FRANCE. 



295 



whom he lived. After his name became mixed 

 up in the decoration scandal, his constituents 

 at Tours called on him to appear before them 

 and give an account of his actions. He was 

 received by a crowded assemblage, but, before 

 he had completed his first sentence, his speech 

 was cut short by jeers and cries of execration, 

 and the meeting passed a resolution demanding 

 the resignation of his seat in the House of 

 Deputies. When a committee was appointed 

 by the Chamber to inquire into the scandals 

 that had recently transpired, he demanded an 

 investigation when his case was mentioned, 

 and offered an explanation of his relations 

 with the Limouzin woman, saying that she 

 had once approached him on behalf of her hus- 

 band, who was one of his constituents. Among 

 the delinquencies now brought to his charge 

 was using the official stamp of the Ely see to 

 forward his private letters and effects through 

 the mails. He confessed the truth of this com- 

 plaint by paying to the post-office authorities 

 40,000 francs to cover the amount of postage 

 withheld. When the seized documents were 

 brought into court during Mine. Limouzin's 

 trial, she exclaimed that letters from Gen. 

 Thibaudin and two important ones written to 

 her by M. Wilson in 1884 were missing. The 

 prosecuting attorney and the examining magis- 

 trate had three times refused to receive the 

 documents from the police authorities on ac- 

 count of informalities before they were finally 

 delivered, duly sealed and scheduled. When 

 Mme. Limouzin's papers were seized, the pre- 

 fect of police, M. Gragnon, discovered the two 

 letters, the first of which began by saying that 

 the President of the republic, as well as Wilson, 

 was doing his utmost to have Gen. Thibaudin 

 promoted, though thus far without success. M. 

 Gragnon took them to M. Grevy, who threw 

 them into the fire. When Mme. Limouzin de- 

 manded their production, he asked to have them 

 returned. M. Grevy then told his son-in-law to 

 rewrite the letters, which he did, omitting the 

 compromising passages. These substituted let- 

 ters, with those from Gen. Thibaudin, were 

 then produced in court. The woman declared 

 that they were like the letters that Wilson 

 had written her, but were not the same. No 

 credence was given to this assertion in the face 

 of M. Wilson's denials until it was shown that 

 the forged letters were written on paper bear- 

 ing a water-mark that was not used till 1885. 



The trial of M. Wilson and of the police 

 officials, MM. Gragnon and Geron, for the ab- 

 straction of the letters took place in December. 

 The court decided that the case did not fall 

 within the penal code, because Mine. Limouzin 

 was not prejudiced by the suppression of the 

 letters, which act was fastened on M. Grag- 

 non, or the fabrication of substitutes, in which 

 M. Wilson was concerned. The latter could 

 not be held on a charge of forgery, because the 

 contents were similar and the signature his 

 own in the original and the substituted letters. 



The Presidential Crisis. The discovery that 



M. Wilson and the police had been guilty of 

 the suppression and falsification of judicial evi- 

 dence, and made away with documents that 

 were so incriminating as to require to be con- 

 cealed by criminal means, produced a state of 

 political perturbation that led almost to an- 

 archy. M. Gragnon was dismissed from office 

 for his share in the transaction. M. Mazeau, 

 the Minister of Justice, resigned, but was in- 

 duced to continue in his post. M. Wilson 

 would not resign his seat in the Chamber in 

 order to stand a criminal trial, and therefore 

 a motion was brought to allow the authorities 

 to prosecute. He did not appear before the 

 committee to which the case was referred, and 

 when, on November 17, the vote was taken on 

 the question of waiving his immunity as a 

 deputy from arrest, the Chamber was unani- 

 mous in his condemnation. M. Grevy had 

 already threatened to resign if the Chamber 

 voted for prosecution, while in the legislative 

 hall and in the street were heard demands for 

 his resignation, which became gradually more 

 decided. 



On November 20 M. Clemenceau demanded 

 a discussion of the general political situation. 

 M. Rouvier declined to enter into a discussion 

 until after the conversion of the debt on the 

 24th; but the Radical leader ridiculed the 

 idea that the Cabinet could save the financial 

 situation by saying, "Rest in peace till Wednes- 

 day, and on Thursday I promise you a crisis 

 such as marks an epoch in parliamentary his- 

 tory " ; and continued, " Action is needed. 

 There is no government. Public power is 

 without authority ; the administration is dis- 

 organized. This infamy can last no longer. 

 You demand time, but the disaster accords 

 none." The Royalists supported the interpel- 

 lation, and M. Rouvier, being defeated by 328 

 votes against 242, announced the resignation 

 of the Cabinet. 



The vote was directed against the President, 

 but M. Gr6vy declared that he would not yield 

 to an unconstitutional agitation or to legislative 

 pressure. The retiring prime minister advised 

 him to send for M. Clemenceau, but he first 

 asked M. de Freycinet to form a Cabinet, and, 

 after next consulting M. Floquet, and then M. 

 Goblet, at last appealed to M. Clemenceau, 

 who told him, like the others, that the crisis 

 was of a presidential rather than of a minis- 

 terial character. M. Brisson, who was next 

 called, M. Le Royer, the President of the Sen- 

 ate, and M. Ribot likewise intimated that the 

 only solution was his retirement from the 

 presidency. He was told the same thing by 

 several others. He appealed a second time to 

 M. Clemenceau, of whom he said in May that 

 when he entered the FJys6e by one door he 

 would leave it himself by the other. ^ When 

 Henri Maret, almost the only journalist that 

 had defended him, declined to attempt to form 

 a ministry, and advised the President that 

 there was no man in the French parliament 

 who had sufficient influence to prevent his 



