FRANCE. 



341 



number of municipal councilors. This would 

 give Paris with 3,000,000 inhabitants but eight 

 times as many electors as villages of 300 in- 

 habitants, which have 10 councilors, while 

 towns of 100,000 have 24 and Paris 80. To 

 avert a possible dead-lock between the Cham- 

 bers, M. Ferry proposed to give the Senate a 

 suspensive veto over measures passed up from 

 the Chamber, instead of the power of absolute 

 rejection. Another clause of the bill carries 

 out the idea of the secular state by abolishing 

 the annual public prayers in all churches, chap- 

 els, and synagogues at the opening of the legis- 

 lative session. Another provision enacting 

 that " in no case shall constitutional revision 

 bring into question the republican form of 

 government " possessed only the effect of a 

 declaration in favor of the permanence of the 

 republic. The law on the election of the Sen- 

 ate M. Ferry proposed to take out of the Con- 

 stitution and make an ordinary statute like the 

 electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies. 

 Amendments of the budget made by the Sen- 

 ate were^to be decided, on the return of the 

 budget bill, by the Chamber unless they in- 

 volved expenditure and stipends arising from 

 organic statutes, in which case an agreement 

 of both houses would be necessary. 



The debate on the revision proposals of the 

 Government, which were submitted May 24, 

 did not end until July 3. M. Ferry moved the 

 revision of the Constitution only to satisfy the 

 extreme Left, and in fulfillment of a pledge 

 made to that section of the party. He made 

 it a condition that the scope of revision should 

 be confined to the Government programme. 

 No legal limit could be imposed on the Cham- 

 bers assembled in Congress as a constituent 

 assembly. The Congress would be sovereign 

 and have power to alter the Constitution to 

 any extent, or to frame a new one. An agree- 

 ment was, however, made between the sec- 

 tions of the Republican party, and promises 

 were given not to pass the limits marked by 

 the Government propositions. The advocates 

 of unlimited revision were aroused when the 

 moderate nature of the Government project 

 was unfolded. In the country at large there 

 was little interest in the discussion. The agita- 

 tion in favor of revision, which was started by 

 M. Gambetta when incensed at the rejection of 

 the scrutin de liste by the Senate, had died out 

 when the ministry at last proposed a scheme of 

 revision. The Government bill went up to the 

 Senate in the beginning of July. The clauses 

 abolishing life-senatorship, doing away with 

 public prayers at the meeting of the Cham- 

 bers, and declaring the republican form of gov- 

 ernment unrevisable, were agreed to, but the 

 proposed amendment of Article VIII of the 

 Constitution affecting the legislative powers 

 of the Senate was rejected. This clause pro- 

 posed to take away from the Senate its con- 

 trol over money bills. An amendment of M. 

 Berlet, which left dotations to the clergy and 

 subsidies to established institutions, subject 



to the vote of the Senate, was accepted by the 

 Government. These ecclesiastical grants *w ere 

 hitherto the principal financial subjects in dis- 

 pute between the two Chambers. The House 

 of Deputies never went to extremes, but avoid- 

 ed a dead-lock by giving in to the Senate. The 

 advanced Republicans were not content to 

 leave the only controverted items in the budget 

 in the control of the Senate. The amendment 

 was accordingly withdrawn, and the clause 

 omitted from the revision bill. 



The Congress, which met in the Palace of 

 Versailles August 4, thus received the moderate 

 scheme of revision proposed by the Govern- 

 ment only in a mutilated and emasculated form. 

 The constitutional amendments were reduced 

 to three one declaring the republic estab- 

 lished forever, one abolishing public prayers 

 at the opening of the session, and one replac- 

 ing life-Senators by Senators elected for the 

 ordinary term, in a manner to be finally deter- 

 mined by the Senate itself in an ordinary bill 

 passing through the two Chambers. The Con- 

 gress sat during the period when the news of 

 the French reprisals in China threw the nation 

 into a state of anxious suspense. The sessions 

 passed off with few exciting episodes. The bill, 

 which was embodied in the identical resolu- 

 tions of the two Chambers, described by M. 

 Ferry himself as a " decapitated " measure, was 

 adopted, and the Congress adjourned August 13. 



The electoral law of the Senate, the most im- 

 portant part of the revision programme, re- 

 mained to be dealt with by ordinary legislation. 

 The Senate began the discussion of the bill 

 revising its organization November 4. The 

 Congress had decided that life-senatorships 

 were to be abolished. The principal question 

 now to be considered was, by what manner of 

 election the 75 seats, converted into nine-year 

 senatorships, were to be filled. In the earlier 

 period of the discussion, when the Advanced 

 Left were clamoring for the abolition of the 

 Second Chamber altogether, the Senators were 

 inclined to the proposition, which was em- 

 bodied in the report of the Senate committee, 

 of having the 75 Senators chosen by the same 

 electorate as the other 225. This electorate 

 was composed of the Councils-General of the 

 departments, the Deputies for each department, 

 and communal delegates one representing each 

 commune, large or small. The latter descrip- 

 tion of electors was to be changed, so that un- 

 der the revised Constitution the more impor- 

 tant communes should be represented by a pro- 

 portionate number of delegates in the electoral 

 body. The Government proposition, which 

 originated in a suggestion of Gambetta, and 

 embodied the conclusions of the Congress of 

 Versailles, was to have the seats filled by the 

 joint votes of the two Chambers. This plan 

 would virtually give the House of Deputies the 

 power of appointing one fourth of the Sena- 

 tors. When the matter now carne up for de- 

 cision, the power of conservative resistance 

 had regained force enough to impel the Senate 



