370 



FRANCE. 



to be extended to the provinces, where greatly 

 increased rent8 and industrial depression have 

 created the same house-famine. 



The cost of living among French working- 

 people was computed from inquiries at Mul- 

 house by M. Armangaud, a statistician, to range 

 from 1,100 to 3,000 francs per annum. Of the 

 total, rent consumes 15 per cent., clothing 16 

 per cent., food 61 per cent., and miscellaneous 

 expenses 8 per cent. Of the expenditure for 

 food, 33 per cent, is for bread, 14 per cent, for 

 meat, 13 per cent, for milk, 24 per cent, for 

 groceries, and 16 per cent, for other aliments. 



Judicature Bill. A bill passed the National 

 Assembly, without encountering the expected 

 difficulty in the Senate, which forms part of a 

 general scheme for the reform of the judica- 

 ture elaborated by Gambetta and Cazot, Presi- 

 dent of the Court of Cassation. The French 

 judiciary still consisted under the republic in 

 great part of members of the hereditary caste 

 who under the ancient regime transmitted the 

 ermine from father to son. The smallness of 

 the stipends precluded lawyers from accepting 

 judicial positions, and the exclusive circle of 

 the descendants of the old noblesse de robe made 

 it unpleasant for any one not of their own class 

 to enter the magistracy, though he had a private 

 fortune sufficient to sustain its expensive state. 

 The judgments rendered by this provincial 

 aristocracy in political cases have been a scan- 

 dal. They have refused to give effect to laws 

 directed against monarchical and clerical in- 

 trigue, and have persisted in treating republi- 

 cans as though they were the enemies of the 

 established order. Gambetta was, for instance, 

 condemned to four months' imprisonment for 

 declaring that Marshal MacMahon must yield 

 to the will of the nation or resign, and 2,700 

 sentences were recorded against republicans 

 for resisting by legal methods the revolutionary 



Slot of the monarchists to overturn the repub- 

 c. Gambetta's project of reform was to re- 

 duce the excessive number of judges, increase 

 the salaries, and recruit the bench entirely 

 from the legal profession. The judicature act 

 suspended the irremovability of judges for three 

 months in order to enable Minister Feuillee to 

 reduce their number by selecting and retiring 

 600 of them on pensions. 



Anti-Clerical Legislation. M. Grevy, at the re- 

 ception of tha new Papal nuncio, Mgr. Camille 

 de Rende, assured him that "the protection 

 due to religion, and the strengthening of the 

 bonds of friendship existing between France 

 and the Holy See, will be the object of our 

 constant solicitude." The deputies, however, 

 evinced by a number of enactments their hos- 

 tility to the Church. The Chamber abolished 

 the state subsidies to hospital chaplains, and 

 decided that there should be no division be- 

 tween the Christian and Israelite portions of a 

 cemetery, from which even the cross at the 

 entrance was to be removed. Recognizing M. 

 Grevy's disposition for conciliation, the Pope, 

 in June, sent him a private letter complaining 



of the hardships which the French clergy had 

 to suffer under the republic, and asking his in- 

 fluence to procure an amelioration of their con- 

 dition, and to prevent a rupture between the 

 republic and the Vatican. M. Gr6vy replied 

 in a conciliatory manner. This reply was fol- 

 lowed by a dispatch from M. Jules Ferry, 

 pointing out that it was difficult for a govern- 

 ment to check a movement against the clericals 

 while the latter remained so essentially hostile. 



Wars in Tonqnin and Madagascar. The colonial 

 policy which was adopted as more profitable 

 than a European foreign policy that is, as a 

 renunciation, as far as the republic is concerned, 

 of the revenge idea, and an escape from the 

 risks and disquiet of the situation created by 

 Gambetta gave the Government and the pub- 

 lic much to occupy themselves with in 1883 

 (see articles on TONQUIN and MADAGASCAR). 

 The intention to establish a protectorate in 

 Tonquin was announced in the beginning of 

 May, and the first vote of credit sanctioning 

 the scheme obtained. That same month came 

 tidings of the defeat and death of Riviere. 

 Thenceforth the credits were granted with 

 practical unanimity, and the Government was 

 supported in the prosecution of the enterprise 

 and the diplomatic conflict with China. 



The difficulties with the Hova government 

 in Madagascar were a heritage from the Du- 

 clerc ministry. At about the time of Riviere's 

 defeat the French men-of-war bombarded the 

 Malagasy ports. The operations, and the Shaw 

 affair, which was settled by paying the ag- 

 grieved missionary, are elsewhere described. 



Insnlt to the Ring of Spain. In August an ar- 

 ticle denouncing the French as disturbers of 

 the peace of Europe appeared in the " North 

 German Gazette." As soon as the annoyance 

 caused by this had subsided in France, the Ger- 

 man Emperor appointed the King of Spain, on 

 his visit to Berlin, colonel of a regiment sta- 

 tioned at Strasburg, which appointment was 

 deemed by the French a deliberate insult. 

 Preparations had been made to give the King, 

 on his return from the autumn manoeuvres at 

 Hamburg, a warm welcome to Paris. The 

 Radicals now raised an outcry, and it was 

 feared that some disturbance might take place. 

 On September 29th, on arriving at the station, 

 the King was formally greeted by M. Grevy 

 and M. Jules Ferry, but, outside the station, 

 and throughout the whole of the King's drive 

 to the embassy, a mob assailed him with groans, 

 and cries of "Down with the Uhlan!" On 

 subsequently paying an official visit to M. 

 Grevy at the FJysee, a crowd made a rush 

 at the carriage, and the King was again 

 mobbed and insulted. Next day President 

 GreVy paid a visit to the King, and, in the 

 name of France, begged that he would no( 

 identify her with the "wretches" who had 

 compromised her renown by demonstration* 

 which he repudiated ; he also prayed the King 

 to attend the state banquet which was to be 

 held in his Majesty's honor at the Elys6e that 



