CHAPTER VI. 



AFTER THE WAR OF 1870-1871. 



IN the year which followed the conclusion of peace 

 with Germany, the public administrations had 

 to undertake multifold and contradictory duties, which 

 created great complications, and entailed expenses 

 which it is difficult to measure until one comes to 

 examine them in detail. It was necessary both to 

 disorganise the war services, to reorganise the peace 

 services, and to make good the disasters which had 

 broken up all the machinery of ordinary government. 

 The first obstacles in the way of a return to a normal 

 state of things having been cleared away, an immense 

 amount of labour remained to be done in order to con- 

 solidate the work of peace. 



Public and private interests had been so profoundly 

 troubled by the ten months of war and internal dis- 

 turbance, so many transformations were rendered 

 necessary by the new order of things, the re-establish- 

 ment of the country was so ardently desired, that an 

 immense number of laws, decrees, and administrative 

 measures were passed day after day, so to speak. 



