340 



FRANCE. 



reacquisition of Alsace and Lorraine, but also 

 because a falling out with England would in- 

 jure French trade, while Germany, instead of 

 affording any recompense, was successfully 

 competing with France in her staple manufact- 

 ures in all foreign markets. At the national 

 festival on the 14th of July a German flag was 

 torn down by the mob from the front of a 

 hotel in Paris, an incident for which the 

 Prime Minister made a formal apology to the 

 German ambassador. 



The Reorganization of French Defenses. The 

 restoration of the French military establish- 

 ment, after the disasters of 1870 and 1871, is 

 almost completed according to the original 

 plans, so that the French can soon be relieved 

 of the extraordinary war budget. Up to Dec. 

 31, 1884, the credits voted for this purpose 

 amounted to 2,293,971,451 francs. Of this 

 sum 276,399,969 francs remained unexpended. 

 The Minister of War proposed to expend 85,- 

 000,000 francs in 1885, and to distribute the 

 remainder over the succeeding years. Of the 

 2,017,571,485 francs already expended, 1,089,- 

 130,337 went for arms and supplies, 569,865,- 

 125 for fortifications, 70,526,901 for provisions, 

 18,791,584 for hospitals and field hospitals, 25,- 

 437,710 for remount and saddlery, 213,599,022 

 for clothing, 24,560,692 for general expenses, 

 and about 5,500,000 for various services. Some 

 132,000,000 francs are required for the comple- 

 tion of the system of fortifications. 



The Municipal Elections. The municipal elec- 

 tions of May 4 revealed a great gain of strength 

 to the Radicals in the constituencies. The re- 

 sults showed them to be about equal with the 

 Government party or Opportunists. In Paris 

 the election turned upon the question of ac- 

 quiring larger political powers for the munici- 

 pality. A bill had already passed the Chamber, 

 but was resisted by the Senate, which would 

 divide Paris into four districts, each returning 

 twenty deputies by scrutin de liste. The re- 

 sult of the elections indicated an early revival 

 of the question of giving Paris a central mayor, 

 and at last establishing the Commune. In 1880 

 the Municipal Council voted to establish a may- 

 oralty, but the Government simply annulled 

 the enactment. The autonomist idea was a 

 paramount issue in Lyons and Marseilles also, 

 and in all the large cities. This principle was 

 the leading feature in the programme of Cle- 

 menceau, and the other Radicals. It had been 

 advocated by Gambetta and Ferry when in op- 

 position, yet when they came into power the 

 almost absolute authority that the centralized 

 system of French government places in the 

 hands of the ministry seemed too important a 

 political power to resign, so that they were 

 easily convinced of the danger of such a step. 

 Nothing would drive the French peasantry 

 into the arms of the reactionaries sooner than 

 the establishment of local self-government, 

 especially in Paris, so jealous are they of the 

 influence of the cities. Aside from this ques- 

 tion, the Government lost largely in the elec- 



tions on account of the Tonquin campaign. 

 The Radicals opposed the course of the Gov- 

 ernment in Tunis, Madagascar, and Tonquin, 

 setting their faces against the colonial advent- 

 ures of the Opportunists from the beginning, 

 and the French people were growing more and 

 more dissatisfied with this policy, which cost 

 them continual sacrifices for which no returns 

 had yet accrued. 



Revision of the Constitution. The long-mooted 

 question of constitutional revision was brought* 

 to an issue in 1884. The Government had put 

 it off to the close of the legislative period, in 

 order to avoid a dissolution of the Assembly. 

 They were now impelled to bring forward a 

 programme of reform, principally by the fear 

 of disrupting the party and arraying the ad- 

 vanced Republicans against them in the com- 

 ing elections. The Constitution of 1875 was 

 the work of the reactionists then in the major- 

 ity. While establishing universal suffrage for 

 the election of the Chamber of Deputies, it im- 

 posed a check upon the democracy by institut- 

 ing a Senate, with the power of absolute veto 

 over the acts of the Chamber, to which three 

 fourths of the members were chosen by very 

 select electoral bodies, only one fourth of the 

 Senate at a time at periods of three years, and 

 one fourth were elected for life by the Sena- 

 tors themselves. Representation in the Sen- 

 ate was based upon the singular principle of 

 the equality of communes, very satisfactory to 

 the peasants, who are jealous of the ascend- 

 ency of the cities. The system of indirect elec- 

 tion gave each commune a single delegate in 

 the electoral college, chosen by the municipal 

 council. The smallest hamlet had the same 

 representation as the city of Paris. M. Ferry, 

 representing the conservative mass of the 

 Republican party, who dreaded a sudden drift 

 toward radicalism, partly from a fear of social 

 and religious legislative innovations in them- 

 selves, partly because they foresaw danger to 

 republican institutions from conflicts between 

 the capitalistic and the proletarian, the relig- 

 ious and the freethinking, the urban and peas- 

 ant classes, was desirous of minimizing the con- 

 stitutional changes. The revision bill that 

 he introduced in the Chamber of Deputies sim- 

 ply modified those features in the constitution 

 of the Senate which were flagrantly at vari- 

 ance with republican ideas. The Republican 

 party could not have united on any important 

 change. Some desired to make the Senate the 

 controlling legislative body, some to have it 

 elected by universal suffrage, while the extreme 

 section would abolish it altogether. The Gov- 

 ernment scheme of revision proposed to do 

 away with the life-senatorships and have the 

 seats, as they became vacant by death, filled 

 by Senators elected for nine years by the joint 

 votes of the Senators and Deputies. The man- 

 date of the departmental Senators M. Ferry 

 proposed to popularize, though but in a slight 

 degree, by having the number of delegates 

 chosen by the communes proportioned to the 



