284 



FRANCE. 



ficed its liberty in order to screen a member of 

 the Government " who was stigmatized by public 

 opinion." M. Constans could not be restrained 

 from striking the Boulangist Deputy, blows were 

 exchanged by others, and the President, unable 

 to restore order, put on his hat and thus closed 

 the sitting. M. Constans declined a tardy chal- 

 lenge from M. Laur to fight a duel. 



On Feb. 18 a motion of urgency for the asso- 

 ciations bill was offered by the Radicals, who 

 suspected that the Government had framed the 

 bill as a weapon of offense and had agreed to 

 withdraw it in return for the conciliatory atti- 

 tude of the Vatican, pressed M. de Freycinet to 

 declare whether the Government, since it de- 

 clined to support a demand for the immediate 

 discussion of its bill, had entered into such a 

 bargain. M. de Freycinet said that the bill was 

 not aimed at the religious confraternities, and 

 was not intended to pave the way for the separa- 

 tion of Church and state, for the Government 

 was opposed to such separation. If the Cham- 

 ber was not disposed to support a ministry which 

 represented a moderate policy, he and his col- 

 leagues would resign, and therefore he called for 

 a vote of confidence. The order of the day was 

 rejected by a majority of 282, consisting of 151 

 Conservatives, 29 Boulangists, 12 Socialists, and 

 90 Republicans, against 210 Republicans. The 

 policy of peace with the Church based on the 

 supremacy of the civil element in the state, as 

 avowed by the Prime Minister, was condemned 

 by the Radicals and by the Conservatives, who 

 together made up the hostile majority. M. de 

 Freycinet announced the resignation of the min- 

 istry when the vote was declared. M. Carnot 

 tried to persuade the ministers that the Chamber 

 had not clearly declared against the ministry, 

 because in the same sitting it had rejected the 

 motion for urgency. The ministers urged in 

 reply that the question of confidence had been 

 plainly presented and understood. 



President Carnot first commissioned M. Rou- 

 vier, a Moderate Republican, to form a ministry. 

 M. Bourgeois, the Radical representative in the 

 outgoing Cabinet, refused to join a Cabinet that 

 would signify the surrender of the anticlerical 

 position and a policy of reconciliation with the 

 Pope, whose encyclical enjoining French Cath- 

 olics to accept and sustain the republic had ap- 

 peared after the resignation of the ministers. 

 M. Bourgeois was then requested to effect a com- 

 bination. M. Ribot raised obstacles to the leader- 

 ship of a man who was identified with the ag- 

 gressive enemies of the Church, who would abro- 

 gate the concordat. M. Carnot then sent for 

 M. Loubet, a Moderate Republican, who, being 

 a Senator, had no part in the discussion of the 

 associations bill, and could therefore form a min- 

 istry which would signify a truce in the religious 

 conflict, and could withdraw the associations bill 

 and st ill leave the parties exactly where they stood 

 in their relations to the religious question. 



The Loubet Ministry. A Cabinet was con- 

 stituted by M. Loubet, on Feb. 28, consisting of 

 the following members : Premier and Minister of 

 the Interior, M. Loubet ; Minister of War, Charles 

 de Freycinet; Minister of Foreign Affairs, A. 

 Felix J. Ribot ; Minister of Finance, Maurice 

 Rouvier; ^linister of Public Instruction, Leon 

 Bourgeois; Minister of Public Worship and Jus- 



tice, Louis Ricard ; Minister of Marine, Godef roy 

 Cavaignac ; Minister of Agriculture, Jules De- 

 velle ; Minister of Commerce, Jules Roche ; Min- 

 ister of Public Works, Jules Viette. M. Loubet, 

 born in 1838, at Marsanne, Drome, was a lawyer, 

 who entered the Chamber in 1876, who voted for 

 the article against the religious orders but against 

 the separation of Church and state, was elected 

 to the Senate in 1885, voted with the Moderate 

 Left, and was Minister of Public Works under 

 Tirard in 1887. M. de Freycinet, born in 1829, 

 an engineer by profession, organized with Gam- 

 betta the National Defense in 1870-'71, has been 

 Minister of Public Works and Minister of For- 

 eign Affairs many times, a conspicuous candidate 

 for the presidency after the resignation of Grevy, 

 four times Minister-President, and since 1890 the 

 indispensable Minister of War, the only civilian 

 who has held that post, in which he has unfolded 

 a remarkable business ability and power of or- 

 ganization, which he had indeed displayed during 

 the National Defense, but had since caused peo- 

 ple to forget by exhibiting his talents as an orator, 

 politician, and diplomatist. M. Rouvier, born in 

 1842, who as a young advocate was one of the 

 fiercest journalistic assailants of the empire, en- 

 tered the Cabinet of Gambetta in 1881 as Min- 

 ister of Commerce, was Chief of the Cabinet after 

 the fall of the Goblet ministry in 1880, and held 

 the portfolio of Finance, and since 1889 has been 

 at the head of the same ministerial department, 

 and has won fame as a financier of genius by ex- 

 tinguishing the chronic deficit. M. Ribot, born 

 in 1842, has been a leader of the Left Center in 

 the Chamber, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 managed the understanding with Russia to which 

 the Freycinet Cabinet chiefly owed its long ten- 

 ure of office, and instituted the policy of recon- 

 ciliation with the Curia which brought about its 

 fall at last. Leon Bourgeois is a rising young 

 statesman, who entered the Chamber in 1888 from 

 the administrative service, and has displayed 

 parliamentary and political ability of a high 

 order. Jules Roche, who retained the portfolio 

 of Commerce, was opposed to M. Meline's high 

 protective tariff. Of the new ministers, M. Ca- 

 vaignac, a son of Gen. Cavaignac, chief executive 

 of the republic of 1848, was born in 1858, at 

 first an advanced Radical and afterward an Op- 

 portunist, a member of the Chamber since 1882, 

 was the first Minister of Marine appointed from 

 civil life. M. Ricard, born in 1839, a lawyer of 

 Rouen, entered the Chamber in 1885, and gained 

 a high reputation for practical ability and indus- 

 try. Jules Viette, a member of the Chamber 

 since 1876, was Minister of Agriculture in 1887- 

 '89. M. Develle, an advocate, born in 1845, en- 

 tered the Chamber in 1877, was Minister of Ag- 

 riculture under Freycinet and Goblet in 1886, 

 and author of the bill that increased the grain 

 duties and inaugurated the protective policy. 



In the ministerial declaration, read on March 

 3 by the new Premier, the defense of all the Re- 

 publican laws was put forth as the primary ob- 

 ject of the policy to be followed, and in the first 

 rank were placed the military law, " a law of 

 equality and of patriotism," and the education 

 laws, " the source of all the developments of the 

 national spirit and a fundamental guarantee of 

 liberty of conscience." The attitude to be ob- 

 served in the religious question was thus defined : 



