FRANCE. 



313 



the bill was detestable, the Left would vote for 

 it, in order to secure a partial raising of the 

 siege. The press bill finally passed by a nearly 

 unanimous vote. 



In compliance with the recommendation of 

 the Committee on Dissolution, the Assembly, 

 on December 30th, resolved " that the dele- 

 gates to choose Senators be elected January 

 9th;" "that they proceed to the election of 

 Senators January 23d;" "that the general 

 election for members of the Chamber of Dep- 

 uties be held February 20th, and both the 

 Houses meet March 8th." 



On December 31st a Permanent Committee 

 was chosen, according to an agreement Ijetween 

 the various parties. It consists of thirteen 

 members of the Left and twelve of the Bight. 

 The Duke d'Audiffret-Pasquier, President of the 

 Assembly, then arose and made a speech, clos- 

 ing the session. He eloquently recapitulated 

 the achievements of the Assembly, which, hav- 

 ing undertaken its trust on the morrow of a 

 madly undertaken war and the horrors of the 

 Commune, had paid the ransom of the country, 

 thus demonstrating its credit and vitality. He 

 continued : " The Assembly has reorganized 

 the internal administration and voted a Consti- 

 tution in which individual preferences have 

 been subordinated to love of country. That 

 Constitution is, perhaps, imperfect, but with- 

 out it there would be the double peril of des- 

 potism and anarchy. You will confide the 

 Constitution to the honor of the President and 

 the wisdom of the new Assemblies. You may 

 with confidence submit yourselves to the judg- 

 ment of the country, for you restore to it its 

 flag and liberties intact." 



The bishops of France availed themselves 

 of the new law on education to make prepar- 

 ations on a grand scale for the establishment 

 of free Catholic universities. Three of them, 

 at Lille, Paris, and Angers, were opened be- 

 fore the close of the year. 



In conclusion he declared the National As- 

 sembly prorogued until the 8th day of March, 

 1876, when the new Chambers are to meet. 

 The Assembly separated, the Deputies of the 

 Left shouting, " Vive la republique! " 



The south of France, in June and July, suf- 

 fered terribly from inundations. An official 

 statement, made by M. Caillaux, Minister of 

 Public Works, to the Assembly, estimates the 

 total damage done to property by the inunda- 

 tions at $15,000,000. The number of deaths 

 caused by the inundations was about 300. The 

 subscriptions raised for the sufferers amounted, 

 about the middle of July, to 3,600,000 francs. 



In July an International Maritime Exhibition 

 was held at Paris, in the Palace of Industry. 

 The exhibition was a display of marine and 

 fluvial apparatus for all that belongs to fishing. 

 In addition, there were constructions for water 

 animated by fish, waterfalls, diving-machines, 

 etc. England contributed largely, a committee 

 having been long working in London, patron- 

 ized by the Lord Mayor, in order to worthily 



represent a branch of industry for which the 

 British Isles are famous. Other countries also 

 contributed, more particularly those of North- 

 ern Europe, while the French fishing interests 

 were fully represented. The exhibition lasted 

 until November. 



A Diplomatic Conference on the Metric Sys- 

 tem was held, on March 2d, at the Ministry for 

 Foreign Affairs, under the presidency of the 

 Duke Decazes. England, Germany, Austria, 

 Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Holland, Russia, 

 Spain, the United States, Turkey, Switzerland, 

 Sweden and Norway, Peru, Portugal, Brazil, 

 the Argentine Confederation, Greece, and Ven- 

 ezuela, were represented by their embassadors. 

 The conference transferred the solution of the 

 questions to be decided to a commission, com- 

 posed of delegates of the various Governments. 

 M. Dumas, the Permanent Secretary of the 

 Academy of Sciences, was appointed president 

 of this commission. 



On December 27th the statue of Napoleon 

 the Great was replaced on the newly-finished 

 Vendome Column. A large crowd assembled 

 in the Place Vend6me and the Rue de la Paix, 

 and other streets adjacent, to witness the pro- 

 ceeding. There was no ceremony. 



M. BUFFET, the new Vice-President of the 

 Ministerial Council, holds the position of State 

 Minister for the third time. The son of an 

 officer of the First Empire, he was born in 

 1818, and gained his first successes in chemistry, 

 to which his analytical mind first devoted itself. 

 He studied the English language at an early 

 age, and while, during a prolonged stay in Eng- 

 land, following the debates of the House of 

 Commons, acquired his first notions of parlia- 

 mentary science. He was subsequently, to- 

 gether with the Duke de Broglie, among the 

 favorite pupils of the celebrated M. de Rossi, 

 and he was practising at the bar at Nancy 

 when the Revolution of 1848 broke out. Ben- 

 efiting rather by his father's popularity than 

 by his own reputation, he was elected by 75,000 

 votes for the Vosges to the Constituent Assem- 

 bly. A partisan of General Cavaignac, he, 

 nevertheless, twice figured in the ministry be- 

 tween 1848 and 1851, on each occasion quit- 

 ting it rather suddenly for the sake of defend- 

 ing the idea of ministerial responsibility, of 

 which he had always been an upholder. On 

 the 30th of October, 1849, he was succeeded 

 by M. Rouher, whose place he was to take 

 twenty years afterward as a member of the 

 Ollivier cabinet. Reflected to the Legislative 

 Assembly, he sat with M. Baroche on the com- 

 mission which framed the famous electoral law 

 of the 31st of May, 1851, and on the 14th of 

 October withdrew from a cabinet including 

 MM. Magne and Rouher, for the purpose of 

 defending that same law which was destined 

 to disappear. Confined in Mazas, at the coup 

 d'etat, he devoted his leisure to a tour in Italy 

 with M. Thiers. He was defeated as an enemy 

 of the Emperor in 1857. He was again de- 

 feated at the general election of 1863, but was 



