328 



FRANCE. 



On September 1st, President Thiers sent a 

 message to the Assembly, expressing his thanks 

 for the honor conferred upon him. The minis- 

 try remained unchanged, and Dufaure was ap- 

 pointed its Vice-President. On September 6th, 

 the National Assembly ratified a loan of 

 350,000,000 francs for the city of Paris, and 

 adopted a law providing that the damages 

 caused by the invasion of the Germans should 

 be paid for by the whole nation. On Septem- 

 ber 13th a message of President Thiers was 

 read in the Assembly, in which he recom- 

 mended an adjournment from September 

 17th to December 4th. On the day before 

 the adjournment, the Assembly authorized 

 the President to conclude a treaty with Ger- 

 many, to hasten the evacuation of several 

 departments by the German troops in exchange 

 for reducing the duties on exports from Al- 

 sace-Lorraine into France. The treaty was 

 concluded on October 12th. 



On October 8th the election for the Coun- 

 cils General took place throughout France. 

 The cities and towns generally elected re- 

 publican or radical candidates, while in the 

 rural districts the conservatives had a major- 

 ity. The Bonapartists met with less success 

 than any other party. The Duke d'Aumale 

 was elected in the district of Clermont, and 

 Prince Napoleon in Corsica. A majority of 

 the councils declared themselves in favor of 

 compulsory military service and compulsory 

 instruction. 



Three of the Paris insurrectionists, Rossel, 

 Ferr6, and Bourgeois, were shot on November 

 28th. The death of Eossel, ibr whose charac- 

 ter even his judges professed profound respect, 

 was generally lamented, and great efforts were 

 made to save his life. Thiers himself was will- 

 ing to pardon him, but yielded to the remon- 

 strances of the Minister of War and the com- 

 mittee on pardons, who regarded the death- 

 penalty in his case as indispensably necessary. 

 On the next day, Gaston Cre'mieux, one of the 

 leaders of the radical party in Marseilles, was 

 shot. His execution created even greater dis- 

 content than that of Rossel. Among the four 

 communists of Marseilles who had been sen- 

 tenced to death, he was the only one who was 

 executed. 



The excitement of the French people against 

 the Germans led repeatedly to the assassination 

 of German soldiers. A jury in Paris acquitted 

 one of these assassins, by the name of Tonnelet, 

 though he fully admitted that he had pledged 

 himself to murder the first German whom he 

 might meet. But few of the French papers 

 dared to censure this verdict ; but President 

 Thiers, in his message to the Assembly, ex- 

 pressed his decided disapprobation of such acts. 

 Count Bismarck, in a dispatch of December 

 Tth, earnestly remonstrated with the French 

 Government against these assassinations. (See 

 BISMARCK.) 



The new session of the National Assembly 

 was opened on December 4th. M. Grevy was 



reelected as President by 511 out of 521 votes; 

 the former Vice-Presidents and Secretaries 

 were also reelected. On December 7th Presi- 

 dent Thiers presented his message to the As- 

 sembly, which was read by himself. The mes- 

 sage begins with referring to the daily prog- 

 ress of the peaceful character of the foreign 

 relations of France, and of its internal reor- 

 ganization. The relations to Prussia were 

 fully regulated. The dissolution of the Na- 

 tional Guard had nowhere called forth resist- 

 ance. The condition of the country was as 

 good as it could be expected after so unfortu- 

 nate a war. The independence of the Holy 

 See must be strictly maintained. The message 

 then spoke of the financial condition of the 

 country under the empire. The budget had 

 reached the amount of 2,200,000,000 francs ; 

 the public debt was not reduced; the army 

 was neglected. France had no more than 

 200,000 men to oppose to the 700,000 of the 

 hostile armies. The measures adopted for 

 the reorganization of the army were dwelt on 

 at length. The President declared himself 

 against the compulsory military service of all 

 Frenchmen in time of peace, which would dis- 

 organize civil society, and ruin the finances of 

 the country. He was, however, willing to ac- 

 cept it in the time of war. The Government 

 proposed in time of peace to recruit annually 

 90,000 men, who would have to remain in ac- 

 tive service for five years, and would belong to 

 the army afterward for three years. On De- 

 cember 19th the princes of the house of Or- 

 leans who had been elected members of the 

 Assembly (the Duke d'Aumale and the Prince 

 de Joinville) took their seats, contrary to the 

 promise which they had formerly given. In 

 letters addressed to their electors, they ex- 

 plained their reasons for this step, and the Na- 

 tional Assembly by an almost unanimous vote 

 declared that the promises given by the 

 princes were an entirely private affair in which 

 it was not concerned. The draft of a new law 

 for public instruction, consisting of twenty-two 

 articles, was submitted to the National Assem- 

 bly by Jules Simon, the Minister of Public In- 

 struction. It proposed compulsory education 

 from the seventh to the thirteenth year, but 

 permitted each family to choose between the 

 state-schools, free schools, and private in- 

 struction at home. After finishing the course 

 of instruction, the pupils must pass an exami- 

 nation before a committee, and receive a cer- 

 tificate, which, on reaching the twenty-first 

 year of age, they must present before their 

 names can be enrolled in the lists of electors. 

 Fines will be imposed upon all parents, guard- 

 ians, and employers, who fail to send children 

 to school. On December 26th President 

 Thiers, in an elaborate speech, addressed the 

 Assembly against the income-tax which had 

 been proposed by "Wolowski, and on the next 

 day the Assembly, by a large majority, re- 

 pealed it. 



(For a biography of the President of the 



