326 



FRANCE. 



restrictive clauses against religious associations, 

 home rule for Paris, revision of the Constitution 

 curtailing the powers of the Senate, and grad- 

 ual separation of church and state. Constans, 

 whom M. Carnot persistently declined to restore 

 to power, advocated a broad, tolerant, conserva- 

 tive, pacific republic, in which the ideas of the 

 Right on labor questions, religious liberty, and 

 t he like should prevail over those of the Radicals. 

 Leon Say looked forward to the assumption of 

 power by Conservatives rallied to the Constitu- 

 tion, which is now badly worked by Unfit and 

 inefficient hands. Piou, as spokesman of the 

 Rallied, called for a national union for the sup- 

 port of an honest, tolerant, and open republic, 

 administered not by the political oligarchy 

 then in power but by better men and other 

 methods ; advocated a religious peace secured 

 by making religious education optional in the 

 primary as in the secondary schools, and limiting 

 the military service of seminarists to surgical 

 and ambulance training; and suggested conces- 

 sions to Socialism as the only bar to subversive 

 doctrines. Cardinal Lecot deprecated useless 

 protests against the educational and conscription 

 laws, which the five French cardinals had de- 

 clared in 1892 that the Catholics would never 

 accept. M. d'Haussonville, in March, had drawn 

 from the Comte de Paris a proclamation de- 

 nouncing the Government as corrupt and weak, 

 lacking courage to resist socialism, or power to 

 preserve order, or authority to defend a national 

 policy abroad, and calling on all upright men to 

 join the Royalists. Now the leader of the Royal- 

 ists, confounded by the acceptance of the repub- 

 lic by all the influential Churchmen, was at a 

 loss for a cry or a programme, being left almost 

 without a party. The Bishop of Seez and a few 

 other irreconcilable clericals, who pretended that 

 the Pope approved only a Catholic republic for 

 France, and the Comte d'Haussonville, the Due 

 de Broglie, Paul de Cassagnac, and the rest of 

 the Monarchists, were rebuked by the Pope in a 

 letter to Cardinal Lecot, Archbishop of Bor- 

 deaux, in which the pontiff spoke of the absurd 

 pretensions of some men who boast that they 

 nave more solicitude for the Church than the 

 Pope, and arrogate to themselves the right of 

 speaking in its name ''against the teachings, in- 

 structions, and prescripts of the protector and 

 head of the Church." Casimir Perier advocated 

 a fairer division of taxes, and such extension of 

 institutions for the public relief of the poor as 

 will -abolish misery. Peytral, the Radical Min- 

 ister of Finance, proposed an income tax and a 

 progressive succession duty graduated according 

 to the amount of the inheritance and the degree 

 of relationship. Yves Guyot, once a Socialist 

 Radical himself, opposed as a Moderate candidate 

 the views of Rene Goblet. The bitterest contest 

 took place in the Var, where the multifarious 

 enemies of Clwnenceau endeavored by every trick 

 and device to unseat him, especially by repre- 

 senting him as a secret friend of England and 

 an opponent of the Russian alliance. 



The election took place on Aug. 20 and the 

 ballptage on Sept. 3. M. Clemenceau was de- 

 feated; so was ex-Premier Floquet, a victim of 

 the Panama scandal ; so, after a fierce campaign, 

 was Paul de Cassagnac, the uncompromising foe 

 of the republic ; and so were M. Piou, the leader 



of the Rallied, and the Comte de Mun, the elo- 

 quent expounder of Catholic socialism. Most of 

 the orators who had a reputation in the last 

 Chamber lost their elections. Goblet, in one of 

 the commercial districts of Paris, triumphed 

 over Yves Guyot. M. Wilson, who disappeared 

 from public life in consequence of the scandal 

 over the sale of decorations, obtained a seat. 

 Neither M. Millevoye nor Paul Deroulede was 

 a candidate. The Boulangist faction almost dis- 

 appeared. A good number of the Rallied lost 

 their seats, their constituents preferring more 

 tried and trusted Republicans. The Socialist 

 leader, Jules Guesde, was elected, while Dru- 

 mont, the anti-Semite leader, was defeated. 



The new Chamber contains 581 Deputies, or 3 

 fewer than the last, there having been a decrease 

 in population in certain departments. The Mod- 

 erate Republicans and the Socialists gained at 

 the expense of the other parties. In the new 

 ( 'hamber there were some 292 regular supporters 

 of the Government, ranging from Moderate Re- 

 publicans to Advanced Radicals; 187 Socialists, 

 Socialist Radicals, and Revolutionaries; 35 Hal- 

 lied Conservatives; 58 members of the various 

 reactionary factions ; and 29 independents. 



Visit of the Russian Fleet. The Russian 

 squadron destined for the Mediterranean entered 

 the naval harbor of Toulon on Oct. 13, to return 

 the visit of the French fleet at Cronstadt in 

 1891. This return demonstration had been de- 

 layed so long that political observers were con- 

 vinced that the Franco-Russian entente went no 

 further than a temporary understanding limited 

 to mutual diplomatic support, as evinced in 

 Egypt, Bulgaria, and China. The visit paid by 

 the Russian grand dukes to M. Carnot at Nancy 

 dispelled the suspicion that the Czar had decided 

 to draw back from the rapprochement; yet a 

 military alliance between the Czar and a repub- 

 lic built upon a fallen monarchy, in which open 

 sympathizers with Russian revolutionists have 

 often had a voice, an alliance, too, that might 

 compel France to aid in establishing Russia as 

 a Mediterranean power, seemed to conservative 

 thinkers impossible. The Czar seemed, indeed, to 

 be reluctant to run the risks of a public reception 

 of his officers in France, which might be marred 

 by hostile revolutionary demonstrations against 

 himself, or, more likely, by a Chauvinistic ex- 

 hibition of the passion for la revanche which 

 would lead to a misconstruction of his pacific 

 policy. After many cautions on his part and re- 

 assurances from the French Government he gave 

 orders to the Russian fleet to repair to Toulon. 

 Immediately after the arrival of the ships Presi- 

 dent Carnot sent a message of warm thanks, to 

 which the Czar replied in terms that seemed too 

 cold to bear out the supposition of an alliance. 

 Two French ships had been sent to Copenhagen, 

 where the Czar was visiting, to convey the com- 

 pliments of the French navy, and when the Czar 

 not only went on board the " Isly," but ordered 

 a salute to be fired by the imperial yacht, the 

 newspapers of Europe noted the departure from 

 his previous reserve. Chancellor Caprivi had al- 

 ready accepted the Russo-French understanding 

 as the manifestation of an existing state of things, 

 an indication of the establishment of " a Euro- 

 pean equilibrium such as formerly existed." The 

 organ of Prince Bismarck, the Hamburg " Nach- 



