318 



FRANCE. 



Lyons, and Toulouse, remained in their former 

 warlike attitude, he declared himself to be de- 

 termined to carry on the war to the last, and 

 ordered new regiments to be levied. In ac- 

 cordance with the conditions agreed upon in 

 the armistice, he ordered the elections to be 

 held for members of a National Assembly, and 

 declared at the same time that all persons re- 

 lated to the sovereign families, the ministers, 

 senators, councillors, and prefects, and the offi- 

 cial candidates of the empire, should be ineligi- 

 ble. This led to a conflict between Gambetta 

 and Favre. Bismarck called the attention of 

 Favre to the article of the armistice which 

 stipulated for a National Assembly freely elect- 

 ed, and Favre promised that this stipulated 

 condition should be fulfilled. Gambetta there- 

 fore represented the members of the Govern- 

 ment of Paris as allies of the Prussians, and 

 added that he could not possibly accept orders 

 from such a Government. But Favre could 

 not be intimidated ; although even some di- 

 visions of the troops threatened to side with 

 Gambetta, he issued a proclamation, in which 

 he severely censured his conduct, and advised 

 the people to take the condition of France 

 into sober consideration. The most influential 

 papers of the country vigorously seconded his 

 efforts, and it soon became apparent that the 

 majority of the people sided with him. On 

 the other hand, Gambetta was abandoned even 

 by the extreme wing of his own party, who 

 declined to vote at all, as in their opinion the 

 National Assembly was only called to conclude 

 a treacherous peace. On February 4, 1871, a 

 decree of the Government in Paris annulled 

 the electoral decrees of Gambetta of January 

 31st and of February 5th. Pelletan, Gamier- 

 Pages, and Arago, were sent to Bordeaux. 

 As the negotiations between them and Gam- 

 betta led to no result, the latter, on February 

 6th, tendered his resignation, which was at once 

 accepted. In his place Arago was appointed 

 Minister of the Interior, and Minister of War 

 pro tern. A proclamation by Napoleon, issued 

 on February 4th, in which he declared that he 

 would only recognize a Government which had 

 proceeded from universal suffrage, did not 

 produce any effect. 



On February 8th the elections took place 

 throughout the country, without any serious 

 disturbance. A majority of the members-elect 

 were of moderate opinions, and favorable to 

 the conclusion of peace; in Paris, the Reds 

 had a majority, though Thiers was also elected, 

 with a number of Blue Republicans, i. e., Re- 

 publicans of the sentiments of Favre and Pi- 

 card. On February 12th the Moderate Repub- 

 lican Grevy was elected President, by 519 out 

 out of 538 votes ; for Vice-Presidents, the Lib- 

 eral Bonapartist Martel, the Legitimist Benoist 

 d]Azy, and the Orleanists Vitet and Malle- 

 ville, were elected. Thiers was elected Presi- 

 dent of the Provisional Executive Power, with 

 the right of appointing the ministers. Thus 

 the whole Government was in the hands of the 



friends of peace. The Radicals, however, and 

 the party favorable to the continuation of war, 

 made several more efforts to carry out their 

 plans. Keller, an ultramontane deputy of Al- 

 sace, presented a protest against the cession 

 of Alsace and Lorraine. The session of Feb- 

 ruary 16th had a very stormy character, as one 

 speaker reproached the deputies of Paris for 

 being stained with the blood of civil war, and 

 called on them no longer to disturb the free- 

 dom of the deliberations. Before the hall of 

 the Assembly a violent tumult was provoked 

 by the speech of Victor Hugo, and all the ap- 

 proaches to the hall were consequently on the 

 next day lined by soldiers. Thiers announced 

 his cabinet as consisting of Favre for Foreign 

 Affairs, Dufaure for Justice, Picard for the 

 Interior, Simon for Education, Lambrecht for 

 Commerce, Pothuau for the Navy, Leflo for 

 War, De Larcy for Public Works, and, later, 

 Pouyer-Quertier for Finance. The programme 

 submitted by Thiers and Favre was as follows : 

 Negotiations shall be opened for the purpose 

 of freeing France from foreign invaders, and 

 to secure to her an honorable peace ; a com- 

 mittee of fifteen members shall go to Paris, 

 where it will be kept acquainted with the prog- 

 ress of the negotiations ; as soon as a defin- 

 ite result, positive or negative, shall have been 

 reached, a report will be made to the Assembly ; 

 the question of the future constitution shall 

 be adjourned until the country may be free 

 from the invaders ; but the electors shall have 

 repeatedly an opportunity to express their 

 opinion at the reelection of general and mu- 

 nicipal councils. The members of the com- 

 mittee were, like the ministry, elected from 

 all parties of the Assembly. While Thiers and 

 Favre, on February 19th, went to Paris to re- 

 sume the negotiations for peace, the National 

 Assembly resolved that henceforth no expen- 

 diture be made without a vote of the Cham- 

 ber ; and, on motion of Daru and Pouyer- 

 Quertier, decided to form a committee for 

 the examination of the military resources of 

 the country. On February 26th the negotia- 

 tions about the preliminaries of peace were 

 ended at Versailles. Thiers, Favre, and . the 

 Committee of Fifteen, at once went to Bor- 

 deaux, to obtain a ratification by the National 

 Assembly, which took place on March 1st. In 

 Paris, in the mean while, the Reds had kept up 

 a lively agitation to support the Radicals in 

 Bordeaux in their opposition to the conditions 

 of peace which had been agreed upon. The 

 Parisians were enraged at the condition that 

 the German troops would enter the capital 

 and occupy it until the ratification of the pre- 

 liminaries. On February 26th the excitement 

 assumed a dangerous character ; a riotous 

 crowd of the suburb La Villette freed the pris- 

 oners of St. Pelagie, soldiers and the National 

 Guards plundered its powder-magazine, and 

 carried the artillery of the National Guards 

 from the Place Wagram to Montmartre. Vi- 

 noy, the chief commander of the army and 



