FRANCE. 



dined. When Thiers, in the same month, in- 

 tended to offer his resignation, MacMalion, in 

 tlif nnroe of the entire array, asked him to 

 withdraw it. Thus he remained entirely aloof 

 from the progress of the political strife, until 

 in May, 1873, the conservative parties unani- 

 mously appealed to his patriotism, to assume 

 the presidency. Since then he has given no 

 indication whether he favors the now united 

 royalist's or the Bonapartists ; he only claims 

 to be determined to protect the conservative 

 interests represented by the majority of the 

 National Assembly. lie appears to be in strong 

 sympathy with the Catholic tendencies, widen 

 have made so great progress among the politi- 

 cians of France since 1870. 



The new President of the National Assem- 

 bly, Louis Joseph Buffet, had been Minister 

 of Finance in the imperial ministry, formed by 

 Emile Ollivier, on January 2, 1870. He dis- 

 tinguished himself by a cautious and economi- 

 cal administration, and inspired the mercantile 

 circles with great confidence, When Ollivier 

 was prevailed upon, in 1870, by the Right, to 

 consent to a pUbitcite, he resigned. lie was 

 elected to the National Assembly for the de- 

 partment Vosges, and joined the Right Centre. 

 Thiers, having been elected chief of the execu- 

 tive power, offered to him again the ministry 

 of finance, which he declined. As one of the 

 leaders of the Right Centre, he has repeatedly 

 . made severe attacks upon the policy of Thiers. 

 With regard to the rival claims of royalists 

 and Bonapartists, he has observed a great re- 

 serve. 



The most prominent of the now united roy- 

 alist party, embracing the former Legitimists 

 and Orlcanists, is Duke Albert de Broglie, a 

 son of Dnke Achille Leone Victor Charles de 

 Broglie, and grandson, by his mother, of Ma- 

 dame de Stncl. He was, nntil 1869, entirely 

 foreign to political life, devoting himself en- 

 tirely to literary labors, which early gained 

 him a great reputation, and in 1862 the recep- 

 tion into the Academy. In 18B9 he presented 

 himself in the department of Eure as a candi- 

 date of the Opposition for the Corps Legis- 

 Intit', but was defeated, the Bonapartist candi 

 date receiving over 14,000 votes against 8,800 

 which were given to him. In February, 1871, 

 he was elected as a representative of the de- 

 partment of Eure to the National Assembly. 

 On February 19th he was appointed ambas- 

 sador and plenipotentiary extraordinary in 

 London, but attended, nevertheless, frequently 

 the National Assembly. As he several times 

 voted against the Government, of which ho 

 was the diplomatic agent, the republican press 

 demanded lii- removal, and at his own request 

 the Cii'int d'llareourt was, on May 1, 1872, 

 n]>|x>intcd in his place. In the National As- 

 sembly he was head of the Right Centre and 

 theleaderof theenti attr*9Wodtfn 



against Thiers. In February, 1S78, he made 

 the report of the Committee' of Thirty on the 

 powers of the President and the National .'.-- 



sembly; in Maybe forced the resignation of 

 Thiers, and became prime-minister under the 

 new administration of MacMalion. This posi- 

 tion he retained when, in November, the cabi- 

 net was reconstructed. Broglie was, with 

 Dupanloup, Montalemhert, and Lacordaire, a 

 founder of the C'orretpondant, the organ of a 

 liberal Catholic school, which believes in the 

 possibility of reconciling the Catholic Church 

 with the progress of science. Bishop Dupan- 

 loup, of Orleans, is now, with his friend Bro- 

 glie, one of the acknowledged leaders of the 

 royalist party in the Chamber, and several 

 other contributors to the Corrapondant are 

 among the prominent men of the party. Be- 

 fore the meeting of the National Council, the 

 entire school, including Bishop Dupanloup, de- 

 clared themselves opposed to the dogmatization 

 of papal infallibility, but they nil submitted to 

 the promulgated decree of the Council, except 

 Father Ilyacinthe, who joined the Old Catho- 

 lics, and became Old Catholic parish priest in 

 the city of Geneva. The bitter quarrels of the 

 school of the Corrttpondant with the I'nittn 

 and the ultramontane party appeared for a 

 time to have subsided, but at the end of the 

 year again broke out with great violence in a 

 correspondence between Bishop Dupanloup 

 and Louis Venillot. 



On the whole, the Catholic Church appeared, 

 in 1878, to exercise greater influence upon the 

 popular mind than at any time since 1880. 

 During the summer months, the pilgrimages to 

 several places where the Blessed Virgin Mary 

 was reported to have appeared assumed ex- 

 traordinary dimensions, and even became of 

 political importance, as it wns common at the 

 pilgrimages to sing hymns, in which the res- 

 toration of Henry V. wns prayed for. A largo 

 portion of the National Assembly declared it- 

 self in favor of the restoration of the temporal 

 power of the Pope, and the office of a special 

 ambassador near the Pope was continued. 



The Reformed Church of France had another 

 important session of the General Assembly, 

 which completed the reorganization of the 

 chun-h on an orthodox basis. (See REFORMED 

 Cnriicn.) 



The thirteenth biennial meeting of the Synod 

 of the Union of Evangelical < 'hurches in France 

 opened on the 21st of August, at St. Jenn-du- 

 (i:.rd. in the valley of the Cevennes. The 

 meeting attracted more than the usual degree 

 of interest. M. Bersier, of Paris, wns chosen 

 president ; M. Theodore Monod preached the 

 opening sermon. Application for admission 

 to the Union was made by the church at Riou. 

 consisting of ninety-three members. The total 

 number of members of the churches, exclusive 

 of this one, was estimated to be 2,561, showing 

 an increase of thirty members since the pre- 

 ceding meeting of the Synod. It was rt'prc- 

 sentcd that the church at Nice, of which the 

 It. v. M. I'ilatte wns pastor, and the Evangeli- 

 cal Church at Lyons, would join the Union 

 before the next meeting. 



