FRANCE. 



317 



the practice of firmness. The minister was 

 u roii^ in misunderstanding the intentions of 

 tin- Bonapartists ; they would not be irrecon- 

 cilable enemies of the Constitution, ami good 

 policy \s mild consist in not setting them a.Mlr. 

 Tlu-y only wished to make a trial of the Con- 

 stitution, and desired above all to see the ad- 

 vmnvil Ui-puhlican party, which triumphed at 

 the lust elections, seated on the benches of the 

 ministry. 



On May 12th the Republicans met with a 

 serious loss by the death of M. Ricard, the 

 Minister of the Interior. He was replaced in 

 the cabinet by M. Marcere, his Under-Secre- 

 tary of State. In the Senate, M. Buffet was 

 elected as his successor in June. 



The Chambers reassembled on May 10th. In 

 the Chamber of Deputies the amnesty question 

 was again taken up. After a considerable de- 

 bate, the Chamber of Deputies, on May 18th, 

 rejected the motion of M. Raspail for complete 

 amnesty by a vote of 394 to 52. M. Marcou, 

 Radical, introduced a motion for amnesty for 

 all common-law offenses committed with a po- 

 litical object. Minister Dufaure opposed the 

 motion. He declared that pardons would be 

 granted in the proportion in which the Cham- 

 ber refrained from insisting upon amnesty. 

 The Government would show no leniency 

 toward those who continued to display vio- 

 'ence and hate in anonymous pamphlets and 

 articles. M. Marcou's motion was rejected by 

 ft large majority. 



On June 1st the Chamber of Deputies be- 

 gan the debate on M. Waddington's university 

 education bill, and on June 7th passed it by a 

 vote of 888 against 128. In the Senate con- 

 siderable opposition was shown against it. On 

 June 21st the bureaus of the Senate elected 

 the committee on the university education 

 bill. The committee consisted of six opponents 

 and three supporters of the bill. This result 

 was due to the fact that the members of the 

 Right were more equally distributed among 

 the various bureaus instead of their strength 

 being wasted by concentration on one or two. 

 An examination of the total number of votes 

 cast in the bureaus showed that 132 senators 

 were opposed to the bill, and 131 in favor of 

 it. On July 21st it was finally defeated in the 

 Senate by a vote of 144 to 189. 



On July llth the municipal bill of the Duke 

 de Broglie was reported by the committee to 

 the Chamber of Deputies. The committee's 

 report provided that until an organic munici- 

 pal law should be established the municipal 

 councils should eject the mayors and deputy- 

 mayors from among their own number by bal- 

 lot; but the right of electing mayors shall not 

 apply to communes namely, principal towns 

 of departments, arrondissements, and cantons, 

 the mayors and deputy - mayors of which 

 should be appointed from among the muni- 

 cipal councilors by the President. On the other 

 hand, the Republican deputies had promised 

 their constituencies liberal reforms in this 



BAYONNK, FRANCE. 





question, and particularly the abolition of the 

 last clause. The cabinet thus found itself be- 

 tween two- opponent*, neither of whom would 

 concede anything. The law was, however, 

 passed on the 12th. Several amendments 

 restricting the patronage of the Government 

 were proposed, but they were rejected by 



large majorities, the greater part of the Re- 

 publicans deeming it necessary to sustain the 

 cabinet. 



While the republic gained more ground 

 every day in the Chamber, the opposition in 

 the Senate had been caining considerably, and 

 on July 25th all the factions of the Right defi- 



