392 



FRANCE. 



30th the Chamber declared urgency for the 

 bill, the effect of this declaration being that a 

 single reading would suffice to procure its defi- 

 nite adoption. The Chamber then proceeded 

 with the discussion, and negatived the counter- 

 project of MM. Langle and Mitchell, Bonapart- 

 ists, and afterward rejected by 350 votes to 176 

 the amendment of M. Bardoux, who proposed 

 to restore to the state the right of conferring 

 degrees, but to concede to religious fraterni- 

 ties the liberty to teach under state control. 

 Clause 1 of the bill was adopted on July 3d, 

 clauses 2 to 6 on the 4th, and clause 7 on the 

 9th, and finally the bill itself by a vote of 362 

 to 159, after an amendment introduced by M. 

 Madier de Montjau, aiming at the prohibition 

 of all religious orders to teach, had been de- 

 feated by 381 to 78. Article 7, which was 

 most bitterly attacked, disqualifies members 

 of religious bodies not recognized by the state 

 from teaching. The principal unauthorized 

 teaching bodies in France since 1820 are enu- 

 merated as follows: In 1820 the Jesuits num- 

 bered 162 ; in 1840, 226 ; in 1850, 565 ; in 1860, 

 689 ; in 1870, 974 ; and in 1878, 1,502. The 

 number of their establishments rose, from 1820 

 to 1878, from 5 to 59. The Dominicans num- 

 bered 14 in 1820 and 327 in 1878. There are 

 in all 136 establishments belonging to unau- 

 thorized bodies, of which 16 are congregations 

 of men and 120 of women. The figures are 

 contained in replies sent in officially under re- 

 turns ordered by the law of 1876, and may be 

 relied upon as nearly accurate. The congrega- 

 tions have between them 555 establishments 

 for the instruction of female students and 81 

 for men and boys, and there are employed in 

 the educational work no less than 4, 857 female 

 and 1,556 male teachers. The pupils amount 

 to about 61,000, the women and girls being 

 about twice as numerous as the men and boys, 

 and of these some 3,500 boys and 6,000 girls 

 are in receipt of pecuniary assistance by way 

 of what we shall call scholarships or exhibi- 

 tions. The expenses of providing this aid 

 amount to nearly $300,000 a year. M. Spul- 

 ler, the official reporter of the bill, in his re- 

 port said : " The invasions of Ultramontanism 

 have reached their term. The Government of 

 the republic severs itself from a policy which 

 has hitherto closed men's eyes to these inva- 

 sions when it has not favored them. That is 

 the meaning of the bill ; that is its aim ; that 

 is what France must see in it. And this very 

 considerable event explains the excitement of 

 the reactionary parties, of whom Ultramontan- 

 ism is the bond of union, and the warm sym- 

 pathy manifested by republican democracy to 

 measures of reparation long awaited." The 

 Chamber on July 15th, by 363 to 140, passed 

 the bill, which, as Monseigneur Freppel com- 

 plained in the " Univers," would put a body 

 composed of forty-six representatives of state 

 education and four of Catholic education over 

 the inspection of Catholic schools, over the 

 books used in them, and over the teachers em- 



ployed. The bill on the return to Paris was 

 adopted in the Chamber on the same day, after 

 it had previously passed the Senate. It had to 

 be returned to the Senate, on account of an 

 amendment empowering the President of either 

 Chamber to make requisition for troops for de- 

 fense, instead of demanding them of the Min- 

 ister of War; and on July 19th the Senate 

 concurred in the amendments. The Chambers 

 were prorogued on August 2d. 



The new session of the Chambers opened on 

 November 27th. For the first time since 1870 

 the National Legislature met in Paris. The 

 buildings appropriated for the use of the Cham- 

 bers are the Luxembourg for the Senate, and 

 the Palais Bourbon for the Chamber of Depu- 

 ties. M. Gambetta, on taking the chair, ad- 

 dressed the Chamber as follows : 



GETTTLEMEN: The second National Congress, by 

 bringing back the public powers to Paris, has restored 

 to our incomparable capital the legal title of which it 

 had too long been deprived, without, however, being 

 discredited. The sovereign Assembly by this vote of 

 reparation has drawn closer the tie of national unity. 

 It has placed the seat of government at the only point 

 of the territory whence one governs with authority. 

 It wished at length to show the world that the nation 

 had confidence in the patriotic population of Paris, 

 which is still, after so many ordeals, the head and 

 heart of France. Henceforth, relieved of fatiguing 

 daily journeys, we shall be able to devote in labor to 

 the country the hours thus wasted in locomotion. 

 The great tasks undertaken by you in scholastic, 

 financial, economic, military, and political reforms are 

 about to derive a fresh impulse from your residence in 

 this marvelous laboratory of Paris, where all the in- 

 tellectual resources accumulate, whither flow oil the 

 living forces of society, all the data of internal and 

 external policy ^ made fruitful by a public spirit, the 

 vivacity of which does not impair its judgment or 

 good sense. You have prepared many materials for 

 reconstruction; you have elaborated many projects. 

 They must be carried out. I adjure your committees 

 to work with redoubled energy to lay before us at the 

 proper moment which I hope will be soon the re- 

 sults of their internal discussions. At this great trib- 

 une mature and practical reforms will enforce them- 

 selves ; the country, daily enlightened in regard to its 

 affairs, will at last see its constancy rewarded. As 

 regards my own labors, gentlemen, believe me, I will 

 do my utmost, scrupulously confined to the special 

 duties with which you have charged me, to perform 

 them with all the impartiality, activity, and zeal of 

 which I am capable. Let us, then, all set resolutely 

 to work, let us place ourselves above private interests, 

 let us avoid useless or violent incidents, and concen- 

 trate all our faculties and efforts on our great aim 

 the greatness of our country, the consolidation of the 

 republic. 



On December 2d M. Baudry d'Asson, a Le- 

 gitimist, withdrew a question he had given 

 notice of, which had been looked forward to 

 as likely to afford the Ministers an opportunity 

 of explaining their polioy. M. Waddington 

 thereupon complained of the custom which 

 had been introduced of giving notice of a ques- 

 tion and afterward withdrawing it. The Min- 

 istry was said to be in extremity, but it was 

 not at private conventions, but openly from 

 the tribune, that questions relating to it ought 

 to be brought forward. It was for the House 

 to proclaim whether the Ministers did or did 



