324 



FRANCE. 



message, objected to the establishment of a re- 

 public. At a meeting of the " Right " and the 

 "Right Centre," the fusion of the two parties 

 was unanimously resolved upon. The Duke 

 d'Audiffret - Pasquier pointed out that the 

 present was not an opportune moment to pur- 

 sue the fusion of Che Bourbon branches, a mo- 

 narchical restoration, in the present state of 

 public opinion, being impossible. The speaker 

 said that the issue now lay between the Con- 

 servatives and Radicals, and this was the 

 ground on which the Right and Right Centre 

 must unite, demanding conservative pledges 

 from M. Thiers as a just price of the support 

 of the majority. General Chanzy resigned the 

 chairmanship of the Left Centre on account of 

 his military duties. In his place, Ricard, an 

 intimate friend of M. Thiers, was (November 

 22d) elected chairman. In the new 15 bureaux 

 of the Assembly, 10 of the presidents belong 

 to the Right and five to the Left. The Right 

 elected 12 of the secretaries and the Left 

 three. On November 17th special prayers 

 were offered in the churches for the National 

 Assembly, and the blessing of God invoked on 

 its proceedings. Government officials attended 

 the services, escorted by details of troops as 

 guards of honor. The congregations at all the 

 churches in Paris were very large. On No- 

 vember 18th the Assembly had an exciting 

 debate over the motion of General Changar- 

 nier, censuring M. Gambetta for his inflamma- 

 tory speeches in the provinces. M. Changar- 

 nier complained of the increasing audacity of 

 the Radicals and the laxity of the Government 

 in dealing with them. He accused Gambetta 

 of entertaining and seeking to spread social- 

 istic ideas. President Thiers mounted the trib- 

 une in defence of the Government. He pro- 

 tested against being placed at the bar as a 

 criminal, and threw out the intimation that he 

 might appeal to the country. He admitted 

 that the speech made by M. Gambetta at Gre- 

 noble was offensive, but claimed that the Gov- 

 ernment was not responsible. The President 

 concluded by demanding a vote of confidence 

 from the House. In the name of the Right, 

 the Duke de Broglie moved the order of the 

 day in the following terms : " The Assembly, 

 censuring the doctrines enunciated at the Gre- 

 noble banquet, passes to the order of the day." 

 Deputy Mettetal, of the Left Centre, proposed 

 a vote of confidence in the following order of 

 the day: "The National Assembly, confiding 

 in the energy of the Government, and cen- 

 suring the words pronounced at Grenoble, 

 passes to the order of the day." This mo- 

 tion was finally adopted by 267 yeas against 

 117" nays, half of the deputies abstaining from 

 voting. 



A trial-by-jury bill, repealing the law of 

 October, 1870, which restored the legislation 

 of 1848, with regard to the constitution of 

 juries and criminal courts, was passed on No- 

 vember 21st, by a vote of 416 to 178. The 

 bill reestablishes, to a certain extent, the law 



of 1853, which intrusts the task of drawing up 

 the jury-lists to a committee of justices of the 

 peace and mayors. Considerable political im- 

 portance is attached to the bill, which the 

 Left opposed as reactionary, and as attacking 

 the principle of universal suffrage. 



The dissatisfaction of the President with the 

 small number of members who, on November 

 18th, by voting for the amendment Mettetal, Lad 

 expressed the demanded confidence in his ad- 

 ministration, was greatly increased by the report 

 of the committee on an address in reply to the 

 Presidential message. This committee had sev- 

 eral interviews with the President, but the ma- 

 jority failed to come to an understanding with 

 him. The President took his stand upon the 

 principles enunciated in his message, and again 

 proclaimed the necessity for every one rally- 

 ing to the conservative republic. The major- 

 ity of the committee, consisting of nine mem- 

 bers, were, on the other hand, of opinion that 

 it would be difficult, at the present time, to 

 bring into operation the principles of minis- 

 terial responsibility, and to define the relations 

 between the President and the Assembly. 

 The report was made to the Assembly by M. 

 Batbie, on November 26th. It acknowledges 

 that M. Thiers in his message proclaims the 

 sovereign power of the Assembly, claims for 

 the Assembly the right to frame a Constitution 

 should it think proper, expresses regret that 

 M. Thiers has not more distinctly separated 

 himself from the Radicals, and in a long pas- 

 sage denounces the doctrines of the socialists 

 and demagogues. It afterward discusses the 

 programme of the constitutional reforms de- 

 sired by the Government, and in conclusion 

 proposed the appointment of a committee of 

 fifteen members by the Bureau, in order to in- 

 troduce, with the shortest possible debate, a 

 bill relative to ministerial responsibility. The 

 views of the minority of the committee were 

 represented in an amendment offered by M. 

 Dufaure, providing for the election of a com- 

 mittee of thirty members to lay before the 

 Assembly a bill, and "to regulate the confer- 

 ring of powers and the conditions of ministerial 

 responsibility. After a very exciting debate, in 

 which M. Thiers defined his position, the 

 amendment of Dufaure, on November 29th, was 

 adopted by 370 votes against 334. This great 

 victory of the Government was, however, on 

 the next day followed by a reverse. A motion 

 of M. Duval, a Conservative, that the muni- 

 cipal councils, which, during the present crisis, 

 had sent encouraging addresses to President 

 Thiers, had violated the laws of the country, 

 and that the Minister of the Interior, Lefranc, 

 in receiving the addresses, had also failed to 

 observe them, was approved by 305 yeas to 

 299 nays. The Minister of the Interior at once 

 tendered his resignation, which was accepted 

 by the President. The Committee of Thirty, 

 proposed by Minister Dufaure, was elected by 

 the Assembly on December 5th. The Right 

 succeeded in electing 19 members of the com- 



