112 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



turned men's thoughts to other channels. In 

 1795. a general amnesty was declared, peaci> was 

 concluded with Prussia and Spain, ami the war 

 was carried on with double vigor against Aus- 

 tria. The Revolution had reached a' turning- 

 point. A Directory was formed to administer 

 the government, which was now conducted in 

 a spirit of order and conciliation. In 1797, 

 Bonaparte and his brother-commanders were 

 omnipotent in Italy. Austria was compelled 

 to give up Belgium, accede to peace on any 

 terms, and recognize the Cisalpine Republic. 

 Under the pretext of attacking England a fleet 

 of 400 ships and an army of 36,000 picked men 

 were equipped; their destination proved, how- 

 ever, to be Egypt, whither the Directory sent 

 Bonaparte; but the young general resigned the 

 command to Kleber, landed in France in 1799, 

 and at once succeeded in supplanting the Direct- 

 ory, and securing his own nomination as consul. 

 In 1800, a new constitution was promulgated, 

 which vested the sole executive power in Bona- 

 parte. Having resumed his military duties, he 

 marched an army over the Alps, attacked the 

 Austrians unawares, and decided the fate of 

 Italy by his victory at Marengo. In 1804, on 

 an appeal by universal suffrage to the nation, 

 Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor. By his 

 marriage with the Archduchess Maria Louisa, 

 daughter of the Emperor of Germany, Napoleon 

 seemed to have given to his throne the prestige 

 of birth, which alone it had lacked. The dis- 

 astrous Russian campaign, in which his noble 

 army was lost amid the rigors of a northern 

 winter, was soon followed by the falling away of 

 his allies and feudatories. Napoleon himself 

 was still victorious wherever he appeared in 

 person, but his generals were beaten in numer- 

 ous engagements; and the great defeat of Leipsic 

 compelled the French to retreat beyond the 

 Rhine. The Swedes brought reinforcements to 

 swell the ranks of his enemies on the eastern 

 frontier, while the English pressed on from the 

 west; Paris, in the absence of the emperor, 

 capitulated after a short resistance, March 30, 

 1814. Napoleon retired to the island of Elba. 

 On the 3d of May, Louis XVIII. (the brother of 

 Louis XVI.) made his entry into Paris. On 

 March 1, 1815, Napoleon left Elba, and landed 

 in France. Crowds followed him; the soldiers 

 flocked around his standard; the Bourbons fled, 

 and he took possession of their lately deserted 

 palaces. The news of his landing spread terror 

 through Europe; and on the 25th of March a 

 treaty of alliance was signed at Vienna between 

 Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England, and 

 preparations at once made to put down the 

 movement in his favor and restore the Bourbon 

 dynasty. At first the old prestige of success 

 seemed to attend Napoleon; but on the 18th of 

 June he was thoroughly defeated at Waterloo; 

 and, having placed himself under the safeguard 

 of the English, he was sent to the island of St. 

 Helena, where, on May 5, 1821, he breathed his 

 last. In 1824, Louis XVIII. died without direct 

 heirs, and his brother, the Due d'Artois, suc- 

 ceeded to the throne as Charles X. General 

 ministerial incapacity, want of good faith, gen- 

 eral discontent, and excessive clerical influence 

 characterized his reign, which was abruptly 



j brought to a close by the revolution of 1830, and 

 ! the election to the throne of Louis Philippe, 

 J Duke of Orleans, as king, by the will of the 

 people. Louis Philippe having abdicated (Feb- 

 ruary 24, 1848), a republic was proclaimed, 

 under a provisional government. Louis Napo- 

 leon was elected president of the republic in 

 I December, 1848; but by the famous coup d'etat 

 \ of December 2, 1851, he violently set aside the 

 constitution, and assunied dictatorial powers; 

 and a year after was raised, by the almost 

 unanimous voice of the nation, to the dignity 

 of emperor as Napoleon III. The result of the 

 ! appeal made to the nation in 1870, on the plea 

 of securing their sanction for his policy, was not 

 what he had anticipated. The course of events 

 I in the short but terrible Franco-German War of 

 I 1870-71 electrified Europe by its unexpected 

 character. On September 2, 1870, Napoleon, 

 with 90,000 men, surrendered at Sedan. With 

 the concurrence of Prussia, the French nation 

 next elected representatives to provide for the 

 exigency. A republic was proclaimed, and the 

 first National Assembly met at Bordeaux in 

 February, 1871. After receiving the resignation 

 | of the Provisional Government of Defense, the 

 Assembly undertook to organize a republican 

 government, and nominated M. Thiers chief of 

 the executive power of the state, with the title 

 of President of the French Republic, but with 

 the condition of responsibility to the National 

 Assembly. The ex-Emperor Napoleon died in 

 1872, at Chiselhurst, England, where he had 

 i resided with his family since his liberation in 

 March, 1871. In 1873, M. Thiers resigned the 

 office of President of the French Republic, and 

 was succeeded by Marshal MacMahon, who re- 

 signed in 1879, and was succeeded by M. Gre"vy. 

 In 1887, Sadi-Carnot was chosen president. He 

 was assassinated June 24, 1894. His successor 

 was M. Casimir-Perier, who resigned January 15, 

 1895, and was succeeded by M. Franc. ois Felix 

 Faure, January 17, 1895. President Faure was 

 assassinated in 1899, and his successor was M. 

 Loubet, during whose administration the famous 

 Dreyfus case was reopened and disposed of. 

 M. Armand Fallieres was elected to the presi- 

 dency January 17, 1906, in succession to M. 

 Loubet. The most important public act during 

 his incumbency has been the enforcement of the 

 Separation Law, which leaves the administration 

 of the Church of France in its own hands, rather 

 than in the Vatican at Rome. Serious disturb- 

 ances occurred during the same year (1907) in 

 the wine-growing districts. 



French Revolution, The First. 

 From May 5, 1789, to July 27, 1794. Chief 

 Leaders of the First French Revolution: Comte 

 de Mirabeau, 1789-1791; Danton, from the 

 death of Mirabeau to 1793; Robespierre, from 

 June, 1793, to July 27, 1794. Next to these 

 three were St. Just, Couthon, Marat, Carrier, 

 Hubert, Santerre, Camille Desmoulins, Roland, 

 and his wife, Brissot, Bernave, Sieyes, Barras, 

 Tallien, etc. 



Great Days of the First French Revolution: 

 June 17, 1789, the Tiers Etat constituted itself 

 into the "National Assembly"; June 20th, the 

 day of the Jeu de Paume, when the Assembly 

 took an oath not to separate till it had given 



