FRANCE. 



325 



bodings. He admonished certain bishops who 

 had visited Rome that they should obtain leave 

 of the Government before absenting themselves 

 from their dioceses. He announced that prel- 

 ates ordained in the future would be required 

 to subscribe to the oath prescribed by the Con- 

 vention of 1801.* Prefects were requested to 

 furnish reports of the character and antece- 

 dents of prelates, and the office of Director- 

 General of Worship was abolished. The Due 

 de Broglie, in the Senate, accused the Repub- 

 licans of dissimulation in their Tunisian policy, 

 while, out-of-doors, the testimony in a libel- 

 suit brought by the public prosecutor against 

 Rochefort for his attack supon M. Roustan, and 

 the acquittal of Rochefort, made a damaging 

 impression. With Tunis still far from being 

 pacified, with the question of Senate reform 

 and other measures already announced yet to 

 be settled, with a battle raging between the 

 free-traders and the protectionists over the 

 commercial treaty with England, and after 

 taking a position in Egypt which would entail 

 military intervention, Gambetta, as though aim- 

 ing to be dictator or nothing, announced the re- 

 introduction of the project of the scrutin de 

 liste. Under this system Napoleon III kept 

 up his majority in the Chamber. Instead of 

 each arrondissement electing its own deputies, 

 all the deputies for a department would be 

 voted for on one ticket throughout the depart- 

 ment. This favorite scheme of Gambetta's had 

 been rejected by the Senate the preceding June. 

 In the triennial senatorial election on January 

 8th, the Republicans gained twenty-five seats. 

 Every one but Gambetta saw the difficulty of 

 inducing the Chamber now to change the elect- 

 oral law under which it had just been elect- 

 ed ; yet his organ, the " Republique Francaise," 

 declared that he would resign if the measure 

 failed to pass. On January 14th it was intro- 

 duced, coupled with the plan for the revision 

 of the senatorial election law. Instead of al- 

 lowing petty villages equal representation in 

 the electoral college with the great cities, he 

 proposed to give each municipality a delegate 

 for every five hundred registered voters ; and, 

 in the case of the life-Senators, that their term 

 should be reduced to nine years, and that both 

 Chambers should participate in their election. 

 He also proposed to take away the right of the 

 Senate to vote upon financial measures, except 

 in the way of a protest. The committee of the 

 Chamber reported against the scrutin de liste 

 section of the proposed electoral law, and on 

 January 26th the Chamber of Deputies rejected 

 a resolution of M. Gambetta in favor of the 

 revival of the collective ticket by two-thirds 

 majority. 



Gambetta immediately -handed in his resig- 



* " I swear and promise to God, on the holy gospels, to re- 

 main obedient and faithful to the Government established by 

 the Constitution of the French Eepublic. I promise also to 

 have no dealings, to attend no councils, to carry on no league, 

 either at home or abroad, which are contrary to public tran- 

 quillity ; and if, in my diocese or elsewhere, I learn that any- 

 thing is being concocted to the prejudice of the state, I will 

 inform the Government thereof." 



nation. M. de Freycinet was called upon to 

 form a ministry. He obtained as colleagues 

 the well-known and trusted statesmen of the 

 party. He himself resumed the portfolio for 

 Foreign Affairs, which he had resigned eighteen 

 months before, mainly through Gambetta; 

 Leon Say took the Ministry of Finance, and 

 Jules Ferry that of Public Instruction and 

 Worship ; Admiral Jaurr6guibery became Min- 

 ister of the Marine, Varroy of Public Works, 

 and Tirard of Commerce. The members of 

 the new Cabinet who had not held ministerial 

 positions before were Goblet, Minister of the 

 Interior ; Humbert, of Justice ; Mahy, of Agri- 

 culture ; and General Billot, of War. The Min- 

 istries of Agriculture and of Fine Arts had been 

 created by Gambetta, and the latter was now 

 discontinued. 



The policy announced contrasted with the 

 combative and disturbing departure of Gam- 

 betta, the main aim being "to make peace pre- 

 vail in the country, peace in men's minds as 

 well as in the material order of things, peace 

 both at home and abroad." The revision of 

 the electoral laws was postponed, while the 

 reforms in the magistracy, the military service, 

 the laws of liberty of association, and in na- 

 tional education, were to be prosecuted with 

 energy. 



During the tranquil ministry of De Frey- 

 cinet several important measures were carried 

 through. The right of electing their mayors 

 was restored to communes and municipalities, 

 with the exception of Paris. The Radicals 

 cried out against the exclusion of Paris, but the 

 moderate men were not ready to make this 

 concession, involving the patronage of 20,000 

 offices, to the oft repeated demands of the 

 Parisian democracy for local self-government. 

 A bill to abolish the Concordat was taken into 

 consideration. The principal act of the ses- 

 sion was the primary education law (see EDU- 

 CATION AND ILLITERACY). The amendment 

 added in the Senate the previous session by 

 Jules Simon, requiring schoolmasters to in- 

 struct pupils in their duty toward God and 

 their country, which the Chamber had refused 

 to accept, was now struck out by the Senate 

 freshly recruited with Republicans. The policy 

 of the Government, not being as pacific in re- 

 ligious matters as in other fields, was subjected 

 to sharp attacks from the clerical forces. Mon- 

 seigneur Freppel, Bishop of Angers, the clerical 

 leader, opposed a grant for the continued occu- 

 pation of Tunis, and elicited an explanation to 

 the effect that the troops had been reduced 

 from 45,000 to 35,000, and that 5,000 more 

 would soon be withdrawn. There was a strug- 

 gle over a law allowing a witness objecting to 

 the oath to make a declaration on his " honor 

 and conscience." On the reassembling in May, 

 the Chamber passed Naquet's bill establishing 

 a law of divorce. To prevent the resignation 

 of L6on Say upon the passage of a bill opposed 

 by him, a special vote of confidence was passed. 



The Egyptian question found the country 



