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FRANCE. 



ing Parliament, on July 18. The accused per- 

 sons were tried by the Correctional Tribunal, and 

 the principals received the extreme penalty of 

 the law. M. Turpin was condemned to five years' 

 imprisonment, a fine of 2,000 francs, and five 

 years' suspension of civic rights ; M. Tripone, to 

 five years imprisonment, a fine of 3,000 francs, 

 five years' interdiction of civic rights, and ten 

 years of exile ; M. Passeler, to five years' impris- 

 onment, a fine of 3,000 francs, and five years in- 

 terdiction of civic rights ; and M. Feuvrier, to 

 two years' imprisonment, a fine, and interdiction 

 of civic rights for two years. The Minister of 

 War proposed extending the period of imprison- 

 ment for espionage to ten years, and the army 

 committee of the Chamber recommended the 

 death penalty for some cases and hard labor for 

 life or for limited periods for others. 



Monarchists and Clericals. In January 

 the Parisian mob drove the ministry to suppress 

 Sardou's new drama of " Thermidor," because it 

 reflected on the actors in the revolution of 1792. 

 The downfall of Boulangism prostrated the sev- 

 eral movements for the restoration of monarchy, 

 and the anti-Republican parties were only kept 

 alive because their politicians could not obtain 

 admission into the Republican party, and be- 

 cause the Ultramontanes still upheld royalism 

 as their hope of deliverance from the persecu- 

 tions that they thought the Church was sub- 

 jected to by the republic. The adherents of 

 Prince Victor Napoleon formally accepted the 

 republic. Cardinal Lavigerie early in 1891 pro- 

 posed the abandonment of royalty and the for- 

 mation of a Christian and Conservative party 

 within the republic. A union of Christian 

 France was organized, which did not openly 

 adopt the republic, but remained silent regard- 

 ing forms of government. Pope Leo had de- 

 clared that the Holy See has no pretensions to 

 interfere with political systems, and the Cardi- 

 nal Archbishop of Paris, in March, published a 

 letter in which he said that Catholics could dif- 

 fer legitimately regarding political institutions 

 so long as religion and morality were respected. 

 Sharp controversies between Clericals and Re- 

 publicans arose in the latter part of the year, 

 especially in reference to the demonstration of 

 the French pilgrims in Rome. A violent scene 

 occurred in the Senate when the President, M. 

 Floquet, repeated the old story that Pius IX was 

 once a Free Mason. Minister Fallieres, in a cir- 

 cular, warned the authorities of the Church 

 against encouraging pilgrimages that were likely 

 to degenerate into political demonstrations. Mon- 

 seigneur Gouthe-Soulard wrote a reply in which 

 he called the letter of the Minister of Justice and 

 Worship an " odious misconstruction," and said : 

 " Peace is sometimes on your lips ; hatred and 

 persecution are always discernible in your acts." 

 For insulting the minister he was prosecuted in 

 November, and condemned by the Court of Ap- 

 peal to pay a fine of 3,000 francs. The question 

 of repealing the concordat was more seriously 

 discussed than before. By the concordat con- 

 cluded by Bonaparte as First Consul in 1801 the 

 Catholic Church in France, which numbers 36,- 

 743 prelates and priests, receives a grant from 

 the state amounting to 44,000,000 francs a year, 

 has the use of the episcopal palaces, churches, 

 and other ecclesiastical buildings belonging to 



the state, and costs the Government and the 

 communes about 296,000,000 francs a year, while 

 its independent income is 565,000,000 francs. Few 

 of the clergy, who are not now required to take 

 the oath of allegiance to the republic contained in 

 the original concordat, would be willing to sac- 

 rifice the subventions of the Government in order 

 to obtain immunity from the obnoxious police 

 regulations. The ministers declared in the Cham- 

 bers that they would insist on the full submis- 

 sion of the recalcitrant clergy to the terms of the 

 concordat, when the monarchists and Clericals 

 began a vigorous parliamentary attack on the 

 ministerial decrees. 



Foreign Relations. When the Empress- 

 dowager Friedrich visited Paris early in 1891 

 to look after a legacy, she privately made over- 

 tures to French artists to induce them to take 

 part in an international art exhibition at Berlin. 

 Some accepted, others publicly announced their 

 refusal on patriotic grounds, and then the former 

 withdrew their acceptance. As she traveled 

 incognito, the President refrained from calling, 

 and when she visited St. Cloud and Versailles 

 the League of Patroits began demonstrations 

 that caused her to leave for England. These 

 incidents gave umbrage to the German Emperor, 

 who retorted by rescinding certain relaxations 

 of the passport system in Alsace and Lorraine, 

 and causing the laws to be enforced in all their 

 rigor. Taking as a pretext the stoppage of com- 

 munication with Switzerland by the Moenchen- 

 stein disaster, the German Government retrieved 

 this mistake by granting liberty to through pas- 

 sengers to travel on the railroads of Alsace- 

 Lorraine without passports, and on July 8 made 

 the order permanent. The renewal of the Triple 

 Alliance (see GERMANY) stimulated the revenge 

 agitation in France. On July 16 M. Laur, Bou- 

 langist Deputy, put a baseless question regard- 

 ing passports to the ministry, and when M. 

 Ribot moved the indefinite postponement of the 

 interpellation he was defeated by a coalition of 

 Royalists, Boulangists, and Radicals, who gave 

 286 votes to 203. On the day following M. de 

 Freycinet, making it a question of confidence, 

 was sustained by a majority of 319 to 103. 

 The visit of the French fleet to Cronstadt on 

 July 23 and the reception of the French officers 

 by the Emperor Alexander was regarded through 

 Europe as a sign that an informal understanding, 

 if not a formal defensive alliance, had been ar- 

 rived at between Russia and France. That no 

 combined action against England could be con- 

 templated was evidenced by the acceptance of 

 Queen Victoria's invitation for the squadron of 

 Admiral Gervais to visit Portsmouth imme- 

 diately on returning from the Russian visit. 

 The reception of the French fleet scarcely dis- 

 pelled the impression that Lord Salisbury had 

 promised to give naval support to the allied 

 central powers by guarding the coast of Italy 

 in certain contingencies, which had been 

 strengthened by the visit of the Kaiser to Eng- 

 land. Admiral Gervais was said to have taken 

 to Russia documents relating, among other 

 things, to combined action in China, which was 

 borne out by the refusal of both powers to take 

 part in the proposed naval demonstration, leav- 

 ing England to maintain in China an attitude 

 of isolation that would permit her to safeguard 



