FRANCE. 



303 



attitude of enemies of the parliamentary repub- 

 lic, was composed of as many elements as the 

 majority that overturned the late Cabinet. Be- 

 sides representatives of the Progressive and the 

 Radical wings of the Republican party, two So- 

 cialists accepted portfolios, and the Ministry of 

 War was confided to a retired general who was 

 formerly a monarchist, and who incurred the last- 

 ing hostility of the Socialists by his energetic 

 action in the suppression of the Paris commune. 

 The new Cabinet was constituted on June 22 as 

 follows: Prime Minister and Minister of the In- 

 terior, M. Waldeck-Rousseau; Minister of War, 

 Gen. the Marquis De Gall if et; Minister of Ma- 

 rine, M. De Lanessan; Minister of Justice, M. 

 Monis; Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Delcass6; 

 Minister of Commerce, M. Millerand; Minister of 

 Finance, M. Caillaux; Minister of Education, 

 Georges Leygues; Minister of Public Works, 

 Pierre Baudin; Minister of the Colonies, M. De- 

 crais; Minister of Agriculture, Jean Dupuy. The 

 new Government was formed, in accordance with 

 the vote of the Chamber, for the defense of the 

 republic. The Premier issued as Minister of the 

 Interior a circular to the prefects directing them 

 to report any act affecting respect for existing 

 institutions or public order, and enjoining them 

 to take immediate action, if necessary, on their 

 own responsibility. The Minister of War wrote 

 to the corps commanders that he would hold 

 them responsible for what happened in their 

 corps, and ordered disciplinary measures against 

 refractory officers. The Minister of Justice dis- 

 missed prosecuting officers who had shown par- 

 tiality to the prisoners in recent state trials. 

 The ministry was subjected at the reassembling 

 of the Chamber, on June 26, to a flood of invective 

 and insult, but came out of the ordeal with a 

 majority of 26 votes. The advent of Socialists 

 into the governing circle was marked by a decree 

 carrying out recommendations of the Labor Com- 

 mittee of the Chamber that the Chamber had not 

 yet voted on, stipulating for all workmen em- 

 ployed on public contracts the current local 

 wages as a minimum, fixed hours of work, a 

 weekly holiday, and a limitation of the number 

 of foreigners employed. The Chambers were pro- 

 rogued on July 3. 



On Aug. 12 the police were instructed to arrest 

 Paul Deroulede; Andre Buffet and M. De Moni- 

 court, agents of the Duke of Orleans; Jules 

 Guerin, a leader in the Anti-Semitic League; 

 Georges Thiebaud, a Boulangist; the Deputy 

 Marcel-Habert; and fifteen other persons. The 

 seizure of documents effected after M. D6roulede's 

 previous arrest had shown that a plot had ex- 

 isted since July, 1898, to seize the Government 

 by force. A watch was kept by the police over the 

 persons implicated, and evidence was obtained 

 that they were preparing a fresh attempt as the 

 Dreyfus trial drew near its end. When M. Guerin 

 and a band of friends shut themselves up in the 

 offices of the Anti-Semitic League the Govern- 

 ment refused to risk the lives of policemen or 

 soldiers, and waited till they capitulated. Mem- 

 bers of the Association of Royalist Youth and 

 of the League of Patriots were arrested in the 

 provinces. The police investigations showed that 

 the Duke of Orleans had gone to Brussels, and 

 was ready to enter France at the time of Felix 

 Faure's funeral if the disturbances attempted at 

 that time had resulted in the expected civil com- 

 motion. Although M. Deroulede derided the idea 

 of his connection with the royalists and Bona- 

 partists, they acted as though he were one of 

 them. Of M. Guerin's relations with the Or- 

 leartists proofs were obtained. During the siege 



in the Rue de Chabrol street conflicts were pro- 

 voked by Anti-Semites arid Nationalists in vari- 

 ous parts of the city. These demonstrations 

 prompted the anarchists, led by Sebastian Faure, 

 to hold an open-air meeting on Aug. 20 as a 

 protest against anti-Semitism and in favor of 

 social emancipation. Anti-Semites and royalists 

 assembled at the same place for a counter- 

 demonstration. The rival mobs came to blows 

 with each other, and both with the police when 

 these attempted to check disorder and seditious 

 cries, and with the republican guards, who final- 

 ly cleared the square. The anarchists then 

 marched through the streets, stoning churches, 

 one of which they entered and partly wrecked. 

 The police and the cavalry had to charge into 

 the crowd several times before the vandalism 

 was stopped. The number of persons injured 

 was 380, including 61 policemen, and the num- 

 ber arrested was 150, of whom 80 were detained 

 in custody. 



Foreign Affairs. After the Fashoda incident 

 was settled to the satisfaction of England by the 

 evacuation of the post that Major Marchand had 

 established on the Nile the English Government 

 reopened the controversy regarding British com- 

 mercial rights in Madagascar. When a French 

 protectorate was declared over Madagascar the 

 British acquiescence was obtained by the renun- 

 ciation of French extraterritorial rights in Zan- 

 zibar, and was combined also with the delimita- 

 tion of the French sphere on the upper Niger. 

 The French Minister of Foreign Affairs gave the 

 assurance at that time that the commercial rights 

 obtained for British merchants by treaties with 

 the Malagasy Government would not be affected. 

 After the second Madagascar expedition, the 

 result of the military operations being the 

 capture of Antananarivo and the submission of 

 the Hova Queen, Madagascar was annexed by 

 France, and the French Government took the 

 view, well established in international law, that 

 the treaties of the extinguished sovereignty be- 

 came null and void. The British Government, 

 however, relying on the assurances of the French 

 Government that treaty rights would remain un- 

 disturbed, raised a protest when the French tariff 

 was applied in Madagascar. 



The Madagascar question was raised by Eng- 

 land at a time when, on the urgent demand of 

 the Newfoundlanders, the British Government 

 preferred a request for the renunciation of fish- 

 ing rights on the French treaty shore of New- 

 foundland. The right to fish on the northeast 

 and west coasts and to dry their fish on the 

 shore was reserved to the French in the Treaty of 

 Utrecht, by which the island of Newfoundland 

 was ceded to England in 1713. The right in- 

 cluded permission to erect temporary huts and 

 stages usual and necessary for the drying and 

 curing of fish, but not the privilege of winter- 

 ing on the coast or of erecting fortifications.* 

 By the Treaty of Paris in 1763 these fishing rights 

 were confirmed, and the islands of St. Pierre 

 and Miquelon were ceded to France as a shelter 

 for her fishermen and for the convenience of the 

 fishery. By the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 

 these islands were ceded unreservedly, and, to 

 prevent quarrels between French and British fish- 

 ermen, the limits of the French treaty shore were 

 fixed. Beginning at Cape John, on the north- 

 east coast, it extends round by the north and 

 down the west coast to Cape Ray, at the south- 

 west extremity. The fishery intended to be pre- 

 served was the cod fishery. The 12,000 native 

 fishermen who live on the French foreshore have 

 long been at enmity with the French fishermen 



