen something of parliamentary tactics and the practical system of compromise. The American government is said to be based on compromise. In France, ”all or nothing”

had been the cry of French parties from the beginning.

The leader of the Left was now Gambetta, who managed matters with discretion and in a spirit of compromise. From this policy his immediate followers have been called ”opportunists,” because they stood by, watching the course of events, ready to promote their own plans at every opportunity.

The new a.s.sembly proved much too republican to please the marshal.

In every way his situation perplexed and worried him. He was not a man of eminent ability, and had never been trained to politics.

He had been used to govern as a soldier. His head may have been a little turned by the flatteries so freely showered on him before his election, and he had come to entertain a belief that he was indispensable to France. He saw himself the protector of order against revolutionary pa.s.sions, and conceived himself to be adored as the sole hope of the people. ”Believing this, he could hardly have been expected to conform to the simple formulas which govern the councils of const.i.tutional kings.” Moreover, behind the marshal was his friend the Duc de Broglie, ”now counselling compromise and now resistance, but always meditating a sudden blow in favor of monarchy.”

By the close of 1876 it became so evident that the government of France could not be carried on upon strictly conservative principles that even the Duc de Broglie advised the marshal to form a Cabinet from the Left, under the prime ministers.h.i.+p of M. Jules Simon.

This gentleman had been one of the five Jules's in the Committee of Defence in 1870. He was an upright man, very liberal in his opinions, and philosophic in his tendencies, which made him especially unacceptable to Marshal MacMahon.

Simon formed a ministry, which governed, with perpetual parliamentary disputes, till May 16, 1877. On that day Marshal MacMahon sent a letter to his prime minister, telling him that he did not appear to have sufficient support in the Chamber to carry on the government, and reproaching him with his Radical tendencies. Of course the minister and his colleagues at once resigned. The marshal then dissolved the Chamber, and appealed to the people, placing the Duc de Broglie _ad interim_ at the head of affairs.

In spite of all the marshal and his friends could do to secure a Conservative majority in the new Chamber, it was largely and strongly Republican. There was no help for it; as Gambetta said, the marshal must either _se soumettre, ou se demettre_,--choose submission or dismission.

He had a pa.s.sing thought of again dissolving the unruly Chamber, and governing by the Senate alone. He found, however, that the country did not consider him indispensable, and was prepared to put M. Thiers in his place if he resigned.

But M. Thiers did not live to receive that proof of his country's grat.i.tude. He died, as we have seen, in the summer of 1877, and the next choice of the Republican party was M. Jules Grevy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _PRESIDENT JULES GReVY._]

For two years longer the marshal held the reins of government, but he resigned on being required to sign a resolution changing the generals who commanded the four army corps. ”In a letter full of dignity,” says M. Gabriel Monod, ”and which appeared quite natural on the part of a soldier more concerned for the interests of the army than for those of politics, he tendered his resignation. The two Chambers met together, and in a single sitting, without noise or disturbance, M. Jules Grevy was elected, and proclaimed president of the French Republic for seven years.”

It is said that in 1830, when Charles X. published his ordinances and placarded his proclamation on the walls of Paris, a young law-student, who was tearing down one of them, was driven off with a kick by one of the king's officers. The officer was Patrice MacMahon; the law-student Jules Grevy.

M. Grevy was pre-eminently respectable. He was born in the Jura mountains, Aug. 15, 1813. His father was a small proprietor. Diligence and energy rather than brilliancy distinguished the young Jules in his college career. When his college life ended, he went up to Paris and studied for the Bar. MacMahon's kick roused his pugnacity.

He went home, took down an old musket, and joined the insurgents, leading an attack upon some barracks where the fighting was severe.

The Revolution having ended in a const.i.tutional monarchy, he went into a lawyer's office, and plodded on in obscurity for eighteen years.

In 1848 he rendered services to the Provisional Government, and the farmers of his district in the Jura elected him their deputy.

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