330 



FRANCE. 



the place, but did not succeed. In conse- 

 quence of the capitulation, he was sent as 

 prisoner of Avar to Germany. At the elections 

 of February, 1871, he was chosen as deputy of 

 the National Assembly from the department 

 of Ille-et-Vilaine. Having returned to France 

 after the conclusion of the preliminary peace, 

 he was appointed by the Government of Ver- 

 sailles to a command against the insurgents 

 of Paris, where he greatly distinguished him- 

 self. On June 5th a decree of the chief of 

 the executive power appointed him Minister 

 of War, in place of General Le F16, who was 

 sent as embassador to St. Petersburg. As 

 minister of war, Cissey labored with extraor- 

 dinary energy for the reorganization of the 

 French army, and the reforms which have 

 been introduced there are for a large part his 

 work. When the law to bring Marshal Ba- 

 zaine before a court-martial was presented, 

 General Cissey endeavored to procure to his 

 former chief the privilege of demanding for him- 

 self this rigorous measure. The majority of 

 the Assembly was any thing but pleased with 

 this indulgence, and for a time it was believed 

 that Cissey would have to yield his position as 

 Minister of War to General Chanzy. In the 

 National Assembly General Cissey took his s.eat 

 at the Eight Centre. On May 23, 1873, he 

 formed a new cabinet, in which he retained, 

 besides the presidency of the Council, the de- 

 partment of war. 



Duke Louis CHABLES ELIE AMANIEN DEOAZES, 

 next to General Cissey the most prominent 

 member of the cabinet appointed in May, 1874, 

 is the son of the prominent French statesman 

 Duke Elie Decazes. He was born on May 9, 

 1819, and at an early age entered the diplomatic 

 career. The Government of Louis Philippe ap- 

 pointed him minister plenipotentiary and ex- 

 traordinary envoy of France near the courts 

 of Spain and Portugal. After the Revolution 

 of 1848 he retired with his father to private 

 life. He was in 1869 elected member of the 

 Council-General of the Gironde, but when he 

 was in the same year a candidate for the 

 Corps Legislatif, he was defeated by the official 

 candidate, Chaix d'Estange. At the general 

 election of February, 1871, he was chosen by 

 the department of the Gironde, of which he is 

 a native, member of the National Assembly. 

 Like Cissey, he belonged to the party of the 

 Right Centre. In October, 1871, he was 

 reflected member of the Council-General. 

 Though a less frequent speaker than other 

 prominent men of the Assembly, he has been 

 one of its most influential members. 



Bishop FELIX ANTOIXE PHILIPPE DUPAN- 

 LOUP, of Orleans, is the foremost champion of 

 the interests of the Catholic Church in the Na- 

 tional Assembly and in the country. He was 

 born in Savoy, on January 3, 1802, studied the- 

 ology at Paris, and was ordained in 1825. In 

 1827 he was appointed confessor to the Duke 

 of Bordeaux, in 1828 religious instructor, of 

 the Princes of Orleans, and in 1830 almoner 



to the Dauphine. Having lost this position in 

 consequence of the Revolution of July, 1830, 

 he founded the academy of St.-Hyacinthe, and 

 two years later was naturalized as a French- 

 man. As he had achieved a great reputation 

 both as a religious instructor and a pulpit orator, 

 he was appointed by Archbishop Quelen Vicar- 

 General. Under Archbishop Afire, whose ap- 

 pointment he had opposed, he only retained 

 the title of Vicar-General. At the close of 

 the year 1845, he resigned both this title and 

 the position of Prefect of Studies in the Petit 

 Seminaire which he had held since 1834. Hav- 

 ing been, in 1849, appointed Bishop of Orleans, 

 he took a prominent part in the discussion of re- 

 ligious, educational, and other questions. He 

 was supposed to sympathize with Montalem- 

 bert, Lacordaire, and the other leaders of the 

 so-called liberal Catholic party, whose organ 

 was the Correspondant, and he not only severely 

 censured the course pursued by the Univers, 

 the chief organ of the Ultramontane party, but 

 even forbade its circulation in his diocese. He 

 specially defended, against the Univers and 

 Abbe" Gaume's work, "Le Ver Rongeur," the 

 reading of the pagan classics in the Church 

 school. On the other hand, he made the ut- 

 most efforts to obtain for the Church an unlim- 

 ited control of her own literary institutions. 

 He was consulted in the framing of the law of 

 March 15, 1850, on the reorganization of public 

 instruction, and accepted a position as member 

 of the Supreme Council of Public Instruction, 

 but resigned in 1852, as he entirely disagreed 

 with the views of Minister Tortoul. When the 

 Vatican Council was convoked, Bishop Dupan- 

 loup did not conceal his opposition to the decla- 

 ration of the doctrine of papal infallibility, and 

 at the Council he was one of the most promi- 

 nent members of the minority which declared 

 the dogmatization of that doctrine. When, 

 however, the Council adopted and the Pope 

 promulgated it, he was among the first to sub- 

 mit. During the occupation of his episcopal 

 city by the German army, he successfully inter- 

 ceded with the German authorities in favor of 

 the mitigation of some measures adopted by 

 the generals. Having been elected a member 

 of the French Academy in 1854, he prevented 

 by his influence, in 1863, the election of the 

 radical Littr6 ; and when the latter was, in 

 1871, elected in Spite of his opposition, he re- 

 signed, but his resignation was not accepted. 

 In the National Assembly, to which he was 

 elected by his Department, he belongs to the 

 party of the Right. As president of the com- 

 mittee to which was referred the new law on 

 primary instruction prepared by the Minister 

 of Instruction, Jules Simon, he strongly de- 

 clared himself against the principle of compul- 

 sory education. Of late he has specially in- 

 terested himself in the canonization of the Maid 

 of Orleans. He has been a prolific writer on 

 theological and educational subjects; his chief 

 works being "De 1'Education" (3 vols., 1855- 

 '57), and "Vie de N. S. Jgsus-Christ " (1872). 



