FRANCE

BY

GABRIEL HANOTAUX

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

With Portraits

VOL. III

(1874-1877)

NEW YORK

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

SEP 32 1967

LIBEAS

Sumner fund

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE

I. Relative Position of the Parties at the Fall of the First Broglie

Cabinet. Failure of the Goulard Combination.-Formation of the

Cissey-Fourtou Cabinet, 12th May, 1874.-The Bonapartist Party.--

Parliamentary Electorate, Municipal Electorate; First Reading of

the Bill.-Universal Suffrage.-Union of the Centres

II. The Bonapartist Danger.-The Lefts accept the Constituent

Power.-Second Reading of the Municipal Electorate Bill.-Con-

stitutional Proposals.-First Republican victory; Urgency voted

on the Casimir-Perier Proposal.-First Reading of the Municipal

Organisation Bill.

III. The Comte de Chambord's Manifesto, 2nd July, 1874.-The

Lucien Brun Interpellation.-The Cissey Cabinet beaten.—

Message from the Marshal, 9th July, 1874

IV. Ministerial Constitutional Programme.-Bill of the Committee of

Thirty. The Casimir-Perier Motion Discussed and Rejected.—

Adjournment of the Constitutional Debate.-The State of Siege

Maintained. The Assembly adjourns from the 5th August to the

30th November, 1874

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16

31

38

CHAPTER II

THE SEPTENNATE-FRANCE AND EUROPE

1. Practical Activity of the Assembly.-The Budget of 1875.--Various

Military Measures.-Great Public Works.-The Phylloxera.—

Social Questions and Parliamentary Inquiry on Labour.-The

Roussel Law on Child Protection.-Reform of the Baccalauréat .

II. External Politics.-German Diplomacy in 1874-The Ischl

Meetings.-The Kissingen Affair and the Ultramontane Question.

--The Decree of Cardinal Guibert.-Recall of the Orénoque.-

Spanish Affairs.-A German Intervention Feared.-Difficulties

between Paris and Madrid.-The Alfonsist Restoration.-Rivalry

between Prince Gortschakoff and Prince Bismarck.-Eastern

Affairs. First outlines of a Franco-Russian Alliance.-Attitude of

Great Britain.-The Suez Canal and the Egyptian Question.-The

56

Tonquin Affair.-Policy of the United States.-International

Arbitration.-The Brussels Conference and International Law.-

International Sanitary Police .

III. Society in 1874.-Parliamentary Holidays.-The Marshal's

Journeys. Parliamentary Bye-elections.-Departmental and Mu-

nicipal Elections.-Return of the Assembly.-Position of Parties.

-Presidential Message.-First Reading of the Law on Higher

Education.-The Assembly Votes for a Parliamentary Inquiry on

Bonapartist Proceedings.

73

105

CHAPTER III

THE REPUBLIC FOUNDED

I. Preparations for the Debate on the Constitution.-The Committee

of Thirty takes the Initiative.-Conference at Élysée.—Parlia-

mentary Session Resumed.--Message from the President (5th

January, 1875).-The Government demands Priority for the Senate

Bill. It is refused: Resignation of the Cabinet.-Provisional

arrangements .

II. First Reading of the Bill for the Organisation of Public Powers.—

First Debate on the Bill for the Creation of a Senate

124

133

III. Second Debate on the Bill for the Organisation of Public

Powers. Sittings of the 28th, 29th, and 30th January.-Solemn

Debate on Clause I.-M. Laboulaye's Amendment.-M. Louis

Blanc intervenes.-The Laboulaye Amendment is rejected.—The

Wallon Amendment. -Negotiations of the Lavergne Group.-

M. Desjardins' Proposition is rejected.-The Wallon Amendment

is voted by a Majority of One.-Consequences of that Vote . . 143

IV. Second Debate on the Public Powers Bill continued.-Dissolution

and the Revision of Constitutional Laws suggested.-The Seat of

Public Powers remains fixed at Versailles.-Second Debate on the

Senate Bill.-The Pascal Duprat Amendment voted.--Declarations

of the Committee of Thirty and of the Government.-Dissolution

demanded.-General confusion

V. The Right offers the Dictatorship to the Marshal.-The Duc de

Broglie refuses to form a Cabinet.-The Right against M. Buffet.—

The Lavergne Group intervenes between the Two Centres.-The

Marshal gives up the right to appoint Life Senators.-Agreement

concluded.-The Senate Law and the Public Powers Law carried

163

177

CHAPTER IV

THE BUFFET CABINET AND THE 1875 SCARE

I. Parliamentary Inquiry into the Bonapartist Plot. Bye-elections.-

The Cissey Cabinet resigns.-Formation of the Buffet Ministry.-

The Duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier President of the Assembly.-Un-

certain Policy of M. Buffet.-The Assembly adjourns from the 20th

March to the 11th May.-Gambetta's Ménilmontant Speech . 195

II. The 1875 Scare.-Germany and Europe.-German Press Cam-

paign against France.-Rumours of War.- The Duc Decazes

appeals to the Powers.-M. de Gontaut-Biron and Herr v.

Radowitz.-Steps taken by Count Schuwaloff at Berlin.-Prince

Hohenlohe and the Duc Decazes.-An article in the Times.-

England, Austria and Italy intervene.-Change of front in

Germany.-The Czar in Berlin.-Russian Circular to the

Powers; peace secured.-Conclusions to be drawn from the 1875

incident

III. The National Assembly resumes its sittings.+Bye-elections sup-

pressed. Complementary Constitutional Bills The New Com-

mittee of Thirty.-The Higher Education Bill.-The Nièvre election

and the Committee of the Appeal to the People.-M. Buffet and

the Left.-The Organic Law on the relations between Public

Powers and the Senatorial Electoral Law carried.-The 1876

Budget. The Assembly adjourns from the 4th August to the 4th

November, 1875

210

260

CHAPTER V

THEORY OF THE CONSTITUTION

I. General character of the Constitution of 1875.-Analogy between it

and the American Constitution
. 283

II. Precedents.-French Constitutions since the Revolution.--

Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Condorcet.-Constitutional

experiments of the Revolution.-Imperial Dictatorship.—

Return to the Legitimity.-Popular Sovereignty imposed

upon the Restoration.-Antinomies of the 1848 Constitution.-

Advent of Democratic Cæsarism.-Democracy and the Republic. 289

III. Doctrines: Aug. Comte, Proudhon, Tocqueville, Duc de Broglie,

Prévost-Paradol-Theories of Parliamentarism.-Influence of

political literature on the National Assembly.--Decentralisation 312

IV. Theory of the Constitution.-Popular Sovereignty. The law of

majorities.-Universal Suffrage.-The Rights of Ministers.-

National Unity.-Unity and Liberty reconciled.-Hatred of

Personal Power.-A Representative System.-A Parliamentary

Republic.-Two Chambers.-The Presidency of the Republic.-

The Cabinet-Reign of public opinion.-History and the Consti-

tution of 1875.-Its Merits and Defects.

324