312 



FRANCE. 



listened to. But Marshal MacMahon has not doubted 

 for an instant that he will receive the cooperation of 

 France in doing justice on the attacks directed against 

 his power. You want to argue that we have violated 

 the Constitution on behalf of I know not what mon- 

 archical hopes or clerical influences. But you well 

 know it is not true. You know very well that we, 

 too, are the friends of the France of '89, and that we 

 are the France of '89 rising up against the France of 

 '93. You know very well that if we are profoundly 

 respectful to religion, we are no less so to liberty of 

 conscience; that we are sincerely attached to the 

 independence of civil society, and that we shall never 

 permit foreign intrusion into its domain. You say 

 the country has condemned the 16th of May. I reply 

 that the country understands and applauds it. ... It 

 is 15 months since you were elected, and, judging by 

 your election circulars, you were going to make new 

 France calm and strong, free from all political agita- 

 tion, remodeling its institutions quietly, and, by 

 vigorous reforms, giving a new spring to the fertility 

 of the national labor. These are your promises. 

 Where are your deeds? I see on your records many 

 barren debates, invalidations, interpellations, empty 



discussions^ but no act promoting the public busi- 

 ness. Yet in 1876, as the result of the election cir- 

 cular, there were submitted 67 bills connected with 

 nuance, industry, and commerce, 47 of which have 

 not even been reported upon. M. Gain butt a, indeed, 

 to do him justice, has not been inactive. He has 

 presented a report recasting our system of taxation, 

 substituting for the four direct taxes the income-tax, 

 the tax on rentes that is to say, the impairing of 

 public credit the tax on salaries that is to say, the 

 tax on the very labor of the poor. France has deeply 

 and cruelly suffered. She is now at one of the deci- 

 sive hours of her history. If she gives herself up to 

 politics and goes with the Left in disorganizing all 

 her financial, administrative, and military institu- 

 tions, she runs toward an abyss. If, on the contrary, 

 she preserves her faith in the loyal soldier who has 

 j ust called her to the path of safety if, at his call, she 

 repudiates old party quarrels, and, in the fertile union 

 to which she is invited, concentrates all her forces on 

 labor the day is not distant when nobody will know 

 which to admire the more the greatness which has 

 never fallen or the greatness which has risen up 

 from a temporary fall. 



NEW OPERA HOUSE, PABIS. 



After M. de Fourton had concluded, M. Gam- 

 betta ascended the tribune. His first sentences 

 were met with a storm of disapprobation and 

 insult from the Right. In vain the President 

 rang his bell and tried to preserve order. 

 Every appeal he made was met by scorn and 

 insult. Such was the violence of Paul de Cas- 

 sagnac, that the President demanded a vote of 

 censure against him. It was at once passed. 

 This had no effect in allaying the storm. Al- 

 most every word uttered by Garnbetta was met 

 with howling and imprecations from the Right, 

 the Left responding with vociferous applause. 

 At every successful hit made by the orator, a 

 number of the members oOhe Right would 

 rush into the area in front of the tribune, and 

 menace him with threats and uplifted arms. 

 At this the Left would also rush into the area, 



and at times a collision seemed inevitable. For 

 five minutes the Chamber became a perfect 

 pandemonium, the President losing all control 

 over its angry elements. All this time, Gam- 

 betta, with folded arms, stood unmoved. Dur- 

 ing the remainder of his speech there was 

 scarcely a pretense of order. Interruptions, 

 denunciations, oaths were hurled against him 

 from the Right, and were met with the wildest 

 applause from the Left. 



The Due Decazes ascended the tribune at 

 seven o'clock to reply to Gambetta; but the 

 Left, irritated beyond endurance at the treat- 

 ment of the latter, refused to listen, and, after 

 a vain effort, he gave way, and the Chamber 

 adjourned until the 18th. On the 18th the 

 Due Decazes, in the course of a speech, read a 

 dispatch from the French Embassador to Ber- 



