

FRANCE. 



279 



services of Dreyfus, but these had long been sus- 

 pected to be forgeries. 



This new development rendered more doubtful 

 than ever the justice of Dreyfus's condemnation. 

 That letter of 1896 in which he was mentioned by 

 name, which had been the most convincing evidence 

 of his guilt to the officers of the general staff and 

 had removed all doubts from the mind of M. Ca- 

 vaignac, was subjected to further tests, and found 

 to be a document composed of scraps of different 

 colored paper joined together. The wording of the 

 document, and also the handwriting, showed addi- 

 tional indications that it was a forgery. Lieut.- 

 Col. Henry, its suspected author, was arrested in 

 the beginning of September, and under the exam- 

 ination of M. Cavaignac he broke down and con- 

 fessed that he had fabricated the entire letter. He 

 said that his chiefs were much disturbed and he 

 wanted to quiet them, to restore tranquillity to 

 their minds, so that they might be better prepared 

 if war should come ; that he acted for the good of 

 the country. The documents of 1894 he had altered 

 and put dates to. Henry killed himself in prison 

 on Aug. 31 without making any more revelations. 

 The confidence of statesmen and of the public in 

 the justice of the Dreyfus judgment in spite of its 

 illegality melted away. The press veered about 

 and demanded revision. Mme. Dreyfus made an 

 application for a new trial on the ground of a 

 fresh incident such as the law calls for, and the 

 Government placed the matter before the Court of 

 Cassation, which granted the demand and decided 

 to try the case itself instead of referring it to 

 another court-martial. A commission was sent in 

 November to take the deposition of Alfred Dreyfus 

 in the fie du Diable. Gen. de Boisdeffre and Gen. 

 Mt'rcier resigned from the general staff, with others 

 who resisted revision to the last. 



The action of Col. Picquart in publicly challeng- 

 ing the documents cited by M. Cavaignac was fol- 

 lowed by his arrest on the criminal charge of having 

 communicated secret documents, presumably the 

 charge which was not proved against him at the 

 court-martial, of showing the contents of the secret 

 dossier to M. Leblois, his lawyer. He was put into 

 prison on July 13. While there he prepared at the 

 request of M. Brisson a statement of all he knew 

 about the Dreyfus case. When he was brought up 

 for trial on Sept. 21 the military authorities inter- 

 vened, and he was handed over to them to be tried 

 by a military tribunal, presumably on the charge of 

 having forged the letter implicating Esterhazy. As 

 he was being led away to solitary confinement in a 

 fortress he exclaimed that if he was found dead in 

 his cell, as Henry was, it would not be a suicide, but 

 an assassination. 



The Elections. Parliament was convened on 

 Jan. 11. M. Brisson was re-elected president of the 

 Chamber by 283 votes to 59. After the budget was 

 voted both houses adjourned on April 7. The work 

 of the expiring Parliament included the reform of 

 criminal investigation, the protection of children, 

 benefit societies, workingmen's pensions, industrial 

 accident insurance, and succession duties. The 

 general elections were held on May 8. A small 

 number of candidates of the old monarchical par- 

 ties came forward. Most of the former royalists 

 and imperialists now appeared frankly as repub- 

 licans, mostly supporters of the Meline Cabinet, 

 whose opponents were the Radicals and Socialists of 

 all shades, advocates of an income tax and of a re- 

 vision of the Constitution curtailing the powers of 

 the Senate. The ephemeral Nationalist party (com- 

 posed of the elements that once adhered to Boulan- 

 ger). making capital of the Dreyfus case, denounced 

 foreigners as exercising deleterious influence on the 

 national character and interests, and sought elec- 





tion as champions of the army. The first ballot 

 promised but a slender majority for the Govern- 

 ment. The second ballot took place on May 22. 

 The final result gave the Cabinet a majority of only 

 12, including the Rallied Republicans. The new 

 Chamber contained 253 Moderate Republicans, 38 

 Rallied, 44 Conservatives, 104 Radicals, 107 Social- 

 ists, 20 Anti-Semites, and 15 of uncertain views, 

 two thirds of whom were probable supporters of the 

 Government. At the opening of the session on 

 June 1 the ministry won a dubious victory by the 

 election of Paul Deschanel as provisional president 

 of the Chamber by 282 votes to 278 for Henri 

 Brisson. M. Lebon, who had lost his seat, re- 

 signed the post of Minister of the Colonies. He 

 was confirmed by a majority of 10. The Govern- 

 ment was dependent on the support of the mon- 

 archists, and, on an interpellation on its general 

 policy on June 14, mustered a majority of only 12, 

 including the ministers themselves. This vote was 

 a virtual defeat, inasmuch as the Chambers insisted 

 on adding an amendment of the Radicals, accepted 

 with a bad grace by M. Meline at the last moment, 

 confiding in the Government's efforts for Demo- 

 cratic reforms by a union of Republicans only on 

 the condition of its relying on a majority exclusively 

 Republican. The Right naturally rejected the 

 amendment, which was carried by Radical votes. 

 In accepting it, after first refusing, M. Meline 

 adopted a policy of Republican concentration, ne- 

 cessitating a thorough reconstruction of the Cabi- 

 net, if he desired to retain office. Having broken 

 with the right, he still did not see his way to a coa- 

 lition with the Left, and consequently decided on 

 the following day to resign with his colleagues. He 

 firmly declined M. Faure's invitation to form a new 

 ministry. 



The Brisson Cabinet. The Meline Cabinet was 

 the longest-lived of any under the third republic, 

 having lasted over two years. Its chief mission was 

 to develop the policy of protection for French agri- 

 culture and industry, of which its head was the 

 leading exponent. In seeking a successor to M. 

 Meline, the President of the republic first asked 

 M. Ribot, chief of the Progressive party, the most 

 numerous group of the Chamber, comprising the 

 bulk of the Moderate Republicans, to form a minis- 

 try of conciliation. After M. Ribot had failed to 

 effect conciliation with the Radicals, M. Sarrien, 

 one of the least aggressive of the latter, endeavored 

 to frame a programme on which both wings of the 

 Republicans could unite. M. Peytral, another 

 Radical, who was not an uncomprising advocate 

 of the reform of the Senate and the progressive 

 income tax, next attempted to form a Cabinet 

 of union, but the advanced Radicals declined to 

 support his efforts or to agree to any compromise 

 with the Moderates. Hence, after the crisis had 

 lasted two weeks, M. Faure turned to a representa- 

 tive Radical, M. Brisson. who, on June 28. organ- 

 ized a homogeneous Cabinet, as follows : President 

 of the Council and Minister of the Interior, Henri 

 Brisson ; Minister of Finance, Paul Peytral; Min- 

 ister of Education, Leon Bourgeois; Minister of 

 Justice, Ferdinand Garden ; Minister of War, Gode- 

 f roy Cavaignac : Minister of Marine, Edouard Simon 

 Lockroy; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Theophile 

 Delcasse ; Minister of the Colomes, Georges Troui- 

 llot; Minister of Commerce, Emile Maruejouls; 

 Minister of Agriculture, Albert Viger; Minister of 

 Public Works, Senator Tillaye. The new Premier, 

 in reference to the incidents of the Dreyfus agita- 

 tion which had brought about the electoral defeat 

 and the downfall of the Meline ministry, promised 

 to uphold the supremacy of the civil power over 

 the military, to insure freedom of discussion in the 

 Chamber, and to defend with energy the hide- 



