350 



FRANCE. 



house waiters, cooks, and dairymen took re- 

 venge on the employment agents by destroying 

 their signs and windows. The funeral, on 

 August 8, of Gen. Eudes, ex-Communard and 

 leader of the Blanquists, who fell dead while 

 addressing a meeting of strikers, gave rise to 

 two serious affrays with the police, who capt- 

 ured some red flags that were unfurled in the 

 procession after a struggle, and, after a bomb 

 was thrown, charged on a mob, making ar- 

 rests, and repeated the charge when the crowd 

 besieged and stoned the police station, cutting 

 with their swords, not only Anarchist rioters, 

 but many spectators, even women and chil- 

 dren. The funeral procession was to have 

 started from the Bourse du Travail, but in 

 compliance with a clamor for the closing of 

 this rallying-place, where strikers had been en- 

 couraged and inflamed by many violent speech- 

 es, the Government had decided to take pos- 

 session of the hall, and this morning sent troops 

 to stop all tbe approaches. On August 13 

 the joiners, and afterward the cabinet-makers 

 struck in sympathy with the laborers. The 

 fund that was raised for the strikers having 

 given out, at the end of twenty-five days, 

 when many families were suffering from hun- 

 ger, the strike was abandoned, and the 3,000 

 laborers who still held out returned to work. 

 The workmen employed on the Eiffel tower, 

 the swaying of which created alarm as to its 

 security, also struck, and did not resume till 

 an increase was granted. Strikers at the coal- 

 mines at Treuil attacked miners who continued 

 at work on September 26, and fought desper- 

 ately with the police who interfered. 



The Wilson Case. Daniel Wilson, ex-President 

 Gr6vy's son-in-law, who was charged with com- 

 plicity in the swindling operations of Mme. Ra- 

 tazzi and others who had been convicted or 

 were on trial for obtaining money on the pre- 

 tense of procuring decorations, was convicted 

 by the Correctional Tribunal on March 1, and 

 sentenced to two years 1 imprisonment and a 

 fine of 3,000 francs. It was proved that he 

 had promised the Cross of the Legion of Honor 

 for a bribe, and his counsel argued that this 

 was not obtaining money on false pretenses be- 

 cause he really possessed influence. The Court 

 of Appeals adopted that view, and quashed the 

 conviction. 



Foreign Relations. The adoption of vexations 

 passport regulations by the German Govern- 

 ment for the purpose of making the entrance 

 into Alsace - Lorraine difficult to Frenchmen 

 caused much irritation in France, and led to 

 retaliatory restrictions. The regulations were 

 contained in an administrative decree that was 

 published in May ordering that every foreign- 

 er arriving in Alsace-Lorraine by the French 

 frontier, whether he is simply passing through 

 the country or desires, to reside there, must 

 have a passport furnished by his Government 

 or its diplomatic representatives, bearing the 

 visa of the German embassy in Paris. The 

 visa, the expense of which is fixed in all cases at 



twelve francs fifty centimes, must be renewed 

 every year. Every Frenchman who remains 

 more than twenty-four hours in the commune 

 of Alsace-Lorraine, arriving by any of the fron- 

 tiers, must make a declaration of residence and 

 establish his identity by a passport viseed by 

 the German embassador at Paris, which for- 

 mality will entitle him to remain eight weeks, 

 at the end of which he must obtain permission 

 to prolong his stay from the president of the 

 district. Before giving his visa in such cases 

 the embassy must make inquiries of the pro- 

 vincial authorities whether there are any ob- 

 jections to the sojourn of the person seeking 

 permission. 



The regulations proved an annoyance, not 

 only to Frenchmen, but to travelers of all na- 

 tionalities who enter Germany through Alsace- 

 Lorraine, many of whom were stopped at the 

 frontier because their passports had not re- 

 ceived the requisite visa of the German em- 

 bassador. Some of the German travelers were 

 roughly treated by the exasperated inhabitants 

 of the French border districts which led to 

 attacks in the German official press denouncing 

 France as a " savage country," and calling on 

 other nations to adopt toward her the policy 

 that they pursue in regard to uncivilized coun- 

 tries. On June 20 two French newspaper 

 correspondents were expelled from Berlin for 

 writing and telegraphing to Paris matter that 

 was insulting to high personages. 



The jealousy that has existed between 

 France and Italy since the occupation of Tunis, 

 becoming a settled condition on the entrance 

 of Italy into the Austro-German alliance, the 

 terms of the Triple Alliance were made known 

 to the world in the beginning of 1888, while 

 French and Italian plenipotentiaries were en- 

 gaged in the negotiation of a new commercial 

 treaty to end the war of tariffs which added 

 to the causes of tension. The sensitiveness 

 shown in the negotiations prevented a satis- 

 factory conclusion by mutual concessions, and 

 in January the negotiations were interrupted, 

 to be resumed again in June. 



In the summer arose the incident of the re- 

 fusal of French subjects and proteges to pay 

 communal taxes at Massowah on the advice of 

 the French Government, and the resulting cor- 

 respondence in regard to the capitulations (see 

 ABYSSINIA).- M. Goblet's note was couched in 

 calm diplomatic language, and the heated and 

 provocative tone in which Signor Crispi replied 

 and his visit about the same time at Friedrichs- 

 ruhe gave rise to a suspicion of German prompt- 

 ings. "The powers, having before them all 

 the details of the discussion," said the Italian 

 minister in his reply of August 13 to M. Gob- 

 let's second note, " will know which side is in 

 the wrong whether it is the power which 

 enforces respect for the law assuring public 

 order or whether it is the one which excites a 

 peaceful population to disregard the law and 

 to defy the authority of the established Gov- 

 ernment." Italy was technically in the wrong 



