FRANCE. 



executive power in a chief magistrate called 

 President of the Republic. The deputies are 

 elected, for the term of four rears, by univer- 

 sal suffrage, under the scrutin d'arrondisse- 

 ment adopted by the National Assembly on 

 November 11, 1875, each arrondissement re- 

 turning one deputy ; and, if its population be 

 over 100,000, an additional deputy for each 

 100,000 or fraction thereof. At the general 

 election of 1878 the electeurs politiques (per- 

 sons having a right to vote) numbered 9,992,- 

 329. Citizenship and twenty-one years of age 

 are the only requisites to be an elector. The 

 number of deputies in 1881 was 557. The 

 Senate is composed of 300 members ; 75 hold 

 their seats for life, vacancies being filled by 

 the choice of the Senate ; and 225 are elect- 

 ive, one third of their number retiring every 

 three years. Twenty-five years of age and 

 citizenship are the only requisites to be a 

 deputy, and forty years of age and citizen- 

 ship to be a senator. Both the senators and 

 the deputies receive pay for their services, 

 at a fixed rate per diem. In the budget for 

 1880 the expenses of the Senate were esti- 

 mated at 3,865,600 francs, and those of the 

 Chamber of Deputies at 6,521,000. Both bod- 

 ies assemble on the second Tuesday in Janu- 

 ary of each year unless previously convoked 

 by the President of the Republic, and must 

 remain in session at least five months out of 

 the twelve. The President can adjourn the 

 Chambers, but not more than twice in one 

 session, nor for a longer period than one month 

 at a time. The Senate possesses conjointly 

 with the Chamber of Deputies the right of in- 

 itiating and framing laws ; but financial laws 

 must first be presented to and voted by the 

 deputies. For all practical purposes the four 

 years' existence of the Chamber is a single 

 session, with mere adjournments. A dissolu- 

 tion alone annuls all bills pending in it. The 

 Senate, however, is never dissolved, and hills 

 are now taken up by it one session at the stage 

 they had reached in the previous one. Indeed, 

 a year has repeatedly intervened between the 

 passing of a bill in one House and its passing 

 in the other. A measure which became a law 

 on November 15, 1881, abolishing the last ves- 

 tige of ecclesiastical control over cemeteries, 

 deserves notice as having been the first to profit 

 by this continuity of parliamentary proceed- 

 ings. Introduced by a private deputy during 

 the session previous, and adopted by the Cham- 

 ber, it was sent up to the Senate, but too late 

 for discussion before the prorogation. When, 

 in 1877, the Senate had for the first time to 

 decide how pending bills were affected by a 

 dissolution of the Lower House, and with the 

 option of making a tabula rasa, of taking up 

 bills at the pre-dissolution stage and passing 

 them without sending them back to the Cham- 

 ber if unamended, or of passing them and send- 

 ing them down to the Chamber like measures 

 initiated in the Senate, its decision was that 

 bills introduced into the Chamber by private 

 VOL. xxi. 20 A 



deputies should be expunged, and Government 

 bills alone proceeded with. In 1881, however, 

 the Senate resolved, under the inspiration of 

 its president, M. Leon Say, to place all pre- 

 dissolution bills on an equal footing. The 

 President of the Republic, elected for a term of 

 seven years by a majority of votes by the Sen- 

 ate and Chamber of Deputies united in Na- 

 tional Assembly, may be re-elected ; has the ini- 

 tiative of legislation concurrently with the two 

 Houses ; promulgates the laws voted by both 

 Houses ; disposes of the armed force of the na- 

 tion, and appoints all civil and military func- 

 tionaries, including the members of the Cabinet: 

 but every act of the President must be coun- 

 tersigned by a minister. lie may, with the 

 assent of the Senate, dissolve the Chamber of 

 Deputies before the expiration of its legal 

 term ; but the electoral colleges must in such 

 event be convened for new elections within 

 three months. Pursuant to a special article 

 appended to the Constitution of 1875, and dated 

 July 16th of that year, the President can not 

 declare war without the previous assent of 

 both Houses. In case of a vacancy by death 

 or any other cause, the Senate and Chamber 

 of Deputies must immediately proceed to the 

 election of a new President. The President 

 of the Republic is responsible only in case of 

 high treason; but the Cabinet is responsible 

 to the Senate and Chamber of Deputies for 

 the general policy of the Government, and 

 the ministers individually for their personal 

 acts. 



The President of the Republic is M. Jules 

 Grevy, elected January 30, 1879 ; and the Cab- 

 inet, at the end of 1881, was composed of the 

 following ministers : Foreign Affairs, M. Leon 

 Gambetta, President of the Council ; Interior, 

 M. Waldeck-Rousseau ; Finance, M. Alain-Tar- 

 ge ; Justice, M. Cazot ; Commerce and the Col- 

 onies, M. Rouvier; Public Instruction and 

 Worship, M. Paul Bert; Public Works, M. 

 Raynal; War, General Campenon ; Marine, M. 

 Gougeard ; Agriculture, M. Deves ; Fine Arts, 

 M. Proust ; Posts and Telegraphs, M. Cochery. 



In this new ministry, dating from Novem- 

 ber 14, 1881, is to be observed the severance 

 of the Department of Worship from the Inte- 

 rior, and its reattachment to Public Instruc- 

 tion, from which it used to be temporarily dis- 

 joined when the latter portfolio was held by a 

 Protestant. By the change, M. Paul Bert, who, 

 in his memorable lecture in September last, 

 affirmed that nations receded from religion in 

 proportion as they advanced in morality, was 

 the man appointed to transact business with 

 the Catholic prelates. The clerical press 

 evinced irritation at the appointment of M. 

 Bert. One paper declared it scandalous and 

 insolent; some republican journals likewise 

 demurred to it ; one paper noted that Worship 

 was ''handed to a man who has hitherto treat- 

 ed it as a pamphleteer rather than as a states- 

 man " ; while another styled it an act both of 

 " bad policy and bad taste " ; and the clerical 



