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FRANCE. 



against it. The latter opinion prevailed as soon 

 as the general feeling of Republicans was ascer- 

 tained and Radical and Socialist Deputies threat- 

 ened to demand the amnesty of all who were in 

 prison for labor offenses. The duke was re- 

 moved on Feb. 24 to Clairvaux prison, where 

 political prisoners have often been confined. The 

 President of the republic stood ready at any mo- 

 ment to grant the duke's pardon if he appealed for 

 mercy. This he would not do, and finally on June 

 3 the pardon was signed, with the approval of the 

 Cabinet, and the Duke of Orleans was conducted 

 over the Swiss frontier, leaving a message to the 

 conscripts of his class, saying that pardon had re- 

 stored him to the pangs of exile, a change of 

 captivity only, but nothing could alter his re- 

 solve or make him renounce the hope to take 

 his place in the ranks among them, close to the 

 flag, which he asked them to keep for him, and 

 he would return to take it up. 



Change of Cabinet. On commercial, fiscal, 

 and all other questions, the new Chamber was dis- 

 posed to take the control out of the hands of the 

 ministry, which was far from harmonious, as M. 

 Constans, who had the credit of destroying Bou- 

 langism and winning the elections, possessed far 

 greater political influence than M. Tirard. and 

 would not subordinate his judgment to that of 

 the chief of the Cabinet. The proceedings of 

 Parliament were troubled through the unseating 

 of M. Sabouraud, a Breton Deputy, on account 

 of clerical influence, and of others affiliated with 

 Boulanger. Tumultous scenes, exchanges of 

 votes, shifting of groups, and ambitious in- 

 trigues hindered the work of the session, frus- 

 trated the ministerial programme, and paralyzed 

 the efforts of the Government that had been tri- 

 umphantly sustained by the verdict of the nation. 

 On March 1, M. Constans seized the opportunity 

 that a new difference of opinion, regarding the 

 appointment of Senator Mazau to the presidency 

 of the Court of Cassation, gave him to tender his 

 resignation. He was succeeded as Minister of 

 the Interior by Leon Bourgeois, born at Paris in 

 1851. a Radical Deputy who had been Prefect of 

 the Seine and Under-Secretary of the Interior. 

 Although the ministers were willing to resign 

 the initiative in tariff questions, it was such a 

 question that compelled their inevitable retire- 

 ment. The Franco-Turkish treaty of commerce 

 expired on March 13, 1890, and the Government 

 negotiated for a temporary arrangement to last 

 till 1892. The Porte agreed to consider the po- 

 litical treaty of 1802 as securing to each party 

 the commercial privileges of the most favored 

 nation. The Deputies of Aude, Herault, Garde, 

 and other wine-growing departments of the 

 south, desiring to have a prohibitory duty on 

 raisins imposed at once, raised a protest. The 

 Chamber, which had given M. Tirard a vote of 

 confidence after the retirement of M. Constans, 

 was unwilling to reverse an international en- 

 gagement into which the Government had al- 

 ready entered that involved only a modus m- 

 vendi, and therefore M. Meline and the bulk of 

 the Protectionists voted to accept the arrange- 

 ment. In the Senate the wine growers had more 

 influence, and on March 14 an order of the day 

 was adopted by 129 against 117 votes demand- 

 ing that a new arrangement should be negotiated 

 with the Porte. M. Tirard, M. Spuller, and the 



rest of the Cabinet thereupon placed their resig- 

 nations in the hands of M. Carnot. It was the 

 first time that a Cabinet has fallen through a 

 vote of the upper house since the country has 

 been governed under the Constitution of 1875, 

 and, according to strict constitutional principles, 

 the verdict of the Senate might have been disre- 

 garded, and would have been if the position of 

 the ministry had been less precarious and if 

 there had not been the same disagreement with 

 the Chamber on economical questions. When 

 M. Floquet was Premier his Cabinet was many 

 times in a minority in the Senate. The new 

 precedent caused little remark, nor was any anx- 

 iety felt about the issue of the crisis among the 

 Republicans when it was understood that M. 

 Constans and M. de Freycinet would form a part 

 of the new combination. The ministry was con- 

 stituted on March 17, consisting of the follow- 

 ing members: President of the Council and 

 Minister of War, M. de Freycinet : Minister of 

 Justice and Public Worship, M. Fallieres; Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs, M. Ribot ; Minister of 

 Finance, M. Rouvier; Minister of Public In- 

 struction and Fine Arts, M. Bourgeois $ Minister 

 of Marine, Vice- Admiral Barbey; Minister of 

 Public Works, M. Yves Guyot ; Minister of Ag- 

 riculture, M. Develle ; Minister of Commerce, M. 

 Jules Roche ; Minister of the Interior, M. Con- 

 stans. It was the fourth ministry within ten 

 years formed under the presidency of M. de 

 Freycinet. The new ministers were M. Ribot, 

 M. Develle, and M. Jules Roche, all three Mod- 

 erate Republicans. M. de Freycinet and M. 

 Barbey were the only Senators, the others all be- 

 ing members of the Chamber. 



The ministerial declaration expressed the in- 

 tention of the new Cabinet to conform to the 

 wishes to which the country had given solemn 

 expression, and in political affairs to defend with 

 energy not only the republican institutions, but 

 the entire democratic achievements of former 

 legislatures ; to unite all the forces, welcoming 

 all who will come together on the Republican 

 platform to work in concert for the development 

 of economical and social reforms, which are the 

 necessary consequences of the political system 

 that France has adopted. Thus will be founded 

 that broad, open, tolerant, and peaceable repub- 

 lic that is the final condition and desired end of 

 the struggles still going on. The country has 

 affirmed its resolution to remodel the basis of its 

 tariff laws, and the Government frankly joins in 

 the idea of a more effective protection for na- 

 tional agriculture and labor and of the full lib- 

 erty of Parliament to fix the rates of duty after 

 the expiration of the commercial treaties. The 

 declaration foreshadowed a scheme of social 

 legislation, which M. Bourgeois had already pro- 

 pounded on taking office in the Tirard Cabinet, 

 the Labor Conference at Berlin having brought 

 the subject into prominence. "Living in an 

 epoch of social transformation, when the condi- 

 tion of the workers is justly the subject of new 

 preoccupations, the first duty of the public au- 

 thorities is to turn their attention to the labor- 

 ing people and to facilitate their elevation into 

 a better state, a duty that no government, even 

 that most removed by its form from a demo- 

 cratic constitution, can escape. The French re- 

 public, more than any other, is bound to be in- 



